T-Mobile Text Scam! Revealed on the train!

I got a text today, at 6:24pm, from 5000 that read:

"ApplicationCenter / This is an automated message from Transwest Credit Union.Your ATM card has been suspended.To reactivate call urgent at 1-888-400-6825."

I thought it was a little weird that it came from 5000, since usually texts not from phone numbers are from T-Mobile, acknowledging payment or whatever.

Still, I only have 2 ATM cards.  My main bank is Key Bank, and they are fantastic.  But they really have no reason to suspend my account.  And if they were thinking about it, they would call me first.  I got a call from them when I was back east last year, because I was using my debit card far from Utah and they wanted to make sure I knew about it.  So I let them know I was on vacation and they put a note in my account.

My other ATM card is for WaMu (now Chase.)  I opened an account with them because I wanted a savings account with them (they promised an unheard of interest rate for a regular savings account), and they said I needed a free checking account to start a savings account.  But that account has like $5 in it, so it's nothing to worry about.

And anyway, neither of those banks are Trans-whatever, so I didn't worry about it.  I figured it was a scam and forgot all about it.  That was at 6:24pm today.

Just now I got off of TRAX, where we had an amazing conversation.

TRAX was packed.  People had been waiting at the transfer stop for like 30 minutes, and finally a University train came.  "What are you guys all coming from?" I asked one of the guys near me, and he told me they were coming from a Jazz game.  And then he started talking to his friend.  

He said he'd signed up and they gave him a $20 gift card.  He used it to buy a hat.  He still had to pay $15 towards the hat, but that was what he had used it for, anyway.  And then he got this text.  He read off a free number, and his friend tried to call it, on speakerphone.  "ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY" the line said, and it disconnected.

"It's probably because I'm not calling from your phone," the friend said.

"Oh.  Yeah," the guy realized.  "Well, when I called earlier, the first thing it asked me for was my credit card number, and I was like oh, no, you are not getting that, and I hung up."

And then he said something about Transwest.

"Hey!  Wait!  I got that too," I told him. 

"You did?  You got the text too?"

"Yeah!" I remembered, and I pulled my phone out to bring up the message.

"It said your ATM card was suspended?" he confirmed.

"Yeah!" I said.

"I got that too," another girl near us announced.

And it became a whole conversation among the eight people seated across from each other and me standing in the aisle near them.

"Did you all sign up at the Transwest booth too??" the guy asked us.

"Huh?  No.  I wasn't even at the game."  The other girl shook her head.

"I am so relieved.  I signed up at the Transwest booth at the game... you know how they'll give you things if you sign up for a credit card...  Well, they gave me a $20 gift card, and I got this hat that I'm wearing."  He lifted the bill a bit, to show us.  "And then all of the sudden I got this text during the game!"

The other girl nodded.  I didn't, because I don't sign up for credit cards to get free stuff.  Ever.

"I never sign up for anything," I said.  (I don't.)

"I always sign up for those.  You know, you get a blanket at the U games.  Or one time!  One time I signed up for a credit card to get a free pizza," he continued.

We all kind of laughed.

"What time did you guys get the message?"  I asked.

"8:30," the guy said.  "I couldn't even pay attention to the game after that.  I was so worried!  My buddy asked me the score, and I was like [he made a blank face, staring off]"

"6:30," the other girl said.

"I got mine at 6:24."

And then we kind of talked about how it came from 5000, which seemed like an official number.  And we talked about how I never put my phone number on anything, and I don't have Transwest, so it's definitely a scam.  

But the fact remained that although three of us had gotten us, several people around us had not.

"Do you guys have T-Mobile?  Is this a T-Mobile thing?" I asked them.

"I have T-Mobile," the girl said.

"I have T-Mobile too," the guy said, holding his phone up.

"I have Verizon and I didn't get it," another girl near us said, "It must be a T-Mobile thing."  

"Mine is Verizon too, and I didn't get it either," another guy said.  And that settled things.

"You guys, I was so worried!  I'm so glad you guys got it too!  I was like, I signed up for a credit card and now I have a time share!"

The guys who were originally talking about it got off at the next stop.  The rest of us kept talking about it for a few more stops.  We talked about how crazy it was that they could hack the customer list, or whatever happened.  We talked about how this couple got a call years after they were married, where someone told them they had won a vacation, and they said there was no catch, but they wanted to know if he was 25.  He wasn't.  So they wanted his parents' phone number.  And he said no.  He was like, "I'm 23, and you want to talk to my parents?  Why?"

