MARK HAYTER 936-537-0918 hayter.mark@gmail.com
Hayter’s article for July 24, 2022
“The scammer’s gift”
I’m one of six people in the county who do not believe that the good ol’ days were better than nowadays. I wouldn’t go back to the good ol’ days to save my rear.
That being said, a nowadays-life is no walk in the park. Some of the great innovations of the 21st century are the most problematic for society. Take WiFi for instance. As you know, WiFi is -- “a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. – For that definition, I keyed in “WiFi”. I’m guessing that half a percent of the population knew that.
For the non-wisenheimers among us, it refers to a program that allows computers, cell phones and such to wirelessly communicate with one another. That’s a great thing… except when it’s not. Not all people who use computers and cell phones are nice. Some would take the ring out of your daughter’s nose if they could.
You see, and I think you do, anything good can be used for bad. It happens in religion and politics all the time. Jill would like to add certain “construction contractors”. After the 2021 Big Freeze”, my kid sister got taken. Bottom line, there are some among us who will use a great idea to steal you blind.
This brings me back to WiFi. I need you to hold onto your wallet, while I show you some of the stuff that’s popped up in my emails today.
First thing this morning I got a notice from Walmart that reads “You have been chosen to participate in our loyalty program for FREE. It will only take you a moment to receive this fantastic prize.” Above the notice is a picture of a portable ice maker. I couldn't tell you the last time I went to Walmart, but they’ve got my email address and are ready to see how gullible I am.
In truth, I don’t even know for sure that Walmart is behind this. The logo looks real enough, but it could be a forgery out of Kazikistan. To get my icemaker, I’m supposed to click on the yellow box. If I don’t trust ‘em, I’m supposed to click on a site that proves I was contacted. I’m fairly sure they could mess me up with either click.
The next email is from the Transunion Equifax outfit that wants to tell me what my credit score is. To get my credit score, I’ll need to give them some information that, for all I know, might give them my house. Let’s not do that.
Good grief, here’s another from Walmart, congratulating me for being selected to receive “Ultimate Nonstick Cookware”. There’s a picture of 15 non-stick pans. Again, I don’t know if Walmart is behind this. I would think their logo would be easy to duplicate.
Here’s one from Woodbridge, VA. The outfit sent me a list of available jobs. I doubt the jobs are all located in Virginia. I must assume that “Woodbridge Work” is an employment agency for places all over the country. And yes, I know what happens when I assume.
But, I’ve gotta tell you, some of these jobs are great. I could be an assistant investigator at a salary of $125,000. The job might involve investigating sewage leaks, but I still like the pay. Or, I could be a Park Ranger making $51,600 a year. Before biting on this, it would be nice to know where the park is located. Inner city Detroit? Let me think about that. If I were job hunting I would investigate Woodbridge Work before contacting them. It reads like one of those “to good to be true things”.
Here’s a credit card company that says they can link my credit card to my phone. Even if I trusted them, I wouldn’t know how to use my phone-linked credit card. That means, I’m just the person they’re looking for.
This next deal sounds neato. I can get 80% off my favorite brands of, uh, whatever if I go through “Brad’s Deals”, the operative word being “can”. This is the first I’ve ever run across “Brad Deals” yet, they have my email address. The ad popped up on the site that sends me a daily Trivia question. The site doesn’t charge me anything, so they must make money from ads. Get it?
The scams I found today are not all that spectacular. But I do want to mention something I read recently. I don’t know the source, but it sounds feasible. I read that some crooks are threatening businesses by promising to post hundreds of one-star ratings if they refuse to pay a ransom.
I seriously doubt anything like that ever happened during the good ol’ days. Of course, the occasional movie or play critic might have written a good review for a price. If there’s a point in all of this, it would be this: From the day a caveman learned how to pretend to hide a pea under a shell, people have attempted to cheat others. Nowadays, it just requires less effort. And, the chance of getting caught is less likely.
I doubt the percentage of crooks in the world today has changed over the centuries. Nor has the gullibility of humans. It might be helpful to return to the adage, “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.” – Give me a second here.
Ah, here it is. “Too good to be true” was the title of a publication written by Thomas Lupton in 1580. Using WiFi, it took me seconds to discover the origin of “Too Good to be True”. That is more evidence of how easily one can obtain information nowadays. Our job is to determine whether or not the information is true. And, that’s a big job.
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