Blogfinger

New Scientist.com

By Paul Goldfinger, in the dark once again:

It’s a Wednesday at 6 pm in the Grove, October 19, 2022.  My phone rings and a voice says, “You didn’t pay your electric bill. You must pay within the next 30 minutes or your power will be turned off.”

“This is a scam,”  thought I, so I hung up and thought, “The electric company would never do this.  I received no alerts by email. I always pay my bill. Do I have auto-pay ?  I don’t remember.”  But I went on with my activities.

30 minutes later all the power in my home went out.  Everyone, all three of us, went into a tizzy.  Each rushed to do something. Eileen tried to find candles.

Stephen said, “Why didn’t you pay your bill?  I always pay my bills.”

I couldn’t go on-line because my WI-Fi was out, but I could find the JCP&L web site using my iPhone’s cellular system.  But I couldn’t get a human no matter how many times I shouted “Operator.” There was no electronic choice to fit my situation.

It would soon be dark, and all I wanted was to pay the bill and get the power back.  I did see my account, and it showed a balance of $89.00.

There was a way to pay online using a credit card. It took forever.

Then our son ran in and said, “The power’s out all over town!”

So what about my bill and the threat?

So I went on line and found out how to reach a human at JCP&L.

She said, “Your first call was a scam, and what is now occurring is just a coincidence.”   What??

A short time later the power all over the neighborhood came on.   Great, but what happened?

I cannot believe that this was all a coincidence?  No, it must be sophisticated internet scam  probably originating in Romania, or maybe Finland, or perhaps San Francisco.  What do you think?

Be the first to offer a plausible explanation and win a prize.

Here is the traditional Fish Slapping Song from Spamalot:  YouTube.