Aug 22 2008
Phishing for Compliments
I’ve spoken a few times about how I fell victim to a phishing scam as a direct result of my utter and complete stupidity and lack of forethought. I was not so much threatened by the internet as by my own sleep-deprived decision making skills. I was angry and I was also pretty embarrassed because… it’s just not like me to do something that ridiculously stupid on the interwebz. Well, my shame cycle is now nearly complete since Mary Worth’s most recent conflict is a woman who fell victim to a phishing scam after buying her significant other (husband, mayhaps, I don’t follow this comic) a hard-to-find dvd online.
I read through the past couple weeks on washingtonpost.com and then my head hit my desk and I curled up in the fetal position. I fell victim to a scam that Mary Worth is now warning 80 year olds who are terrified of the internet about. So much for growing up with computers and all the computer skillzors my grandmother said would come in useful.
Then I got all irritated because no one flipping gets a charge for a couple bucks and nothing else on a credit card statement when they’ve been scammed. Try a couple thousand, at least.
I explained all this to Michael in an email and he sent me back a doctored comic strip that made me cry, both from laughter and again, shame.
It’s a shame-filled day.
Mary Worth - Original Strip
Kara Worth - Michael's doctored strip
Aw man. That sucks. I hope everything worked out OK. It seems like there’s a wide range of these internet scams; from ones that can snag the best of us to your craziest Nigerian spam emails, so do not feel too terribly.
It was a while back, and because my bank and I were on top of things, nobody lost any money. So everything was fine, but I actually was an idiot about the whole thing and I think it’s okay so long as shame motivates me to not be nearly so idiotic in the future.