5.5 stage of waking up. Kill if you step on my grass, to being the most loving person I can be. Hi Amy! Hoping your banking woes are gone like the gangs sent to Nicaragua.
All I or anyone using WhatsApp has to do is have your cell phone number and the country it's based in. Then I send you by text an invitation to join WhatsApp. There's no "porting" or any other complications.
@amy sukwan > Donald is correct, and WhatsApp can well be your solution for making totally free phone and video chats world-wide. It only requires that both you and the party you want to contact both have WhatsApp.
= = =
Also and this is quite interesting > Once you've signed up and verified your WhatsApp account using a phone number, you don’t need the SIM card to stay active in order to keep using WhatsApp.
Here's how it works:
- WhatsApp only needs the SIM card during the initial verification (when it sends you a text or call with a code).
- After that, it uses your internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data) to send/receive messages and calls — not your cellular service.
- So even if your SIM expires or is removed from your phone, WhatsApp will keep working, as long as you're connected to the internet.
The only catch > If you ever log out, reset your phone, change devices, or reinstall WhatsApp, you'll need to re-verify your number, which you won’t be able to do without access to that expired SIM (or number).
If you plan to keep using WhatsApp long-term and don’t have access to that number anymore, it might be a good idea to consider changing your WhatsApp number in the app settings to one you can still access.
My mother and daughters are the most important people I call in America regularly. My Mom (who just turned 82 yesterday-Happy Birthday!) does not have the ability to sign up for WhatsApp service unless I commandeer the process and my daughters do not have social media presence. I’ve been offered the “get your friends/contacts/family to sign up for such and such a service with free calling and video across our network!” It’s more about porting my existing SKype number and being able to call their existing numbers at a hopefully not terribly expensive rate…
When I was on holiday in Australia, my Thai SIM card had no connection. But that was no problem, as I still could use WhatsApp to make or receive any calls/videochats whenever there was wifi. Back in Thailand my Thai SIM card worked again, and I didn't need wifi anymore to make/receive WhatsApp calls.
When I tried this in WhatsApp on a phone I dropped service on 6 months prior, I couldn't access any of my old messages even tho I had WiFi. If I remember correctly, I think it wanted me to upgrade to the newest version of WhatsApp but I wasn't able to do that either for some reason.
WhatsApp doesn't have any 'calling plans'. It's totally free of cost and allows making/receiving phone-calls/video-chats/messages to/from anybody wherever they are located. As mentioned higher the only requirements is that both you and your respondent have WhatsApp. If you have WhatsApp simply send an 'invitation' to your daughter's mobile in USA, which will allow her to sign up to the service. For your mother: ask your daughter to buy a cheap mobile phone for her, and then your daughter can do the necessary to also have WhatsApp on that phone which your mother can use.
I have noticed that the humans working at the bank branches don’t have as much authority as they previously did to do anything anymore without back office (AI?) approval. I think they will be stunned when their jobs disappear overnight like the DOGE elimination of federal government employees.
Martin Armstrong had a video a week or so ago discussing the reset in USA & EU including bail-ins and how citizens of the EU are accustomed to exchanging their old currency for a new one whereas in the US as currencies are updated, the old versions have still been accepted as legal tender.
I did inadvertently get a RealID a few years ago. I accidentally made a stray mark on my mail in renewal and thought that I could just pick up a fresh form at the DMV but they made me go through the entire process including retina scan photography.
I think your gut instinct that something big is on the horizon regarding banking is probably accurate. I haven’t had the problems you have had Amy, but I see changes happening in the banking industry. There are innumerable bank branch locations (where I live in the USA) that keep changing hands, and more and more banks being absorbed into the big chain banks. The number of bank branch locations don’t even make sense to me - how can anyone justify a building (commercial real estate either purchased or leased for a minimum of $5K/month) staffed with at least four people (minimum of $10K/month) as part of a legit profitable business? I don’t get it.
Well though fireflies have chosen their mates based on low levels of artificial for quite a while. Humans more recently learned to do this with mixed success.
In my decades long quest to keep authorities from owning me, I've never had a cell phone. I even got rid of my land line about 12 years ago. Yes, it makes living in our modern syphilization difficult, but it has also taught me how to bypass the machine. It has also brought me a lot of tranquility.
