The Record's Editor Blog

Record Staff Writer Joe Goldeen’s story on a scam victim  highlights a problem that happens throughout the year. In the case of Joe’s report, someone pawned themselves off as an authority figure threatening punishment if action (meaning money) was not taken. And although the victim, Jack Baker, is fairly savvy, even he fell for this one.

The email below recently ended up in the spam folder of my personal email. This just screams fraud for a number of reasons: the Nigeria connection, egregious amounts of money available and payment from me to Western Union or another nonrefundable money transfer agency. You should never have to pay money to get money, particularly in the case of a settlement.

I highlighted a few of the red flags from the email itself before deleting it from my spam folder. Read it and chuckle:

Federal Bureau of Investigation Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington DC ROBERT S. MUELLER, Attention Beneficiary, Records show that you are among one of the individuals and organizations who are yet to receive their overdue payment from overseas which includes those of Lottery/Gambling, Contract and Inheritance. Through our Fraud Monitory Unit we have noticed that you have been transacting with some impostors and fraudsters who have been impersonating the likes of Prof. Soludo /Mr. Lamido Sanusi of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Bode Williams, Frank, Anderson, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, Kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of FedEx, Ibrahim Sule, Dr. Usman Shamsuddeen and some impostors claiming to be The Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Cyber Crime Division of the FBI gathered information from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) on how some people have lost outrageous sums of money to these impostors. As a result of this, we hereby advise you to stop communication with any one not referred to you by us. We have negotiated with the Federal Ministry of Finance that your payment totaling $5,900,000.00(Five Million Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars). will be released to you via a custom pin based ATM card with a maximum withdrawal limit of $15,000 a day which is powered by Visa Card and can be used anywhere in the world where you see a Visa Card Logo on the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). We guarantee receipt of your payment. This is as a result of the mandate from US Government to make sure all debts owed to citizens of American and also Asia and Europe which includes Inheritance, Contract, Gambling/Lottery etc are been cleared. Below are few list of tracking numbers you can track from Delivery Company website to confirm people like you who have received their payment successfully. 1)Name Howard Keighler Tracking Number899328773367 Website FeDex.com (2) Name: Jody Miller Tracking Number: 899571438936Website: FedEx.com To redeem your funds, you are hereby advised to contact the ATM Card Center via email for their requirement to proceed and procure your Approval of Payment Warrant and Endorsement of your ATM Release Order on your behalf which will cost you $250 Usd only and nothing more as everything else has been taken care of by the Federal Government including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty so all you will ever need to pay is $250.00 only. Mr. Kim Williams.(ATM Card Center Director) Central Bank of Nigeria Central Business District, Cad astral Zone, federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. ATM Card Center Director Mr. Kim Williams. Email: w_kim43@yahoo.com.hk Phone: +2348088656777. Do contact Mr. Kim Williams. of the ATM Card Center via his contact details above and furnish him with your details as listed below: FULL NAMES: __________________________________ DELIVERY ADDRESS FOR ATM CARD: __________________ SEX: _______________ DATE OF BIRTH: __________________ OCCUPATION: __________________ TELEPHONE NUMBER: _____________________ EMAIL ADDRESS: _____________________ On contacting him with your details your file would be updated and he will be sending you the payment information in which you will use in making payment of $250.00 via Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer for the procurement of your Approval of Payment Warrant and Endorsement of your ATM Release Order, after which the delivery of your ATM card will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay, extra fee. ROBERT S. MUELLER, DIRECTOR FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535 Note: Disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possession of your ATM card, you are hereby advice only to be in contact with Mr. Kim Williams. of the ATM card center who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your payment and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon it immediately. Help stop cyber crime

This was a curious sight to see as I was riding south on Thornton Road, just a few miles south of Flag City on Sunday.

The front part of a car, hood and chassis, at the side of the road. It appears to be shorn in half and dumped in this area as opposed to it being remnants of an accident.

I cannot say definitively that this was not the result of an accident. So I. could be wrong, but  if I am right then this  serves as another illustration of how large a problem dumping is in San Joaquin County.

It has been more than 2 ½ years since the Bank of Stockton shuttered its building at 301 E. Main St. The reason for closing the more than century old building was simple: not enough business.

The building has been vacant since but it still serves as a landmark as it sits at the corner of Main and San Joaquin streets, near the Bob Hope Theatre and San Joaquin County Courthouse.

Yesterday showed that sometimes things take a little time to be set right.

As of late Tuesday, the clock had not been adjusted for the end of Daylight Saving Time.

(Note the time stamp in the lower right corner. it was 4:51 p.m., not 5:51 p.m.)

