“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” – B.F. Skinner
If time flies when you are having fun, then I must be having a blast!! Whoosh!! And January is out the door. Which may be a good thing. Lots of odd stuff happened last month.
Our dog thought she would bless us with more face-to-face time. She chewed through the cables to our Starlink Internet Satellite and effectively took out our internet and our phones! We have a generation 1 satellite dish and the recommended fix for damaged cables is replace the dish! Thank God for YouTube! One week and $43 in parts and we are back online. The experience did awaken us to how much time we spend on our screens.
The program I use the most is Microsoft’s Outlook. I love the ease of sorting email by creating rules, I love the ease of creating groups of contacts and sharing calendars. But I was a little bit surprised to find random (scam) appointments showing up on my calendar. The abbreviated scam looks like this: (Grammar & Spelling Mistakes are theirs!)
Dear Customer,
We are grateful that you placed your order using PayPalI. The purchase you made has been completed. We hope you share our excitement! The charges may shortly appear based on your recent account activity.
Invoice Details,
• Invoice ID: 2025_F96GNJHGTKGDK_HD
• Product: McAfee+™ Ultimate – Family
• Amount: $499.99 USD
• Payment Method: Auto Pay
If you did not authorize this charge, you have 12 hours to cancel and request a refund. Customer Support (Toll-Free): +1 (###) ###-###
This is an automated message. Please contact support for us. For assistance reach customer support directly. All Rights Reserved | Copyrights 2024 | We Accepts All Major Platforms
When: Wednesday Dec 24, 2025 ⋅ 3:30am – 4:30am (Bangladesh Standard Time)
I received three versions of this calendar invite. The product changes, the price changes, and of course the invite time changes. I can only imagine what would happen if I called the phone number or was silly enough to attend the “meeting”.
Please Folks!! Be careful!! If you have older loved ones, please educate them. Each month we meet 2 or 3 individuals that have fallen for these scams. Don’t call the phone number! Google the phone number! It usually comes back as a phone number that has a nefarious reputation. Worried about the charges? Call or login to your bank or credit card and verify. If the charge did happen, dispute it.
I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the garbage and fraud disappear, but I can’t. Unfortunately, AI is going to make the problem worse, not better. We all have to be vigilant. If you have ten minutes, watch and laugh through the 2015 Ted Talk from James Veitch. Just, please, don’t try this on your own!
Stay Safe, Keep Laughing,
This will make sense when you watch:
