Today's Cautionary Tale

 

Another validation of why we can't have nice things.   

With all the advanced technological benefits we enjoy in our 2026 lives comes reasons to avoid them.   This is not my story, but all of it happened last week to a good friend.   And his life was upended completely for three days to fix and retrieve what was stolen.

All of a sudden, my friend started getting notifications that his on-line life was being compromised.   Most of it was coming from his Verizon phone.   Suddenly, credit cards were being used.   Bank accounts were being attacked.

The problem with reaching out to customer service these days is that the people you reach sound like hackers themselves.  They all barely speak English and are somewhere on the other side of the world.   I had the same experience a few months ago when I had to call Chase about my checking account.   Seriously?  A major US banking institution has sent their phone support people to Dubai???

But I digress.   Back to my friend.  

He had to spend hours and days changing passwords and waiting 30 minutes on the phone to speak to people in other hemispheres.  Three days of work were lost.  But the teachable moment uncovered a new method of on-line treachery that we should all be wary of.   

Hackers are now getting into your cell phone SIM cards.   And stealing your cell phone number.  With that information, these scumbags can go to town.

Now, my friend told me to check my phone settings  Guess what?  Both my SIM card and my mobile number were unlocked and vulnerable.   It's an easy fix to remedy the situation and I suggest you all do it.

For that matter, you should also adopt a practice that I did a long time ago.   I don't open texts or emails that I don't recognize.   Another new portal for the cretins out there is an email from a friend that invites you to a party.   I've gotten three of them in the past month.   They are all bogus.   Please don't click on anything.

Unfortunately, another friend of mine did open such a party invitation.   Before she knew it, there were withdrawals from her savings account.

Be wary.   Be very, very wary.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.