UnorthodoxY Archive It's wasn't what you thought

I got home the other day to find a message from my credit card company, it just said for me to call back. So I did, and they asked for my credit card number and a few other details. While I was giving them these a thought occurred to me: if the same scenario had been an e-mail and a web-form there’s no way I’d have been dishing out these details. It turns out it was only a security check and they knew what transactions I’d made recently so they were (probably) the real deal.

They only told me the reasons for the call after I’d given them my card details, which makes me wonder what would’ve happened if I’d refused. Then they’d have had to prove that they were who they said they were, and that they had a legitimate reason for calling, but they can’t give me any information without me proving that I’m who I say I am and and that I have a legitimate reason for calling. I couldn’t think of a way they could do that currently, maybe it’s time to start giving two passwords per account. A ‘them’ password they use and a ‘you’ password you use, doesn’t seem like a bad idea …

I’m surprised there aren’t more bogus phone scams, but I guess e-mail is cheaper and less easy to trace. For now. I predict the take-off of Voice-over-IP is gonna bring phone phishing out of the woodwork.

Good ol’ fashioned e-mail spam goes from strength to strength, one of my latest:

I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here [snip] are bad.

What? This is supposed to make me click that link? And really wouldn’t eating you’re dog and then killing yourself be easier? I guess a plague of dog-eating zombies might be a little disturbing. At the end of the e-mail:

My dog and I are still alive 🙂

Eh, good. I think.