Scamming... not a joke!
“Help!”
The e-mail came from a Cannon Falls friend so I opened it up. It explained that he was on a trip and had been robbed and needed some money to buy airline tickets to get home. Then he would refund it.
I thought it was a joke because my friend knew I had arranged for a speaker to come here from the Minnesota Anti Fraud Unit to explain how to fight scams, particularly in e-mails.
Here is the first e-mail from “him”: "HELP!!! I'm sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too urgent but it's just the situation of things right now, We're presently stuck inScotland , we came down here on vacation. we were robbed, worse of it is that bag, cash and credit cards was stolen at GUN POINT, it's such a crazy experience for us and we need help with flying back home, the authorities are not being 100% supportive but the good thing is we still have our passports but don't have enough money to get on a plane back home, please we need you to loan us some money till we get back home to refund it back. Thanks"
It’s a joke, right?
Since I thought it was a joke I responded to the e-mail in a “sassy” manner: "Gee that's tough... Let me know how things go! Rosie”
I don't sound very sympathetic! I thought he would e-mail me that he was just teasing but I soon got this reply: "Thanks for quick response.We're in a tight situation over here we just really need your financial assistants with getting on a plane back home, $1,850 is all we need more,you can get the money to us here using a western union, you need just my name as written on my passport and the location here, we can get on a plane in the next 3hrs if we can get the money, Its not just safe here, We're really freaking out... and will surely get the money back to you as soon as we get back home. Thanks Alot.”
Friends in law enforcement!
I wrote back: "What about if I pass your e-mail on to some law enforcement friends? They'll know better how to help you than I can, I betcha!... Rosie"
I didn’t get any more e-mails from them.
It is a trick... isn’t it?
I still thought it was a trick, so I contacted our speaker, Senior Special Agent Jim Arlt, to see if he had any ideas as to how I could turn the joke back on my friend! But as Arlt considered my information, he suggested I contact my friend to see if his e-mail had been compromised or taken over by scammers.
I did... and it was! He was getting calls from all over the United States, concerned about him!
And now I’m wondering how my “sassy” responses hit it off with the scammers! I thought the best thing to do would have been to just delete the e-mail and call the person.
What to do?
But Arlt responded: Do not delete the e-mail. “Call the person by phone. If they have had their account taken over they should work with their email account provider and contact their local law enforcement.”
There is useful information in the e-mail, Arlt continued. It has “hidden headers, that when exposed, will reveal where the suspects are located.
“Not just e-mail is being affected but sites like Facebook, etc. It’s also good to get your computer checked by a professional to make sure that there wasn’t malicious software introduced to their computer that would collect keystroke or screenshots data from your computer that could compromise your bank account information, etc. “
Well, what I thought was a joke wasn’t very funny for my friend. And if I ever got stranded in a foreign country, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I sent an e-mail asking for help! “You betcha!”
He had pulled his “Dying Routine” several times.
I always worried he’d do it once too often! Meaning that I would have taken the steps necessary to end his discomfort but he hadn’t really meant it!
He was an old horse.
He came when a youngster and had been with us for almost a quarter of a century. We had all grown up together.
He had taught us a lot. He let the little kids hang on as he cantered them around the ring.
But now his head hung down as he gazed at the ground.
He hadn’t eaten for several days. He suffered from a disease that required careful monitoring of his feed and medication and vet calls. Never overweight he was now skin and bones.
My heart was breaking as I looked at him.
A touchstone...
On previous occasions when a horse died (two were hit by a bolt of lightning, our old mare colicked, a stillborn foal, etc. etc.) we had the rendering truck come and pick up the bodies. But this time, with this horse, I thought it would be helpful to have a special place to go where we could think about all the horses who have been in our lives. A touchstone kind of place to heal.
At least that was the mindset I was in when I checked on my buddy in the corral that night. Because of his medical condition he had not been allowed to eat much grass because it had too much sugar in it. But I thought I would give him some now.
He devoured it.
I figured he didn’t have anything to lose and might as well die with a comfortable feeling in his stomach.
(I’ll remember this if I hear anyone telling me to eat anything I want!)
So I took him out into the “forbidden” pasture and let him graze for a few minutes.
A few hours later I did it again.
I gave him his meds by oral syringe but then he refused to eat again.
The next morning he looked just as bad but I took him to the pasture to graze again.
I updated the vet. We decided to see if he would start eating his special feed again.
Could he make it?
My point is that he had started looking better and I got suspicious that this “dying routine” of his was just the “same old - same old” pattern he had done before!
But one of these times I was afraid he would do it too long... and he’d have been “put down” before he wanted to go! There’s a lesson here - the old fable where the shepherd boy cried “Wolf!” when there wasn’t any wolf, just to get attention. But I didn’t know how to tell my horse the story!
A strange thing happened...
A few days later, after all the grandkids had visited him and he was still perky enough to know them, he did something unusual.
I was standing outside alone in the quiet of the evening and heard him whinny to me. I looked out at the pasture where I had put him and saw him looking at me. I don’t remember him ever doing that before.
As we stared at each other I knew he had called me. And what’s more... I had this thought as we looked at each other... “It’s time, Ol’ Buddy.”
And it was.
So he’s not feeling bad anymore... but I am.
