Beyond the world of film, we take a curious detour into the realm of email scams and smishing, exposing the evolving tactics used by crafty fraudsters to exploit unsuspecting individuals. In a blend of humor and cautionary tales, our hosts share personal experiences with thwarted scams, leading to an unexpected courtroom analysis on the implications of political strategies. From fake Nigerian princes to audacious campaign ad moves, get ready for a roller-coaster ride through the intersection of holiday nostalgia and modern deception.
Look, and I’m heartbroken. You know, isn’t it awful when your heroes let you down? When I saw your heartbreaking note just casting aside the greatest Christmas classic movie of all time, Christmas Vacation. I was so heartbroken. I mean, first of all, you were weirdly indifferent to Home Alone the other day. I am.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was. I mean, I think you could tell visually. I loved the event with Macaulay Culkin that you described because he is a pop culture figure of import. But then when you started to just wax nostalgic about Home Alone, which is a very adorable, very cute movie, but not life-changing like it is for you.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, it’s not life-changing. But I’ll tell you, Christmas Vacation is. So many came along. Yeah. Some troll, some… Not a troll. On social media says, unpopular opinion. The Christmas movie, A Christmas Vacation, is the Seinfeld.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ain’t that great? It’s the Seinfeld of Christmas movies. But go back a step. No, no. I wasn’t the guy who said unpopular opinion. It started with somebody who said unpopular opinion, which will always draw my attention. Because if you take 100 tweets that start out unpopular opinion, some of them are going to be people saying unbelievably stupid things. And others are going to be people saying, you know… I kind of joined that unpopular opinion. And his point was that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was wildly overrated. And I retweeted, not wrong. Because I consider it to be the Seinfeld, the U2 of Christmas movies. Means pretty darn good, but you’re just supposed to like it. So that hefts it up a little bit. So then I’m attacked by my good friend, my good friend Mike Gallagher, blinded in one eye, still has the energy to come after me. With a possible brain tumor. Exactly right.
SPEAKER 01 :
I mean, massive tumor.
SPEAKER 02 :
But you still had your priorities straight.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. I’m going to take that.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I admit it. And I admit it that my tastes are oddly polarized. I love the most, the oldest traditional wonderful life white Christmas miracle on 34th Street.
SPEAKER 01 :
I love those.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I love bad Santa with Billy Pop Thug. Well, then Scrooge, right? I’ve got a problem.
SPEAKER 01 :
Didn’t you mention Scrooge? Scrooge does good. Scrooge and Bill Murray. Well, and the reason I got so annoyed is that this is a Gallagher family tradition. Denise and the kids and I, every Christmas, like clockwork, my kids can recite every line of a Christmas fig. Don’t throw me down, clock! It’s cute. It’s adorable. And it’s funny, though. It’s really funny. It’s funny. Of course it is. It’s laugh out loud. I don’t typically think Chevy Chase is necessarily all that routinely funny. He’s hysterical in this movie. I mean, it’s a great movie. I love it.
SPEAKER 02 :
And I confess to that. From the actual vacation to Christmas vacation to European vacation to Granbury vacation, whatever ones they did, the sight of Chevy Chase is a constant annoyance to me.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I kind of feel that way too, but not Christmas Vacation. Years ago, when I was doing Mornings Live in L.A., back in the day when Salem, Los Angeles used to like me, somebody sent me, I mentioned, I know, there’s a story there. But somebody mentioned, I mentioned my love of the movie, and do you know a Hollywood type sent me a script, one of the original scripts from A Christmas Vacation, and I lost it over the years. I’m so mad. It’s somewhere, I think it’s in Story. in trevor’s house somewhere but yeah that was kind of but i just love that but it just gives me such one one memories and listen i’ll say you mentioned another one with ralphie and everything i don’t get that one either i think it’s generational i never got a story it’s it’s it’s quirky it’s it’s like okay i mean all right listen all i know is all my problems are over i got an email last night let me share with you my email that i got from copenhagen denmark This is very important. This is an actual email, and I’ve got the guy’s address. It’s an Outlook.com address. Hello, I’m Ahmet, a bank staff in a Turkish bank. I’ve been looking for someone who has the same nationality as you. A citizen of your country died in the recent earthquake in Turkey. He had in our bank a fixed deposit of $11.5 million. If my bank executive finds out about his death, they would use the funds for themselves. I’d like to prevent that from happening only if I get your cooperation. I knew about it because I was his account manager. Last week, my bank held a meeting for the purpose of a bank audit to note abandoned deposit accounts. So I’m looking for a solution to deal with this situation. There you go. And all they want from you is? I request your cooperation to introduce you as the kin heir of the account. Oh, wow. I’ll be the kin or the heir as you are of the same nationality as him.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, because that is certainly the definition of kinship.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right. As long as you’re white.
SPEAKER 02 :
Just be another American.
