Julie Brister (Home)

My dad sent this today. Please forward this to the elderly or extremely naive people in your lives (also, please enjoy my father’s use of the word “zapped” in place of “deleted”):

For a couple of years or more mail has been sent to my email address from obvious frauds, telling me about monies to which I have become entitled or similar promised reward.  Most of them have been isolated by my spam filter and periodically I just go through the spam and zap those obvious frauds.  Recently I have received several emails ostensibly from banks or AOL or the like, instructing me to click on an attachment or on a cite to verify the authenticity of my account.  Again, those are zapped without clicking on anything.

 I had assumed that those items were blanket mailings sent out to multiple addresses with the senders hoping to get a response out of 1% or even less of the addressees.  Yesterday I was directly targeted for a scam, however, and just in case some of you are similarly targeted I want to tell you about it.

 At about 1:45 yesterday afternoon I was on the computer and received a telephone call for “Mrs Brister”  I told the caller that she was unavailable and the caller said that she needed to talk to her immediately about the electricity.  I told her that I could talk about the electricity utilities but that we had no interest in changing electricity companies and thanked her and started to hang up.  She said “I am from your electricity company and at 2:30 the electricity to your house is going to be disconnected for failure to pay the electric bill.”  I told her that she was mistaken and that no bills were unpaid.  She countered with statements that the information that was given to her by her supervisor was that the January bill had not been paid and that they had no alternative but to disconnect at 2:30.  She said that the business office was closed until Monday and that the only way that I could keep the electricity from being cutoff was to go to Walgreens and purchase a “regular” green dot card for $180.04…not a Visa red dot card nor a Mastercard red dot card.. and to call her with the number set out on the card before 2:30 or that they would proceed.  I told her that I was old and unable to drive and they would need to come pick me up and take me to Walgreens.  She said that they were not permitted to do that and if I  couldn’t drive I should call a taxi to get that taken care of before 2:30.  I  told her that that it was impossible for me to get to Walgreens before at least 4 o’clock and it could be later.  She said that as an accommodation she would wait until 4 pm to cut off the electricity, but she must have the red dot card’s number by that time.  She gave me a telephone number that I was supposed to call with that information and told me that her name was “Brenda Scott.”

  I hung up and called TXU Energy and was finally able to override the robot and get a live person.  I was sure that it was a scam for a number of reasons, but I knew that TXU was capable of making an error.  I knew further, however, that no utility will terminate service without written notice to the subscriber and then only after all other reasonable collection efforts had failed.  I told the live person who I was and my address and told her that I thought I was being scammed.  She quickly checked my account and confirmed my suspicions of a scam. She took the info that I had obtained and told me that she was sending it on to the fraud section,

 Soon after I terminated the call to TXU I received another call from the purported agency charged with disconnection of utility services and this time her name was “Ruby Wilson”, asking me if I had the red dot card yet and I told her that I had not gotten transportation yet.  She was insistent that I call a taxi and get that taken care of.  A few minutes later “Brenda Scott” called again and asking if I had the red dot card.  I told her that I had already talked with Ruby Wilson and asked her what their connection was and she said that that was her supervisor.  I told her that I couldn’t get to Walgreens and hung up again.

 I then called 911 and made a fraud report.  Within minutes someone from the Dallas PD called and took the data.  She confirmed that that was a well-known scam.  I did not even know what a red dot card is and she told me that they are somewhat similar to a debit card and if one has the number of the card they can cash it in,  In all likelihood, however, the police are short handed and there is very little there for them to go on, except perhaps the telephone number.

 The phone rang at least a half dozen times over the next 2-3 hours, each with a caller ID of “Private number, private caller”.  I did not answer again and was going to wait to see if they continued after 6 pm.  If so I intended to tell them that I was glad they called again, because the recording that I had made earlier of their voice was patchy and I was sure that with that last call I had a perfect recording and that I could identity it in court.  I was denied that small pleasure, however, because they did not call again.

 I wanted to tell you about this because their modus operandi presents an almost believable situation that might scare some people into paying up by purchasing the red dot card.

Me: The only time I want mayo on a sandwich is if I’m having a BLT, and then I prefer an herbal mayo.

Mother: Hrrrrrraaaammmmppppphhh

Me: Beg pardon?

Mother (with exasperation): I don’t see why anyone would ever find the need to eat two pieces of bread at the same time.

Me: So your issue is with sandwiches? You’ve taken on the mantle of the anti-sandwich lobby?

Mother: Yes. There are too many sandwiches.

Me: We would be bitter adversaries in the Great Sandwich War. And when you lose, and lose you shall, I will delight in forcing you to eat sandwiches of bologna with mayo on white bread.

Mother: And I will strike your name from my will.

That’s what she always heightens to and I’m kinda bored with it. Oh, and this isn’t a bit. My mother really hates sandwiches.