January 30, 2009 journal, a final word on the hotmail scammer and all of the scammers. I never dreamed that with one touch of a button I could subject myself to financial ruin and everybody on my mailing list to heavy losses which I would've felt responsible and could never have repaid their losses. One click put me in jeopardy and I was hung out over the gates of hell but thank God for a miracle when Microsoft gave me my hotmail box back changing the pass code. No one responded favorably to the scammer and that was in itself a miracle. Because of this I will reduce my mailing list to active addresses. The real phone number for Windows Live Hotmail MSN Microsoft is 800-386-5550 . I do not have an e-mail address for hotmail but I am looking for their e-mail address. If a scammer gets one hit in 10 people scammed he does well enough. I now know it happen to another artist 2 weeks earlier sending out the same request for emergency funds. Had this been publicized perhaps I would not have become entangled. CNN has just reported that 31,000 people per day are being scammed in America for money and in large part via e-mail's requesting to verify their bank account. They say most of the e-mail's originate in Nigeria. Mine was sent out at 5:00 a.m. which could be London time or Nigerian time and most likely they have a bank account in London. I had to order a new bank card because mine was compromised to the scammer. I was approached 30 years ago in a London park by a man who had lost his wallet. I was approached in recent years by one of the Traveling Irish scammers while leaving a restaurant on Jimmy Carter Blvd. in Atlanta. A man asking for $175.00 saying his van was broken down on the interstate, that he worked in the Ted Turner building and his children were waiting for him at a store nearby. I almost fell for it until I ask him one question he did not know consistent with this story. I drove away telling him that I just came that direction and I did not see any van on road. I was approached by a man outside the Choo Choo Train Holiday Inn in Chattanooga saying he needed money for his car was broken down on the interstate. I ask him which direction, then said I came that direction and did not see a car. I went inside telling the 2 policeman and they chased after him too late saying he had been doing that to other people right under their security protection. For the sake of all concerned I wish to advise you to not open any advertisement not even if it comes from Windows Live hotmail looking exactly like their correspondence as this one did asking for verification of my hotmail account or it would be cut off within 24 hours. Windows has been so reckless with hotmail lately until it set me up for such a scam. I believe the free credit report ads are the same scam and possibly the free calling cards are as well. Beware of all those tricks. My advice is to reply to no unknowns. There are 3 credit bureaus listing & marketing every American citizens pay records. Because of this I did learn that in South Carolina one can freeze their credit report and stop the credit bureaus from selling their financial information. This has been too long coming but it is here now although they scrutinize you to the hilt when you call because they want to keep selling your financial information to their customers be it true or false. Credit reports may be necessary to get a credit card or loans but scammers can use them to get loans or credit cards in your name without your knowledge or approval. Therefore, the only sure way is to freeze your report so you can sleep at night without such worries. I have now successfully removed my credit report availability from Equifax in Atlanta. Henry Paulson is the world's largest scammer in history. It seems that every time there is something bad happen, something good comes from it but it is hard to see a silver lining in this awful experience unless it is to avoid an even greater disaster for myself and others, it will be good for us when all credit bureaus are out of business. I object to credit bureaus collecting and retaining a file on my financial information. The scammers are getting more clever and it is a big battleground out there. E-mail scammers are relatively small compared to the real scammers in Wall Street and banking industry. The flu shots are a scam. Chemotherapy is a scam. Insurance is a scam. Advertisement is a scam. The dollar is a scam. Government is a scam, even education is largely a scam and religion is often a scam. Global warming is a scam, war on terror is a scam. The Federal Reserve is a scam. The I*R*S is a scam. Taxation is a scam. National ID, bailouts, voting machines are all scams. Trust used to be solid gold now it is mental. As they say, all that is really and honestly available out there is blood, sweat and tears. The correct toll-free number for a free annual credit report is 888-298-0045. All these scammers should be tracked down and incarcerated. The biggest scammers are Wall Street and they are all exactly like Bernie Madoff, they just look and act differently. Wall Street has just conned (scammed) the American taxpayers out of trillions of dollars. I will request MSN trace this scammer but most of them are never caught or prosecuted.