💾 Archived View for lesogorov.site › glogs › 2307 › Taking-The-Bait.gmi captured on 2023-09-08 at 15:51:21. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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This morning I got an email from the University stating that I had a duplicate account and that it was going to be terminated within 24 hours if I didn't verify my account.
Naturally I was nervous and clicked the link in the email, which appeared to be from the university website, but it took me off to a different "jotform.com" site. I was confused and then tried typing in the link from the email only to have it 404 me. It was at that moment I immediately realized what just happened, I'd been the victim of a phishing attack. Fortunately it appears to be not a very sophisticated one as it was just a hidden link. So unsophisticated that I wonder if this was just a fake phishing attack by the university itself, which they do as little practice drills.
There was a mentally unwell man who was being scammed by a tech support call center at a cafe one day. I helped him out before they were able to connect to his computer. I had seen him wandering the streets the week I was there in Berkeley 2018 so I don't think they could have taken much from him, but he seemed like someone was helping him as he was bathed and wore clean clothes. I think about him sometimes, I hope he is ok.
Every so often I'll watch or listen to the news with my parents, they'll have NPR on in the car or my dad will be watching MSNBC. Almost every single time I hear something that is intentionally framed to fit the narrative, to cause alarm, to divide us vs them. I laugh because it's just so unbelievable, like they aren't even trying to be convincing, but then I see my parents nodding along. I really worry for this country. There is no united America any more really, we all live in our own realities, surrounded by our own manufactured echo chambers, fighting to the death as the powerful laugh in amusement. We've taken the bait.