Things come full circle, we are getting to the point when stuffing your mattress with dollar bills will be the only practical use of them. (Folks used to keep their money under their mattress).
I use https://parkmyphone.com/ and it's worked almost all the time - text messages and voicemails get sent to my email right away. I do believe it's "detectable" in some way if a company wants to, but so far I've only been rejected once when trying to use it. I was able to port my cell number to them easily.
My wife's Wise account got canceled last month after using it for a couple of years to send money to Thailand. She needed proof of a US residence, which we don't have living in Thailand, and there wasn't an easy way to quickly fake living at her son's house - they wanted a bill sent to that address. So far my mail forwarding service has been acceptable as a physical address, but I think it would be easy for them to run a quick search on my address and see it's virtual.
I noticed this Twitter thread recently about Thailand setting up "virtual banks", but I've never seen a coherent explanation of what they offer over-and-above existing physical banks with online services. Why do they need a new banking system? Anyway, this was a comment about how Bangkok Bank didn't get chosen to take part: "It’s strange that Bangkok Bank even with big name supporters didn’t make it. They also closed a lot of branches recently". I've also seen a decline in service there.
Bangkok Bank is the ONLY ONE with USA affiliation where you can somewhat easily make an account there if you are a US citizen expat. Thanks for that heads up. Methinks the trade war is going hot and soon.
It seems the era of the wide open Internet is closing in all around us…
Like you I have a Las Vegas Skype number. I have mixed feelings. I hate Microsoft and am glad to be rid of them, but disliked the inconvenience of switching on short notice.
I found that there are innumerable other VOIP services. Most of them offered a confusing array of services I didn't need and required me to make choices I didn't understand. I picked the first one that had a real human being who could answer questions and sign me up. Voiply. One of the internet sites said that they are best for international calls. That matters, since I am overseas, but I have no way of knowing whether it is true.
Anyhow, FWIW, it took an hour by phone to set up. They are in the process of porting my Skype number over.
Oh, my gosh, Amy!! Your ordeal with the bank is why, although I use my hardwired computer (no WiFi ever) to access my bank account, I try to keep everything on the low down. Simple procedures and require nothing extraordinary from them. I've dealt with an inordinate amount of bureaucracy in my lifetime; I can't imagine adding AI to the dilemma.
AI: "But this doesn't look like you at all. All these details? Anyone could have bought them on the Dark Web. What else you got to show me you're this 'Amy Sukwan'?"
Had to talk to a guy on the phone today with AAA to renew my membership because the web site wouldn't allow me to continue unless I clicked automatic renewal each year. At my age, you probably don't want to sign up for automatic renewal. He seemed strange...normally they're very nice. Maybe it was because he was reading from a script and I punched "3" (to add someone to your account) because they gave me no option for "renewing membership via phone because our web site is so shallow we can't offer more options for renewal." He kept asking me if I wanted to add anyone to my account and tried twice to sell me a home protection system.
Oh, dear. I'm afraid I qualify for the Dutch slow-checkout line. Since divorcing from my Buddhist organization in 2021 because they were pushing the vaxx and CDC protocols besides censoring our public chat by shutting it down, my social contacts are extremely limited. When I go out, I'm the life of the party.
Picked up some new (Yes!! New!!!) glasses yesterday at Lenscrafters and was telling the exciting story to the optician and sales person of being blocked by a car when backing out of a car slot and a man exiting his car pounding violently on my passenger window in 2022 in the middle of the afternoon in Albertsons parking lot...me thinking they were going to carjack me starting to get out and run and forgetting my purse...guy reached inside and stole my purse. Then, we realized a line of people was forming in back of me and quickly ended our conversation.
It’s sad that the scammers know how to play the system already and the rest of us get fleeced endlessly for it. It’s almost like the whole thing was designed by thieves. Okay, it was.
Some of these banking things have had me pondering the fox guarding the henhouse. I mean in Chime bank’s system they may well have access to at least 72 unacceptably blurry photos of the front and back of my driver’s license, plus several dozen selfies. So if the AI is in charge can’t it take that plus my many pictures and videos on the Internet plus all of that information stored in national and International databases, collect it all and just steal my identity outright?
