Here's how that works:

say you get a text from your internet provider, let's say it's Comcast (whom i hate). So you have this text that says it's from Comcast about your bill with a contact number and a clickable link -- could be real, could be a scam.

Don't touch anything about this text. Open a web browser and look up the customer service number for Comcast. Or get the number from the bill they send you. However you do it, get the contact info for Comcast from a trusted source, like an official phone directory or the Comcast website itself.

Get in touch with them using that information.

So. Let's run the example both ways it could go.

If it IS a scam: you reach out to Comcast and tell them you were contacted about a problem with your bill, they look you up in their customer database, and they tell you there is no problem with your bill.

If it's NOT a scam, you do the same thing, they look you up, and they explain the problem. In this case, neither Comcast nor the employees involved give a single shit whether or not you clicked the link in the text vs. going through their official website.

This works the same for the your bank, the IRS, Amazon, political causes, charities, everything.

If it's not scam they'll be like sure, here's the reference number. Then you follow the instructions above, call the separate number you find yourself on a reputable website and give that person the reference number. And they'll help you resolve the issue.

Do NOT use the website previews/AI answers on google or any other search engine. AI is often wrong and scammers have managed to get their own numbers in the previews.

Make sure that the website is correct. Look for any errors in the URL (phishing sites often use double letters, replacement letters [like I/i instead of a lowercase l], or a different TLD like .li instead of .com) and inconsistencies on the site. These scams are getting more advanced and harder to recognize, so if you're unsure, do NOT log in or use any of the contact information available. There are a variety of tools online that can check site URLs to see if they're legit.

Hey, however you have to take it, I’m glad you read all of it, eventually. :) I’m just thrilled that you got into it in the middle and didn’t skip it all together. 

This was probably the most research-intensive fic I’ve ever written. From Dallas maps and just driving around town to see what I notice, to messaging my brother about the weight of a F150′s windshield, to long chats with my buddy Dave about building management and sustainable living. 

So, so many questions.  In the larger world building sense, was this a pandemic or was it isolated to the Americas (or even just North America)?  How did it start, or where did it come from?  How did regions with shorter/no winters fare?  For instance, Florida, parts of the coasts, etc., where it’s just not ever really cold.  

I can sort of imagine things like the railroad eventually getting back online, in part because the railroad predates automobiles, but what about other pieces of long-haul transportation? Especially since a lot of USian transportation infrastructure is in terrible shape.  Fewer (no) tractor trailers going over fragile/older bridges, but also little or no upkeep going on and no ability to fund it.

And on that last, funding, what is the monetary/financial system?  How long does it take for one to be needed?  Same for education. And things like pharmaceutical and medical needs?  [Actually, I imagine that medical personnel would have been particularly hard hit since presumably people were going to the doctor or hospital at first, meaning healthcare professionals were the first exposed to the dead/dying. Yes/no?]

How much of the population was wiped out?  Was this like the Spanish flu, or more like the black plague, or similar to measles and other European diseases and their damage to indigenous/aboriginal North Americans?

Are there survivalists who basically sat back and watched all this happen, a la End of Days as predicted, and then creep out to either help or capitalize on the weakness of the less prepared?

At what point (if ever?), does the group attempt to raise/domesticate animals?  Chickens, etc.?

Is moving something they ever consider?  Just in terms of more land for cultivating, ability to dig a well (assuming they could figure out the tech for that), etc.

Does Jamie ask Jordie to bring the rest of Wendy’s library to the apartment building?

Does the New Canadian government have a long term plan, or does it really depend on what the different groups find/report back?

What is Ofelia’s backstory?  

Anyway, yeah, I wasn’t quite sure you completely enjoyed it from the first comment? So I’m glad to know that it was good for you.

I think if something is usually a “nope,” then it’s fair to not go into it cold. It’s a different thing to read a WIP than a finished fic that you can take in your own time. It’s fair to actively want spoilers (I do on TWD–I wait like 2-3 weeks after an ep comes out before I watch it. You take care of you. If that means waiting, that’s cool, or if it’s asking someone to preview a show and let you know what’s coming. Whatever is healthiest for you.

OMG this came out super-long. 

“You slept with Steve Harrington?” he hisses while Wayne carefully shifts Steve aside and gets up. “What the fuck, Wayne!”

Wayne glances over his shoulder to where Steve's still asleep on the pullout. If Eddie gets any louder he'll wake Steve up and Steve's had a rough enough night as is. He grabs Eddie by the arm and drags him down the hall to his room while Eddie squirms in his grasp and tries to pull away. Wayne doesn't let him go until they're behind closed doors.

“It's not what it looks like,” Wayne says calmly.

“It looks like you fucked a goddamn teenager,” Eddie spits. “God, I can't be here, I gotta—”

“Ed,” Wayne interrupts, loud as he dares. “Listen to me. I did not fuck him.”

“Swear it,” Eddie says, eyes darting over Wayne's face. “Swear on my mom's grave.”

So I tell Jane to bring her boy over to a bbq I'm having and she can tell him she's trans at my place surrounded by queer and trans people who love her and will support her if he ends up being awful.

She waits till the end of the bbq to tell him the news, by which point the rest of us have learned that Jason is a kind, friendly, empathetic, hard working, dummy. So we sit down, all of us a little worried about this gym bro's reaction when she tells him she's trans, and that she understands if he doesn't want to keep dating her it's no big deal.

He's baffled, so we explain what trans is, and after the disclosure that she hasn't had bottom surgery yet...

"Oh you have a dick?"

"... yeah."

He look's around at the room full of people with baited breath, his clearly a little afraid girl friend says

"Oooohhhh! I get it! You think- don't worry Babe! Watch this!"

And ya'll this man jumps up, runs into the kitchen and returns with one of the bratwurst we had for grilling and proceeds to tilt his head back, put it down his throat, hold it in his mouth for a moment, and spit it up without even a whisper of a gag and then looks around at the group absolutely beaming with pride.

"Honey, I must tell you, i am in fact trans and I have not had bottom surgery."