PHISHING, PHONINESS, MOSTLY MERRY CHRISTMAS

 MERRY CHRISTMAS ... Friday, Dec. 25th ! 

"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history."

PHISHING SCAMS ALERT ...

T'is the season to be especially careful avoiding those who phish and scam.                                              I've had two just this past few weeks.

The first phishing on my laptop was a sudden pop-up of smaller screens, 3 overlaying one another allowing partial reading of content, claiming to be from Apple, looking very legitimate.  They alerted my computer was locked and anything I did would basically only make everything worse, especially if I tried to shut down the computer,  I would lose everything.   The reality was I no longer had control of my cursor, it had disappeared from my screen, so I couldn't do anything.  

This was a very aggressive attack my tech guru son thought when I contacted him.  He concluded the message was not from Apple and probably was a phishing expedition.  He determined some action we could take, so after considerable inconvenience, time and effort, with his assistance I regained full use of my computer without losing anything.   We subsequently ran some malware determining all was clear.

My son recounted the experience of someone he knew who received a similar popup, had accepted it as legitimate so contacted the perpetrators per the instructions who offered  help as purportedly from Apple.  They reportedly were in an English-speaking country very tech-savvy.  They offered to troubleshoot his problem for a fee to release his computer from this lockup preventing all the disaster that could happen.  This person purchased their service revealing personal financial information in the process.

Fortunately, my son learned of this soon after so intervention was quickly initiated to block the bank payment.  However, all of this person's bank accounts and previously arranged automatic bill payments had to be cancelled, reprogrammed with new bank accounts opened -- a time-consuming activity to insure his funds future bank safety.  

The second phishing scam has come in an email; set up like a business form.  It starts out like this:

"This tracking update has been requested by:                                                                                   Company Name:     xxxxxx Pecan Co. (I've removed co name)                                                       Name:                      Shipping Dept.                                                                                                 E mail:                     "Not Provided By Requestor"

"Reference Information Includes:"                                                                                                     An  Invoice Number and a long list of items including what says it is a FedEx number, highlighted  for me to click on which, of course, I did not do.

(Please note the actual form did not have indentations, but Blogger insisted on altering the accurate form from each line aligned on the left, one under the other as I typed it to reproduce  for publication so you could see exactly what it looked like.)

Independently in  Google Search I found xxxxxx Pecan Co. on the internet appearing to be a legitimate company, but I didn't click on it either.

PANDEMIC HEALTH UPDATE IN SO-CAL -- L.A. COUNTY -- MY CITY

COVID-19 infections rage on with no indication of slowing.  L.A. County ICU hospital beds available for coronavirus patients have declined to 0% at last report.  

One hospital in our east next door community and county continues to report: "we are in internal disaster mode."   

The hospital immediately adjacent west of our city and the one I served for a time period years ago before I associated with a local retirement community has continued to have ICU beds available, unlike many L.A County hospitals reportedly.  Our Claremont Courier newspaper's Steven Feischundneff reported:

"Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said during a news conference on Wednesday:

Hospitals adapt and surge.  They add staff,  they clear out beds.  They discharge patients whenever they can.  They cancel surgeries, they cancel procedures that can wait.  They flex their staffing resources.  These actions, while critical, cannot continue indefinitely.  There are simply not enough trained staff to care for the volume of patients that is projected to come," Dr. Ghaly said."  

Referring to my local area hospital she said: "Outpatient elective surgeries and procedures continue being performed, but a need for post-operative admission to my area hospital prevents all elective surgeries and procedures requiring that service."  The hospital "...is prepared to further expand its surge capacity should it continue to experience increases in COVID-19 patient admissions."  

Vaccine:   A phone call to the hospital as I write this confirms "selective hospital personnel are receiving the Covid-19  vaccine."    

This has become very personal for me as someone I care about (not a family member) who lives in a different SoCal county has been coping with a potentially life-threatening medical problem, plus now also needs surgery to minimize, even eliminate a new  risk from a just diagnosed cancer, yet unknown whether spread to lymph nodes.   Ironic, we joke in dark humor about the poor timing that these medical problems should emerge now.  Doubtless there are many across the country, around the world even who are faced with a similar or worse situation during this pandemic. 

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

I will be home, alone, celebrating virtually via FaceTime with children and grandchildren from their different locations across the country.   My holiday dinner with adequate quantity to allow leftovers which I favor is being delivered the day before for microwave reheating.   Free time will allow me to indulge in whatever gives me pleasure at the time -- perhaps some Christmas music including "Silent Night", "The Christmas Song", "Blue Christmas", "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", "Sleigh Ride" to name a few.

Another family celebrates Christmas ... old friends with whom I have contact with mostly at just this time of year report she and husband are donning Hazmat suits to fly east to spend Christmas with family.   

While all is in limbo for so many of us, we adapt, accommodate, cope in many ways, often turning to humor of all kinds.  So .....

I try to keep up with the latest health information.  In these days of ruptured truth it's sometimes difficult to recognize fact from fiction, but here's the latest notice you'll want to know about -- keep in mind phoniness, alternate truths are frequently the order of the day:

Did you receive the latest health alert?

Tonight at 10 pm local time                                                                                                                   a medical satellite is  flying over earth                                                                                                to take everybody's temperature.                                                                                                         Please stand naked outside your door                                                                                                  and wave your Medicare or other insurance card.

(Another staggering of the lines done automatically by Blogger, not at all as I set it up but cannot be corrected.)

I confess.  I cannot lie.  I purloined and edited the above health alert from a cartoon where I often get my humor fix to release those healing endorphins at Oddball Observations. 

I wish each of you a Merry Christmas ...

     Stay Well, 

           Count Your Blessings, 

                  Wishing You Peace and Joy

Diana Krall sings "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep"