It is estimated that last year alone, Americans paid over 6 Billion dollars to scammers and their ilk. That is a lot of money going to questionable at best entities and outright known enemies of the state and ourselves at worst.
So what are we to do, Well AARP’s Scam Alert contributor Sid Kirchheimer has come our with a book that I think is timely for not just senior citizens but the entire purchasing public at large. It is titled “Scam Proof Your Life” and barns and Noble has it here for only 9.99. Obviously this book is not a “covers every eventuality” five volume tomb of complex scenarios and mathematics. On the contrary, it will give you a good foundation for creating a mindset that can deal with these ever evolving scam situations.
Remember Vlad the Inhaler is now receiving more money trying Internet scams than he is at selling drugs on the street corner. This is why these frauds are becoming more and more frequent and varied to every part of society as the money’s raised by these scams increases to vast amounts. Once mad Vlad realized the payoff potential and lack of dangerous competition these scams created, he put his thug “nines” in the drawer and picked up a keyboard for his desk as fast as he could. He did not stop at the keyboard either but got himself a top of the line Dell with business class fast Internet access and a smart geek or two for support.
So staying savvy about Internet fraud and scams in general is no longer just the preview of the elderly or traditional targets! Today everyone is a potential target of ever increasingly sophisticated thieves.
It is important to note here that the article in AARP was not even Internet based. This epitomizes how we need a mindset against fraud rather than a simple point solution to a particular scam. The article states that phone scams where you unintentionally dial a foreign number and get hit with a huge bill are on the rise. The scammers will trick you into dialing a 284, 809 or 876 number with is the British Virgin Islands in the case of 876. For example, they’ll say you’ve won a million bucks in some no name sweepstakes and to claim it you simply have to call this number. Unfortunately for the phone account holder, these numbers act like 900 pay for play phone numbers. The scammers will do all sorts of tricks to keep you on hold and on line for as long as possible and then collect half of the total fee. What is worse is that if you call the phone company up demanding to know why your phone bill is $2000.00 this month, the phone company will demand right back that you pay it as you did all the dialing and therefore you owe it under the contracts law! To boot, they don’t exactly have a financial incentive to take pity on you either.
So in the end it is very wise these days to stay savvy of the scams that are out there and to cultivate a mindset to expect them.
Do note that I do not endorse or have been paid to endorse Mr. Kirchheimer or his book here explicitly. I do want people to read up on these scams however, as the money they funnel to anonymous groups are seriously approaching a point where national security has become a very real risk factor.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Local Confidence Tricks & why you must be vigilent for them
The Saint Charles Parish Sheriff's office has a notice out stating that their are people claiming to be your bank and calling you to alert you that your account has been compromised and to call their number to get it set up again. Don't fall for it, as the Sheriff says it is a fraud to try and rip off your bank account access information!
These scams are roughly a 6 billion dollar a year revenue generating fraud and because they make so much money at it; the pro's constantly evolve the tricks to keep up the flow of funds.
If you're at the doctor's office and have a few hours to kill or are board and want something interesting and informative to read, Check our Wikipedia's link on confidence tricks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks
When done with that, check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud
and finally what I find most important
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software
These three sites should give you a really good education on what to look out for and how to deal with it. The key point to remember here is that these frauds play on all of our psychological weak points of obeying authority (In general we all obeys our moms so even Jonny Rotten and company do this) and demurring or over compensating when confronted with an insecurity or unknown.
In short we generally will act like we know what we are doing when confronted with a totally unknown computer situation and someone else interacting with us. Then the AnitSpyware "authority figure" says “do this or else!” and we follow along. The Fraudsters bank on it every time.
Now a note of caution here! A great many people do not fall for this in general. However, "don't get cocky kid", as Han Solo said, this is a numbers game for the fraudsters, they know it and they are always trying something new to get those they tried but missed before.
