What made me happy today?

Iain Aschendale said:
...I was just flabbergasted that there was something on the internet that wasn't a scam.
Click to expand...

You mean something like that exists? *faints* ;)

Sorry to be so cynical, but over the past few years (especially during the lockdown), it seems that the number of scams increased exponentially. Among many others, I received:

- a phone call from customs in Beijing airport, saying they were holding onto my package until I paid customs dues (my reaction: bye! *slam*)
- a phone call from a person pretending to be a telecommunications technician, but refused to say which company (bye! *slam*)
- an email from a cafe in the Bronx, asking me to order food (I'm nowhere near the USA, let alone the Bronx)
- not one but two emails from a random gmail address, telling me they're from the IRS and accusing me of tax fraud (bye! *delete*)
- a text message telling me to buy more estrogen pills (I'm a man, you idiot! *delete*)
- a text message telling me I won first place in a UK lottery that I can't even enter legally ... *delete*
- a text message urging me to join a football club I'd never even heard of and couldn't be arsed joining even if I cared about football
- ... and many, many more - some from L.A., one from Slovakia, and one from (of all places) Russia, accusing me of nuclear espionage ... and sent to my work address. :eek: How the heck it even got through IT security, I don't know.

I thought it might be fun to play along with scam calls, but I have work to do. *sigh* Maybe the next time I get a call from so-called "Microsoft support", I might reply sarcastically "And I'm Princess Anne. Byeee!" *slam* ;)

I even thought of going further and pretending to be a policeman, to really give those idiots a good scare ... but pretending to be a public servant is a crime in itself, isn't it? :(
 
The son of one of my husband's friends strung a spammer along for a week. Spammer called pretending to be a stranded relative. The son pretended to be compliant, claiming it took time to arrange funds. Last call, he told the spammer the money was in a special account tacccessible with a password. Spammer asked the password. Son told him it was the name of his favorite hunting dog. Check and mate.
 
I usually reply with this attachment, which is actually harmless.

It is against the law to knowingly imbed a malicious file into someone's computer but do you think they would turn you in??
 

Attachments

Sigh. I thought of answering a scam with: "Thank you for contacting the fraud squad. We will evaluate your message and endeavour to reply within 3 working days" or similar. (Note I didn't say which fraud squad, etc.) ;)

But that would probably just get me in trouble, so maybe it's better not to engage scammers at all. *shrug*

Thing is, I have done the "officially correct" thing in the past, i.e. not engaged them and reported them to the authorities ... but nothing ever came out of it (at least, nothing that I know of). So ... *shrug*
 
I recieved my first "staff appreciation" acknowledgment submittd by one of my staffers to the HR bulletin board about my leadership. It was a long message about whats its been like working under me since I started this position and i feel like crying 😭
Im really REALLY hard on myself... especially now in this position. And it feels nice that i hid the stress and panic (and irritation and frustration) well enough to have a positive impact on my staff
 
JT Woody said:
I recieved my first "staff appreciation" acknowledgment submittd by one of my staffers to the HR bulletin board about my leadership. It was a long message about whats its been like working under me since I started this position and i feel like crying 😭
Im really REALLY hard on myself... especially now in this position. And it feels nice that i hid the stress and panic (and irritation and frustration) well enough to have a positive impact on my staff
Click to expand...
Congrats! Take the workplace victories where you can get them. They can be few and far between sometimes.
 
My Badminton group meets MWF 800 to 10:00. Includes a English couple who needs to go back to England for 8 mos. 20 of us met for lunch to give them a send off. It
was really nice.
I had fluatas.
 
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Rath Darkblade said:
... but nothing ever came out of it (at least, nothing that I know of).
Click to expand...
Authorities can be unpredictable. I found a list of IP addresses in my parking lot. They were mail servers at military bases. Nobody even took a report.

Another time I traced an attack on my infrastructure to a Linux box at a small East Coast college. It turned out to be an unmonitored classroom server, class was out on semester break, and hackers were using it to launch attacks. I called the campus security office who yelled at me for telling outrageous lies and hung up. When classes resumed, I got a nice apology for how I was treated and a quick accounting of the trouble their renegade machine had caused.

Another time, a customer discovered traffic on UDP port 53 from two of my servers, "suspiciously" named ns1 and ns2. The customer called the FBI, the FBI called me, and then I got to hear them try to explain why they didn't recognize UDP 53 as routine DNS traffic, supporting a customer's Internet use, from servers named ns1 and ns2.
 
I found my elden ring groove. Two katanas and consumables! Character 3. Mage was an idea, tried it. Got under yet overpowered. Melee with big sword build was boring. Decided to lean into the crafting System and use katanas. :)
 
JT Woody said:
I recieved my first "staff appreciation" acknowledgment submittd by one of my staffers to the HR bulletin board about my leadership. It was a long message about whats its been like working under me since I started this position and i feel like crying 😭
Im really REALLY hard on myself... especially now in this position. And it feels nice that i hid the stress and panic (and irritation and frustration) well enough to have a positive impact on my staff
Click to expand...

Congratulations, JT! :) It's nice to be appreciated. *hug* I know how you feel, I'm very hard on myself and take my work seriously too. 🫂

But to be honest, anyone who treats work as an excuse to goof off probably won't have a job for much longer...! ;)
 
Iain Aschendale said:
The students absorbed and implemented what I taught them, woo-hoo!
Click to expand...
Everything is going according to plan
pinky and the brain are looking at each other in a cartoon
 
Rath Darkblade said:
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" :)
Click to expand...

Sorry, but this just occurred to me:

- I think so, Brain, but where will we find enough grape juice to drown New York and Los Angeles simultaneously?
- I think so, Brain, but Necromancers 'R Us is closed now, so how are we going to resurrect Abraham Lincoln?
- I think so, Brain, but how will we develop a nuke smart enough to only target telemarketers?
- I think so, Brain, but me and Kim Kardashian? What will the papers say? NARF!

(Don't mind me, just having fun. :) Feel free to join in!
 
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