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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Celebrations January 16, 2015

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Welcome to the January 16 edition of the Celebrating the Small Things blog hop, started by VikLit and now run by Lexa Cain, our fearless new leader and her two wonderful co-hosts L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Do stop by and visit!
Today I am celebrating being a smart-aleck.  Or…  Oh, dear, that's probably not something I should say.  Let's just say that I am celebrating being given the opportunity to figuratively nail one of those people who call and try to persuade unknowing folks to part with their money because they have been trapped by a scam. 

Hi, there!  Come closer!
There are far too many of such people in the world.  I, having a strong streak of commonsense and dealing, in my professional life, with cheats and sneaks and liars on a far too common basis, can identify them a mile away.  Usually.  Once I fell for a scam, but I recognized it for what it was and backed out. I think I scared them, rather like the emotion you feel when what you thought was a pretty, longhaired black and white cat turns out to be a skunk.  

Anyhow, today I received a phone call.  The caller ID screen said it was a Skype caller.  I picked up, said hello, and the conversation went from there...

--Hello?  This is Diana Wilder?
I admitted that it was.
--I need to speak to you about your computer—
I gasped.  M-my computer?  You mean like fixing a problem?


(Note:  There is absolutely no reason for anyone but The Geek Squad to phone me about my computer.  Perhaps others, but not me.  This was a known scam that nearly caught me last year until I realized that the people who said they were part of Trend Microsoft - an excellent virus control software - were not, and backed out.  I checked with Trend Micro, who got the giggles when I showed them my screen prints of the 'problems' the scammers had pointed out.  In my case, I had encountered a problem and phoned what I thought was the group.  It was a lookalike phone number. I realized my mistake.  Others were not so fortunate.)

But they were game and motivated.  Yes!  If you give us control of your computer we can see problems in your computer—
(Yeah, right.  Uh Huh...  And I have a bridge to sell you.)  --And y-you can fix them? (quavering voice) You could w-walk me through it?  Oh, could you?
--Yes, we do.  So if you—

I gave a cry of dismay.  Oh, if only you had phoned me last week!
--Yes, but we—
I began to sob.  If I had only known about you—  If I had only known you could have helped me.
--But Madam, we—

Alas, too late! (sob)
--No—no— I wept.  It is too late!   My computer blew up and I just…  I just…  No (wept I) it is too late. Too late!  I c-can't talk any more.  G-good-bye!








Well, I at least thought it was worth celebrating.

So what are you  celebrating today?



15 comments:

  1. THIS is the best celebration ever!!! I can't stop laughing.

    Beats my celebration of a successful apple cobbler (smile).

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    1. Hi, Dixie -
      I don't know: a perfectly cooked Apple Crisp has wonderful restorative properties!

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  2. You go brave girl. I'm loving' your celebration.

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    1. Hi, Marilyn -
      I couldn't stop laughing. Poor fellow.

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  3. Oh...you really made me laugh, Diana. :) :) Those calls are frustrating though. I don't know why they keep doing it, other than it only takes one call to be profitable. My 80-something mother fell for a scam and it was a frightening rewind trying to reclaim her identity. She thought she had won the Publisher Clearing house prize! Still burns me to think about it.

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    1. How awful! Those who target the elderly really infuriate me! I gather things were retrieved for your mother. Grrrrrrrr!!!

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  4. Go you! I hate those spam callers. Happy weekend.

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    1. This one certainly got me laughing. A good way to start the weekend!

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  5. Good for you! I'm glad you could have a little fun with them :)

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  6. That is hilarious! You were so clever about faking them out. Scammers really are skunks. I wish there was a way to punish them and the spammers too. I'm so sick of reading that some girl wants to send me sexy pics and how I can improve the size of my p***s. Argh! I hope there's a special place in hell reserved just for them...

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  7. My Dad almost got caught by those guys. If they'd called me, I would have been like "Wow, it must be one tough virus. I don't even have a computer!"

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  8. You're my hero! I always think of things like this after I've managed to disentangle myself from the call.

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  9. Hilarious! You've got to have a sense of humour, right?

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  10. Someone did that to me just last week. It infuriated me. You handled it better than I did ;)

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  11. Ah-hahaha! That's awesome!

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