Every downside has an upside, I think …
Hello friends,
I awoke to an odd telephone call this morning.
An old, rarely used email account had been hijacked by some folks with too much time on their hands. They had sent an email to all my contacts pretending to be me. They told everyone I’d been robbed at gunpoint in England and my family needed 1,600 pounds sterling ($2,600 in US dollars) to pay off our hotel bill and purchase airline tickets to get home.
Over the course of the day I received many phone calls and emails, some from friends I hadn’t spoken to in over a year and some two years. Most had been skeptical, but nonetheless needed to check in, just-in-case I really did need the money.
- One friend said she didn’t think it was sent by me because the email contained numerous grammatical errors and horribly constructed sentences. (I smiled into the phone.)
- Another mentioned that England had strict gun control laws and the chance of me being held up with a gun was probably slim. (I just did some quick research and England has one of the lowest rates of gun homicide in the world. The highest South Africa, followed by Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Estonia, Mexico, The United States and the rest.)
- A third pointed out that airline tickets are all computerized and I just needed to show up with an ID. (Why didn’t I think of that?)
- A fourth couldn’t understand why I’d have computer access if my family and I were that destitute. (Good point.)
- A fifth thought my reconnecting with folks would make a good blog post, hence today’s inspiration. (You’re a genius, I declared.)
Naturally, I couldn’t get into my account. Had to request a new password, etc. When I finally got into my account, I noticed two new emails had been added, one of them made the primary. I tried to delete the account, but could not. The deletion instructions sent me into one of those endless clicking loops where you click on the page and it brings you to another page and before you know it you’re back at the first page. I’m guessing they don’t really want you to be able to delete your account or it wouldn’t be this challenging.
In the meantime, I created some weird seal to prove to me that I’m really clicking into my email instead of some imposter email. (Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of technology. Can we just go back to the telephone?)
It’s a bit déjà vu because back in January, I thought a friend had sent me a free bottle of wine, so I clicked on it to receive her lovely gift, which brought me to an apparent imposter window that swiped my email. (I was clearly not thinking or I wouldn’t have fallen for such an obvious email trap.) The next day I awoke to about twenty emails from all sorts of folks from my past, present and future, thanking me profusely for the kind gesture of sending them a “free” bottle of wine.
Of course, I had to break it not-so-gently that no wine was forthcoming. Was just about to enter the “Oh, I’m having such a bad day downward spiral,” when I got a response from one friend who changed my attitude about the entire wine gifting ordeal, “Well, at least we got to connect again.”
I remembered his words today when I spent most of the day fielding calls from concerned friends. I wondered why it takes a perceived emergency for us to contact each other? Does an impending calamity jolt us out of our endless busyness? Whatever the answer, my day’s challenges had not ended.
The “bad things comes in threes” proverb gained a bit of traction when I returned home from getting some much needed take-out. Upon attempting to get out of the driver door, the inside door handle broke off! “Crunch.” Just like that. (Did I need to be on the look out for #3 or was it the typo in the letter to the editor the newspaper published today?)
At first I didn’t know how to get out of the car and got swept up into the future, thinking I’d have to cancel all my upcoming appointments since I could not get out of my vehicle and it’s still too cold to bike/walk. When I was just about to slither over the console in my winter coats and boots to get out the passenger side door, light dawned on my not-so-marble-head: buzz down the window and open the handle from the outside! Presto magic, I was out in a snap, most pleased with myself for problem solving on-the-fly.
Someone looking into my world today might have thought it to be an annoying, frustrating day. It really wasn’t. I rather enjoyed catching up with everyone live on the telephone, making plans for upcoming luncheons and other events. Nice to know people care enough to pick up the phone and call me.
Oh, and my car door will be fixed … If not, I’ll just keep opening it from the outside.
Any of you have one of those silver-lining kind of days lately? Muse thx, Giulietta
RSS
This post is too funny. Things have been going pretty smoothly over here, but I hesitated to type it, in case I jinx myself. 🙂 My friend’s email got hacked and I received the same note from her account. I knew it was spam, but it’s still unnerving to know real live people spend their days hacking emails. You mentioned the telephone, and I think the hackers of yesterday were making prank calls!
And I never would have thought about rolling down my window. I would have gone out the passenger door!
Hey Angie,
You have to laugh at some of life’s mini upheavals or you’d just lose it! I’m intrigued by the notion of jinxing yourself or knocking on wood (or particle board as the case may really be.) Something to look into for a future post. Thanks! G.
What a delightful post. I loved the light touch you gave this subject. And the idea of reconnecting with people you’re fond of as the silver lining of a normally invasive event.
