Michael Allen's Blog: Michael Allen Online, page 32

Spotting Internet Scams

I have been on the internet longer than most of my friends. I logged onto the internet for the first time in July of 1993. I used the AOL CD that came with my new computer.

Remember those AOL CDs that were all over the place? They were on cereal boxes and attached to sales flyers that came in your mail. In a typical week, you could end up with a hundred of them.

The first scam someone ever tried on me was after logging into AOL for the first time and having about twenty-five hundred minutes. I would get an instant message from someone claiming to be customer support and that there was a problem with my login. They wanted my username and password, which I immediately knew there was something wrong with that.

Since then, scams have evolved with changes that have taken place across the internet. You have to be very careful whenever you are doing anything. So, I hope I can help you identify scams that I have seen throughout the years.

 

First of all, if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Most companies that have your information know all about the scams. So, they put safeguards in their interactions so that you will never feel as if their practices are questionable.

For instance, I get emails from a company that I’ve been doing business with for years. They always include my full name and they never ask me for information in the email. They tell me to go to the site where I can read the full message in my internal inbox.

There are scammers who try to fake being this company. I get emails that are gmail, hotmail, or yahoo and have some kind of identifier so that I might think the email is legitimate. Professional companies will have their domain in the email, @domain.com. They normally don’t use gmail, hotmail, yahoo or any of the free services. That’s one give away.

Plus, never click a link in an email. If you think the email is actually from the company, then just go to your browser and type in the web address yourself. A link in an email could lead you to a fake site that looks a lot like the real thing. If you try to login, they have your login information stored in a database and now they can take advantage of your account. This is called phishing and it’s a common practice. People have tried to phish facebook, twitter and even google.

But, what’s scary is when they try to phish online banking companies and investing sites. You can get wiped out clean if you’re not careful. So, always go to your browser and type in the web address yourself!

 

Emails that come from a rich banker in South Africa or a lottery administrator from the UK are always a scam. You should be able to tell by the fact that they want very sensitive information. The lazy ones ask for bank account information on the first try.

I can’t imagine this scam working on anyone. But, it must be. I’m still getting these emails and I have been for years. The more savvy scams along these lines will ask you to contact someone, which is an email, an address or a phone number. Who is going to call and who will want to wait on the mail? So, they know the email will work.

So if you have inherited 1.5 million from an elderly lady who is dying and just wants you to administer her account for charity, ask yourself a few questions. Why do they need you to send them money to cover shipment of your check? There’s a million dollars there. Why can’t they just use that money?

 

Home shopping jobs are not always scams. I used to work for one and it was alright. I ate at nice restaurants for free. How you can tell the difference is that the scam will send you a check and have you cash it using your bank account. Then, they’ll have you run all over town buying items on a list. One of those things to do will be to visit the Western Union and send them a significant amount of the money they just sent you.

When the check comes back to your account, you’re the one who pays the fees and it ends up costing you thousands of dollars. But, they have the money you sent them via Western Union and they are off to another victim.

Something similar happened to me recently. A lady contacted me out of the blue and asked me if I could help her out getting her back to America. She was stranded and the company wasn’t paying her. Of course, I gave her the best advice I could but never sent her any money.

I told her to visit the embassy or find a church. Places like that have a way of helping people out when they are really in distress. Well, she eventually told me that the company paid her but she couldn’t get the check cashed. So, allowed her to send me the check. But, I gave her my bank’s address.

When the check arrived at my bank, I went there and then called the bank the check was drawn against. I asked the clerk who answered if the check would pass. She told me the check wasn’t legitimate. It was written against an account that had been closed.

A bank officer can’t give you account information as far as how much money is in the account. But if you read the account number to them and tell them the amount on the check, they can tell you whether or not the check will pass.

 

The worst form of scam though is when a scammer will use a tragedy to scam money. So, don’t allow yourself to get caught up emotionally in the tragedy and answer any email looking for donations. If you want to donate, watch the news or google it. You’ll find legitimate companies to take your money and do the right thing with it.

