Some people *deserve* to have their identity stolen...
Category Everything Else
I tweeted this yesterday, but I'm *still* in utter amazement at the stupidity of the person sitting next to me on the bus yesterday...
So I get on the bus to head home yesterday, and at one of the downtown stops this guy gets on... probably mid-20s, looks a little nerdy, probably not overly high on the social ability scale. He apparently knows the bus driver, and there's a short "haven't seen you in a long time" exchange. He plops down right next to me and makes himself comfortable by pulling out his cell phone and making a call.
Now, I'm still "old school" in that I really don't want to hear your one-sided conversation, even if it's semi-quiet. But in this case, he bordered on "look at me I have a cell phone!" volume, so I found that pretty irritating. But what happened next went from irritating to jaw-dropping wonder...
He starts by telling the person on the phone that he had signed up for some account, the information had come back, there was supposed to be some sort of holding period, but someone had changed the routing number without his permission. OK, we're apparently on the phone to some financial institution and he's having account issues.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes, he pulls out paperwork and proceeds to read off account numbers, routing numbers, his birthdate, who and when he talked to people at the bank, etc. I'm sure he could be heard by 3/4 of the bus, and the bus was crowded. I literally was shaking my head as I heard this... I (or anyone else) on the bus could have hacked his account with no problem. And when he told the person on the phone that it was as if someone had hacked his account, it was ALL I could do to not take the phone out of his hand and hang it up.
I struggled with whether I should "educate" the kid or not after he finally hung up, but I couldn't help it. I tapped him on the shoulder, and in a voice only slightly less loud than his, said "Let me give you some advice... don't EVER have that conversation on your cell phone on a bus again. You gave out account numbers, routing numbers, your birthdate, and various other pieces of information that would allow me to steal your identity before you even get home. That was incredibly stupid." The guy across from me looked at him and said "I've had my identity stolen, it's not fun." Some other 20-something a couple rows back just said "yeah!". The guy got up, looked at me, and got off the bus without saying a word. Nearly everyone around us who had been in on the "conversation" just started chuckling and shaking their heads...
This was SO blatantly obvious that I wouldn't be surprised if someone was filming it secretly as a test to see if anyone would do or say something to him. Or, his account will be hacked again, he'll complain to Tri-met, Tri-met will review bus vids, and I'll be a "person of interest" in an identity theft scam. :)
I know I should feel sorry for the guy (or I should feel *something* on the sympathy scale), but I honestly couldn't help feeling he had some major lessons in life that still need to be learned...
I tweeted this yesterday, but I'm *still* in utter amazement at the stupidity of the person sitting next to me on the bus yesterday...
So I get on the bus to head home yesterday, and at one of the downtown stops this guy gets on... probably mid-20s, looks a little nerdy, probably not overly high on the social ability scale. He apparently knows the bus driver, and there's a short "haven't seen you in a long time" exchange. He plops down right next to me and makes himself comfortable by pulling out his cell phone and making a call.
Now, I'm still "old school" in that I really don't want to hear your one-sided conversation, even if it's semi-quiet. But in this case, he bordered on "look at me I have a cell phone!" volume, so I found that pretty irritating. But what happened next went from irritating to jaw-dropping wonder...
He starts by telling the person on the phone that he had signed up for some account, the information had come back, there was supposed to be some sort of holding period, but someone had changed the routing number without his permission. OK, we're apparently on the phone to some financial institution and he's having account issues.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes, he pulls out paperwork and proceeds to read off account numbers, routing numbers, his birthdate, who and when he talked to people at the bank, etc. I'm sure he could be heard by 3/4 of the bus, and the bus was crowded. I literally was shaking my head as I heard this... I (or anyone else) on the bus could have hacked his account with no problem. And when he told the person on the phone that it was as if someone had hacked his account, it was ALL I could do to not take the phone out of his hand and hang it up.
I struggled with whether I should "educate" the kid or not after he finally hung up, but I couldn't help it. I tapped him on the shoulder, and in a voice only slightly less loud than his, said "Let me give you some advice... don't EVER have that conversation on your cell phone on a bus again. You gave out account numbers, routing numbers, your birthdate, and various other pieces of information that would allow me to steal your identity before you even get home. That was incredibly stupid." The guy across from me looked at him and said "I've had my identity stolen, it's not fun." Some other 20-something a couple rows back just said "yeah!". The guy got up, looked at me, and got off the bus without saying a word. Nearly everyone around us who had been in on the "conversation" just started chuckling and shaking their heads...
This was SO blatantly obvious that I wouldn't be surprised if someone was filming it secretly as a test to see if anyone would do or say something to him. Or, his account will be hacked again, he'll complain to Tri-met, Tri-met will review bus vids, and I'll be a "person of interest" in an identity theft scam. :)
I know I should feel sorry for the guy (or I should feel *something* on the sympathy scale), but I honestly couldn't help feeling he had some major lessons in life that still need to be learned...
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