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Good Morning,

My phone was due an upgrade. I didn鈥檛 really need one, but I liked the sound of the next iteration, the one with three cameras. All the better to take photos of the beauty in this world. When I called the provider, I even got the upgrade at no extra cost to me (yay!).

But a few minutes after this I received a call from someone supposedly from the same company asking for my address. His opening question should have alerted me 鈥� 鈥渋s that Mr Brooks Rhidian?鈥� 鈥� but it wasn鈥檛 until he asked three times for the address I鈥檇 already given that I suspected something was awry. Sensing my concern his friendly tone gave way to desperation. When another man called 鈥� and was more forceful and threatening - I blocked the number.

Then the actual phone provider called and asked if I had received any suspicious messages. They explained that the men had been trying to keep me on the line long enough to hack the phone. I鈥檇 just avoided being scammed.

The new phone arrived, but its sleek three-lensed body seemed somehow sullied by all the deception. What kind of people do this? All that energy and creativity put to nefarious use. Aren鈥檛 we made for better things?

Perhaps I shouldn鈥檛 have been so quick to condemn. If this upgrade had been mildly degrading for me; it is almost certainly degrading and quite possibly worse for the one doing the scamming

Some thieves steal because they choose to, but there are an increasing number of scammers in this world who have themselves been scammed into stealing from us. The UN estimates that more than 200,000 people across Southeast Asia are currently enslaved in industrial-scale scamming factories. Deceptively recruited by seemingly legit tech hubs, then trafficked and trapped. A number of heroic human rights groups are working to break these criminal syndicates - trying to set the scammers free - but it鈥檚 an immense and dangerous task.

A few days after this incident, I went to the National Gallery, and I found myself in rooms full of depictions of the crucifixion.

All the beauty and horror of the world is mingled in the scene of Christ鈥檚 execution. In it we see the outworking of forces that have bent people out of shape and distorted their God-given humanity.

A number of paintings showed the two thieves hanging either side of Christ. The gospel doesn鈥檛 tell us what they stole or how, but it does say that with his last, desperate breath one of them asked Jesus to remember him when He came into his kingdom and that Jesus replied, 鈥楾oday you鈥檒l be with me in paradise.鈥� It鈥檚 an extraordinary upgrade.

And with that, I spared a thought for the thieves who tried to steal from me, reached for my phone, and took the picture.

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