2122122212

It was a cold and stormy night when Arthur Higgens approached his house to find two children sitting in his tree with his wife Patty. But this story isn't about Arthur Higgens, his wife, or the two children. In fact forget about Arthur Higgens. The truth is sometimes more interesting then children in trees. The following is based on a true story filled with death, violence, espionage, and treason. I don't really have time to get into all of those things but I will pass on the truth about unknown callers listed at the telephone number I have used as a title. The phone number showed up when I missed a couple of calls a couple of days ago. I was sitting in a tree with Arthur Higgens, his wife, and two children when my phone rang and the same number I had missed twice during my time out of the tree previously that day popped up. (212) 212-2212 ? I thought to myself. I am self-employed and get unfamiliar phone numbers all the time but that seemed a little strange. But curiosity got the best of me. "Excuse me Arthur and Patty, I got to take this." I said as I jumped out of the tree. "Hello?" I asked. "Yes, Good day to you sir. I was calling about the virus' that have made their way into your computer. I can take care of that for you." The man had a distinctive Indian accent and I was intrigued by the scammer's angle in this ruse. I decided to play along. Now, for those of you who have never met me I need to let you in on a little secret. I do have a gift in changing my voice. I can do impersonations (amateur level) and I love distinctive sounding voices. There is a 'Goats sounding like humans' video which has gone viral on youtube. My son and I love to imitate the very last goat and he has a distinctive word he says. So, it was the first voice that popped in my head to use and I answered with a "Yeah?" (The goat at the end only says the one word so I was gonna have to switch on the next answer I gave in this intriguing phone call.) "Yes, sir, I am here to help you. Are you at your computer?" My mind quickly raced to my next voice which I pulled up from que'd list. I decided to go with the talking dog (compliments of Klaatu 42 youtube sensation. It's the one (if you watch youtube) where a man is talking to his dog about bacon and other foods and the dog is being filmed answering in an almost human voice. "No." I answered. "Well" said the very concerned Indian man, "If you'll go to your computer I can help you with this problem" Still using my dog voice I said, "You can? Really?" He said, "Oh yes, kind sir, it is not a problem. Are you at the computer now?" I was still sitting in my recliner so I lied, "Yeah." "Very good sir. Now, if you will enter this code in your search bar I can help you." He really did seem to be concerned about helping me. It was acting, of course, but I figured we both were and why not enjoy the moment. He gave me a long list of letters and numbers (which I really can't remember but I was really having a tough time making out what he was saying so I would have never been able to figure it out anyway) and I pretended to type. "Could you please repeat those last two letters?" I asked. "Oh yes, kind sir, they were _ _" I repeated back what he said but messed up the order so he'd have to repeat himself again. "Let me give you that code again. It is _ _ , etc." I know he was trying to scam me but in a small humane way I felt sorry for him for the hard time I was making it on him. "Can you repeat that?" I asked. I was still using the dog voice but not betraying my character at all. He gave me the letters and numbers again and I slowly repeated everything he was saying. Then he asked if I saw a pop-up window. "Yeah" I answered. "Very good sir. Now, please check the small box in the corner, if you would be so kind." I waited for a second or two and then said, "Okay." Then he asked, "Now tell me what you see." I waited for a couple of seconds and said, "Another box." "Are you sure it's just a box, sir? Let's try going back and putting that code in again." At this point I was actually delaying plans for the evening with my wife so I decided to end the prank. Shifting into my FBI or NSA voice I held the phone away from my head a little bit and yelled, "Hey, did you get a trace on this yet?" I must have really rattled the man on the other end of the call because he quickly apologized and hung up. The scam involves a man or woman pretending to help naive "customers" with a computer virus or some other problem with their computer. They'll give you an access code which will give them remote access to your computer to allow retrieval of passwords or other good information you would normally not give to some guy in India that you don't know. Once they have remote access they'll bleed off your finances or whatever else they can get from you. I knew from the very beginning of the conversation what was going on and just decided to have some fun with him. Why let a little problem like a computer hacker ruin your day? At the end of the dog video, the owner tells the dog he's made something really special for the dog but he's given it to the cat. At the end the dog wails "No!!!" I would have given anything to have seen the commotion going on at the other end of the line when the man thought the call had been traced. I guess I'll just have to leave that to my warped imagination. My name is Rueuhy and I approve this blog.