Saving A Ceil?
There’s a great gal on Shelter Island named Ceil. She works at JBS Salon, where they do the best cut and custom color I’ve ever had.
A few weeks ago I got an email from Ceil. It was awful. She was in Europe, her handbag with all her money, ID and passport was stolen. The hotel wouldn’t let her leave unless she paid up or else they’d file a hold request on her new passport until she settles the bill. She was emailing everyone she knew to send her whatever they could to help her out.
I believed this story because I’ve been to Europe and I know the hotels are ruthless about the bill. Normally, you have to surrender your passport to the hotel while you are there. They hold it hostage until you pay. So I was literally one click away from sending her $50 from my Paypal account to the Paypal account in her email. As my finger was about to descend on the mouse, I thought—maybe I’ll just do a quick check. So I paused and called JBS Salon, and Ceil answered.
“Oh, my goodness, Ceil,” I said, “I thought you were in Europe, I just got an email…”
“I know, somebody hacked into my Yahoo account and sent an email to everyone in my address book. I already contacted Yahoo and changed my password. I’ve gotten about 25 calls about this so far this morning.”
“I was just about to send you $50 and email other Islanders too.”
“Thank you, my friend almost sent $600 just before she decided to check it out.”
I don’t know how much those awful hackers made with their scheme. It caused me to make up a more complex password for my Yahoo account, and raised my overall security awareness.
The event also confirmed what a great person Ceil is that 25 people were willing to send money to get her out of a jam, no questions asked. It made me wonder how many people would send me money? I could get stuck in Europe forever—this is a serious concern. What if I needed a kidney? Well, it gives me comfort for me to think that a kidney may be waiting for me in my Yahoo address book right now. I’m telling you, this could only happen on Shelter Island. We’re guarded by a moat and nobody gets marooned “O.I.” (if you’re not a Rocker that’s Rock slang for “Off Island”). Although, Europe does have a few single princes left I think…