1 hour ago, Callmeishmael said:

One of my neighbors was desperately putting off telling his wife that he had been scammed out of 50,000 baht!

Good example.  People are often reluctant to talk about when they did something wrong or foolish.  Many instances of scam are not reported.  

15 hours ago, loong said:

They should have check-outs that ONLY accept cash. Most times people who pay by phone are soooo slow!

Totally agree; I was highlighting the creeping movement towards a cashless society and the growing influence of banks in this.  I walked out of two high-end restaurants in Bangkok who decreed cash wasn't good enough for them.

39 minutes ago, mikebell said:

I walked out of two high-end restaurants in Bangkok who decreed cash wasn't good enough for them.

 

and I would do the same.

40 minutes ago, mikebell said:

I walked out of two high-end restaurants in Bangkok who decreed cash wasn't good enough for them.

Good for you, but had you already eaten?

17 hours ago, loong said:

 

Who started this Gen x.y,z Baby Boomers etc?

I am sure that I can't be the only one who doesn't have a clue who they are talking about!

 

You are corect, I;m the other one.

On 9/26/2025 at 5:04 PM, Middle Aged Grouch said:

Sadly, the locals do not even look properly  when crossing a road or when driving. So what to expect when flagrant fraudulent e-mails or scams are sent over their phones ? 

They crash their vehicles 

21 hours ago, impulse said:

 

I keep getting texts claiming that someone has charged $99 to my Amazon account for an Apple product and they want to see if it's a legitimate charge.

 

As if you can buy any Apple product for $99.

 

A phone case, maybe??

On 9/27/2025 at 2:27 PM, 3NUMBAS said:

Don’t use a smart fone ,no problem

I don't have one active. I'd advise all the members here to do two things:

 

#1 Smash the phone with  a lump hammer.

#2 Throw it into the concrete mix.

 

Or, do as I do, and just use it for taking pics.

On 9/27/2025 at 1:00 PM, Sir Dude said:

It's relatively easy to avoid most digital online scams by following common sense stuff like not opening random emails, hovering the mouse over an email to check the sender's address, no clicking random links out of curiosity, not believing stuff that seems to be too good to be true, not using cards at dodgy places, paying with cash wherever you can etc. Trouble is, so many people are just dumb, hubristic, lazy, or greedy... any of which can make you vulnerable to scamming.

As for payment methods, going to a cashless society is incredibly short-sighted and dumb. You need multiple ways to pay for things, and some ways are more appropriate for some goods than others.

It's also about freedom... as freedom is about choice, the more choice you have the freer you are, and anything/anyone that takes choice away from you is making you less free. Maybe I don't want to leave an electronic trail of every single tiny thing I buy, like how much milk, chocolate, beer, vegetables, meat, or cigarettes etc. you buy as you just can't trust companies, data brokers, or governments with such vast amounts of personal information. They will not be able to resist themselves from making a profile of you on all the data they can scrape from anywhere, and that could affect the price of health insurance, benefits eligibility, social contribution score, or a general social desirability rating, anything scandalous from your past, to who knows what etc.

Also, what are you going to do if the electricity or internet goes down... how will you access any of your money? Maybe it's a glitch with a satellite, a bank cyber attack, a huge solar storm like the Carrington Event, EMP interference, a terroist attack... what will you do if your smart phone doesn't work? Your cards will also be useless. We need cash as a backup and I always carry cash around with me and use it as much as I can, as it gives a layer of protection from many things... plus gives me a level of privacy that is increasingly hard to come by.

Those advocating for a cashless society  are doing the bidding of governments, large corporate entities, scammers, and finacial institutions by handing over enormous levels of power to these indifferent monsters that merely want control and compliance. They will control your life and be able to cut you out of society with one decision made by AI... stop staring into your smart phone and wake up. They want total control and are selling it to you under the disguise of "convenience" and "security"... which is lies.

 

I could come up with a very long reply pointing in details why you are so wrong on so much of what you wrote but I don't have all day.

 

Most Western countries are almost cash less and have been so for a very long time, the only people in those countries who do use cash are the very old or the dim.

 

Even when I shop in Makro and Lotus I seem most Thai people using cards, or their smartphones to pay. 

 

"They", "Them", "Those" are out to get us, then want to know what we had for breakfast, how long we spend in a supermarket and where we went for a beer with out mates, it is so funny to listen to all of this nonsense spouted out by the mad few, they think they are so important the governments wants to follow their every step. 🤣

 

Agent21: "Hey that guy just bought salt and vinegar crisps instead of cheese flavour, send an armed task force right at once, this could constitute a national security risk."

 

And by the way AI does not exist at the moment, it might be achievable after another hundreds years, "AI" is just a marketing term as most people do not have knowledge about what real AI is and so have been fooled. 

 

 

 

On 9/28/2025 at 3:08 PM, Stiddle Mump said:

I don't have one active. I'd advise all the members here to do two things:

 

#1 Smash the phone with  a lump hammer.

#2 Throw it into the concrete mix.

 

Or, do as I do, and just use it for taking pics.

 

Can I add to your list please.

 

Do not drive a horseless carriage, those new fangled things are dangerous, they can go faster than fifteen miles an hour.

 

Don't use electric or gas lights, use candles, much safer, you might be electrocuted or gassed otherwise. 

 

Only use wind up watches. Well you will have no choice as you will not have any electricity in your house. 😄

 

Do not use TV's, they transmit repeated message lasting a few milliseconds and are secretly hypnotising you. 

 

Do not use doctors, use witchcraft. Look at how many witches have lost their jobs due to this new fangled medicine.

 

Don't go in those flying machines, travel by bike.

 

 

7 minutes ago, JamesPhuket10 said:

 

I could come up with a very long reply pointing in details why you are so wrong on so much of what you wrote but I don't have all day.

 

Most Western countries are almost cash less and have been so for a very long time, the only people in those countries who do use cash are the very old or the dim.

 

Even when I shop in Makro and Lotus I seem most Thai people using cards, or their smartphones to pay. 

 

"They", "Them", "Those" are out to get us, then want to know what we had for breakfast, how long we spend in a supermarket and where we went for a beer with out mates, it is so funny to listen to all of this nonsense spouted out by the mad few, they think they are so important the governments wants to follow their every step. 🤣

 

Agent21: "Hey that guy just bought salt and vinegar crisps instead of cheese flavour, send an armed task force right at once, this could constitute a national security risk."

 

And by the way AI does not exist at the moment, it might be achievable after another hundreds years, "AI" is just a marketing term as most people do not have knowledge about what real AI is and so have been fooled. 

 

 

 

Lol... so you haven't got time to enlighten everyone about your supercilious opinion on why you think a poster is wrong? Seems that you are in the minority on that one.

Is everyone supposed to think that somehow, through your inability to take the time to write a concise and informative response to a detailed subject, a sign of your almightiness and omniscience? Haha... got to be kidding me. You must be arrogantly young, or a really supercillious old dude.

As for AI, there are different levels of AI... which are ANI (Artificail Narrow Intelligence) and we have that now, next is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) with predictions from anywhere between 2028-2040 depending on who you listen to, and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) which again has different timelines as to when it will arrive. However, clearly you know Sweet FA about it all.

Although, I guess ingorance is bliss as they say... and trolling is fun, which you do well, give you that.

 

1 minute ago, Sir Dude said:

Lol... so you haven't got time to enlighten everyone about your supercilious opinion on why you think a poster is wrong? Seems that you are in the minority on that one.

Is everyone supposed to think that somehow, through your inability to take the time to write a concise and informative response to a detailed subject, a sign of your almightiness and omniscience? Haha... got to be kidding me. You must be arrogantly young, or a really supercillious old dude.

As for AI, there are different levels of AI... which are ANI (Artificail Narrow Intelligence) and we have that now, next is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) with predictions from anywhere between 2028-2040 depending on who you listen to, and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) which again has different timelines as to when it will arrive. However, clearly you know Sweet FA about it all.

Although, I guess ingorance is bliss as they say... and trolling is fun, which you do well, give you that.

 

 

I did come up with a few points why you were wrong.

 

How did you miss them?

 

Regarding my AI knowledge. Forty years of freelance software engineering experience, Europe, USA.

 

Two degrees in software engineering, one of them a masters degree in the subject from Oxford University.

 

That background might give me an edge over the your Google cut and past knowledge on the subject.

 

I only mentioned that information as you directly tried in a silly way to insult me. Nice try but no gold star. 

 

But be careful what you write here as  'them' 'those' and the 'others' are watching us very closely, especially you. 

 

Let's see what your next silly insult is, go on, it makes me laugh. 🤣