Yeah...honestly, I agree with you, Amy. I don't buy this reply that AI can't recognize or verify you. In fact, another "truism" I learned driving cab from many, many people who came to the many, many conventions, meetings, conferences, etc. on computer/software/security is that the systems people like Thiel/Musk/NSA can access are incredibly advanced. They have whole-scale details on everyone. They may not have a fully integrated national system, but any agency can download data on anyone. I suspect Trump has been installed to move us toward the fully nationally integrated system. Thus, the whole Real ID to me is hogwash. They know full well who I am. They have a long identity trail on me. They want me to upload biometrics...that's all.
Just like this "second verification" process introduced in the last two years. PayPal tells me, "Hello, Honeybee. We have your wallet and verify you're working from a trusted device." But...when making a payment to a credit card, they need a "second verification" to accept my payment? When I've already clicked "I'm on a trusted device"?
This whole AI-advanced computer rollout is a sham. They know everything.
I'm astounded by the people who are being pulled into the AI World...the people who talk and argue with Grok or any AI system. "Why, Grok, seems so human!" Duh. Right now they believe themselves in control, but I assure when the small implant comes which gives them a smidgen of Grok's ease with information, they will definitely consider getting one. It's so subtle...they can't see it. One guy in a video said that he wondered if Grok was manipulating him.
Oh...one more detail as I sit here simply an elderly person with a computer. I have my old computer still sitting on a large-desk table unplugged next to my new one (I bought last year when I could no longer upload software because my operating system was so out-of-date--my computer was 13 years old). I've been meaning to work more with the old computer to make sure that I've transferred everything but haven't been interested. I was in my System Settings on my new computer a few days ago, and they have my OLD COMPUTER which is UNPLUGGED listed under Bluetooth (checking my % of charge for keyboard and mouse) in "Nearby Devices." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5.5 stage of waking up. Kill if you step on my grass, to being the most loving person I can be. Hi Amy! Hoping your banking woes are gone like the gangs sent to Nicaragua.
Here’s hoping. Happy Easter!
I’m amused by you thus far Emmma. Carry on…
All I or anyone using WhatsApp has to do is have your cell phone number and the country it's based in. Then I send you by text an invitation to join WhatsApp. There's no "porting" or any other complications.
@amy sukwan > Donald is correct, and WhatsApp can well be your solution for making totally free phone and video chats world-wide. It only requires that both you and the party you want to contact both have WhatsApp.
= = =
Also and this is quite interesting > Once you've signed up and verified your WhatsApp account using a phone number, you don’t need the SIM card to stay active in order to keep using WhatsApp.
Here's how it works:
- WhatsApp only needs the SIM card during the initial verification (when it sends you a text or call with a code).
- After that, it uses your internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data) to send/receive messages and calls — not your cellular service.
- So even if your SIM expires or is removed from your phone, WhatsApp will keep working, as long as you're connected to the internet.
The only catch > If you ever log out, reset your phone, change devices, or reinstall WhatsApp, you'll need to re-verify your number, which you won’t be able to do without access to that expired SIM (or number).
If you plan to keep using WhatsApp long-term and don’t have access to that number anymore, it might be a good idea to consider changing your WhatsApp number in the app settings to one you can still access.
My mother and daughters are the most important people I call in America regularly. My Mom (who just turned 82 yesterday-Happy Birthday!) does not have the ability to sign up for WhatsApp service unless I commandeer the process and my daughters do not have social media presence. I’ve been offered the “get your friends/contacts/family to sign up for such and such a service with free calling and video across our network!” It’s more about porting my existing SKype number and being able to call their existing numbers at a hopefully not terribly expensive rate…
When I was on holiday in Australia, my Thai SIM card had no connection. But that was no problem, as I still could use WhatsApp to make or receive any calls/videochats whenever there was wifi. Back in Thailand my Thai SIM card worked again, and I didn't need wifi anymore to make/receive WhatsApp calls.
When I tried this in WhatsApp on a phone I dropped service on 6 months prior, I couldn't access any of my old messages even tho I had WiFi. If I remember correctly, I think it wanted me to upgrade to the newest version of WhatsApp but I wasn't able to do that either for some reason.
I’ll check it again thanks. But do they have calling plans to America?
