Yesterday a friend told me that
my e-mail had been hacked. I think this is the second or third time this has
happened to me. Of course, I immediately changed my password. But I got to
thinking, and I guess I’m naive. I don’t understand why anyone would hack emails
just to send out spam—especially spam that would take you to a website where you
are invited to buy something.
My confusion comes from the one
question that arises in my mind as I contemplate this scenario: who the hell is
stupid enough to click on a link in an email, or to buy something from a website
that we’re directed to in this way?
I mean, seriously?
It’s like those emails that I
used to get a couple of years back from some phoney lawyer or bank executive in
some third world country, telling me that I am the beneficiary of
someone I’ve never heard of, and that said recently departed heretofore unknown
relation left me millions of dollars.
I used to be deeply offended by
these missives, because I couldn’t understand how anyone could possibly mistake
me for someone stupid enough to fall for that kind of crap. But I’ve gotten over
that. I’ve come to accept, though it’s hard for me to imagine, that there really
are people stupid enough to fall for this scam, and many other of the scams out
there.
I’m pretty sure that spammers
wouldn’t continue doing what they do if there was no profit in it at
all.
I do know that identity theft
is a growing problem. I understand that. The other kind of email I get from time
to time looks like it comes from my bank. This email typically will tell me my
online access to my account has been restricted and I need to click on a link in
order to have it restored.
My response, of course, is not
only to ignore their instructions, but to forward the email in its entirety to
my bank. They have a special email account that begins with the word “phishing.”
I know that every time I do that I’m doing the only thing I can to help fight
these con artists.
I also get emails from other
banks telling me that my accounts are in jeopardy – but since they are
institutions with which I have no connection, I just delete those.
I’ve heard lately of a really
nasty kind of scam making the rounds—that people are contacted by phone or email
and threatened with law suits or jail time if they don’t pay up dollars they
don’t even owe. A lot of folks are so frightened by these calls and letters they
do what they are told to do, to avoid this imaginary legal action.
I really feel sorry for the
people who are victimized by these criminals. I feel sorry for them because this
isn’t really a matter of their being stupid. No, this is a side effect, a fringe
benefit if you will, from living in a society that in the last decade or so
appears to be overrun with people in positions of authority who use fear as
their medium of choice.
You know who they are. They are
the politicians and bureaucrats who stir up their followers by playing on their
worst fears—who do their best to convince us that their opponents are evil
incarnate, that their political opponents are selling us out, are our
enemies...when they really are only people with a different opinion, a different
point of view, or a philosophy or religion that is not the exact same as our
own.
I can hear some of you now
sputtering. “Morgan, surely to goodness you don’t mean to imply that our
community leaders and elected officials are in league with these con
artists?”
In league, no. But sometimes we
tend to forget there are such things as natural laws, and the existence of those
kinds of cons are an expression of one such natural law.
Cause and effect, baby. Cause
and effect.
Love,
Morgan
No comments:
Post a Comment