Praning

A friend of mine, BB lost her cellphone at a local hospital a year ago. A few minutes after she lost her cellphone, several friends from her phone list received a text message like this: "I'm in a meeting right now and in desperate need of callcard load. Can you buy one for me and text the number to me? I will pay you back later."

Being a trusted friend that she is; and this is considered a normal favor among us very close friends; five of her friends sent her a 300 peso load each within minutes. The few friends who didn't were nowhere near a store that time so couldn't get her a callcard. One friend, JJ, grew suspicious just because BB didn't say please - which if you knew BB, would be pretty abnormal. So JJ called BB's cellphone and keeps getting cut-off. JJ texted BB asking her for specific details - nicknames, places they have been ... but she didn't get any answer.

We learned later in the day that BB's cellphone got stolen and the thief had been using it to get callcard loads from her friends. She never made the request because she didn't have her phone with her. Her friends never got their 300 pesos back. So next time we ask for favors like this again, we have all agreed on passwords. LOL.

This happened today: My brother sent me a text message asking me for my name and bank account number because he needed to register it for money transfers. So I sent it to him. Then it occurred to me that it might be someone else using my brother's phone. And this culprit just might want to get my account number. Why did he need my name if he was my brother, right?

So I sent another message asking him for the date of my birthday. He didn't reply. And I was tempted to call the bank and check my account for unauthorized withdrawals. When he didn't reply for a couple more minutes, I called him. My first call was cut-off. Hmmmmm. On my second call, my brother answered, "It's me! Your birthday is (bleep). Your Dad's birthday is (bleep)." And then he laughs.

Correct password. Hehehe. You can't be too careful these days.

Comments

Anonymous said…
My daughters got stolen last month, i was on holiday and my mobile rang in the early hours and a voice asked can you give me the name of the owner of this phone and without thinking i did and went back to sleep. A few hours later i woke convinced it must have been the hospital and she was dead! Had no way without her mobile of getting in touch so had to wake up my poor son and get him to knock her door and see if she was ok. She was and apart from a little bill all was well. Maybe we should think of using a code

Popular Posts