A Hard Lesson

I learned two things this week.  Normally, this would have made me quite happy.

Sadly, neither of these two have.

First and foremost, I learned a hard lesson, which in retrospect may prove to be healthy for me.

Secondly, I learned a new word, which I hope not to need in my vocabulary.  The word is "spoofing."

But let me go back to the beginning.

Essentially, I consider myself quite a private person.  I do not twitter, nor do I read or submit to Facebook or any other social media.  However, for professional reasons, I am listed on LinkedIn.  I do not search out old friends, acquaintances or seek new ones through any of the current websites.

However, on Tuesday morning I received an e-mail from an unknown person, who contacted me through LinkedIn.  Curious, I read the message and was initially delighted with the content.

The sender, whom we shall call "EC' was hopeful I was the person who had attended two schools, elementary and high school in NYC with her Mother.  She identified her Mother by name, which was spelled incorrectly, and I attributed to a typo.  She further asked if I could confirm the relationship, since her Mother wished to "speak" and "visit" with me.

I was rather pleased, her Mother had the name of a dear friend whom I had not only gone to school with, but communicated with until about 10 years ago.  My friend had left NY after marriage, had five children, all of whom grew up in the Midwest.

Foolishly, I sent a return message, confirming I was "EC"s Mother's friend, but fortunately did not include any other information.

Shortly thereafter, I received a second e-mail, this one from AOL introducing the word "spoofing" into my world.

As I read the message and had second thoughts about "EC" and her "Mother" I became uneasy about the typo.  I did a bit of research on her LinkedIn profile which indicated she had gone to school in NYC.   This immediately raised red flag No. 2, since I knew my old friend had lived in the Midwest all her married life, and her children never attended school in the east.

And then reality hit me.  This was a message from an unknown source, requesting information about "calling" me and "visiting" me, and I knew immediately why.

I was a potential victim of an e-mail scam, whether it be spoofing, phishing or another name, and I came close to allowing it to happen.

Now looking back at the incident, I am rather grateful.  I have learned two lessons, both hard ones, but I am a good deal smarter about the perils of today's technology, and that's not such a bad thing.