phishing

graffiti spotted on a wall in paris i forget where

no

 its not a typo

 you know what phishing is?

 its a nasty game

 played by thieves

 trying to get real info from you

 specifically 

credit card or bank info

 this past december

 i was gracious enough to purchase two flatscreen televisions for perfect strangers

 that was not phishing

 that was credit card theft

 american express

 cancelled my card

 issued me a new one

 and

 i am going to assume

 no one was caught or sent to jail

 the names and i assume the addresses phone numbers involved were fake

 well 

imagine my susprise

 on a quiet thursday afternoon at the office

 when an email arrived

 from american airlines 

confirming two tickets from columbia to las vegas round trip

 yes 

once again

 i am being generous to strangers

 i freaked out

 really i did

 first

 i was panicked

 thinking

 my personal card was compromised

then

 i realized

 my personal cards

 are not associated with my business email

i called our corporate travel guy

 gave him all the info

 and 

he contacted american airlines

 he called me back to tell me 

that 

when he called american

 asking to verify ticket information

 the first thing

 the american rep said was

 let me guess, its for tickets from columbia to las vegas

he said

 how did you know that

she said

there is a big phishing trip happening today

 we've been getting calls about this all day

 i was asked to forward the email to an american airlines email address

 and 

while i was writing this post

 i got a reply

 thanking me 

and 

reminding me

 never 

to 

click links on/in suspicious emails 

and

 i am reminding you

never

ever

click a link

call the airline

call the store

call

do not

click

 this boat 

wasnt 

fishing

 in the seine 

but 

i thought it was sort of apropos