So how to avoid all this, in the case of the sheriffs notice to the public, I reinforce his view of being vigilant in your actions over the phone and internet! A good rule of thumb is that if you did not initiate or start the call, be suspect of all identifying or access information requests. Slow down, pause and think of whom you are giving the information to and if they should already have it on file.
So far that is the only real solution to the problem of these confidence tricks. Read more about these types of tricks above and at http://www.getgogator.com/News/Articles_Directory.htm
Stay vigilant and stay safe!
These scams are roughly a 6 billion dollar a year revenue generating fraud and because they make so much money at it; the pro's constantly evolve the tricks to keep up the flow of funds.
If you're at the doctor's office and have a few hours to kill or are board and want something interesting and informative to read, Check our Wikipedia's link on confidence tricks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks
When done with that, check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_fraud
and finally what I find most important
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_security_software
These three sites should give you a really good education on what to look out for and how to deal with it. The key point to remember here is that these frauds play on all of our psychological weak points of obeying authority (In general we all obeys our moms so even Jonny Rotten and company do this) and demurring or over compensating when confronted with an insecurity or unknown.
In short we generally will act like we know what we are doing when confronted with a totally unknown computer situation and someone else interacting with us. Then the AnitSpyware "authority figure" says “do this or else!” and we follow along. The Fraudsters bank on it every time.
Now a note of caution here! A great many people do not fall for this in general. However, "don't get cocky kid", as Han Solo said, this is a numbers game for the fraudsters, they know it and they are always trying something new to get those they tried but missed before.
So how to avoid all this, in the case of the sheriffs notice to the public, I reinforce his view of being vigilant in your actions over the phone and internet! A good rule of thumb is that if you did not initiate or start the call, be suspect of all identifying or access information requests. Slow down, pause and think of whom you are giving the information to and if they should already have it on file.
So far that is the only real solution to the problem of these confidence tricks. Read more about these types of tricks above and at http://www.getgogator.com/News/Articles_Directory.htm
Stay vigilant and stay safe!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Survival Tips For The Sane ;-P
Boy everyone seems to have survival tips these days! Many are prepping for the end of the world even!
Many others see this as nuts going nuts about where to hide their nuts! I say that most of the extreme stuff on both ends of the spectrum is just plain nutty as always! That said however, I also have a refreshing positive flip of the coin and view of all this prepping going on.
Accidents and Mother Nature happen all the time and often I have learned that the people involved were unprepared for it. So I see that getting people aware of everyday emergencies and natural problems is very beneficial when taken in manageable doses and with a balanced approach. You know me, I like balance! Personally I have survived both the 1980 Mount St. Helen's eruption in Washington State and 2005's Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Both times showed me what a little self preparedness would do for people and what overdoing it and stressing about it can do as well.
A Personal example here: Mt. St. Helen's showed me that even the best laid plans of Emergency Operations Center personnel and tons of federal "Emergency Prep" money can be thwarted by the simplest of events. As it happened, Mount St. Helen's blew up on a Sunday afternoon. The manager with the only set of keys to enable the expertly designed Emergency Broadcast System ended up getting stuck in jammed traffic on the way to activate the EBS to prevent the jam in the first place. Lack of an immediate EBS warning actually caused everyone to panic as they did not know what to do when the scary grey snow began to fall on them. Initially, they did as instructed and waited until the EBS system told them what to do “in case of an actual emergency". Except this time there was no EBS alert and everyone panicked thinking the worst had happened! (Ooops, insert sickening laugh here) Billions of cold war EBS bucks were blown that day by a simple single key! This was because for "safety concerns" the automatic EBS switching gear was locked in a vault so that no one could play with the system and scare the masses for no real reason. Trouble was that weekend of the event, the EOC guys gave the only key to the vault to a manager that lived on the outskirts of town! So again as you see, the best laid and best paid for emergency plans went up in a cloud of grey ash in the middle of gridlock traffic they where designed to prevent! So don't bet on the government or emergency services immediately saving you're life, They'll be busy saving their own!