It was a pretty funny conversation.

And then we all got off the train a couple stops later.  "Have a good one!" the guy said to me as I was getting off.  

"I dunno," I said seriously.  "I hear my debit card has been suspended..."

And our half of the train chuckled.

[N.B. Photo lovingly stolen from here, because I thought it was fantastic.]

Another Bus Friend

On Friday I volunteered at the Symphony.

I got all dressed up (but with flat shoes; volunteers will be standing for most of their shift) and caught a train.

I picked a spot near the middle of the train, where I had a normal bench, and then there was a seat facing the middle of the bus right in front of my bench.

A guy got on the train and sat in the seat right by my bench (instead of choosing a seat facing forward). Although I was reading something on my phone, I noticed that he was staring at me. He was a guy from somewhere in the middle east, and he looked about 40.

"Hello," he said.

"Hello," I replied.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Emily," I said. "Yours?"

"David." He held his hand out, and I shook it. Because that's the polite thing to do.

"I liking you verymuch." He told me. He grinned. He grinned a lot while we talked.

"Oh, thanks," I said. [Because what do you say when someone tells you they liking you verymuch?]

I went back to reading on my phone, and he kept watching me.

"I like verymuch."

"Thanks."

And then he put his hand on my thigh, like right above my knee, and left it there.

"I like verymuch."

I removed his hand. "Thanks."

Now that he had my attention, he started talking to me: "How old are you?"

"Twenty-five." I told him. "You?"

And while I waited for him to respond, I evaluated. He could be forty. Maybe 35. Maybe 32 and just looks older.

"Twenty-six!" [Of course.]

I didn't really say anything, so he reminded me, "I like verymuch." And he kind of pointed at me.

But I thought maybe he was pointing at my skirt because it was sparkly, so I told him I was volunteering at the symphony.

"Ah," he said, as though he understood.

I started looking outside the train to see where we were, because I needed to get off at the grocery store to get new stockings, since they seem appropriate for the symphony.

My stop was coming up so I gathered my stuff. He noticed that I was gathering my stuff, and he got up. He stood in front of the exit, waiting to get off before me.

"I like verymuch," he said, as we were getting off the train.

"Yeah," I said, not really impressed or surprised. "Like her very much!" I suggested, and I pointed to another girl who was getting on the train as we were getting off.

He smiled. "Ah." It was an affirmative noise, and I knew that he didn't understand but was pretending to, probably to impress me.

"You working?" he asked.

"No." Because I was going to the grocery store, not to work. And then I realized that probably wasn't what he was asking. "I'm a student," I added.

I avoided too much eye contact and focused on my phone, and on going to the grocery store.

I hoped he wouldn't keep following me.

We crossed the street and as we did, I remembered something funny:

[NOTE: I don't really remember the order of this story, or the details; I'll have to see if I can find something about it in one of my journals. This is basically what happened, though.]

When I was on my mission, we had problems with a guy following us. It all started because I thought we should give pass-along cards to everyone, because everyone needed the gospel in their lives. (Right?) So I invited this Albanian (I think?) guy to church. And he showed up at church during the week, and someone just happened to be there, and he said he was looking for the missionaries. And they mentioned our English lessons which were the next day.

I don't remember why we weren't there, but I think we weren't, and the Elders taught English that week. But he came for English class, completely drunk. Great.

And then, the next morning we were grocery shopping and he saw us as we were about to leave the grocery store. He said hi to me, and started talking, and kept talking and kept talking. And all of us had finished buying our groceries, and he started following us as we were walking home.

And he kept following us. And we kept, like, concluding the conversation and like saying goodbye, and he kept following us.

And we didn't want to bring him home with us, but we had a ton of groceries, so we weren't really sure what to do.

We ended up taking a bus from our little suburb to downtown Genova. We carried all of our groceries to the church. AND! He came with us on the bus. One of my companions asked him what he was doing that day, and he had nothing he was doing. Great.

When we got downtown, he stopped following us, and we waited at the church for a couple hours to be sure that he was gone, and then we went home.