 

There are so many more scams that it’s hard to include them all. But as you can see the main premise, if it’s too good to be true, it most likely is. Do some investigating. Google a company’s name if it’s in the email. Contact the company directly if you feel someone is trying to scam you. It’s worth it to do your due diligence if it could mean hundreds or thousands of dollars in damage.

Most companies have their own spam email that you can use if you get spammed by someone claiming to be them. But in the case that you can’t find a spam or fraud email, use the federal government email to report scammers. Forward any suspicious emails to spam@uce.gov and let them handle it. Don’t alter the email in anyway. It contains information that you can’t see, but the IT Techs will know how to find it.

It’s Bullying Plain and Simple

We don’t need to worry about the government taking away our rights. We’re doing that just fine on our own.

Brad Pitt’s mother was threatened with her life because of her anti gay-marriage and anti-Obama letter. She received death threats because of her opinion.

Roseanne wished cancer on all people who eat Chick-fil-A. Cancer isn’t funny! It’s not something to wish on anyone whether you are joking or not. If you’re joking, you’re a moron. If you’re serious, you’re the essence of evil.

With death threats on people who believe differently than yourselves, you are creating a system of intolerance. The very intolerance you yourself say you won’t tolerate.

Roseanne and the people who threatened Brad Pitt’s mother need to be brought up on charges of assault. A lesson in law, a death threat is a verbal assault.

Once charges have been filed and those morons are put in their place, we need to bring the debate down a notch. I’d rather we return to the days when people guilted other people into believing what they believe than to see death threats go unchecked in public debate. By supporting anti-gay organizations, Chick-fil-A has cast its vote against gay marriage. They have practiced their right to speak as they wish. Don’t eat there if you disagree!

I like Henson’s resolve to donate the payment they received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Then, they severed partnership all together with Chick-fil-A. That’s hysterical!  That’s how you get the goat!

I have family and friends who are gay and I would hate to see them bullied for who they are and what they believe. They have the same rights I have to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The separation of Church and State was instituted for issues such as this and it’s time for America to realize that anti-gay laws do not make sense in a free country where the Church has been removed from dictating law. The Church has a right to influence public debate, but not to dictate the laws that we as a country will follow.

But, the day you attempt to eradicate freedom of speech by striking fear in people who don’t believe as you, that’s when you become the very thing you hate yourself. I will make my stand against tyranny before I take any other. Regardless if I am for gay marriage or not, I won’t stand idly by and watch as a bunch of bullies run rampant all over my Constitution because they think they have the right.

It’s Bullying Plain and Simple

We don’t need to worry about the government taking away our rights. We’re doing that just fine on our own.

Brad Pitt’s mother was threatened with her life because of her anti gay-marriage and anti-Obama letter. She received death threats because of her opinion.

Roseanne wished cancer on all people who eat Chick-fil-A. Cancer isn’t funny! It’s not something to wish on anyone whether you are joking or not. If you’re joking, you’re a moron. If you’re serious, you’re the essence of evil.

With death threats on people who believe differently than yourselves, you are creating a system of intolerance. The very intolerance you yourself say you won’t tolerate.

Roseanne and the people who threatened Brad Pitt’s mother need to be brought up on charges of assault. A lesson in law, a death threat is a verbal assault.

Once charges have been filed and those morons are put in their place, we need to bring the debate down a notch. I’d rather we return to the days when people guilted other people into believing what they believe than to see death threats go unchecked in public debate. By supporting anti-gay organizations, Chick-fil-A has cast its vote against gay marriage. They have practiced their right to speak as they wish. Don’t eat there if you disagree!

I like Henson’s resolve to donate the payment they received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Then, they severed partnership all together with Chick-fil-A. That’s hysterical!  That’s how you get the goat!

I have family and friends who are gay and I would hate to see them bullied for who they are and what they believe. They have the same rights I have to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The separation of Church and State was instituted for issues such as this and it’s time for America to realize that anti-gay laws do not make sense in a free country where the Church has been removed from dictating law. The Church has a right to influence public debate, but not to dictate the laws that we as a country will follow.

