Scams
I Wonder What Kind of Scam / Phishing This Is. Any Thoughts?
I might be being paranoid, of course. But, there’s some weirdness here.
Back in January of 2008, I had a wisdom tooth removed and posted a little something about it, here. After some initial comments from friends, the article basically existed in the archives for 12 years. I hadn’t thought on it in ages. And then today, I got an email:
I didn’t think much of it, although the request for sort-of personal info (if that counts, as it was simply an old doctor name) seemed odd. But, the guy had a back-story / reason for writing. So, I wrote back quickly:
To be honest, I actually do recall the surgeon. But, for no other reason than just plain Internet skepticism, I decided not to share the name. There’s something fundamentally wrong with sharing personal health care info with complete strangers, even if it’s something as innocent as a surgeon referral. I’m not sure how divulging that could ever hurt me, but it just weirded me out a little. Besides, the guy never said where he was from. What was he going to do? Fly across the country to my old hometown (Pittsburgh) just to see an oral surgeon? Seemed weird and unlikely. So, I lied — though in what I thought was a helpful way, just in case he was legit. No biggie … a polite white lie, and we were done.
The guy seemed happy with my response:
All in all, a normal, polite, routine exchange.
But then, just a half-hour later, I got this:
So, now we’re at TWO similar-ish inquiries about the same 12-year-old article that freaking NO one ever read or commented on after a decade-plus of inactivity. Both of these emails came at me directly as emails (not via comments on the article), both people with last names that bore certain broad similarities (as though made up, let’s say), both asking for innocent-sounding, quasi-personal information.
My gut says this is fake, and malicious. But, I’m not sure what the game is at this point. Anyone have any ideas? Feeling paranoid.
✍🏻 Jim Dee maintains three blogs — Hawthorne Crow, Web Designer | Web Developer Magazine, and Wonderful Words, Defined — and contributes to various Medium pubs. Connect at JPDbooks.com, Amazon, FB, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, or Jim [at] ArrayWebDevelopment.com. His latest screwball literary novel, CHROO, is a guaranteed good time.
