Music To My Ears

Monday, December 08, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 1 Comment »
Update on the cellphone billing debacle. Our cellphone carrier advised us today that they will credit $2500.00 worth of illegal calls billed to us. Somebody stole our phone number and called all over Mexico and Honduras last month. And our bill went up $700 since last week. The phone company told us that this is happening everywhere and that the hardest hit places are New York, Florida and Mexico. If you take a cellphone to these areas, find out what security measures, if any, you can take.

Cellphone Hackers Can Get You!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
We went to Mexico for a day trip two weeks ago. Whilst there we had an interesting adventure recorded on this blog entry here. We took our three phones so we could call each other if necessary. Unbeknownst to us, one of our phone numbers had been hacked and, according to the invoice we got today, used to call various numbers in Honduras and Mexico bringing our bill to $1800.00.

Apparently, it is not difficult to mess with people's phones. I copied this from the WIRED website... "In the 17 minutes we wandered around, Laurie's computer picked up signals from 39 phones. "It takes only 15 seconds to suck down somebody's address book, so we could have had a lot of those," he says at last. "And at least five of these phones were vulnerable to an attack."
The "attack" Laurie mentions so casually could mean almost anything - a person using another person's cell to make long distance calls or changing every phone number in his address book or even bugging his conversations. There are, he says, "a whole range of new powers" available to the intrepid phone marauder, including nasty viral attacks." Click here to read the article in full.

Call your cellphone provider TODAY and find out how secure your phone is. Don't bother, we just spoke to ours and they told us, "Our system is absolutely secure. It was a one in a million occurence!" which is complete ROT because I looked it up already. If you have the right equipment, it's easy as pie. The trouble is that technology changes so fast the security measures have difficulty keeping up. It's not just your cell phone you need to be worried about. Anything that utilizes wireless technology is vulnerable.

So we are waiting with bated breath to see whether the cellphone company insist we pay the bill. We kindly reported the breach in their system to them. They cancelled the number. We requested a credit. They are thinking about it. We better get the whole thing credited or heads will roll.

Be aware. Turn your cellphone off when you don't need it. (Kind of defeats the purpose though eh?)

Mexico Rocks!

Thursday, November 20, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
I was nominated "chief haggler" when we went to Mexico today. I was doing a grand job of bargaining with the street hawkers but my conscience pricked me a bit when I talked one man down from $27 to $6 for a pair of sterling silver necklaces. I wondered if he was walking away muttering angrily because he didn't get to scalp me or because he was felt like he was scalped. Whatever the reason, I felt bad that maybe I had paid too little... or not..?

These feelings did not last long. My sister-in-law and I walked down Avenida Revolucion looking for a dress for P. One man stood out in front of us, (as they do) opened his arms wide and boomed, "My turn! You come to my shop! Everything only $2! Come in!"
So, we obediently followed him in and found a pretty little dress that P tried on. "Is it really only $2?" we asked.
"Of course! Everything is $2! Look around! I have lots of lovely things!"
Wow... ok.
Then we go to pay for the dress. "That will be $24."
WOT? "You just said everything was $2!"
"I did not. I said that everything was $2 OFF! You did not hear me."
To her credit, S didn't call him a very bad name, but instead walked toward the door telling him she didn't want the dress anymore.
I, on the other hand, was incensed! "You (sir) are a LIAR (and a cad)." Then we left pretty quickly with him still trailing us with offers of reduced prices. "My brother next door will sell you the same thing for $4 more... where are you from? ahh, you are my neighbour... I remember you! Come on... come back!"

I know that times are tough but resorting to such tactics creates bad feelings between vendor and customer and taints all the honest vendors (if there are any?). However, it is true that Tijuana is a unique place where locals bend the rules and think of interesting ways to part you from your money. According to some people, this adds to it's appeal.

In the end, we bought a lovely dress for $7 in the marketplace. We felt good about the price and the girl who sold it to us was happy enough. A bargain.

What I learned from this: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is (obviously I need to learn this more than once!) and "No. Gracias." is the best response even if you have to say it more than twenty times to the sad faced man who has followed you, pleading, for the last three blocks.

Older Posts