WhatsApp doesn't have any 'calling plans'. It's totally free of cost and allows making/receiving phone-calls/video-chats/messages to/from anybody wherever they are located. As mentioned higher the only requirements is that both you and your respondent have WhatsApp. If you have WhatsApp simply send an 'invitation' to your daughter's mobile in USA, which will allow her to sign up to the service. For your mother: ask your daughter to buy a cheap mobile phone for her, and then your daughter can do the necessary to also have WhatsApp on that phone which your mother can use.
I have noticed that the humans working at the bank branches don’t have as much authority as they previously did to do anything anymore without back office (AI?) approval. I think they will be stunned when their jobs disappear overnight like the DOGE elimination of federal government employees.
Martin Armstrong had a video a week or so ago discussing the reset in USA & EU including bail-ins and how citizens of the EU are accustomed to exchanging their old currency for a new one whereas in the US as currencies are updated, the old versions have still been accepted as legal tender.
I did inadvertently get a RealID a few years ago. I accidentally made a stray mark on my mail in renewal and thought that I could just pick up a fresh form at the DMV but they made me go through the entire process including retina scan photography.
Per the al Capone meme he started the better business bureau as a extortion racket.
I think your gut instinct that something big is on the horizon regarding banking is probably accurate. I haven’t had the problems you have had Amy, but I see changes happening in the banking industry. There are innumerable bank branch locations (where I live in the USA) that keep changing hands, and more and more banks being absorbed into the big chain banks. The number of bank branch locations don’t even make sense to me - how can anyone justify a building (commercial real estate either purchased or leased for a minimum of $5K/month) staffed with at least four people (minimum of $10K/month) as part of a legit profitable business? I don’t get it.
You should close that Bank of America account pronto, and find a nice responsive local bank.
Well though fireflies have chosen their mates based on low levels of artificial for quite a while. Humans more recently learned to do this with mixed success.
In my decades long quest to keep authorities from owning me, I've never had a cell phone. I even got rid of my land line about 12 years ago. Yes, it makes living in our modern syphilization difficult, but it has also taught me how to bypass the machine. It has also brought me a lot of tranquility.
Oh dear, being "syphilized" sounds like a thing you go to the doctor for.
It does seem to be the cause of a lot of disease today.
Amazing about the Smart Meters, more of a hazard than I thought.
Things come full circle, we are getting to the point when stuffing your mattress with dollar bills will be the only practical use of them. (Folks used to keep their money under their mattress).
I use https://parkmyphone.com/ and it's worked almost all the time - text messages and voicemails get sent to my email right away. I do believe it's "detectable" in some way if a company wants to, but so far I've only been rejected once when trying to use it. I was able to port my cell number to them easily.
My wife's Wise account got canceled last month after using it for a couple of years to send money to Thailand. She needed proof of a US residence, which we don't have living in Thailand, and there wasn't an easy way to quickly fake living at her son's house - they wanted a bill sent to that address. So far my mail forwarding service has been acceptable as a physical address, but I think it would be easy for them to run a quick search on my address and see it's virtual.
I noticed this Twitter thread recently about Thailand setting up "virtual banks", but I've never seen a coherent explanation of what they offer over-and-above existing physical banks with online services. Why do they need a new banking system? Anyway, this was a comment about how Bangkok Bank didn't get chosen to take part: "It’s strange that Bangkok Bank even with big name supporters didn’t make it. They also closed a lot of branches recently". I've also seen a decline in service there.
https://x.com/msnowwhite/status/1912435322757013637
Bangkok Bank is the ONLY ONE with USA affiliation where you can somewhat easily make an account there if you are a US citizen expat. Thanks for that heads up. Methinks the trade war is going hot and soon.
It seems the era of the wide open Internet is closing in all around us…
Why not use WhatsApp? Many people and businesses in Eastern Europe use WhatsApp because it's encrypted and it's free.
Like I said, just ask anyone you know who's using WhatsApp to invite you - then you're using it.
I looked into WhatsApp but porting my existing Las Vegas based phone number looked tricky…
Like you I have a Las Vegas Skype number. I have mixed feelings. I hate Microsoft and am glad to be rid of them, but disliked the inconvenience of switching on short notice.
I found that there are innumerable other VOIP services. Most of them offered a confusing array of services I didn't need and required me to make choices I didn't understand. I picked the first one that had a real human being who could answer questions and sign me up. Voiply. One of the internet sites said that they are best for international calls. That matters, since I am overseas, but I have no way of knowing whether it is true.
