On Tue 23 Mar 2010, at 11:06 AM, Michael Torrie wrote: > Scott K wrote: >> Generally you should always contact people by phone for any such "Help >> Me!" online contact scam. Or at least contact their family to make >> sure they're actually out of town or in prison. > > I didn't have Michael's phone number, which is why I asked here. I > managed to reach him by phone through his company, though. > > The scam handily took that into consideration, though, by saying his > cell phone had been stolen. I asked the scammer for the phone number at > least, but no reply to that... :) > >> My parent's neighbors got a call that claimed to be one of their >> grandchildren in prison. I don't know why the call wasn't to their >> parents of course, but the money was almost sent. It wouldn't hurt to >> warn your grandparents to trust no one online and verify with other >> parties. > > Absolutely. In some cases, it might not hurt to have a pre-arranged > family pass phrase that can be used to help in identification in case of > emergencies.
When I was in elementary school, my family had a pass phrase for when someone other than or parents unexpectedly picked us up. That way we knew they weren't trying to kidnap us. I never thought about applying this digitally. -- Garrett Hyde -------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
