More Divine Divas stories – we recommend you start with #1.
Being a founding member of the Divine Divas, a small coterie of vintage-aged women, I thought I was above being attacked by fraudsters. Surely the word was out there and they’d know better than approach a Divine Diva. In fact, I was getting quite smug about not having been hoodwinked by the many phone, email and computer scams. There are so many horror stories of people losing large amounts of money they could so ill afford to lose, not that anybody can afford to lose money these days, but you know what I mean. The thieves must have been truly desperate for a victim when they approached me with their scam. The following is my experience that was not divine in the least and definitely not befitting my status as a Divine Diva.
It was midmorning on a miserable wet Northwest Coast day and I felt trapped inside. Out of sheer desperation, I decided to look up a recipe online. Please note that cooking is not anywhere on my priority list, not even close to it so you can imagine just how bored I was. Because I felt an online recipes search was of little interest to most people, I did not use my very secure browser. How naïve I was! Suddenly, my MacBook screen screamed an alarm accompanied by flashing visuals. My attention instantly hyper-focused! An Apple Support number and DO NOT TURN COMPUTER OFF appeared on the screen. As Macs are supposed to be more resistant to viruses, my internal alarm bells screamed. When hearing of people being cyber attacked, my first reaction, and I’m being honest here, is one of relief followed by ‘how could they be so gullible, and I must admit I really could not imagine how they felt being so violated. Now my computer was hijacked and I was experiencing a full-blown panic attack complete with racing heart, shortness of breath, sweaty brow and a bit whoosey. A most undivine diva reaction!
Following the instructions on the computer screen, I left the computer on and called the number shown for Apple support, but without verifying in fact, it was Apple Support’s number. A male voice answered and identified himself as an Apple Support agent and stated his ID number. I explained what had happened. He confirmed my computer had indeed been cyber hacked. He verified my name so obviously he had access to it (now that too is alarming!). He went on to ask if I did banking online and with whom I banked. I cited the bank I seldom used (it’s my back up measure but this I did not share) and mentioned another. He did not seem to recognize its anagram so I let it drop. He, whom I’ll now refer to as ‘the voice’, instructed me to stay on the line as he would transfer me to that bank’s fraud agent. The bank’s agent said ‘hello’ and identified himself including his ID number. He then proceeded to ask a few questions including current balance. I asked, “Why?” The reply was that he needed to know the amount so he could confirm the account had not been accessed. I mentioned an amount. He checked and reported that somebody had put through a draft at 6 am that morning for almost the full account balance. The good news was that the transfer had not yet been completed. He would put a hold on it. He cautioned that it was already 10 AM, and there was a limit as to how much longer he could enforce the hold. My panic, now reached almost unbearable limits, was obviously discernible ‘the voice’ thus encouraging him to carry on with his well- rehearsed lines.