I had not noticed the time being off before, so my guess is eventually it will be corrected. They just need a little more time…

Bradley’s bar closed 18 months ago, a victim of Stockton’s staggering economy. Brad Koster, who owned the Bull ‘n’ Bear midtown pub from 1993 to 2005, opened Bradley’s at 116 N. Hunter Street in 2006 as the downtown renaissance took flight. And business was good as the courthouse workers and young crowd kept the place going. And then the economy turned. The crowd got smaller and the business shut its doors in April 2012.

But recently an application for an alcohol license for Picasso’s Tapas appeared in a window of the former Bradley’s.  A quick search showed this to be a San Jose-based franchise specializing in Spanish food. Surely, there is more to come on this story.

We have heard daily about the government shutdown.

And of course, it is something else to be impacted directly by it or to see it.

It was surprising to come up the Cosumnes River Preserve on an early Monday and see that the gates closed, locked and signs posted to stay out.

As a Bureau of Land Management facility, it has been closed like the other federally operated parks. The parking lot is empty, signs to keep out posted at the entrance and the gates locked.

A friend and I were just riding by on our bikes. We were not nearly as disappointed as the person who drove up with a canoe atop his or her vehicle, planning to go for a ride in the river.

In sports, scheduling is an art.

Is it better to play tough teams and lose or is it better to schedule cupcakes and win?

This tenet often becomes most prominent when it comes time to postseason play. Look no further than the NCAA basketball tournament when we hear of mid-major schools, strength of schedule and good wins and bad wins.

A story by Record sportswriter Stephen Roberson took a local look at this issue.

Lincoln High’s football team is winless. But the team has played Elk Grove (5-0), Pitman of Turlock (4-1), Vacaville (2-2)  and St. Mary’s (3-1). Those teams are a combine 14-4, outscoring their opponents 730-377. Lincoln hosts Granite Bay (3-1) tonight.

Edison High is undefeated, having won its first four games while outscoring its opponents 156-59. Yet those teams are a combined 6-11 and only one – Franklin – has a winning record.

So which is better?

Lincoln coach Brian Gray said his team is prepping for the playoffs. In a way, there is no better way to prepare for those tough games by playing tough opponents. Think of the number of teams that have played in demanding environments that have performed well in the postseason, provided that they qualify of course.

Conversely, coaches with programs that have struggled recently like to play winnable games. Even if the opponent is not one of the better teams. Those coaches would argue that winning begets winning and that you have to get the W’s first and try to qualify for the postseason before being concerned about being good enough to advance during the postseason.

In the end, on the field, it is about building a winning program. And after that is accomplished it is about sustaining that success and growing the program.

For a program like Lincoln that has achieved the first step the next is going as deep into the playoffs as possible. For a team such as Edison, it is about learning to win.

Some things just make you stop and look. They cry: “Look at me!”

This was pink early model Ford Mustang was one of them. It was parked in front of the beauty supply store on Main Street between California and Sutter streets.

Mary Kay cosmetics is known its car program in which sales associates that meet certain goals have opportunity to get a car, a pink one, through Mary Kay. Those cars have been pink. Most notably, a pink Cadillac.

And although I have seen a pink Cadillac a pink Hummer and other pink cars, I cannot say that I have previously seen a pink Mustang.

So it was a treat to see this one.

Back to school nights are a good time to reacquaint with students, parents, teachers and staff who you have not seen during the summer.

Parental involvement is a key to student achievement, so it was good to see a large number of parents at for Colonial Heights’ back to school night for first-sixth grades on Wednesday.

A good turnout for Back to School Night at Colonial Heights School

And as with a number of school events, this one too was attended by a Lincoln Unified trustee. On this night, it was Don Ruhstaller who said it had made it to a number of school openings. (I think he said all, actually with just Sierra Middle School remaining as of Wednesday.)

Lincoln Unified School District Trustee Don Ruhstaller, left, and Colonial Heights Principal Maureen Oechel chat during back to school night.

The city of Stockton collectively should send the city of Detroit a thank you card for filing for bankruptcy.

Once Detroit did that, it claimed the moniker of largest U.S. municipality to file bankruptcy, ripping the not-so-appealing title from Stockton.

There is no interest in being No. 2. Anyone else remember that Avis rental car company ad campaign?

While the nation focuses on Detroit, locally Stockton can go about its business without the national fanfare.

But other cities struggle to avoid the scarlet “B.”

Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania is one of them. There city officials are working out a deal with its creditors to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

One can only guess if what happened in Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, San Bernardino and Detroit has helped Harrisburg on some level.

Stockton was unable to work out deals with creditors before it went into bankruptcy. Harrisburg’s creditors are negotiating with city officials; the result would be a reduction in Harrisburg’s debt. Perhaps creditors realize the alternative of not negotiating now and dealing with a city in bankruptcy would be worse.

You can read more about it in this story at philly.com.