www.Scammy.com

Guest post by Jess.

You never know what entertainment is just a phone call away. I'm doing the dishes like a good husband this evening (before you think I'm a super hero Kelli was doing the harder job of putting our 5 kiddos to bed) when the phone rang. The caller id said 'private caller'. I usually let these go, but tonight I answered it. I don't know if you know the trick, but robo callers are silent for the first second or two on the phone. This silence is the computer registering that a human answered the number and alerting some poor schmuck in a call center that 'we got a live one on line 11!'. If you suspect a robo-caller and you hear silence for a second or two after you say 'hi' hang up. That is what I always do...except for tonight. Not sure why I stayed on when I knew what was happening, but now I'm glad that I did.

A man with an Indian accent told me that he was with Microsoft Windows support and they had received multiple messages saying that my computer had a serious error that was slowing it down. I asked him where he got my home number and he said that I needed to go to my computer. Red Flag #1. I figured I would play along for awhile and hoped that I was computer savvy enough to know where the danger line was. He walked me through a series of steps where he basically has you go into the windows system where it logs errors on your computer. These are very common and our computer that is only 2 days old already had racked up some errors. I asked him what error I should look for and he said 'any error'. Red Flag #2. He told me that my computer had a problem and was sending out a virus into Microsoft and they needed to walk me through the fix. Red Flag #3 - Little ole' me and my new computer are about to crash Microsoft with all of your computer geeks?! Come on!

Here is the good part. He told me I needed to open up Internet Explorer and go to a certain website. HUGE RED FLAG #4! For those of you wondering this is the danger line I was talking about. I'm about to write the site, but I beg you not to go there unless you want your money taken or a virus loaded on your system. He told me to go to ammyy.com where I would find the fix to my supposed problem. I typed in exactly what he said, but into the Google search bar. If you want the low down search for 'ammy scam' and read all about it. Lots of people hurt by these crooks. Anyway, I need some time to read about the scam while I have this guy on the phone so I play dumb. I ask him to slowly spell the name of the website. After a few 'tries' I gasp in horror and ask him what kind of a guy he thinks I am. Here is the conversation:

Me: "What kind of guy do you think you are talking to?!"
Scammer: "Sir, I know not what you are meaning"
Me: "I typed in the address you gave me and now there are unholy naked women all over my screen"
Scammer: "Oh my! What have you done?"
Me: "I just typed in the address you told me. I'm at a website called 'I want whammy .com'"
Scammer: "No sir, you must leave this site immediately. Please listen. The address is A as in apple, m as in machine, m as in machine, y as in yellow, y as in yellow. You must listen to the directions that I am giving to you for this to work"
Me: "Okay. Let me try again"
Scammer: "Have you gone to the proper website please"
Me: "I think so. I see it very clearly now. I'm at the website www. scammy.com and I see you are a scammer who thinks I'm dumb enough to let you into my computer. How dumb do you think I am?"
Scammer: "Sir, I do not know what you are saying. I am with Microsoft and am only helping you"
Me: "Yes, you are helping me. This conversation has been long enough for the FBI to track your number. Better start running"
Scammer: Click.
Phone call ends.

Let me know if my friend from India calls to help you fix your computer!

Pinewood Derby

Introducing the icar! T.Jay took 2nd place in the Bear division! The night was full of fast cars, fancy paint and cheering-just as any Derby should be. I can't believe we get to do this so many times! Lucky!