Topic: What in divinity's edge is she talking about?  (Read 2182 times)

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Offline AlchemistiD

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What in divinity's edge is she talking about?
« on: January 03, 2010, 09:03:16 pm »
Let me begin by saying I rarely, if ever, watch television these days.  Typically, if my TV is on, so is my 360.  So you can imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from a family member (who was only in the next damn room, mind you) asking about a "Best Buy Phone Jack" that you can plug into your TV or some nonsense.  When I asked her what the name was again, all she would say was "Phone Jack".

I should probably mention that said woman lands squarely somewhere between "technologically illiterate" and "walking techbane".  Typical technical emergencies I'm frequently called upon to fix (by her, in the most panicked manner humanly possible) include:  her taskbar being on the side of the screen (and minimized), Skype not showing (because it's minimized), her webcam not working (because it isn't plugged in), and...well...you get the idea.  She also lost her balance earlier this evening, and decided to regain it by stamping her foot on my Dazzle Capture card.

Repeatedly.

While I was recording.

She believes absolutely everything.  If someone claims to be an expert, she will automatically believe them.  If an e-mail promises millions of dollars as long as you supply "X" sensitive information, she will happily do it.  I'm always trying to explain the concept of scam artists and e-mail spam to her.  She thinks I'm an impossibly un-trusting cynic.  It's kind of annoying.

Anyways, she tells me about this advertisement on television.  Some mystical "Phone Jack", which allows one to have their own phone number (which we already have), and a yearly fee of only 19.99 (which sounds ludicrously unprofitable, especially in our crapshoot economy right now).  She claimed that the advertisement said that this product was sold at Best Buy's and Radioshack's all over the place.

I smell snake oil.

I can't find anything on this "Phone Jack", but I've found plenty on scams by DISH Network and etcetera.  So I'm asking here, what in Turing's great-axe is the talking about?  And is it a big scam like it sounds?

(Addendum)
She came in and identified it as a "Magic Jack".  Same questions apply.


Offline Corbomite

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Re: What in divinity's edge is she talking about?
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2010, 09:22:22 pm »
Its called "Magic Jack" and claims to run your phone line through the internet for twenty bucks a year. I'm sure you can google it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagicJack

http://www.ripoffreport.com/Computer-Fraud/Magic-Jack/magic-jack-warning-dont-buy-in-4cgcb.htm

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/03/12/magicjack_far_from_enchanting/

There were tons more.