SPEAKER 01 :
A white American. There’s no risk. Wait a minute. I’m a kin too. Holy cow. We’re all kin. There’s no risk. The transaction is carried out under a legal agreement that protects you from infringement. I suggest we split the funds. 60-40. 60 for you. 40 for me. Generous. And then there’s one caveat. I need this fund for my daughter’s surgery. So keep this info confidential. Email me so I can provide you with more info. Now, don’t you want… You know where I go? I want to email the guy. Like, I want to find out how far you can take it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Lisa gives me grief about this because… Well, first of all, this is very 1993. This is the cousin of the Nigerian prince. The foreigner who has all the money, blah, blah, blah. The people who I engage with are the… What is it called? The smishers. Smishing… SMS, like text. You know, phishing, P-H-I-S-H, is kind of any online scam. Smishing is when you get it through. Do you ever get a text that says, hey, we still on for lunch today? Not lately. You don’t know who it’s from? Nobody goes for lunch today. Bad example. Let me ask somebody else. Hey, everybody else, do you ever get one that says, hey, I’m in town next week. What do you want to do? Or did you get that file I sent you designed to elicit from you a thing that says, sorry, wrong number. And then they go, oh, you seem nice. And then instantly some poor, lonely, pathetic slob is roped into a scam. So I try to play the part of the poor, lonely, pathetic slob, which I could at one point do pretty plausibly in life. and see just where it leads, and ultimately they’re asking for personal information, blah, blah, blah. But Lisa just says she thinks that somebody’s going to track me down and kill me.
SPEAKER 01 :
So you do escalate it. Absolutely. Because you want to find out.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m morbidly fascinated with how these things go. And even when they call you and say that, you know, hi, this is Ed from Cincinnati calling from AT&T, when you know it’s Rajiv from Mumbai calling you from a sweatshop, I’ll keep those people going for five minutes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Remember the scam I got when Bank of America called me and it said Bank of America on my phone?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, it could do caller ID now.
SPEAKER 01 :
It totally can. And they spoofed the actual 800 number from Bank of America because I looked that up. They said, we got a fraud alert here. Zip. Zip. And then the guy said, let me transfer you to the fraud department. And he puts me on. It’s like, you know, that’s the guy in the next cubicle. But there were voices in the background. It was really real. And I almost did it. I almost gave him my bank information. It would have wiped me out. Oh, boy.
SPEAKER 02 :
Speaking of fraud alert, in two minutes. Jasmine Crockett, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it? Because there she is with her 47 genders, open borders, hating police, pro-crime, hating Trump. She’s going to get smoked in the general, no matter whom the Republicans offer up. But I’m sitting here right now. Is she?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is she going to get smoked in the general? Yes, she will. I mean, okay, smoked is not going to be 10.
SPEAKER 01 :
Did you say Beto was going to get smoked in the general?
SPEAKER 02 :
I did. And in 2018, it was like, but here’s the thing. What I did not see in Beto is his ability to sneak up on people with a stealth kind of appeal. She can’t sneak up on anybody. Her extremism, her hatred, her political bigotry. But it’s working. In the Democrat Party, it is. I think she’s going to win the primary. Poor James Tallarico, I don’t think he has a boring, pasty white guy, has no chance in the primary anymore. But in the general, those views will not fly in Texas. Beto was able to conceal those views in the persona of a skateboard-riding man-child.
SPEAKER 01 :
She’s not going to be able to do that. Examine Colin Allred throwing in the towel. Yep. And he is now saying flat out, oh, you’re darn right it was because she’s throwing her hat in the ring. He’s terrified of her. The Democrats, they have a revolt. No, I’m telling you, there is something going on here around the country. You could look at different races, isolated races, one in Georgia, one in New Jersey. The loonier and the kookier and the farther left they are, the more successful they can be. And they can sneak in. And you’re right. I mean, okay, you’re sure that she can’t win in the general. I’m not so sure. I’m not so sure. Did you see her campaign ad that she promptly took down playing a montage of Trump calling her a low IQ idiot?
SPEAKER 02 :
It starts with a profile shot of her just sort of wistfully looking off in the distance. And there’s Trump going, Jasmine Crockett, low IQ. I can’t believe she’s the leader of the party. She’s got a low IQ. And she slowly turns to face the camera and then just kind of folds her arms as Trump insults her. I’ve got to be honest with you. Number one, at a certain level, kind of a genius ad. It attracts your attention. But it also reveals that’s all she’s got. Trump hatred is not going to get her to do that.
SPEAKER 01 :
Wait a minute. You think it’s genius for her to play an ad of Trump calling her the village idiot?
SPEAKER 02 :
In the primary, can you remember you and me? In the primary, I think it’s catnip. I think she will cruise in the primary. But in the general, not so much.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, all I know is I got to call Atmet because I got to tell Atmet that my brain tumor is looming and I need the money quick.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m so glad that worked out okay, man. I’m so, so very glad. For full shows live and on demand, it’s Salem News Channel.