I’ve seen this particular spam message before, generated by the hacked email accounts of a few friends. I adored the list of what your friends assumed when they read it. Smart cookies!
~ Milli
Hi Milli,
Fascinating what folks think when they get a note like that. Another bit of silver — those hijacked emails caused folks to wake up from their daily routines and put on their thinking caps. So much of our daily routine takes place in autopilot mode. Maybe I can turn this into an essay … thanks for the idea. G.
G–
Enjoyed your perspective on the experience, it’s a lesson in priorities.
I had a similarly crazy experience with stolen/forged checks that, while criminal, resulted in one of the best “you’ll never believe this crazy @*&% that happened to me” stories I like to tell.
–A
Hi Alison,
Think us writers tend to see whacked out experiences as good fodder for the stories we write. I will stop by your blog and see what kind of adventures you’ve been involved in lately! Thx, G.
I was giggling the whole way through this — even the title rocked!
What Alison said – perspective – yours really brightened my day – and I love that you aren’t foisting a “YOU MUST makehappy-happy-joy-joy” message on everyone, just declaring how it was for you this time. Makes it so much easier for me to want to look for that silver-cloud perspective!!
And – lol – what you said about writers – REALLY! Sometimes I have to turn off the writer-mind thing and just experience stuff, but it’s SO amusing to look at things through writer’s eye!
So glad your Tweet earlier today caused me to come over and see what you’d written!
Hi Karen,
Welcome to Take Back Your Life! I’m glad you decided to fly in from Twitter. Will check out your post, too.
Love to meet other writers/bloggers and have a lot of writers that comment here regularly. I find it hard sometimes to turn off the writer mind – Wonder if I’m hard wired to look for the irony of the situation? That might make a good post. “How to turn off the writer’s mind.” Thanks for the inspiration on that. Enjoy! G.
G-
We’re glad your safe from gun-wielding British terrorists, but please be more careful when traveling in the future!
Rick
p.s. I still haven’t received my wine.
Hey Rick,
I’m going to need to buy a huge case of Chuck Shaw’s at Trader Joe’s and send everyone on my email list a bottle to save cyber face! (And a gun in case I’m email hijacked to England again.) Fun comment! G.
Hi G,
Wow you sound like you have mastered the fact that you may not be able to control what life sends your way, but you can certainly control your reaction. And you reacted just wonderfully; laughed at those inconsiderate souls who started the whole scare in the first place and turned it into a positive. “Look on the bright side of life” Good for you!
I personally have been having to oversee my 11 year old with homework daily since his grades went into the toilet in middle school. Last night, I helped type up his 6 paragraph essay on Indigo. We aren’t a family of writers … however I was very proud of all the work he has been doing in school and glad I’m back involved in overseeing his work. As much as he dislikes schoolwork – I love it when he says hey mom you want to learn something new on the computer and bamm – the kid teaches me how to make a document double spaced in two clicks! Those young whipper snappers in school these days sure can teach us “know-it-all” parents a thing or two! – Sharon
Hi Sharon,
Welcome and thanks for venturing out into comment-land! Congrats. It’s fun, really. Think you’ve hit the comment nail on the head – we can control our reactions. That’s the lesson it can take a lifetime to learn. And you’ve made another sterling point – we all learn from each other – young from older, older from younger, younger to younger, older to older! Every day presents learning opportunities wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. Appreciate your generous comment! G.
Giulietta, I’m so damn glad to read that you were not hijacked at gun point in the UK. I was one of the suckers who believed your mail – since something similar once happened to me in France – and though it sounded not quite right, I fell for it.
Fortunately, I’m broke but I offered to send you some $$ when I was paid. What aroused my suspicions was a return email giving me all the details about where to send it, etc. but in an impersonal way, and as if it were an immediate fact and not in several days. Then, I thought, but there are ways to get around this as when it happened to me and to others I know stuck with enormous hotel bills. So – maybe it was just your initial reaction. In fact, I began to have doubts about my decision, and was going to check back with you.
Thank God I didn’t have the money. But for my own good/bad fortune, I’d have sent it without a second thought.
At least, it’s an opportunity to discover who your friends are and who would be willing to help you in the event such a thing might happen.
Hey Penelope,
Thank you for be willing to send me money in my moment of need, even if it was someone masquerading as me. A true friend! A few other folks asked for more info and received detailed “drop” instructions, almost like it was one of those espionage movies on TV. Interestingly enough, everyone received a prompt email response! An email hijacker with a great service attitude. At least s/he got that part right.
If you don’t mind revisiting it, I’d enjoy reading about your France experience on your blog. Bet you’ve got some important insights on it.
I appreciate your willingness to send me money even though you didn’t have any. More writing fodder. Thx, G.