So what does all this mean and what can you take away from my babble here? Well I like a take the approach of Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action. I have described this mantra on the blog as it relates to computers, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say, a "Little" self planning goes a very long way. Time and again it has been shown that those who remained cool calm and collected survived even the worst disasters even when these survivors had no training or supplies at the ready to handle the problems at hand. They simply dealt with it with reasoned and appropriate action!
Wikipedia has a great example of when the Fit real did hit the shan and only some very fast but reasoned and cool thinking kept anyone out of 296 souls alive! Read here about United Arilines Flight 232
The big thing to take away here, is that survivors reasoned and thought about their situation and then took the appropriate action to solve there immediate endangering situation as best they could. Due to flight or fight biology however, this can be much harder than most people expect and has caused even the most seasoned pro grief and trouble at times. So this is something to also be mindful of.
So what to do and how to prepare? I find that reasoned action or taking the road of balanced study, planning and stock piling of only the necessities for near term use wins the day. Using this approach, I find covers 99% of emergencies that any of us will face with minimal costs while setting ourselves up to best survive the 1% outliers that really can not be planned for anyway. A great example of this balanced approach is again Mt. St. Helen's. That Sunday evening and Monday Morning as the ash rained down on everything, Breathing normally suddenly became a big issue! 3M masks suddenly became a hot commodity and supplies ran dangerously low! Did everyone panic and off themselves! Noooooo, Most families went to the garage and got "Dads" wood working supply out! Problem solved and most everyone breathed easy the entire time! Some did panic, but they were a vast minority of unprepared apartment dwellers who relied on automated services and even they were taken care of when the EOC finally got up and running.
So again I do not judge anyone’s plans, but I do say be vigilant of the surrounding natural emergency potentials. Then take simple stock of what's somewhat predictable to happen to you. I live in New Orleans, as an example, so I need to be vigilant for events like floods, hurricanes, power outages, Tornado's ect… and pause about possible earthquakes once in a while. I need to reason that I need to be very prepared to evacuate the city between May and November if a hurricane is projected to be in the Gulf of Mexico shortly. I need to reason that all the other emergencies can happen to varying degrees and what I would do and what I really need in case they did. I then need to take the appropriate actions (and I find this key) for these reasoned emergencies. I keep important records in something weather resistant and ready to go. If there is a storm in the Gulf, I get an evac bag ready if I happen to need it. I keep a well stocked first aid kit in my car with an MRE handy.
But I strongly caution to not go over board, and this is where I strongly reiterate about appropriate action! As an example I ask, why haul and therefore waste the much needed gas on a five gallon jug of toothpaste during a hurricane evacuation? Some might counter that I’ll need it at the bug out location because it’ll all be gone! That is a point, but is it a valid and appropriate one? In this given question and example above, as it turned out, I went to my Uncles house which is less than a block away from a 24 hrs Wal-Mart in a perfectly safe and unaffected location with plenty of stock and 5 different flavors! So their was no appropriate reason to haul 5 gallons worth of toothpaste, and waste the expensive gas. Similarly why panic buy and haul tonnage of bottled water when I can shut the engine off at my destination, walk into my Uncles air-conditioned kitchen getting a clean glass out, get some nicely cooled water from the fridge and then plop down on a comfy couch and watch the ensuing mayhem on CNN? Oh it never happens that way and I’d be betting my life on things being OK at my bug out location some might say! Well it did happen just like that in 2005! Again sometimes taking appropriate action is not as easy as it sounds and it is something to think about. One or two big bottles for the trip are OK, but 5 cases “cause ya just never know” would have been a waste of resources and not appropriate to the actual severe and life taking emergency encountered.
Hopefully I have given you some food for some serious yet measured reasoned thought here! Now I’d like to show you a website that can help you make those reasoned appropriate actions and help you stay safe, sanely vigilant and leaving the nuts for the holiday party platters!
Read below about what you may really need to stay safe and sane in an insane and troubled world:
http://www.earthchangesmedia.com/survival/index.php
Many others see this as nuts going nuts about where to hide their nuts! I say that most of the extreme stuff on both ends of the spectrum is just plain nutty as always! That said however, I also have a refreshing positive flip of the coin and view of all this prepping going on.