But, the day you attempt to eradicate freedom of speech by striking fear in people who don’t believe as you, that’s when you become the very thing you hate yourself. I will make my stand against tyranny before I take any other. Regardless if I am for gay marriage or not, I won’t stand idly by and watch as a bunch of bullies run rampant all over my Constitution because they think they have the right.

 

Posted in: Bullying by michaelallen / Tags: anti gay marriage, bullying, chick-fil-a, freedom of speech, gay marriage, intolerance

Jerry Sandusky on His Way to Hell

I had a good feeling I knew what the verdict was going to be on pedophile Jerry Sandusky. When I heard the verdict on the news, I saw a handcuffed man who had appropriately lost the sickening smile. He was looking around bewildered and I believe he was about ready to break down into tears before they put him in the police car.

The worst crime you can commit in this world is taking the innocence of a child. When you become a predator of children, to seek them out to have sex with them, you become the absolute bottom scum of the barrel. There aren’t words to describe how disgusting you are.

But, I knew it was coming. This guy was the best interview ever. When he talked, bones just fell out of his mouth. He gave interviewers like Bob Costas the material we needed to put him away for life.

Defending his statements he made in an interview with Bob Costas, in a later interview Sandusky talks about his attraction to young boys with his lawyer coaching him about his terminology, “If I say no I’m not attracted to boys, that’s not the truth because I’m attracted to young people, boys, girls…” and then his lawyer chimes-in to coach him.

Why couldn’t he just say, “No, I’m not attracted to young boys?” He knows the question that is being asked and he knows the nature of it. Give the interviewer a direct answer. Sandusky just couldn’t bring himself to answer the question without hemming and hawing, looking for gray area between the white of being decent and the black that was his soul.

In the interview with Bob Costas that originally aired, I was thrown when he said, “I could say I have done some of those things.” He was talking about showering with kids and horsing around with them. But, that was terminology coached to him and I could tell.

Later in the interview, he does flatly deny having any sexual contact. Finally, I hear him state clearly in the negative about the issue at hand, his sexual misconduct. But, the interview soon turned to one of the highlights of the case back in 2002 when Mike McQueary walked in on him raping a young boy.

An incident that lead to an investigation and later a confrontation with the boy’s mother, it seemed again spineless to me when he couldn’t exactly recall the confrontation and denied exact quotes Costas mentioned. “I wish I were dead.” “My genitals may have touched.”

Sandusky couldn’t recall the interview. I would think that particular interview would be embedded in his brain. But again, Sandusky turns to his spineless nature and refuses to recall, a political move that people have used over the years when you know damn well they can recall! They just don’t want to admit it.

Every time I hear someone say they can’t recall, I can’t help myself but know they are lying. If the answer were favorable, they wouldn’t have a problem recalling. But when the answer isn’t favorable, they can’t recall it for some reason. Spineless, Mindless individuals.

But then, the rest of the interview with Bob Costas was released in the days before the trial. If you ever wanted damning evidence that drives the nails in the coffin, it was in those transcripts. When Bob Costas talks about the nature of a pedophile to earn trust through most of the young boys so that he can have the opportunity to rape the others, Sandusky says, “…and I didn’t go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I’ve helped. There are many that I didn’t have — I hardly had any contact with who I have helped in many, many ways.”

Guilty! I have no doubt. This is not a case of misconstrued conduct. This is not a case of people jumping on the bandwagon because one person doesn’t like Sandusky for some reason. Sandusky is a pedophile and will soon learn how it feels to be raped. His road to hell has been paved! I just don’t think he’s smart enough to know that yet.

The Beating of Kelly Thomas

From the video, I see an officer being very unclear about what he expects Kelly Thomas to do…

“Put your feet out in front of you…put your knees back…put your feet out in front…put your knees back…”

This while the entire time he’s putting gloves on like he’s suiting up for a fight. Then, he punches Kelly in the face. What grown man is going to sit there and take that? It’s like being put on a stove and told to sit there while they turn the heat up on you. They expect you to take whatever they dish out to you, pain and all. Resist and they start beating you with batons.

