Several of my friends recently received a fake email, saying it was from me, that I was stranded in Turkey, desperate, and could they please send money.
Every one of my friends laughed at the email, ignored it, and went on with their lives.
I'm glad they knew it was fake, but their complete and total dismissal of an email purporting to be from me, claiming a desperate situation, and asking for money, made me wonder; what would happen if I actually were stuck in Turkey?
I mean, I don't have any plans, but I can imagine a scenario in which I fly to Turkey; maybe a plane is hijacked. Maybe to save my life I have to give a hijacker all my money. Then maybe I send out an email saying truthfully that I am stuck in Turkey, desperate, and can you please send money.
Would all of my friends laugh that one off?
Fortunately the email was fake.
Or unfortunately...since it meant that my email address of 15 years had been hacked into.
At this point in the story I am going to name names...Yahoo.
Yes, Yahoo, I'm talking to you.
Never has there been a more impenetrable black hole of a corporation than you.
After changing my password and following all of Yahoo's security instructions, I promptly lost all access to my old Yahoo email completely.
I don't mind saying good bye to Yahoo, but after 15 years of writing and film production, you can imagine how many documents, folders, legal and creative files I had among my attachments.
So I tried sending Yahoo a message through their help page.
No response.
I called Yahoo.
I listened to the following astounding message; "Our call volume is high. We may not be able to answer your call. If the connection is cut off, please go to the Yahoo help page."
I waited on hold for a few minutes, listening as their recorded message assured me that my call was important. Then everything went silent. I looked at my phone in disbelief. The connection had been cut off.
I called again.
Same thing.
I tried again the next day.
Same thing.
My old Yahoo email - and countless files - appear to be lost forever.
Good riddance Yahoo.
Maybe they're getting back at me for dropping their web hosting a few months ago.
My website was hosted by Yahoo for several years, until I was finally convinced by intelligent people that Yahoo web hosting is the worst web hosting available.
I am setting off on a new course in life. Many great things lie ahead.
Among them, and most important, is the ultimate and complete death of Yahoo.
Yahoo....you're going down!
-Peter Wick
September 15, 2014
