I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Should I have a good giggle because, despite warning after warning, highly intelligent people still fall for dangerous nonsense? Or should I have a good weep because those self same people don’t read the warnings – or that they are not as clever as their pay grade might imply? I don’t know.
But I do know that swindlers always live in hope of someone falling into their traps. Remember fraud victims have to play their own part in handing over their cash – this is not a case of bad people in balaclavas brandishing baseball bats.
The philosopher’s email
Last week I received an email entitled (in capital letters) FOR TONY.
Who was this from? None other than Alain de Botton. Zurich born de Botton, educated at Harrow and Cambridge, is a famous thinker. He wrote “The Consolations of Philosophy” and “The Architecture of Happiness” among many others. So why is he writing to me?
Of course – and this is bad for my self-esteem – he wasn’t. It wasn’t Alain de Botton, but a scamster stealing his name. Now, don’t do this at home, but I opened the obviously dodgy email to find a link (since shut down) to a money generator site where, apparently, I can earn $4,386 a month with just two hours’ work and no previous experience. Now what did someone say about if it looks too good to be true?
It is easy to set up an email and create a false identity. I think this is sort of funny – maybe even a philosopher would smile.
Receiving emails from ‘friends’
Now for one which made me angry. Two intelligent, very highly paid men who work for an information website with their own IT department.
I know them – I’ve done a bit of work for them. So getting an email was not a surprise. Even the heading “Important Document” might have been true.
When I opened it. It said: “Please view the document i uploaded for you using Google docs. Click here (I’ve removed the hyperlink) just sign in with your email to view the document its very important.
“Thank you.”