Tag Archives: weird

Phishing Attempt on Phone ?

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A little while back my younger brother handed over my phone to me and said, there’s a missed call. I looked the number and it wasn’t from someone I knew, curious I called back. Here’s a transcript of what followed

Guy(on phone): Hanji Bhaiya (Hello)
Me: Kaun bol raha hai (whose this?)


Guy(on phone): Bhaiya aaj se 10-11 saal pehle Gujrat mein jo bhukamp aaya tha na, wahan mein khudayi karta tha aur wahan mujhe zameen ke 6ft neeche 4 sone ke biscuit mile hain jo mein apne gaun le aaya hun rajasthan mein. Inko bech do, aadhe aadhe paise mein.( While digging the place in Gujarat where there was an earthquake about 10-11 years back I found four gold biscuits. I have brought them along to my village in Rajasthan, sell them for half price)
Me(Clueless): aapko mera number kaise mila? (How did you get my number?)

Guy(on phone): Bhaiya Billu naam ka driver hai Dilli mein, usne aapka number diya hai. Mein aapse paise nahi maang raha hai, aap mujhse mil lo aur yeh sona bech do.(I got your number from a driver named “Billu” from  Delhi, I am not asking for money, I just want you to meet me and sell this gold)
Me: Theek hai main aapse kal baat karta hun(I’ll talk to you tomorrow)

Did I just experience world’s first phone phishing attempt ?

Chris Anderson’s New Book Free, Free for US only?

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A couple of days back I got to know about a new book titled “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” by Wired Magazine editor and author of bestseller “Long Tail”  Chris Anderson. Next thing I got to know was true to it’s name “Free’s audio book is available for download for free“. While downloading the audio book I was wondering if the book is free just for audio format or will it’s e-book also be available for free ?

While browsing the web today I found out that Free’s e-book is also available for free. Excited, I clicked the URL to get my hands on the free e-book.

free_url

But to my unpleasant surprise, I ran into this

free_error

Frustrated by this(hypocrisy?) I searched around to realize that the not only is the e-book restricted to just US, it’s just free to read and not download. There you go again.

When I got to know about the free audio book I decided to buy a paperback copy for myself soon but given the weird policies regarding book’s availability in other formats I am not sure if I’ll be doing that anymore.

While Chris Anderson & Co figure out what’s the right way to market the book without screwing their economics you can either listen to it’s audiobook or read the book on Scribd(using a DNS proxy like hidemyass.com in case you aren’t in the US) or read it here.