An MLGW Payment Kiosk Error Spawns A Bill Payment Hoax

Internet, Life, Memphis, Other, Thoughts and Rants
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I’m still trying to get all the details on this one, but I think I have enough to be able to write about this accurately enough, so let’s get to it: It would seem today that, for whatever reason, an error in the bill payment kiosk’s for Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) would “not produce accurate receipts” which, from what I can gather, often showed some indication that the bill was paid off in full, rather than showing an accurate amount paid being taken off the amount due.

This is bad enough, but you would think people would question it, right? Well, somehow someone, somewhere in the city, decided to start a rumor that a Memphis Grizzlies team member, Zach Randolph, was paying 1 Million dollars to MLGW to pay off people’s bills, and the way to get some help with this? Go to one of the payment kiosks located around the city and make any kind of payment.

I awoke today to see several posts from friends asking why there were massive lines at all the gas stations nearby, while I also saw posts by MLGW regarding some hoax – I eventually saw the two were related, and I could do nothing but honestly laugh at the fact that people fell for this!

MLGW has gone out of its way to try to squash the rumor, and is also forgoing the usual service cut off for lack of proper payment which was planned for this coming Monday, the 10th of July, to allow people to make a proper payment.

Now, I’m not excusing MLGW and the companies who produced the payment kiosk’s for them being defective the past few days, but I will say that anyone who seriously believed this needs a course or two in critical thinking.

Let’s go over why no one should have fallen for this, shall we?

While yes, there are cases of celebrities and the like donating to help out their communities (in this case Zach Randolph actually does donate $20,000 a year to MLGW to help the community), it would never be done in such a way – there wouldn’t be a “make a payment and your bill is paid off” kind of event, instead it would be something directly credited to your account without you taking any action beyond, at most, calling in to claim such or filling out a request on the MLGW website. It would never be something as random as going to kiosks and making some random payment to get rewarded. That’s the way a child would think of something like this working!

Secondly, such would be a much more public event, which would require some special negotiations with MLGW and the celebrity providing this donation, presuming it was to be made as public as this one seems, and information would be provided directly by the social media of MLGW and the celebrity, and not via random commentary on Facebook, Twitter, and the like.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. An event like this would be heavily publicized by the actual media and *not* via random social media posts from whomever-the-hell these people are.

Luckily, there seems to be no permanent damage done by this, and MLGW is being good by not punishing those who fell for this, but seriously, if people just learned to stop and think about things, instead of stupidly rushing out the moment they read about it on twitter, then fewer people would take advantage of things like this, make these hoaxes, and revel in the chaos they bring.

Yes, if you wonder why someone would make such a hoax, it’s simple: they get joy out of watching people make absolute idiots out of themselves by believing this idiocy.

Memphis, learn how to stop and think things through.

https://twitter.com/BRIng_Me_Dat/status/883698786593374208

 

 

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