There Are Sixty Born Every Hour

 The topic at lunchtime in our company cafeteria was ‘scams’.

A co-worker said, “If someone sent me an email saying that they need to move millions of dollars out of Nigeria, I would not be stupid and answer the email.”

Another co-worker said, “If someone sent me an email saying that he found Saddam Hussein’s stash of gold and needed to move the gold out of Iraq, I would not be stupid and answer the email.”

A third co-worker said, “If someone sent me an email saying that I won the UK Lotto and he was going to help me collect my jackpot, I would not be stupid and answer the email.”

Then I chimed in:

I got an email saying that eight people are flying from Europe to St. Louis because they want to take dance lessons from me to get ready for an upcoming family wedding.  They will be in St. Louis for a week, and they will send me their credit card number so I can book a dance studio for that week.

My co-workers’ eyes lit up.  “You are going to answer that email, aren’t you?”

I said, “No.”

My co-workers were outraged.  “Doug, you would be stupid NOT to answer that email.”

Some co-workers pointed out how much money I would rake in.  Some co-workers started to fantasize on what they could do with someone else’s credit card number.  One co-worker suggested that the Europeans could cut their expenses by sending two people to St. Louis instead of eight, and those two could go back to Europe and teach the others.

Three minutes ago, these co-workers had said they would never fall for a scam, and now they had all fallen for this one.

I feel flattered that my co-workers think that my reputation as a Scottish country dance teacher in St. Louis has spread to Europe and people are willing to spend thousands of dollars to fly here for some dance instruction from me.

However, answering the email would mean receiving a stolen credit card number, with instructions to pay for the studio rental with a few thousand left over, and please remit the excess to Europe.  Then I would face debt and possibly jail time.

I told my co-workers that they were gullible….and did they know that the word gullible is not in the dictionary.

“Really, 'gullible' is not in the dictionary?”  I am sure they left the lunchroom and proceeded to google the word 'gullible'.

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NOT A SCAM: a touching 4-minute version of Forever Young at the memorial service for Steve Jobs, sung outdoors by Norah Jones.  Notice the audience's faces reflected in her piano:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEKY-3eNZc

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com