Never trust a stranger with your mobile phone… not even when he works for your phone provider!

You have been warned… the man posing as a friendly Virgin Mobile staff member, apparently ready and able to help you fix the problem you’ve been having with your internet connection on your phone may in fact be an evil monster who re-formats your phone without asking, losing all of your contacts, memos, calendar entries… and beloved messages.

In defense of said monster, apparently he was operating under instructions from a faceless voice on the other end of a helpline. And he did have the good grace to remove my mini-USB card, saving my photos, for which I can be nothing but thankful.

Most of the losses I can deal with relatively easily… it is more of a pain than anything. But the loss of 6 months of my beloved text messages, those little snippets of my interaction with the world that I love to keep, effectively the story of my life, causes me heartache.

I have reacted with a rather more “such is life” attitude than I would have previously thought myself capable of, keeping my disappointment in check by telling myself that they were but text messages. But I do feel it necessary to pass on the warning to others… trust not your friendly and seemingly well-intentioned phone shop assistant!