Day of the Voyage

 

It's been a week since the cyberattack on my bank account and the associate denial-of-service spam blizzard in my email.  Five days since I took back control of my money.  I've got a new bank account, I've updated the direct-deposit information with the Social Security Administration, and I've corrected most of my on-line payment accounts.  Hardly an arduous effort, but a tedious one that  I didn't want to have to do.

I'm still getting spam email.  The denial-of-service blizzard has long since ended, but I think the hackers opened the gates of hell and gave my email address to every spammer out there. Still, I patiently mark each one as junk and hope the filters block the account, and the volume has slowly decreased with each passing day.

I got a particularly amusing spam email today. It purported to be from the Social Security Administration and claimed my SSN and identity have been "detected in close proximity to instances of drug trafficking, according to law enforcement."

"Criminal activities have been conducted using your Social Security Number in both New Mexico and Texas. The Texas Court has issued an order suspending your Social Security number, citing the utilization of your bank accounts for money laundering activities as per the information presented. Enclosed is an Official Notice from Social Security, as per the direction of the Texas Attorney General. Numerous instances of foreign wire remittances to account numbers flagged on a blacklist have been identified by the FTC."

Obvious phishing. If I were under investigation for drug trafficking and money laundering, why would they send me an email announcing the investigation? And the U.S. Government doesn't "suspend" anyone's SSN, and most certainly due to the direction of Ken Paxton. Oh, and the email was sent from a private Gmail account. I can just imagine some SSA or Treasury employee at work saying, "I'll take care of informing the suspect. No worries, I'll do it from my phone tonight at home." I can just imagine their supervisor approving that.  

Right.  Nice try, assholes.

Today is Groundhog Day in the United States. The day, February 2, is based on Candlemas, traditionally celebrated 40 days after Christmas. The celebration included various weather-related traditions and was thought the day bears and wolves first emerged from hibernation. The Pennsylvania Dutch, not eager to pull either from their dens to forecast the weather, changed the totemic animal to groundhogs. The Universal Solar Calendar calls Candlemas/Groundhog Day, Day of the Voyage.