Dialing for Dollars

We here at the TestOut Continuing Education news desk and blog factory consider ourselves to be relatively plugged in when it comes to both the IT industry and the wider world beyond that. We try to write about current events and real-world challenges. It's probably more interesting for you to read about those things, and it keeps us both on our toes and with one ear to the ground.

As you digest that gymnastic and physically improbable mental image, we'll move on to where our ear was earlier today. A phone call came through from an unknown "WIRELESS CALLER," so we did what we sometimes do when we're not expecting a call and let it go to voicemail. Several seconds passed before delivery of a notification with a doozy of a voicemail message attached.

We transcribed the message — which turned out to be a generic alert generated by a pretty low-rent automated reader — for your edification and enjoyment:

"The investigating team of our department is investigating you and your family. We have tried to notify you regarding this issue in previous six months, but we have never got response from you. So it has been considered as an intentional fraud and lawsuit has been filed under your name by the United States government. You may call our department number [Nine-digit number read off and repeated]. Call for more information, before we download your case into the courthouse. Thank you."

No, no, threatening and mysterious shakedown communique from anonymous government agency, thank you. Thank you for providing a jolt of amusement, generating some timely fodder for today's blog, and of course for letting us know that there's still time to take action before our case is downloaded into the courthouse. "Bailiff! Please collect any cases that have been downloaded today!"

Was it P.T. Barnum who's alleged to have said, "There's a sucker born every minute"? And was it just last Friday that we fired off the most recent of many posts to the IT Insights blog about the ever-escalating onslaught of cyberattacks that keeps consumers jumpy, and employers ever-attentively on the lookout for skilled cybersecurity professionals? Well, here's another example.

Lest any of you have forgotten, TestOut CE has some excellent cybersecurity courseware that will prepare you to take and pass CompTIA's widely-recognized Security+ certification. And with a Security+ on your résumé, you'll be in great shape to get started on a long and prosperous career in cybersecurity. It's good to have a reliable source of income, after all. You might need to hire an attorney someday — if your case ever gets downloaded to the courthouse.