By Tammy · Originally published August 31, 2026
Tonight, my phone rang.
The caller ID said Google.
That immediately caught my attention because someone in my family had recently been dealing with a legitimate Google account problem. The man on the other end sounded pleasant, cheerful and professional.
He asked for my husband.
I told him my husband wasn’t available and asked if I could help.
He asked who I was.
“Tammy.”
And my relationship to my husband?
“I’m his wife.”
Then came the emergency.
According to this very helpful gentleman, there had been a serious security breach involving my husband’s Google account.
Well, that certainly sounds alarming.
My husband needed to deal with it immediately.
There was just one little problem.
He wasn’t home.
No worries, said Mr. Helpful Google Man. Apparently he could take care of everything remotely through a computer or tablet.
🚩
And there it was.
The flag wasn’t merely red. It was approximately the size of Nebraska.
I told him absolutely not. My husband wasn’t giving a stranger remote access to anything.
He kept trying.
I kept saying no.
Finally I said something along the lines of:
“Look, this isn’t going to happen. This has scam written all over it.”
And that is when Mr. Sunshine disappeared.
The pleasant, professional voice suddenly became deep and vicious.
He screamed obscenities at me.
Not mild ones, either. He managed to cram an impressive percentage of the English language’s nastiest vocabulary into a remarkably short period of time.
I hung up.
My phone subsequently identified the call as a SCAM.
I blocked the number and reported it.
My husband, upon hearing what this man had said to me, understandably wanted to call him back.
Nope.
Absolutely not.
There is nothing to be gained by wrestling with a pig in a telephone booth.
Besides, caller ID can be spoofed. We couldn’t even be certain that calling the displayed number would reach the person who had actually called me.
So we let him go.
BUT HE SCARED ME
I’m going to be honest about that part.
He scared me.
Not because I thought he had gotten into our accounts. He hadn’t.
I hadn’t given him a password.
I hadn’t given him a verification code.
I hadn’t given him remote access.
I hadn’t sent him money.
What frightened me was how quickly another human being could change when he didn’t get what he wanted.
One moment I was speaking to a cheerful professional.
The next I was listening to someone screaming degrading obscenities at me.
For a while afterward, I couldn’t shake the sound of his voice.
Then I realized something.
That voice wasn’t the sound of him gaining power.
It was the sound of him LOSING it.
I had said no.
And my no worked.
THE SCAM ENDED WITH ME
Scammers depend on urgency.
They want you frightened enough that you act before you think.
Your account has been compromised.
Your money is in danger.
Someone is using your identity.
We need to fix this immediately.
Then comes the request.
A password.
A verification code.
Money.
Gift cards.
Remote access to your computer.
Or just one innocent little click.
Tonight reminded me of something worth sharing:
YOU ARE ALLOWED TO STOP THE CONVERSATION.
You don’t have to prove the caller is a scammer.
You don’t have to argue.
You don’t have to catch them in a lie.
And you certainly don’t owe politeness to someone demanding access to your private information.
Hang up.
Then contact the company yourself through a trusted method if you’re genuinely concerned.
RISE ABOVE THE FEAR
Rejuva Sole is normally where I talk about shoes, mobility, chronic pain and finding ways to keep moving when your body doesn’t always cooperate.
But Rise Above the Ache™ has always meant something bigger to me.
Sometimes what we have to rise above isn’t physical pain.
Sometimes it’s fear.
Sometimes it’s somebody trying to intimidate us.
Sometimes it’s an ugly voice coming through a telephone and temporarily taking up far more space in our minds than it deserves.
Tonight, a scammer tried to frighten his way into my husband’s account.
Instead, he got:
NO PASSWORD.
NO VERIFICATION CODE.
NO REMOTE ACCESS.
NO MONEY.
And eventually…
A DIAL TONE.
That’s a pretty good ending.
Although I will admit one thing.
After this guy?
The chicken that keeps trying to eat my website is starting to look downright respectable. 🐔😇
Rise Above the Ache™
And occasionally, rise above the idiots too.
❤🔥🪽
