Frauds and Scams

I dropped what I was doing to answer the telephone, only to hear someone claiming that “my computer was in serious trouble and on the verge of a crash. We can help you.” Many of you will have had similar fraudulent calls: threats of arrest due to delinquent income taxes, fake prizes, unbelievable inheritances, or false pleas for donations to charities. It’s enough to make a person irate.

Then a thought struck me. Anger will get me nowhere, I need a positive counter-offensive move. So, during several of the next calls the conversation went approximately as follows.

Caller: “We are getting error messages from your computer and as an authorized partner of Microsoft we are calling to solve the problem.”

Me: “Which computer is in difficulty? I have a desktop, a laptop and another older one.”

Caller: “The one on Windows.”

I explain that each one is on a different Windows operating system. If they are going to fix it they must know which Windows program it is. If they say it is the older one, I tell them it has been in my closet for months, disconnected from the internet and not even plugged into power. If they hesitate to choose one computer I respond about as follows.

Me: “Did you know that a record is being kept of all the words, actions and even thoughts of yours right now? Did you know that Someone knows exactly what you are doing?”

Caller: “That is impossible.”

Me: “No, it isn’t. God has had a super, super ‘computer’ since time began. It is light years ahead of the best we’ve got. Listen to Psalm 139:1-4.”

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.”

Caller: “I don’t believe it.”

Me: “There is a Judgment Day coming and unless you find a way to wipe all that off the record you will be held accountable for it. But there is good news! (Click! He hung up on me before I could tell him the good news!) He could have learned that Someone is offering to pay the penalty for him. It cost Jesus his life on the cross. If he were willing to acknowledge God as the one he is accountable to, admit his sin and ask forgiveness, God will give it freely. After that He’ll also help you live right. This is no scam or fraud. “

We’ve had very few calls since then. I almost miss getting them.

Truth lives on the sunny side, Henry Wiebe