I received the following email this morning, with the above header: ============================================================ Greetings:
You hereby advice to open the attached file for your personal massage regarding your unclaim Fund.
Thanks, Mr. John Smith Claims Dept Tel: 0044-7031747938 ============================================================
Attached is something called "AAA.doc" which, no doubt, will surprise me beyond my wildest dreams. You see, I have always believed I have vast unclaim funds coming to me. However, to find out that I am also due a personal massage is just *so* incredible!
Although some might be skeptical of such an unexpected turn of events, it must be good news to move such a normally reticent man as John Smith to use all caps *and* (3) exclamation points in the header. Knowing that he works for the Claims Dept and has an overseas telephone number also indicates the veracity of what he says. I mean, if I got an email from "Mutube Kwumfabi" in "Sanitation Dept" with no phone number, I would be suspect that I was being played for a fool.
Still, this is not the most incredible stroke of good fortune to befall me today! I have an old light fixture on the ceiling of my living room, which probably dates back to the construction of the house in the '20s. It holds 5 bulbs and has a large (about 24") dish-shaped globe. This globe is held on by 5 gilded hook type things that replicate the Greek Key design on the globe itself. 2 of the hooks have setscrews which allow them to be removed, which then allows one to remove the globe itself for cleaning and bulb replacement.
Back about 2000, one of the hooks fell and was not replaced on the fixture due to the need for a ladder to reach it. Upon finally obtaining a ladder and preparing for cleaning the globe and replacing the hook, the hook was nowhere to be found. Although I kept searching for it, it never re-appeared. After my roommate moved out, I searched again for it, high and low. Figuring it much have gotten mixed in with his "treasures" that had been spread on every surface of the house, I asked him to keep an eye out for it. However, he never seemed to find it, and after he moved out of the place he moved to from here, I gave it up as lost. He had managed to fill up a three story house, 2-2 car garages, and cover most of a 1/4 acre lot with "treasures" that I guessed did not move to his next domicile.
Unfortunately, then, there seemed no hope of replacing the missing hook for my fixture. The odds of finding such a part seemed minuscule.
Today, I needed a screwdriver. I have lots of them in the basement, but I thought, "gee, I have that toolbox in the pantry that I never use, because it's too hard to get out of the drawer it's in. Why don't I pull it out, see what tools it has/needs, and get it provisioned and stored somewhere I can get it in a hurry?
Guess what I found in the bottom of the toolbox?
-- PB "I suspect you're an arrogant little pissant who grew up in the Red Bull generation." - CJW
On 20 Sep 2009 22:09:09 -0400, Plague Boy <plague_...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Guess what I found in the bottom of the toolbox?
Yay! Much like you, I had feared it disappeared with the stegosaurus demon dog and lady with a pig in her brain statues with which your former roommate absconded.
Still, pity about that stegosaurus demon dog.
Penelope
-- "Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart." "ElissaAnn" <eli...@everybodycansing.com>
> Knowing that he works for the Claims Dept and has an > overseas telephone number also indicates the veracity of what he > says.
The number in question (0044-7031747938) is a British number - at least that's how you'd call Britain from any country with the international dialling prefix "00" (which includes most of Europe, though not the US as far as I know). Britain's international dialling code is "44".
The type of number, starting (0)70, is one that's been used in various scams - it's a "personal number" that can be used to forward to a range of other numbers, including ones at a higher tariff that can cause the caller to run up a large bill. They're easily confused with mobile phone numbers, which also begin (0)7, so many callers don't realize. Our telecoms regulator now insists that a warning of the cost must be played on the line before the caller is connected, but there's still scope for abuse. They've been talking about scrapping the numbers for years but it seems nothing has been done yet.
Plague Boy <plague_...@earthlink.net>, in article <3JOdnd-FlK6nfSvXnZ2dnUVZ_tWdn...@earthlink.com>, dixit:
> Today, I needed a screwdriver. I have lots of them in the >basement, but I thought, "gee, I have that toolbox in the pantry >that I never use, because it's too hard to get out of the drawer >it's in. Why don't I pull it out, see what tools it has/needs, >and get it provisioned and stored somewhere I can get it in a hurry? > Guess what I found in the bottom of the toolbox?
Virtue is its own reward!
(That's what I say when I do something I oughta, and find something for which I've been searching *ages*. As you can imagine by the existence of the phrase, I do it often. I don't know if that says something about how much I lose things, or about how much I "oughta".) -- Piglet, pig...@piglet.org "That may be YOUR point. MY point is to live each moment so as to maximize the amount of complaining that can be done about said moment, after the fact. It's not as easy as it looks." --jankplus
Plague Boy wrote: > Guess what I found in the bottom of the toolbox?
Congratulations! Part of the sadness of cleaning out my mother's house was finding multiple copies of various tools and chachkes; over the course of 20 years or so she had obviously lost them, bought a new one, lost that and so forth. (I'm sometimes seized with despair when I find the same thing happening here.) So hearing about something coming back gives me hope.
Meanwhile, of course, the luck in finding that piecem akes it almost certain the letter is a scam. too bad...
Paul Wallich wrote: > Congratulations! Part of the sadness of cleaning out my mother's house > was finding multiple copies of various tools and chachkes; over the > course of 20 years or so she had obviously lost them, bought a new one, > lost that and so forth. (I'm sometimes seized with despair when I find > the same thing happening here.) So hearing about something coming back > gives me hope.
Usually the best way to make something re-appear is to buy a new one. Usually I can remember what I have and what I don't, but lately I've been finding duplicates of new stuff I've picked up on my marathon shopping Saturdays. Hey, I *might* need a hitch pin someday...urgently...maybe on a holiday. OK, I'll buy an assortment of 100 hitch pins. Oh, look, I must have bought 100 last time Horrible Fright had them on sale. Well, one for the basement and one for the garage. I might need a hitch pin...urgently...on a holiday....during a blizzard when it would be difficult to get to the house or garage.
What the hell is a hitch pin for, anyhow? Hitching a horse? Maybe that's why I've never needed one.
> Meanwhile, of course, the luck in finding that piece makes it almost > certain the letter is a scam. too bad...
That's OK; I got another email from the same people with the same attachment, AAA.doc. My Mac show the file with a little jack-in-the-box icon for some strange reason.
-- PB "I suspect you're an arrogant little pissant who grew up in the Red Bull generation." - CJW
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