Accidents and Mother Nature happen all the time and often I have learned that the people involved were unprepared for it. So I see that getting people aware of everyday emergencies and natural problems is very beneficial when taken in manageable doses and with a balanced approach. You know me, I like balance! Personally I have survived both the 1980 Mount St. Helen's eruption in Washington State and 2005's Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Both times showed me what a little self preparedness would do for people and what overdoing it and stressing about it can do as well.
A Personal example here: Mt. St. Helen's showed me that even the best laid plans of Emergency Operations Center personnel and tons of federal "Emergency Prep" money can be thwarted by the simplest of events. As it happened, Mount St. Helen's blew up on a Sunday afternoon. The manager with the only set of keys to enable the expertly designed Emergency Broadcast System ended up getting stuck in jammed traffic on the way to activate the EBS to prevent the jam in the first place. Lack of an immediate EBS warning actually caused everyone to panic as they did not know what to do when the scary grey snow began to fall on them. Initially, they did as instructed and waited until the EBS system told them what to do “in case of an actual emergency". Except this time there was no EBS alert and everyone panicked thinking the worst had happened! (Ooops, insert sickening laugh here) Billions of cold war EBS bucks were blown that day by a simple single key! This was because for "safety concerns" the automatic EBS switching gear was locked in a vault so that no one could play with the system and scare the masses for no real reason. Trouble was that weekend of the event, the EOC guys gave the only key to the vault to a manager that lived on the outskirts of town! So again as you see, the best laid and best paid for emergency plans went up in a cloud of grey ash in the middle of gridlock traffic they where designed to prevent! So don't bet on the government or emergency services immediately saving you're life, They'll be busy saving their own!
So what does all this mean and what can you take away from my babble here? Well I like a take the approach of Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action. I have described this mantra on the blog as it relates to computers, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say, a "Little" self planning goes a very long way. Time and again it has been shown that those who remained cool calm and collected survived even the worst disasters even when these survivors had no training or supplies at the ready to handle the problems at hand. They simply dealt with it with reasoned and appropriate action!
Wikipedia has a great example of when the Fit real did hit the shan and only some very fast but reasoned and cool thinking kept anyone out of 296 souls alive! Read here about United Arilines Flight 232
The big thing to take away here, is that survivors reasoned and thought about their situation and then took the appropriate action to solve there immediate endangering situation as best they could. Due to flight or fight biology however, this can be much harder than most people expect and has caused even the most seasoned pro grief and trouble at times. So this is something to also be mindful of.
So what to do and how to prepare? I find that reasoned action or taking the road of balanced study, planning and stock piling of only the necessities for near term use wins the day. Using this approach, I find covers 99% of emergencies that any of us will face with minimal costs while setting ourselves up to best survive the 1% outliers that really can not be planned for anyway. A great example of this balanced approach is again Mt. St. Helen's. That Sunday evening and Monday Morning as the ash rained down on everything, Breathing normally suddenly became a big issue! 3M masks suddenly became a hot commodity and supplies ran dangerously low! Did everyone panic and off themselves! Noooooo, Most families went to the garage and got "Dads" wood working supply out! Problem solved and most everyone breathed easy the entire time! Some did panic, but they were a vast minority of unprepared apartment dwellers who relied on automated services and even they were taken care of when the EOC finally got up and running.
So again I do not judge anyone’s plans, but I do say be vigilant of the surrounding natural emergency potentials. Then take simple stock of what's somewhat predictable to happen to you. I live in New Orleans, as an example, so I need to be vigilant for events like floods, hurricanes, power outages, Tornado's ect… and pause about possible earthquakes once in a while. I need to reason that I need to be very prepared to evacuate the city between May and November if a hurricane is projected to be in the Gulf of Mexico shortly. I need to reason that all the other emergencies can happen to varying degrees and what I would do and what I really need in case they did. I then need to take the appropriate actions (and I find this key) for these reasoned emergencies. I keep important records in something weather resistant and ready to go. If there is a storm in the Gulf, I get an evac bag ready if I happen to need it. I keep a well stocked first aid kit in my car with an MRE handy.