They were telling him to put his hands behind his back. But, I could see him holding himself up so that his face wouldn’t hit the road. It’s natural! If he moves his arms, he hits the ground.

With their knees in his back, pushing and pulling his body in different directions, how do they expect him to do anything they are asking him to do?  Then, of course the posse comes running into help.  At one time, I think I counted six officers.

While several knees are in his back and several officers are holding his extremities, one officer is beating him relentlessly.  Another officer is tasing him just for fun.  He’s just shooting watts through Kelly like he’s a lab rat and the officer is getting to use his taser for the first time.

Toward the end of the video, listen hard. One officer is asking another officer, “What are we doing?”

The other officer’s answer, “I don’t know.”

It doesn’t appear at all throughout the video that the officers had a game plan other than to torture the man. It cannot possibly take that long to grab an arm and put it in handcuffs, then maneuver the other arm to cuff it. After a minute, you can have his feet in shackles too if you’re that insecure about it. But, I didn’t see any rhyme or reason to what they were doing and obviously they didn’t either.

Watch:

Hating Hatred

“Hate is such a strong word,” my aunt would say. “You should say you don’t like something, or you don’t like how someone was acting. But, you should never say hate.”

I grew up on these words, always trying to find another word for this strong emotion burning deep within me. I…don’t like when people pick on me in school. I…don’t like these clothes I have to wear. I…don’t like my life or anything else for that matter. But then, I grew up a little.

My life wasn’t so bad. I was buying my own clothes by then and I was bigger, much bigger.  Picking on me was a long, lost memory. But, by then I was closer to being an adult. I…don’t like paying taxes. Who is FICA anyway and why is he taking all my money? I…don’t like lies politicians tell. Why are they considered the elected royalty of America? I…don’t like thieves. Why do they think they are entitled to my stuff?

I grew up bottling down the hatred. I would have to agree that hate is a strong emotional word and we don’t have to use it. There are other ways to express our emotions. But, that’s a social remedy that allows us to stand tall among others and look everyone in the eye.

I have learned that it’s not a very healthy remedy. It’s a good way to develop ulcers. Holding in our true emotions and never letting what we really feel fly builds up so much hot air inside of us that if we unclenched our butts, they would whistle. Now, that can’t be good!

So to my aunt I say, “With all due respect, there are things I hate!” The word wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have a purpose for it.

I hate when children suffer.

I hate when animals are abused.

I hate when dreams get crushed.

I hate when people end up homeless, starving in soup kitchens, insurance companies withhold money, governments withhold cures, lives are euthanized, and the “haves” hoard it all.

I hate back-stabbing, two-faced people…Ah, that felt so good!

An excerpt from Michael Allen’s Thoughts and Reconsideration

Posted in: Hatred by michaelallen / Tags: animal abuse, bullying, child abuse, hate, hate crimes, homelessness, michael allen, poem, poems, poet, poetry, thoughts and reconsideration

How To Handle A Salesperson

My conversation with the cable company this morning:

"I'm calling about cable service."

"Do you want a bundle package?"

"No, just cable please."

"Are you sure? Our bundle packages are really great!"

"No, I don't need anything but cable."

"So, you have phone and internet?  Who is your phone service through?"

I know salespeople are only doing their jobs. But, I would love one day to be able to make a purchase without all the hassle.  I wish one day a salesperson would actually treat me like I'm an informed consumer and I might know what's best for me.

But before you start thinking I'm some grumpy guy, imagine my voice in a calm, professional manner…

"Well, when I called I knew exactly what I wanted and that's all I wanted. But since you are so insistent, I'll tell you all of my business that isn't any of your business. First of all, I have a cell phone package with my daughter. Her phone service is much more than mine when it comes to separating the services, so it would make no sense to have a home phone when my daughter still needs her phone. Second, the community where I live has wifi. It's high speed internet access that is faster than any of the packages you offer because I took the time to look.  We have a gym, a volleyball court and two pools too. But, that's beside the point. So, all I want is to talk about your cable service. Is that ok that I might know what I need more than you do and ask that you quit wasting my time thinking I'm not a responsible consumer?"

