前几天从网上订购了一个新锅，本来预计周五能送到，结果没到。不愧是法国的快递系统，毫不意外。
顺延到了下周，还不是周一，是周二。于是周二特意选择居家办公，专程在家等快递。
上午十点多，刚好在host一个电话会的时候，收到了一条短信：亲爱的xxx你好，你的包裹因为太大没有办法塞到信箱里，请你选择附近的投递点或其他的日期进行派送。然后是一个短链接。
然后我就很生气，但又没有办法。老朋友们应该都知道我和这边的快递这些年战斗不止的故事。开着会也没办法打电话骂，点开链接，挺正常的网站，第一步是一个人机测试，然后填入姓名电话等信息，下一步列出了家附近的站点，我点了日常爱用的那一个，再然后下一步突然蹦出一个付款界面，让我付0.99欧。
然后我就更生气了，快递费已经收了我五欧元，花了时间专门在家等又不送上门，改送到投递点还敢再要我九毛九，良心呢，脸呢，都不要了吗？于是我就愤然关闭了页面，九毛九不是钱吗，凭什么白给你，等我开完会我要投诉你们这帮强盗。
过了一会儿开完会了，平复了一下心情。我就把短信里面的链接用电脑打开，试图找到投诉的页面，主要是手机输入效率太低了而且我还需要翻译小助手。
然后，我就发现这个链接用电脑是打不开的，直接弹出了不安全网站的警告。突然我心里就咯噔了一下，卧槽，不会是遇上电信诈骗了吧。
于是赶紧上网查，果然，很多法国的兄弟姐妹们都收到了类似短信，有很多跟我一样最后一步没有支付的，还有很多直接付款了的，还分享了后续锁卡跟银行打交道的等等等等糟心的经历。
跟国内的朋友再多解释一下，法国这边网上支付大部分都没有支付宝微信这样统一的支付平台，所以在支付的时候通常会要求你输入卡号CVV码等等。相当于这样的局其实骗子不是要那九毛九，而是要信用卡的信息，以便后续盗刷。
在复盘的过程中，我一方面很庆幸没有输入支付信息，当时自己扣扣搜搜和逆反的人格占了上风。Trust your guts真的有用。另一方面，我又觉得电信诈骗这个事情真的是虽迟但到。和很多人一样，这些年在网上在生活中也看到了很多电信诈骗的例子，总觉得自己又不贪小便宜又不想发财，智商也基本在线不会相信天上掉馅饼也不吃保健品更加不会去缅北，这些骗子骗不到我头上。那今天打脸的就来了，piapia的。
电信诈骗有点像渔网，大部分窟窿眼大，捞不到你，捞走了一些胖头鱼。所以你以为胖头鱼傻，你没有那么傻。但是架不住网越来越多越来越细致，保不齐就会有一次两次把你筛出来。
这次也许是碰巧了骗子在群发短信的时候我刚好在等快递，所以中招了，也或者是骗子获取到了快递系统的信息，撒网更有针对性。我更倾向于是后一种，但真相具体如何很难了解。
结论倒是确定的，大家的个人信息早就泄露了。
虽然不会因为这个事儿就怀疑自己是不是认知能力下降，但确实可以总结出一些实用的小技巧。
1）尽量避免多线程工作，或者避免多线程的时候做决定。我日常情况下经常同时开好几个线程，开着电话会，回邮件，写文稿，手机上还在刷整点的秒杀，可能厨房还在炖着肉。多线程的问题就是在每一条线程上分配的注意力就会相应不足，所以在某些情况下就会出错。
2）手机上不要点任何链接。老生常谈，日防夜防。我在复盘的时候发现，首先是短链接会让你没办法鉴别是不是有问题，其次手机浏览器会把地址栏缩小或隐藏，这样你会对打开的网站完整链接不敏感，也就失去了悬崖勒马的机会。有的时候信息很简单很人畜无害，比如天猫超市已投递成功，pa一个链接。或者你预购的订单已发出，支付尾款请点击，pa一个链接。也许你点了很多次都没问题，但你不知道下一次是不是骗子发的信息。一句话，不点就行了。
3）跟着感觉走。这次立大功的就是直觉了吧，直觉就是不想给那九毛九，那就不给，不要自我攻略。我这些年来整个人心态上可能有些过于松弛，对很多情况都不那么敏感了，但是关键时刻本能又被唤醒了，还好还好。如果说骗子是防不胜防的，还有一个额外的思路就是，反正都会被骗，那就把被骗的数额控制到可承受的范围。比如网上支付的银行卡设定支付限额，或者里面只留一点点钱，用完再续。以我自己为例，每月支付限额大概就是不到半个月的工资，真的要是被盗了，损失也还是承受得起。最后的最后，大家注意安全，警惕防范，小心驶得万年船。
I ordered a new pot online a few days ago, expecting it to arrive on Friday, but it didn’t. Typical French courier system, no surprise.