But I strongly caution to not go over board, and this is where I strongly reiterate about appropriate action! As an example I ask, why haul and therefore waste the much needed gas on a five gallon jug of toothpaste during a hurricane evacuation? Some might counter that I’ll need it at the bug out location because it’ll all be gone! That is a point, but is it a valid and appropriate one? In this given question and example above, as it turned out, I went to my Uncles house which is less than a block away from a 24 hrs Wal-Mart in a perfectly safe and unaffected location with plenty of stock and 5 different flavors! So their was no appropriate reason to haul 5 gallons worth of toothpaste, and waste the expensive gas. Similarly why panic buy and haul tonnage of bottled water when I can shut the engine off at my destination, walk into my Uncles air-conditioned kitchen getting a clean glass out, get some nicely cooled water from the fridge and then plop down on a comfy couch and watch the ensuing mayhem on CNN? Oh it never happens that way and I’d be betting my life on things being OK at my bug out location some might say! Well it did happen just like that in 2005! Again sometimes taking appropriate action is not as easy as it sounds and it is something to think about. One or two big bottles for the trip are OK, but 5 cases “cause ya just never know” would have been a waste of resources and not appropriate to the actual severe and life taking emergency encountered.
Hopefully I have given you some food for some serious yet measured reasoned thought here! Now I’d like to show you a website that can help you make those reasoned appropriate actions and help you stay safe, sanely vigilant and leaving the nuts for the holiday party platters!
Read below about what you may really need to stay safe and sane in an insane and troubled world:
http://www.earthchangesmedia.com/survival/index.php
Monday, February 20, 2012
The Myth Of Privacy And Why The Boogie Man Wants You To Fly Southwest And Cleanup With Dove Moisture Body Wash!
Privacy and lack there of is a big buzz word these days, but the truth is our society has not had what most people consider privacy since the 1700’s and have not had any relevant privacy since the end of WWII.
Paradoxically and somewhat humorously however, who we think is spying on us and therefore think is developing devious evil deeds to do us in, are themselves clients of those who actually control the information and therefore our lives.
It has long been known in security circles that who ever controls information, controls the world, for the world truly is managed by the flow of information. However what has not been known until quit recently is who these data managers really are.
Most peoples thinking is still rooted in the cold war and that the boogie man is some secretive government agency like the KGB, CIA and/or Chinese equivalent that are out to do them harm.
The truth however is much stranger than fiction.
In reality when you take off the (Rubbermaid ®) rubber mask, James Bond turns out to be Pam the Palm Olive girl™. In addition, that lethal Walther PPK™ and license to kill turns out to be a powerful set of statistical number crunching algorithms, reams of behavioral psychology and Library’s full of bore you the death and very obscure corporate law.
What is worse though and truly scary when you look into it, is that although Pam is not sexy and immediately deadly like James, or as scary as the CIA or Dr. Evil plotting to kill you, she does not have to be.
Pam as it turns out styles herself as our collective mother, and since she has protected us from birth, we will do exactly what she wants us to do, on queue! In short, you have not fallen to the dark side; you have lived in it your entire life and can not even notice its influence on you.
So who is Pam, what does she want with us and what does any of this have to do with who is spying on me going to the bathroom?
In brief, Pam is the board of directors of a small collective of large transnational corporations. This group controls the populations of the globe through proxies like a big brother telling little brother to behave. Pam uses the aforementioned tools to control the masses through psychology and proxy manipulation to generally behave.
Here is a major rubbing point that most people will chafe at. In general Pam is a default that has come along as our world has evolved. In large part it is self protecting but nurturing of that protection. Therefore it does not seek to take us out like some evil plan to dominate the world. Hitler proved once and for all that, world domination (Insert evil laugh here) is a short lived fool’s errand for idiots.
