Hacked And Harassed!

‘Your mobile number is selected out of thousands and you have won $ 200,000/- just send $ 200/- to claim this money ‘proclaimed a mail; while the other one warned me; your bank account has been hacked, click the link below to find out the next process!

Yet others were very concerned about my financial health; "Your credit card has been hacked. to apply for a new one click the link below'!

Yet others were generous; do you need, personal loan even without a good credit score? Don’t worry we will help!

Funnily though, many bore attractive female names along with the word Bank Manager in the sender column! Someone offered me, of all the things in the world, a job! No. You have not guessed it, yet! ‘Openings for the job of Peon, in a reputed company! Though I was not qualified, I was tempted to apply, just to see what actually happens!

There were others, discreet ones; want to know what your stars hold about your love life? Just Click the link below! Looking for an online partner without any attachment? Click the link below!

The last one though, I deleted quickly; least my wife sees it!!

Few others, seeking help and pulling at my heartstrings were desperate to draw my attention. ‘My baby is dying in 24 hours, I don’t have anyone, please help me save my baby’! But funnily though, the same mail kept coming even after a week!

The other one was equally disturbing; ‘my husband is down with an unknown decease; help me to save him’ etc. They looked so genuine, I almost pulled out my credit card to pay!

Without exception, they all came from persons with funny and un-heard of names!

The list of spam emails thus goes endlessly. Every day I would sweat and spend precious time and searched in this hay-stack of spam mails for the genuine needle of genuine ones from friends and at times missed out many a mail. The deluge of spam mails came with a vengeance; for every mail I deleted, there would be 3 more popping up!

It was a double whammy! As if the emails were not sufficient, the message on mobile reverberated with the same intent and content.

I thought, why not use the internet to find the answers? As they say, I googled and checked few helpful tips like, ‘use spam filter’, ‘click the un-subscribe column at the end of the message’; ‘keep your email address private’, etc. Actually, I was stumped with the last one! How in God’s name I can keep my mails private? Of course, the helpful tip did not explain my last question. 

So, I sought help from the Geeks and followed their advice word-by-word but to no avail. ‘Don’t worry; it is temporary. They will get fed up and stop. But don’t ever download a link or click on one’, came the advice. Looking at my crestfallen face, a Geek friend put his hand on my shoulder and consoled me; ‘don’t worry. You are not alone. Nothing is sacrosanct in the Web World. Remember, even Microsoft was hacked’!

Exasperated, I thought of doing away with this email business and going back to old fashioned snail mail. But alas, how can I convince others to follow suit? 

Suddenly, a wonderful thought came to my mind. No. This advice did not, for a change come from technology, but from philosophy; “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude”.

Wonderful words of wisdom.

Now, that’s exactly what I do; I read few mails just to amuse myself and keep deleting spam mails, with a smile! 

Believe me, I found out that more than reading, I am enjoying deleting!