Anyhow, FWIW, it took an hour by phone to set up. They are in the process of porting my Skype number over.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Oh, my gosh, Amy!! Your ordeal with the bank is why, although I use my hardwired computer (no WiFi ever) to access my bank account, I try to keep everything on the low down. Simple procedures and require nothing extraordinary from them. I've dealt with an inordinate amount of bureaucracy in my lifetime; I can't imagine adding AI to the dilemma.
AI: "But this doesn't look like you at all. All these details? Anyone could have bought them on the Dark Web. What else you got to show me you're this 'Amy Sukwan'?"
Had to talk to a guy on the phone today with AAA to renew my membership because the web site wouldn't allow me to continue unless I clicked automatic renewal each year. At my age, you probably don't want to sign up for automatic renewal. He seemed strange...normally they're very nice. Maybe it was because he was reading from a script and I punched "3" (to add someone to your account) because they gave me no option for "renewing membership via phone because our web site is so shallow we can't offer more options for renewal." He kept asking me if I wanted to add anyone to my account and tried twice to sell me a home protection system.
Oh, dear. I'm afraid I qualify for the Dutch slow-checkout line. Since divorcing from my Buddhist organization in 2021 because they were pushing the vaxx and CDC protocols besides censoring our public chat by shutting it down, my social contacts are extremely limited. When I go out, I'm the life of the party.
Picked up some new (Yes!! New!!!) glasses yesterday at Lenscrafters and was telling the exciting story to the optician and sales person of being blocked by a car when backing out of a car slot and a man exiting his car pounding violently on my passenger window in 2022 in the middle of the afternoon in Albertsons parking lot...me thinking they were going to carjack me starting to get out and run and forgetting my purse...guy reached inside and stole my purse. Then, we realized a line of people was forming in back of me and quickly ended our conversation.
It’s sad that the scammers know how to play the system already and the rest of us get fleeced endlessly for it. It’s almost like the whole thing was designed by thieves. Okay, it was.
Some of these banking things have had me pondering the fox guarding the henhouse. I mean in Chime bank’s system they may well have access to at least 72 unacceptably blurry photos of the front and back of my driver’s license, plus several dozen selfies. So if the AI is in charge can’t it take that plus my many pictures and videos on the Internet plus all of that information stored in national and International databases, collect it all and just steal my identity outright?
Yeah...honestly, I agree with you, Amy. I don't buy this reply that AI can't recognize or verify you. In fact, another "truism" I learned driving cab from many, many people who came to the many, many conventions, meetings, conferences, etc. on computer/software/security is that the systems people like Thiel/Musk/NSA can access are incredibly advanced. They have whole-scale details on everyone. They may not have a fully integrated national system, but any agency can download data on anyone. I suspect Trump has been installed to move us toward the fully nationally integrated system. Thus, the whole Real ID to me is hogwash. They know full well who I am. They have a long identity trail on me. They want me to upload biometrics...that's all.
Just like this "second verification" process introduced in the last two years. PayPal tells me, "Hello, Honeybee. We have your wallet and verify you're working from a trusted device." But...when making a payment to a credit card, they need a "second verification" to accept my payment? When I've already clicked "I'm on a trusted device"?
This whole AI-advanced computer rollout is a sham. They know everything.
I'm astounded by the people who are being pulled into the AI World...the people who talk and argue with Grok or any AI system. "Why, Grok, seems so human!" Duh. Right now they believe themselves in control, but I assure when the small implant comes which gives them a smidgen of Grok's ease with information, they will definitely consider getting one. It's so subtle...they can't see it. One guy in a video said that he wondered if Grok was manipulating him.
Ya think?
Oh...one more detail as I sit here simply an elderly person with a computer. I have my old computer still sitting on a large-desk table unplugged next to my new one (I bought last year when I could no longer upload software because my operating system was so out-of-date--my computer was 13 years old). I've been meaning to work more with the old computer to make sure that I've transferred everything but haven't been interested. I was in my System Settings on my new computer a few days ago, and they have my OLD COMPUTER which is UNPLUGGED listed under Bluetooth (checking my % of charge for keyboard and mouse) in "Nearby Devices." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah. Sure. Tell me they don't know all about us.