After that, my companions would only let me give pass-along cards with the Elders' phone number to questionable people.

But David didn't follow me. When we got across the street, he said "Goodbye!" and I said "Goodbye," and we walked in opposite directions.

The End.

Photo from my bus ride.

I went to Provo for a New Year's Party. I took two trains and a bus to get there. It took a long time. And at night, the bus from Sandy to Provo doesn't come often at all. And I was really feeling annoyed with UTA going NOWHERE, until my bus came.

And then, the bus driver started doing flips in the front of the bus, and waiting in the stupid snow for an hour and a half was totally worth it.

Just something kind of funny...

Near Trolley Square in downtown Salt Lake City, there used to be an ice cream place called Squirrel Brothers. The building was painted to look like sky, and it had a giant revolving? ice cream cone in front. I think it's been vacant since I moved up here this summer.

Apparently someone bought it.

I'm sure they're going to remove the ice cream statue, but I guess they decided to paint first. I took the picture on my phone a couple weeks ago.

Before:


After:

I just thought it looked kind of funny to see a black ice cream cone. (And at a steakhouse.)

Taking the cats back...home again.

Today I decided I was done with the kitties.

It's been about the right amount of time, anyway.

I cleaned everyone's eyes and noses. We took a few pictures, which nobody wanted to sit still for. And which didn't focus right, since they were on auto-timer.

I cleaned the big pet taxi carrier. And stuffed everyone into the cage.

I lugged them up the hill to the TRAX station. Nobody really meowed or anything, but they were heavy, and I knew we were in for a lot of fun. We had just missed the train, so we had to wait for the next one. It wasn't the worst problem to have, because I was already tired of carrying them. Everyone nearby wanted to talk to me about the kitties. Everyone nearby had siblings or friends who fostered kitties. And then the kitties started to smell. I think the gray one pooped and it started getting all over everyone. Gross. Everyone was just kind of chilling out in the pet taxi, though, so we were mostly ok.

We caught the train, and it was a SANDY one instead of a DOWNTOWN SLC one, so we didn't even have to change trains at Gallivan Plaza. Sweet. It was an older train, so we couldn't really get down the aisle to a good spot, but I sat in one of the "please offer these seats to the elderly or disabled" seats (which I usually don't) (sit in, not offer!) and that way there was space for the Pet Taxi on the floor in front of me. Another lady got on the train a few stops later, and she wanted to talk about the kitties too. And how nobody should ever buy pets from anywhere but the Humane Society. Great.

And then we got off at 3300 S, because you can either get off at 3300 or 4500ish, and last time I went I decided 3300 S would definitely be closer since you have to backtrack a TON if you get off at 4500ish.

And the cats were HEAVY.

So about every block or sometimes every half block, we all sat down and rested. And they smelled, too. SO badly. And my hands hurt. And my arms hurt. And my sides hurt.

And I sometimes carried them on my right hip. And when I did that, I would put my bag on my left shoulder, and hold the Pet Taxi handle with my left hand, and balance the big pet carrier on my hip, and reach my right arm to the far side of the carrier. I think that was how I carried them most often. Sometimes I would try to do the reverse, on my left hip, but that was less comfortable.

Other times I carried them in front of me. And I reached both arms around the sides of the carrier, and held it near the bottom.

And still other times I just carried it by the handle, and they bumped against my leg as I walked. That made me tired the quickest.

And then, when we were at about 3700 S, I remembered: actually, there's a train stop at 3900 S. I didn't need the 3300 S stop. I wanted the 3900 S one! It was too late to turn back, so I was walking six long blocks that I didn't even need to, carrying heavy cats. Great.

And then, I got to 3900 S, and I felt like we were getting close. EXCEPT, I couldn't figure out how to get there. And it was quickly getting dark.

There was an overpass to cross some train tracks. First, I tried walking under the overpass, right next to the train tracks. But that wasn't right. And I would have had to have actually crossed them, at not a crossing spot. And I was still having to stop pretty frequently, and it seemed like something that would get me in trouble, and not even get me to where I was trying to go.

So I went back out of that, and around the SLCC Milcreek corner, and down to the light. And I crossed the intersection, and crossed to the other side of the street, but it was 210, and not 300 W, and it looked kind of like a dead end. So I crossed back, and crossed again, and crossed again, so that I could go over the overpass on the pedestrian side.

