Just received a snail mail today from somebody I've never heard of with a cashier's check for $3975.20 enclosed as money to be spend as a 'secret shopper'. Same crap as the email counterpart -- please deposit this check in my account and check on Western Union's customer service by sending $3475.00 off to who knows where!

Gotta be vigilant everywhere!

Nothing truer Craig. Most (but maybe not all) reading this will realize that the sting comes when, after forwarding your money the cashier's check/cheque is disallowed (yes, even cashier's checks can bounce) and your own money is gone for ever. These days, you might even get a little follow-up visit from the NSA too, enquiring if you are in the habit of participating in money laundering schemes. TANSTAAFL, as we used to say (there ain't no such thing as a free lunch).

Minor detail .... although there could be that visit from one or more of several other two/three/several-letter agencies, the NSA wouldn't be one of them.

Heck, I thought *everything* was linked to terrorism these days - must be more sanity out there than I realized. That's reassuring, thanks.

Right. They won't visit you, they will just tap your phone.

-- rick

Although I cannot talk to Rick's stateent (though wondering just how some other much higher ranking/retired folks seem to get away with it,) I can point you to http://www.nsa.gov and point out that you won't find any sign of 'enforcement' in the data presented there. There's not much hiding from the mission of collecting data/traffic/intel/etc. but .... anything that needs that 'personal touch' is passed on to another agency for action.

We know about NSA & random wiretapping from the misadventures of the previous tenant of the White House, that much is in public domain.

Without belaboring matters, let's say that I have a somewhat closer knowledge of NSA than most folks, enough to know that Wazoo is correct, they do not have "agents" like the FBI, DEA, etc. do. At least not that I know of.

I one spent an uncomfortable half-hour in an airport ticket line behind a loony who claimed to be an "NSA Agent," however, and he bragged that he had a "carry-my-handgun-anywhere" license that even applied in the FAA-controlled portions of the airport. Needless to say, anyone who really did have such powers is not likely to blab about them to random strangers in the airport.

Back in the day, employees of NSA were traditionally very reticent even to identify where they worked, beyond saying simply "The Department of Defense." Many people conjectured that NSA stood for "Never Say Anything."

Things have defrosted a bit ... near here at Ft. Meade, one can even find street signs that openly identify it as the HQ of NSA. Not to mention a very nice cryptography museum and a visitors center that sells T-shirts and golf hats.

-- rick

Yes things have changed at No Such Agency sense the green door became the "screen door". At the time there was a parody of a Homer and Jethro country western song (a parody of a parody) making the rounds about 'looking through the screen door.'

I never meet any "agents" either. Meet some scary people, but no agents.

I think my college roommate worked there. I got married the day after I graduated and I was counting on living a work life vicariously through her, but she couldn't even tell me where she worked! She wasn't an agent.

I always wondered how I would do as an agent. I think that if I were living a lie, it would show. But, since I am not, people trust me. I can cash out of state checks. Now that I am older, it's a little bit more difficult, but I can talk my way in to most any place. (now I need retirees as security guards - even then someone would accuse me of being a cougar).

My main obstacle to being an agent is that I am not detail oriented. I would miss most of what I was supposed to be looking for.

Miss Betsy

Well, you've just satisfied the prime qualification for covert operations. Anyway, NSA doesn't have 'active agents'. Or if it does, they're very good ones. It's fun being paranoid. Just as well, it's a necessary mindset when venturing out in 'teh interwebs'. Or even when reading your snail mail.

I suppose that being paranoid would be another criterion for being an agent - and I am not paranoid enough at all or maybe foolhardy (as in 'fools rush in...'). It's amazing that I have survived at all (online or off).

Miss Betsy

Ah, Miss Betsy, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," as Queen Gertrude says. Never mind, your secret is safe with us (and the rest of the internet).

See...I am not afraid that the whole internet knows I am not paranoid!

Miss Betsy

Yep, yep, "Ain't nobody here but us chickens!" Understood completely.