Rather Pam takes a world view of things and to protect herself, nurtures the masses around her. Because of this protective world view however, bad things can happen to little Jonny! For an up to date example, if Iran nukes Tel Aviv and kills untold thousands but weans the world off of fossil fuels just in time, in the ensuing conflict, so be it. Kind of sucks for little Jonnie in Tel Aviv though.
So back to the Peeping Tom in your bathroom! Pam like all mothers does not like messy situations, kids start asking questions like where do babies come from etc… Therefore, Pam has in addition to tools mentioned earlier created some rather ingenious technologies and tools to ensure she knows what little Johnny is doing in the basement with the firecrackers and the cat! On a global scale, that is very impressive and illuminates the reasoning’s behind some of today’s news, issues and situations globally.
On the very micro level, that is where the bathroom Peeping Tom comes in. Rather than being the CIA, looking to take you away, it is PAM seeing that everything is going as planned and that you are diligently scrubbing those ears with Dove body wash so you can take that flight on Southwest in the morning.
Now here’s the kicker! Don’t believe me, I dare you! Engage the noodle and read on below and further on in the blog. Pam like all mothers hides her magic in plane sight for all to see who want to. After digging a bit you can truly see Why the Boogie Man wants you to fly Southwest and cleanup with Dove moisture body wash!
Then you can decide for yourself weather to run to Montana and buy bunker space or look at the tiny dot across from the toilet and wave saying Hi Mom!
Here are some articles that can help you on your way.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2012/02/17/big-data-is-big-market-big-business/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Privacy, the myth and the mayhem behind it
Privacy, it’s a myth that has been propagated in western societies for population control for centuries. Don’t believe me, good! Read, this article and illuminate your mind to the myth and see it for what it is. That being a social construct propagated to all in western society since birth as a control measure and tool. But here is the real truth behind this scary thought; this is not really a bad thing either way. We don’t really need it biologically; we’ve simply been taught from birth that we do! Look to China or India
So as I say; Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action folks! We don’t need to take back our government or make it into a socialist paradise as either the right or left bloviate all day on, we simply need to run it! A free people do not care if they are caught on camera using the outhouse! Having it locked and threatened with death if they use it on the other hand is where we seem to be headed.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Pros and Cons of Cloud computing
Much has been said about cloud computing, so what is it? Cloud computing is a simplistic way of saying your using someone else’s hardware and specialized licensed software from the internet to do home and business tasks. A good example is your music being stored for access on Amazon.com’s “Cloud Player” that you use with your I-phone on your way to work. You have a custom or random mix of music that you have created and stored, but you do not have it on your I-phone, you "access" it through the "Cloud". The actual data is stored at Amazon. Here is where the pros and cons come in. On the pro side small companies and those starting out have a very large and nimble tools set to work with to accomplish there office goals and needs. Budgeting and growth are easily handled whereas traditionally this could be a show stopper. Suddenly items and issues that where expensive or impossible to have become easy to use and budgeted if not totally cheap. Cloud computing is best when everything is running smoothly; you have a high speed internet connection that never drops and your power is nice and steady! Therein lays the dark side! While nimble and flexible, cloud computing is very susceptible to real world issues of being hacked by competitors or damaged due to interruptions or network traffic. Legal issues of licensing and ownership of data have also been asked but not legally defined by case law yet. So there are many pit falls small businesses and home owners need to be aware of that simply have not been explored yet. This can have an abrupt destructive effect on small or startup businesses who traditionally do not weather business interruptions well. So in short Cloud computing can be the fast track for new business owners and families who don’t have a lot of storage space to get into business or down load movies, but you must remember that this fast track is also a mine field of unknown perils! As I like to say, Vigilance, reason and appropriate action!
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Gator Blog: Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action; Words to live by
Just an update on something I beleive in!
The Gator Blog: Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action; Words to live by
The Gator Blog: Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action; Words to live by
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