It didn't worry me when Gary's hair turned grey. Older men are hot. I was fine when he started losing his hair. Happens to all of us. However, just this last week he has exhibited two signs of aging that have concerned me.
Scam Panic
Because we're changing our email, Gary is getting a lot more spam than he's used to. Last week he had me call the credit card company because he got an email that our Amazon account had been locked.
I said, "It has not been locked. Here, click the sender's address and you'll see that it's --"
"IT HAS BEEN LOCKED AND I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF COMING AND THEY WANT ME TO CLICK A LINK AND I WON'T DO THAT. SO JUST CALL THEM."
Just ten years ago this man was in charge of a computer room and fended off hackers pinging him every day.
So under Gary's direction I called the credit card company to see if a lock had been placed on the card, knowing it had not. Gary was "coaching" me though the call and finally, thankfully, he grabbed the phone and the credit card support person explained the basics of Spam 101 to my husband.
It was embarrassing, but I've had fraudsters on my credit card twice and I know how that feels. Rational thought just goes out the window. And he's been retired ten years, maybe the Amazon credit card nonsense wasn't as prevalent back in his day. And to be fair, he absolutely did not click any links in the email, so points for that.
(To Be Continued...)
I am SO GLAD that he is not clicking on links in email. Big points for that.
(can I tell you how much I hate that banks are now sometimes emailing? It used to be "any email claiming to be from your bank is fraudulent so you can just ignore them" and now... nope. Sigh. The rules change on us.)
Posted by: KC | September 12, 2022 at 11:00 AM
KC_ my fear is that they will step up their spoofing game. I rely on the From address to tell me it's legit.
Posted by: theQueen | September 12, 2022 at 03:05 PM
...yeah, the from email address can be spoofed. I'm pretty sure it's a lot more difficult, though, as I've only gotten a few of those (100% bulk blackmail attempts trying to convince me that they have videos from my webcam of me watching porn; 1. I do not watch porn, and 2. there is a post-it note over my webcam except when it is in active use, in part so there are ZERO worries of this kind).
Also they can spoof phone numbers, but presumably you already knew that. Fundamentally, the "I will call your company back" route is the safest.
There are aspects of Modern Times that I do not like. (in addition to propaganda/Trump, forest fires - I grew up in Seattle and this whole "a few days in the summer are smoky because of forest fires" thing was not a thing 20+ years ago, the pandemic and the bulk collective giving up on it, etc.)
Posted by: KC | September 14, 2022 at 11:40 AM
KC - I am done with Spam calls. The no call list does no good. I don't know why theres no tech way around this.
Posted by: theQueen | September 14, 2022 at 07:27 PM