This has been an incredible day for me and I don't know if I should laugh or cry. The first part of my day was really fun, but the second part went as far south as Africa. Before writing tonight's blog I poured me a glass of fine wine from my box, turned on my salt lamp that supposedly came from the Himalayans to help calm my nerves and then I made a new, but very short playlist for my iPod and I am listening to it as I type these words. When it gets too repetitive for me I will post tonight's blog and then go to bed and drift off to a much nicer place.
I only put three songs on the playlist: "Never Been To England" by Three Dog Night, and also Waylon Jennings' version of that song, and "Why Me Lord?" sung by Kris Kristofferson. Waylon is singing right now and I sure do miss him. Waylon was one of the best Country singers in the business and I am so glad that I got to see him tape a show for "Austin City Limits" many years ago before I left Austin fifteen years ago.
This morning I walked six miles while Lisa helped Tony with his chores outside. Then I returned several phone calls and e-mails before taking a shower and getting dressed in my "Easter Egg" outfit because we had a luncheon date in Kerrville with Carol and James at eleven-thirty.
Before Tone and I took off Lisa told us that she would hold down the fort while we were gone and to have fun. I love Lisa—she is so great!
When we arrived at the restaurant on time Carol and James were inside waiting for us and then the fun and laughter began! Before we placed our order I showed them a copy of the book cover that Trisha had printed out for me and they told me that they loved it—which meant a lot to me coming from them. Thank you Carol and James!
During our delicious meal I talked a lot as usual, but I am so glad that I did. When I told them about Harry and Ousie Jones wanting to do a book signing for me at Ousie's Table, their famous restaurant in Houston Carol said, "I can drive you to it." And that is when my jaw dropped. "Nancy, I will be glad to drive you to any city for a book signing..."
Two minutes later I was really excited about Carol taking me to Houston, and then we invited James and Tony to go with us, but their reaction was quite the opposite of mine. Tony shook his head no and James didn't say anything, but his body language said it all—no way—no thank you. Carol and I started laughing and we teased them about not wanting to go with us to Houston. I had so much fun eating lunch with them.
When we were done eating we said our goodbyes and then we went our separate ways. Tony and I went to Walmart, H.E.B to fill up Buttermilk and then to Hoegemeyers so we could pick up Marlin and bring him back to the rescue ranch after being dipped for mange for the last time.
When we arrived at the rescue ranch Lisa greeted us and told us about her day. "Paul came out and I helped him unload the dog food..." Thank you, Paul! After Lisa left to go home we went to the trailer and that's when things went totally south for me. Waylon is singing right now. What a voice!
When we walked inside the trailer I immediately knew that something was wrong because Carlton was flashing like a maniac. After greeting our dogs we let them go outside to potty and I checked my messages. I had twenty-two new calls from worried friends that all wanted me to call them immediately because they were concerned about me!
Basically the messages went something like this: "Nancy, are you okay? Call me as soon as you get this message! I just received an e-mail from you saying that you were in England at a friend's funeral and you asked me to send you $1,500.00 because you needed it immediately and you promised to pay me back in a week..."
"What?" I said to Tony. "What the hey is going on?" Actually I used a cuss word instead of hey. Then Sandy Wolfmueller called and I picked up the receiver. Sandy sounded stressed and seemed to be almost as upset as me. She told me about getting that e-mail and said that friends of mine were calling their store because they were concerned about me. Then Sandy read the fake e-mail that was supposedly sent from me. "Nancy, this is really serious! Someone out there is trying to take on your identity!" Before I said goodbye to Sandy I told her that I was going to call the F.BI.! And I did after taking three Aspirins and posting a short blog notice about not being in England and for no one to send money.
The man that I spoke to from the F.B.I. in San Antonio was so nice to me. After I told him about what all had happened and how upset I was he calmed me down quickly and suggested that I send everyone in my address book a short note to let them know that the e-mail was a fraudulent spam. Then he asked me about my computer and then he asked his partner the best way for me to handle sending my 250 friends a note. Before hanging up the phone the kind agent told me that this is happening more and more and that I could not file charges unless the person or persons had actually stolen money or something from me. Kris Kristofferson is now singing and I just got another glass of fine boxed wine.
As soon as we disconnected I went online to send a note to all of my friends. The minute my e-mail account opened up—all of of my seventy-one saved e-mails and my e-mail addresses were deleted. Leaving me with no one to contact because I no longer had any addresses and that is when I started crying. Then I called Kinky who was on the road with Little Jewford headed to Republic Harley-Davidson in Stafford, Texas for the Grand Opening of their Kinky Friedman Cigar Store.
After I told Kinky about everything that had happened he said, "Nance, when Brian Kanof called me to tell me about the letter he received from you I thought Nance has either finally gone-around-the-bend big time or you needed money to print your book." Then we started laughing. Then he told me to contact Rambam, our friend that is a famous private investigator.
Then Bill Hageman, a dear friend from the Chicago Tribune called me about the e-mail. After we talked about it, Bill told me that he had followed the fake e-mail link and he gave me the address in England where the money was to be sent. I wrote it down carefully so I could give the info to the F.B.I.! Then he told me about an electical fire in his house that was going to take at least six months of repairs before he and his wife, Dona could move back into it.
Thank goodness I made a hard copy of my e-mail addresses several years ago, because I spent the next five hours this evening individually sending e's out to my friends from around the world about the fraudulent e-mail scam. During the process I received an e from my friend Sage Ferrero about the spam scan and she found out a lot about the people who stole my addresses and we know who they are! I was so excited with her news I forwarded it to Mari because she had sent me a sweet e-mail about being hacked and violated.
Sage told me that the scammers IP address was sent from the third floor in a building in Africa and from what organization. And the part about being sent from Cousin Nancy she discovered that they had intentionally misspelled cousin using an extra "i" in Cousin—Cousiin Nancy. Wow! I was so impressed with her detective work and am so relieved that it wasn't from someone stalking me. Waylon is now singing and I am feeling exhausted, even though I will never get tired of hearing his voice.
I want to thank everyone for calling me today and being concerned about me—it has touched my heart deeply. If you did not receive an e-mail from me explaining what happened today please send me an e so I can add your address to my new address book. Fortunately, I just discovered that I still have all of my contacts info in my iTouch so it will take me several days to get all of the info back into my computer.
Like I said earlier today has been really incredible. I want to thank Carol and James for the really fun lunch we had today and I want to thank everyone who has called or sent me an e. I truly love y'all.
Tomorrow morning I plan to call the F.B.I. again and give them all of the information that I now have thanks to Sage and Bill. Who knows, maybe they can do something about it. And please know that I would never send out an e-mail like that so do not ever respond or think it is from me. And besides y'all know that it is next to impossible to get me to ever leave Kerr County. Thank you, Sage and Bill. Good night.
Y'all have a great evening!
2 comments:
I got your spam mail also. I went outside and told Roger. He checked his email and he got it too. I told him that I thought it was bogus and he agreed. Glad you are okay and we didn't think you would go to England! That is too far from Texas!
Hi, Mary and Roger! I am so mad at those perpetrators for doing this to me. Thank you for the comment.
Post a Comment