This friend was smart enough to call the telephone number in his personal address book--instead of using that very convenient Web link--so that Comcast could assure him that there was no such trouble.
What makes this one even more scary is that one of the data being requested was his social security number. Linking the two might have permanently unlocked his identity to some terrible person.
Interesting that that same friend had recently lost control of his credit card number--without having actually lost control of the card itself. He had done nothing wrong--nothing out of the ordinary--but had he not noticed the trouble soon after its occurrence, he might have been out quite a sum of money. (The malefactors had already charged hundreds to it.)
At present, there seems to be no reason for concluding that the two incidents are related. There is so much criminal activity of this sort that it is inevitable that we might encounter more than one attack over short periods of time.
(And now I must go double-lock my doors and close my drapes. Not sure what I'll do when night falls....)
Mark_
13:31 06 November 2012
