http://youtube.com/watch?v=pJjiaGNjozg

Some canabis lovers, especially the ones of Canada, have struck me down on this, but I still believe that “illegal drugs in the US” are basically used by US musicians to enhance their performances.

Now imagine with me. Can a K-pop singer get away with lyrics like,

“sometimes my mind plays tricks on me”
“sometimes I give myself the creeps”
“am I just paranoid, or am I just stoned?”

No.

All hail Lt. Okamoto for having the wisdom to ban illegal drugs in South Korea. As a result of this, Korean society is better.

Drugs didn’t open my mind. Reading did.

Smart scammers would block their number, but if they are calling to a landline, they might not consider that some people have phones that can show caller ID.

The fake detective was hesitant about giving me a phone number, but he eventually gave me a 070 number, which he said was not his personal number, but was the number for the task force investigating that particular crime. A 070 number is an Internet phone number, I think.

I was told at the bank that these people were probably Korean-Chinese working out of China, but the guy on the phone told me that he would come and show me his credentials in person, so he must have been in Korea.

I did call the Seodaemun Police Station and told them what happened and said that the guy gave me a name and phone number, but they did not seem to be interested and just said that it was a scam. I assume the reason they were not interested in the name and phone numbers was that they felt that it would not be helpful.

These days many people seem desperate, so be on the lookout for scams. I thought this fake police detective scam was pretty good idea because many people seem reluctant to tell a police officer to go screw him- or herself.

We’ve received a bunch of those, just today an automated call came about an overdue credit card for a type we don’t even own. Sometimes the caller’s Korean is even accented. Whatever you do, don’t provide any personal information to these gangs.

i had a similar experience about two months ago. a woman called me from busan claiming she was a police officer investigating a crime. i was pretty blunt with her and told her to either come up to seoul and meet me or stop harrassing me as there didn’t seem to be any clear connection between the crime and me. she would not give me her precinct number or captain’s office number. i finally hung up on her and didn’t answer her calls. so she text messages me saying that she’s “very sorry to have lied to me” but she is not in fact a policewoman. however, “there has been a serious crime done to her friend” and they found my number in her phone. whatever.

so a few hours later, a guy calls me from “the busan police department” and wants to know who i am and how i’m involved. i tell him i’m not involved, i don’t know these people in busan and i’m a foreign person living in seoul. he says he’s sorry that everyone bothered me and hangs up. last i’ve heard of that motley crew.

although i have no idea about nor much interest in the motives behind the call, something did indeed smell fishy.

This morning I got a recorded message warming me that it was my second notice to report to the Seoul Prosecutor’s office. I was instructed to “press 9″ if I had any questions. I did press 9 and a man answered claiming to be a detective attached to the Seodaemun Police Station. He said my name and my banking account number was among more than 200 others that was discovered during an investigating a gang of scam artists that included two bank employees.

The “detective” told me that my bank account would be frozen at 2 p.m. and would remain frozen until they completed the investigation since I was also a suspect. When I asked how long that would take, he said two to three years. When I asked how I was supposed to live in the meantime, he said that I could transfer my money to a monitored government account. When I told him I would have to get some confirmation of all of this, he said that it was a secret investigation and that it I jeopardized it by discussing it with others, I could be arrested. He also said that phone was being monitered 24-hours a day. When I said that it all smelled fishy, he offered to my place and prove his credentials. Anyway, by then I was almost certain the guy was a scam artist, so I told him to go ahead an freeze my account.

After I hung up, I went to my bank to find out if there was any truth to what the guy was saying. The bank manager told me that it was just a scam and that a lot of people have been falling for it. I then called the Seodaemun Police Station and was also told that it was a scam.

Anyway, in case any of you get a similar recorded message here in Korea, just ignore it and hang up.

So, any plans for a Marmot’s Hole end of the year gathering?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12.....0O2t1GSvUg

If the link doesn’t work, go to the NYT homepage and search for “Anarchists in the Aisles.”