It was postponed to the next week, not Monday, but Tuesday. So I deliberately chose to work from home on Tuesday, specifically to wait for the delivery.
Around 10 AM, while hosting a conference call, I received a text message: “Dear xxx, your package is too large to fit in your mailbox. Please choose a nearby delivery point or another date for delivery.” Then there was a short url
I was furious, but there was nothing I could do. My old friends probably know my long-standing battles with the local couriers. I couldn’t call and yell at them while in a meeting, so I clicked the link. It looks normal. The first step was a human test, then I filled in my name, phone number, etc. The next step listed nearby delivery points; I clicked my favorite. one Then, suddenly, a payment page popped up, asking me to pay 0.99 euros.
Then I got even angrier. They already charged me five euros for delivery, and I spent time waiting at home only to have it delivered to my door. They even dared to charge me 99 cents for delivery to the drop-off point! Where’s their shame? I angrily closed the page. 99 cents is still money, why should I give it to you for free? I was about going to complain about these robbers after my meeting.
After a while, the meeting ended, and I calmed down. I opened the link in the text message on my computer, trying to find the complaint page, mainly because typing on my phone is too inefficient, and I need a translation assistant (French-English things).
Then, I discovered that the link couldn’t be opened on the computer; a warning popped up saying it was an unsafe website. Suddenly, my heart sank. Holy crap, could I have fallen for a telecom scam?
So I quickly searched online, and sure enough, many of people had received similar text messages. Many, like me, hadn’t paid at the last step, while many others had paid directly, sharing their subsequent frustrating experiences of having their cards locked and dealing with banks, and so on.
Let me explain further to my friends in China: in France, online payments mostly don’t have a unified payment platform like Alipay or WeChat Pay. Therefore, when making a payment, you’ll usually be asked to enter your card number, CVV code, etc. Essentially, in these scams, the scammers aren’t after the small amount of money; they want your credit card information for future fraudulent transactions.
Luckily I didn’t enter my payment information. My stinginess and rebellious nature prevailed. Trust your guts really works. On the other hand, I also realize that telecom fraud is for everyone – though late, has finally arrived. Like many others, I’ve seen many examples of telecom fraud online and in real life over the years. I always thought I wasn’t greedy, didn’t want to get rich quickly, and was (generally) intelligent enough not to believe in get-rich-quick schemes, not to take health supplements, and certainly not to go to northern Myanmar—these scammers wouldn’t fool me. Well, today I’m being proven wrong.
Telecom fraud is a bit like a fishing net; most of the holes are too big to catch you, but they catch some big fish. So, you might think the big fish are stupid, but you’re not that stupid. However, when the net is becoming increasingly sophisticated and extensive, and you might get caught once or twice.
This time, it might have been a coincidence that I was waiting for my package when the scammers were sending out mass texts, so I fell for it. Or perhaps the scammers had access to the delivery system and could cast a more targeted net. I’m more inclined to believe the latter, but the truth is hard to ascertain.
The conclusion is certain: everyone’s personal information has already been leaked.
While this incident won’t make me doubt my cognitive abilities, it does offer some useful tips:
1) Avoid multitasking, or making decisions while multitasking. I often run several tasks simultaneously: conference calls, emails, writing documents, browsing on my phone, and maybe even cooking in the kitchen at the same time. The problem with multitasking is that the attention allocated to each program is insufficient, leading to errors in certain situations.
2) Don’t click on any links on your phone. This is a well-worn adage, but it’s always best to be cautious. During my case, I discovered that, shortened url make it impossible to identify problematic signals. Secondly, browsers on your phone often shrink or hide the address bar, making you less sensitive to full website links and thus missing opportunities to avoid being scammed. Sometimes the information is simple and harmless, such as “Delivery successful on xxx Supermarket, here’s a link.” or “Your pre-order has been shipped, please click to pay the balance, here’s a link.” You might click it many times without any issues, but you don’t know if the next message will be from a scammer. In short, just don’t click.
3) Follow your instincts. This time, my intuition was key. My instinct told me not to pay that 99 cents, so I didn’t. Over the years, I’ve become somewhat too relaxed and less sensitive to many situations, but my instincts worked at crucial moments, thankfully.
If you think scammers are impossible to completely prevent, another approach is to limit the amount you’ll be scammed to an acceptable level, since you’re going to get scammed anyway. For example, set payment limits for your bank cards used for online payments, or keep only a small amount of money in the account and recharge when needed. For myself, my monthly payment limit is usually very small, so even if my account is stolen, the loss is manageable.
Finally, everyone, please be safe, be vigilant, and take precautions. Better safe than sorry.