And we stopped and rested, and then we went up the hill, stopping to rest partway through. And we got to the top, where there was a scary, bridge-like thing for pedestrians to cross, which was covered in graffiti. And we crossed it. And we started to go down the other side, except that it looked like it crossed the freeway. Which was wrong. We didn't want to be on the other side of the freeway.

So we walked back down the overpass. Back across the street to the 210 one. And I wanted to lay down and fall asleep on the side of the road. Because I was So. So. Tired. And Everything hurt. Well. Not everything. Just my hands and arms and shoulders and sides and hips.

And the kitties started to get tired of me jostling them around, and tipping the carrier to hold it against one side, and tipping it in the other direction to hold them on the other side, etc. I noticed I was getting cat poop on me which had become a mess inside the carrier and was getting on me when I would hold the Pet Taxi against my side. Great.

But we were ALMOST there. Sort of. And I could SEE THE SIGN.

I kept consoling them even though the cats don't speak English. "We're almost there. Just 2. 3 more blocks. I know guys, I don't like this either." So we made our way down the long industrial street that wasn't the right one, so that we could get to a street that got us to the right one.

And it was dark.

And I kept having to stop like, at every other industrial place's driveway, to rest. And partway through, there was a dog which became interested in us. But its owner was good and kept it from coming across the street to eat the cats.

And then we got to the right street. And the kitties were mewing because they'd had it. I wanted to cry. I was tired. "We're almost there, guys," I kept telling them. But really I was telling me.

And we got there! And the gate was open, for EMPLOYEES AND DELIVERIES (or something like that) ONLY. And I was there for a delivery (or whatever the word was), so I went in.

And there were people outside!

We only had to stop once to rest in the driveway. It was like we were sprinting towards the finish line of the race.

Except the people outside weren't just outside, or on break. Although I'd left at 4pm, it was now 7:45. The place was closed.

.

.

I explained to them that I was done with the kitties. I'd been fostering, and it had been about the right amount of time, and I was done with them. They said the door was locked, and there wasn't anywhere to put them even if it was open.

I said my arms were tired, I got off at the wrong stop and had carried them from 3300 S. I said I was done with them.

They understood that my arms couldn't carry any more. One lady said she gets tired after just walking half a block.

They decided we would call the foster people and see if they could come back (hello inconvenience), and I agreed that we could try that. They didn't answer.

One of the ladies said she would take them, but that she doesn't work tomorrow. And then she said she would just take them. And I was like "are you sure?" because you're always supposed to ask that even if you don't care if someone's sure. And she said that she was. And then I was just taking down the email address so that I can send pictures and comments about their personalities, and they noticed that Lisa V's phone number was on my papers, too. And we had to call her, too, because maybe the ladies could drop the cats off at her house, if they could just get her address. But she didn't answer either.

And then the lady who was going to take the cats realized she can't have kittens that haven't had all of their shots. These haven't. No, she's not allowed to have foster kittens. Because one time she had a kitten die. It got distemper, and someone brought it back to the shelter after they had adopted it, saying it had died. So she's not allowed to have kittens anymore. Just cats with all of their vaccinations.

But I still couldn't carry the cats anymore. So they offered me a ride home, and I can bring them sometime when it's open. And I should call the foster ladies first, please. Great.

So after goodbye pictures and almost 4 hours of trekking with cats this afternoon, we loaded up into the lady's van, and she drove us home. Everyone was happy to get home, and everyone was covered in cat poop. And smelled like it. I gave a couple kitties partial baths.

And now, as I type this, I'm back where I started. (DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $500.) Except my hands are still red and raw, and I accomplished nothing with my afternoon. Super.

Tickets must be purchased before boarding.

I saw something kind of funny on the train a couple days ago.

A police got on the train to check tickets, and it was a really full train. He made a big announcement, "Does everyone on here have a fare? There's no way I'm going to get all the way back there, so let's do this: If you don't have a fare, raise your hand and I'll come to you. Raise your hand if you don't have a fare."

He checked a dozen or so people that were right by the front, and then got off at the next stop.

A couple stops later he got back on our car again and went farther back. He said the same thing though, "Who does not have a ticket? Just raise your hand..."

It was amusing to pretty much everyone on the train. Usually they just say "Tickets?" and that's it.