Today I learnt a very valuable lesson – never give your laptop to a stranger.
I was in Starbucks in Dublin enjoying a signature hot chocolate before I went to work. Just as I finished I stood up to close down my laptop and a gentleman beside me asked if he could quickly check his gmail as he was waiting for an important email. I thought nothing off it, logged out of my gmail and handed him my macbook.
He spent a few minutes on it and then handed it back to me, smiled said thank you and left. Feeling good about myself I packed up and started to head to work.
Then the calls started. First it was a cousin, who was quite distressed. When I eventually got him to calm down he told me that according to facebook I was dead and that my family had left a message on my page informing my friends of my untimely passing and that funeral details would be announced in due course! I laughed. I though it was a joke, but then the reality hit me as floods of texts and calls came in.
This is what was posted:
What type of sick person comes up with that? In retrospect he made a quick exist from Starbucks once he handed back the laptop, but he didn’t have a cheeky grin or anything, he simply handed me the macbook, graciously said thank you and left.
Lesson learned, and hopefully those who read this will be more protective of their social networking site and ensure greater safety – so much for being kind to strangers.
Thank you to all those who assisted in my online resurrection.
