2005-07-17 - 10:44 a.m.

phone spam

I talked to my dad on the phone yesterday, and he started telling me about a phone call he got. Someone called him and said, "Hello, Mr. Smith (only they used his real name), I'm calling from your bank. We've had some computer problems here, and we lost some files, and we just need to clean some things up so your service won't be affected. We're going to have to re-issue your ATM card, so we've got that all set up for you, I'll just need you to give me the information from the bottom of one of your checks and we'll send this right out to you."

And I'm thinking, oh no. This is going to be bad. My dad is just about the last person left in the world who does not have email, so he thinks spam is lunch meat, and if you told him phishing is sometimes spelled with a P at the beginning, he'd think you went to a really bad school somewhere. I'm already seeing him as a statistic in a "scam takes savings of dozens of elderly people in town" headline.

But not so fast. As I guess a lot of us do with our parents, especially as they get older, I tend to forget my dad is a pretty smart cookie. And not only that, he likes to mess with people. He's like Columbo. He acts a little simple sometimes just to see what people will do, but actually, he's got ya.

So he tells the guy, "I'm sorry, I don't know where my checkbook is." The guy says, "That's okay, if you have a cancelled check around, you can get the information from that, or from any blank check." My dad says, "I don't have any cancelled checks, and I don't know where my box of checks is." The guy begins to get some attitude. "Now, Mr. Smith, you know you have a blank check around somewhere."

So my dad says, "Now you listen to me. I don't do business this way." Guy: "Um, what business is that?" My dad:"The kind of business where people call me and don't identify themselves and ask me for information. Now, I have the number you're calling from, and you will be reported. I'm going to hang up now, and don't call back, because no one will answer, and your repeat calls will be reported too."

He did tell the bank about it, and the local police too, so they'd know there was something active going on. He knows people - not like he called 911 to report this or anything.

Kinda funny. Not only do I forget sometimes that's he's still plenty sharp, I also forget that "spam" and "phishing" are just new names for the same thing people have been doing to other people pretty much since there have been people. You go, Dad.

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -