April fools’ prank urges folks to unplug phones, internet
Millions of people are again being told to disconnect their telephones and/or internet connections for special maintenance. The requests are new twists on old April Fools’ Day gags.
Q. I recently received an email from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission telling me to unplug my home’s telephones and internet connection for 24 hours beginning at 12:01 a.m. April 1. The letter states that the FCC will use the time to launch “cyber spiders” to “clean out old emails and spam to make the World Wide Web run more efficiently.”
Is this a legitimate request, or is it a prank?
A. If the fact that your suggested shutdown date is April 1 didn’t set off any bells in your brain, let me ring them for you: IT’S APRIL FOOLS’ DAY.
The FCC doesn’t have any so-called cyber spiders, and even if it did, it couldn’t use them without your written permission.
I wrote about this misguided prank three or four years ago, although most of the emails and letters back then supposedly came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Although the bogus email you received involves the internet, some of my readers in America’s coldest areas said they have received emails and even prerecorded telephone messages urging them to disconnect their home phones for the next few days so their local phone company can use special heaters to “thoroughly thaw frozen telephone lines.”
It’s another ruse, apparently based on one from about two decades ago, that instructed homeowners to disconnect their phones because their service provider was going to blow air through local lines to purge dust that had accumulated over the years. Customers were even told to wrap their phones in plastic bags to prevent the dust from gushing through their handsets and blanketing their floors and furniture.
Though most homeowners don’t fall victim to such ridiculous pranks, one study suggests that as many as 1 million Americans each year still do.
REAL ESTATE TRIVIA A common prank pulled by some experienced real estate agents on rookies is to leave a written message for the newbie to call back “Myra Mains” for a listing appointment. It usually takes two or three phone calls by the sales-hungry newcomer to figure out that the number is for a funeral home or cemetery.
Q. We bought our first home, and the sale closed on March 21. We’re so busy unpacking and fixing the place up that there’s no way we’ll be able to file our federal income-tax return by this month’s deadline.
How can we ask for an extension?
A. It’s easy. Simply fill out IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, by the April 17 deadline. The typical deadline would be on the 15th, but that’s a Sunday. The Internal Revenue Service will be closed that day and also on Monday, April 16, in observance of Emancipation Day.
You can download Form 4868 from the IRS website, www.irs.gov, or call the agency at 800-829-3676. This will provide a six-month extension to file your federal return, though you will have to pay interest on any taxes that you may owe.
Q. I live in a second-story apartment, but have a heart condition that has left me permanently unable to work. My sister has suggested that we buy a single-story house together so she can help me take care of myself.
We each would make half of the $15,000 down payment and then split the monthly payments. Can I use the $1,060 in monthly Social Security Disability benefits I receive as income to qualify for the mortgage needed to finance the rest of the purchase?
A. Yes, you probably can.
Most people who get short-term disability payments from the government, their employer or a labor union can’t list the money as income on an application to qualify for a loan because the lender assumes that those payments will end relatively soon. But because your medical problem is permanent, most lenders will consider your monthly benefits check as regular income when they review the mortgage application.
Many borrowers assume that only wages, salaries, regular bonuses or profit from a business that they own can be used to qualify for a mortgage. They are mistaken.
Though lending policies vary from one bank to the next, most lenders who review a prospective borrower’s application also will consider Social Security income, retirement and pension fund payments, veterans’ pay or even money that’s earned from serving in the National Guard to determine how much they will lend.
They also will count any money that’s guaranteed through an estate or trust, an annuity or royalty payments. Ditto for the net profit earned from a rental property, as well as income from a federally insured certificate of deposit or similar account.
Q. I am 79 years old, and my husband is 81. We like the idea of forming the type of basic living trust that you recently wrote about so that our home and other assets could quickly pass to our daughter instead of going through the expensive probate process after we die.
Would each of us have to form an individual trust, or would only one be OK?
A. One would be enough. The two of you would form the trust as “co-trustees,” which would allow both of you to control your jointly owned property while both of you are alive.
When one dies, the deceased’s halfinterest in the home and other assets would pass to the surviving co-trustee. And when the survivor later dies, the trust’s property would quickly and automatically pass to your daughter instead of going through costly and time-consuming probate proceedings. Talk to an estate planner or lawyer for details.
ABOUT LIVING TRUSTS David Myers’ booklet “Straight Talk About Living Trusts” explains the myriad of benefits that creating an inexpensive trust can provide to homeowners in every age or income group.
For a copy, send $4 and a selfaddressed, stamped envelope to David Myers/Trust, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-4405. Net proceeds are donated to the American Red Cross.
Send questions to David Myers, P.O. Box 4405, Culver City, CA 90231-2960, and we’ll try to respond in a future column.