Scam

No matter how street smart you might think you are, I assure you that you are not immune from scammers.  Especially if you are not paying close attention, you can be taken advantage of.

Yesterday evening, the house phone rang.  My wife was on the phone and she got the call waiting beep.  When she answered it, the person on the other end of the phone told her that he needed to speak with me. 

It seems that he had called my mother-in-law and told her there was a ‘problem with her computer, and it was causing errors on the server’.  They needed to fix it for her.  Fortunately, my mother-in-law grew up in The Bronx and is not especially gullible.  More importantly, perhaps, both she and my father-in-law are not computer savvy.   She told the guy that her son-in-law (me) handles all her computer problems and told him to call me.

I told the guy off right away and then hung up on him.  Incredibly, he had the nerve to call my mother-in-law back and tell her that I said it was ok to talk to him.  I called her a minute later she told me he was back on the phone.  I told her to hang up on him immediately, which she did.

Interestingly enough, I got the same phone call from these guys a couple of months ago. 

I don’t really know what their game is.  Are they trying to steal their target’s identity or extort money?  Who knows?  I certainly am not going to give them the opportunity to tell me.

They prey on people who are not computer savvy with techy sounding words like server and virus and computer error.  If someone is unsuspecting, I am sure they could really get hurt.  The bottom line is, if you don’t know the person who is calling you on the phone, sending you an email, etc. you simply can’t trust what he is telling you!  Be wary, be street smart and be careful.