Phishing has given fishing a bad name | Sam Venable
Random thoughts and questions, possibly caused by the final heat wave (insert laugh here) of official summer:
∎ I’d rather spend my time fishing instead of corralling computer crooks, creeps and con artists who are constantly phishing for my money.
Anytime I peruse email, my “reply, delete, send, forward” keystrokes get a robust workout. But they pale in comparison to the number of “report phishing” commands I make. Gotta be multiple dozens of ’em every day.
Some of these fake come-ons are so easily spotted, the computer automatically sends them to the junk folder. (I routinely check “junk” to make sure a legit message from one or more of my weird friends didn’t get routed there by accident. Computers aren’t fluent in “Venobese.”)
But others are so cleverly designed, you’d swear they were the Real McCoy.Nope. Pure b.s.
If I had a dollar for every mega-million “contest, lottery, contract, insurance policy, gift certificate, credit card, inheritance or courtroom judgement” announcement that arrives daily, I could settle all the NCAA penalties, fired-coach payouts and lawyer fees ever accrued by the University of Tennessee. Might have enough left to put my name on a building.
Does anybody investigate phishing reports? Is action ever taken? Or do the hucksters simply adapt and evolve, like the COVID-19 virus?
I never announce in public that I’m going “fishing.” Instead, I use the phrase that safely carried me through a half-century of newspaper columning.
“Field research.”
∎ If immigrants are stealing millions of American jobs, how come “Help Wanted” and “Now Hiring” signs are posted all over the map?
I know of two prosperous Knoxville food businesses that recently bellied up because “nobody wants to work.” Surely ours isn’t the only city facing this anomaly, in food service or any other enterprise.
Something doesn’t add up.
∎ Why do “adoring” fans attack their favorite singers and athletes?
Hardly a month goes by without news of an artist being injured by a cellphone, piece of jewelry or other missile hurled onstage from the audience. Some of the more notable victims were singers Adele, Bebe Rexha and Billie Eilish. Even Knoxville’s own Kelsea Ballerini was struck during a performance in Idaho.
And then there were those two freaks who ran onto Coors Field during a Denver-Atlanta baseball game and tried to take a selfie with Braves superstar Ronald Acuna Jr.
How nutty, misguided, star-struck, drunk or stoned (perhaps all the above) do you reckon they were?
Sam Venable’s column appears every Sunday. Contact him at sam.venable@outlook.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Sam Venable: Phishing has given fishing a bad name
