Back of the Envelope

Fortunately, I didn't take the hook, which was in the form of this e-mail I received:

Our ability to search resumes online has allowed us to grow at a pace second to none in our industry. Because of this, we are touching base with individuals who have posted their resumes that meet our requirements for the positions we have available.

Based on the career profile you provided us, you might be interested in the following job(s). Please review the job description(s) and if you would like to continue the process, send blank e-mail with the word "USASPECIAL" in the subject line to ustoday05@cox.net

0100 — Sr. Financial Representative

As a front line financial agent, you will be responsible for connecting different countries' financial markets by acting on behalf of our customers. All you need is an active bank account, good communication, internet access and desire to work as a big team. Get from 5 to 10% from each transaction!

This message contains information which is privileged and confidential and is solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, be aware that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this message is strictly
prohibited. If this confirmation notice was sent to you in error or to unsubscribe at any time, please click:
http://reg.e.usatoday.com/edit.aspx?0636442840

Thank you for using USATODAY.com.

Regards,
The USATODAY.com Team

For the latest news, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/

The fun part about e-mails like these is that they look legitimate. I'm pretty sure it's not, for several reasons. First of all, although my resume is online, this wasn't directed to the right e-mail. It was instead sent to an e-mail list I'm a member of, not one used by any one person. Second, although the links are legitimate, the e-mail address is suspicious. It's not at the usatoday.com domain--instead it's a cox.net e-mail, ustoday05, which isn't even reasonably close to its supposed source. Third, it specifically says that this business opportunity requires an active bank account, which is suspicious right there. Finally, the original source of this e-mail is, according to the header, in Brazil. So I'm guessing it's a phishing attempt, similar to the Nigerian e-mail scam: "Tell us your banking information and we'll put $10 million in it, trusting you to give us $9 million of it and letting you keep the rest as a commission." This is, of course, just a way to get your banking information so they can drain your account. That's essentially what phishing is--a legitimate looking e-mail trying to get people to give personal information, whether banking accounts, credit card numbers, passwords, or whatever--in order to facilitate electronic theft. And as any web-savvy person knows, you never send personal information via e-mail, whether it's someone you trust or not, because e-mail can easily be intercepted and read unless you encrypt it.

I had a nasty surprise when I opened up my credit card bill last night. It turned out to be over $1,000 higher than expected. A second look showed that the unexpected $1,000 in charges all took place in Indiana and Missouri, two states I've never been in. A quick call to my credit card company, and they agreed to remove the charges if I cooperate in prosecuting the person who did it--presumably just by signing an affidavit--which I'm more than happy to do. The big question is how they did this. They were using a physical card--this isn't Internet fraud--so the question is how they got a hold of it considering that I still have my card on me. My best guess is that they somehow found the mini-card that my credit card company insisted on sending me. I should have destroyed that thing when I got it, but instead I kept it in my wallet. It's not there now, so I suppose it fell out somewhere and some dishonest Indiana resident found it.

So now I can't use my card until it's replaced, and meanwhile I've got to shift all the automatic deductions to something else. I'm sure I'll forget something, and when they find the account closed they'll cut off my service and then charge a penalty before they turn it back on. What fun!

Last night I decided to take a different approach to the sleep problem. Instead of going to bed earlier, I'd go to bed later. Not real late, but around 12:30 am or so, and see if I wake up as often during the night. If so, then it's time to consider medical alternatives. If not, then maybe I'm just not equipped for the early to bed, early to rise thing. How'd it go? Well, remember how I write these posts the night before. Yes, I wrote this before I tried it. If I remember, however, I'll update this post before it goes up and let you know.

Update: Well, I slept through the night, not waking up until six. Of course, having gone to bed later (and having trouble getting to sleep, so that I was awake until 2 am), I'm still exhausted. I'm going to have to come up with something better.

I've been having the hardest time sleeping. Two nights ago, for example, I got to sleep at a reasonable time, around 11:30 or so, which should have been fine in order to wake up around 7:00, which is what my alarm was set for. The problem is that I woke up at 2:30, 5:00, and 6:00 as well, and each of those times I was awake for somewhere between half an hour and an hour. I was exhausted at work yesterday. I'm not sure what a decent solution would be. Going to bed earlier just seems to mean waking up earlier (although it's hard to see what could be earlier than 2:30). Ugh. Aside from being exhausted at work, I'm also exhausted when I get home, and that hurts the blogging and the writing I'm trying to do as well.

Update: Writing my posts the day before has its disadvantages, as I often say that something happened "today," which was true at the time I wrote it, but it's "yesterday" by the time the post goes up. I've corrected this post so that the days are relative to the posting date rather than the writing date. And after yet another wakeful night, I can tell you that what's earlier than 2:30 am would be 2:00 am, which is when I first woke up last night.