Althouse: "No sooner had the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act than scam artists began working the phones."

July 15, 2012

"No sooner had the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act than scam artists began working the phones."

"They say they're from the government and that, using the Affordable Care Act as a hook, they need to verify some information. They might have the routing number from your bank, and then use that information to get you to reveal the entire account number."

11 comments:

richard mcenroe said...: Scam artists, congressmen, pharmaceutical companies, HMO's, whatever.; 7/15/12, 2:02 PM
chuck said...: Another unintended consequence of the 60's. I noted at the time how long it took for long hair to spread downward from the well off. And apparently marriage patterns followed the same time delayed path. But don't despair, polygamy can solve this problem. If every wealthy man had 20 wives the problem would be solved.; 7/15/12, 2:24 PM
edutcher said...: Since The Won who gave us this is one of the biggest scam artists in history, I guess we have to chalk it up to professional courtesy.; 7/15/12, 2:30 PM
Big Mike said...: Scams built atop a scam. How clever!; 7/15/12, 2:58 PM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: When the student is ready, the teacher appears.; 7/15/12, 3:07 PM
Known Unknown said...: Can we please get rid of this jackass?; 7/15/12, 4:10 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Big Mike,

Scams built atop a scam. How clever!

Beat me to it.

And then comes the question - with all these bloggers blogging - who's been warning their fellow citizens about scams BEFORE THEY HAPPEN as preparation?

I'll wait,...

BTW - that practice, of warning your fellow citizens about scams - it's been derided by some as a waste of time. Much better to leave them open to fraud so you have something to write about later,...; 7/15/12, 4:11 PM
rhhardin said...: I question the idiom

No sooner had the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act than scam artists began working the phones.

It must come from the reversed idiom "no sooner than ... had ..."

No sooner than scam artists began working the phones had the U. S. Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act.

which then has to mean at the same time, as required.

How the "than" clause got moved to the end is a mystery. It makes no sense there.; 7/15/12, 4:14 PM
Unknown said...: You mean government money encourages fraud? The deuce, you say!; 7/15/12, 4:19 PM
george said...: As bad as these guys are they are by far less of a problem than the act itself. They are only knowingly bankrupting a few people whereas Obamacare is knowingly bankrupting the entire country.

There is only a difference in degree here, not in kind.; 7/15/12, 4:48 PM
ndspinelli said...: I would routinely uses pretexts about big news items to get people to tell me information telephonically about themselves or other people I were investigating. Elections, natural disasters, major crimes, etc. were an entre to get people to talk. People love to talk. Most people would be shocked to hear stuff people would tell me. As a person who knows me and my work well said, "God gave you a conscience, or you probably would have been a con man."; 7/15/12, 4:55 PM