So much of my time gets wasted by people who want to use it for my convenience.

 

Internet Monsters Google and Facebook

Earlier this evening, I watched a video on Youtube about Google and Facebook. It was based on their complex algorithms and the selections they feed us. A form of censorship was the issue that was raised and I agreed whole-heartedly with the conclusion.

Preview the video:

Surfers, internet users, should be left to deal with the hassle of filtering their own information. Neither Google nor Facebook should attempt to do that for us. We miss information that we need to see.  We miss information that we might have wanted to see. But based on some robotic scheme, it's being censored out for us.

It's just that before you start to feel ill of Google or Facebook like they are some kind of monsters, just do a little thinking about the subject again.  Remember the old saying, "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it?"  Well, it's what you've been asking for since day one and all they were trying to do was give it to you.

The internet was the information superhighway compared to newspapers and magazines.  There was never going to be a day when a researcher was going to be able to pour through all the newspapers and magazines throughout the world, narrow down just the pertinent information and then filter it by preference without the help of infinite information compilation and a very quick spider to index it all.  Thank you Google!

Then, of course we invited Google into our homes. We wanted to know who was viewing our information. Then, we wanted to know where they were coming from, where they were going when they left, how long they stayed, which pages they visited…etc.  So, Google gave us analytics.  Thanks Google!

We placed greater and greater demands on a growing conglomerate that before long, it was doing everything for us as long as we were feeding it. But, Ms. Jones down the street doesn't want the same information that Mr. Jimmy does on the other side of town. Not even if they do the same exact search, they don't want the same exact results.  Once again, it's Google to the rescue.  Thanks a bunch Google!  You're really swell!

Then along comes a social media platform that gobbles up all the rest and spits them out before lunch. People Like Facebook!  In fact, they love it! They love it so much they like to like it.  They like to like everything that walks, makes a noise, makes them laugh, makes them think, but not too much, Facebook is supposed to do that.  Thanks Facebook!

Everything we like is being recorded so that Facebook can offer us more things we like. So, we keep liking things. It's a simple little click that gives us all the power in the world.  Good things come!  Bad things go away!  Thanks Facebook!  I like liking you.

What did we expect them to do?  If a name brand cereal came out with something that gave us an awful taste in our mouths, would we keep buying it? Would they keep making it and marketing it to us? Everything we buy is presented to us based on our personal preference.  If you don't believe that, then you don't know how long you've been watched.

So, they've been watching every move I make and catering to their view of my wishes. I don't see that as evil. It had good intentions.  But, I don't want filtered from the bad things of this world. I want to be educated about people who are not like me, or who do not like me.

I want to know when a girl wins a spelling bee and when a boy gets stung by a bee.  I want to know about the next Tsunami and I also want to know about the tourist attractions there. I want the scores from the football game and I want to know about the war in Afghanistan.

Don't try to figure me out!  I haven't done that yet and I'm way ahead of you.

Total Shiznit Ballsnatch Backward Judge

It is this kind of shiznit, this total ballsnatch, that undermines any notions of a legal system! 

What is this about? This judge is considering taking the children away from both parents because, and his only reasons are, they can't get along and they can't agree on anything.

"You can't get along, you can't agree…you can't agree…you can't get along," are the only reasons he could state!

I have often wondered what would be the remedy for the courts if the parents appear to know nothing about what's best for the child.  I would hope that the court system, in this type of situation, would have something in place to help the parents.  There always seems to be a program somewhere for some reason.  I'm sure there are parenting classes and educational programs that can teach parents how to raise their children.

But, the court oversteps its bounds when it removes the children from both homes simply because the parents can't agree and can't get along.  There was a solution when I went to court, give one full custody and the other gets visitation.  It wasn't the best solution, but my daughter didn't go to foster care.

This wreaks!  It really does!  There is something else in play on this one and I'd like to know what it is.  Is money involved?  Is a system in place that gets compensated for placing children in foster care?

Draconian Law by the way, which is something the judge mentions in his condescending tone, are very heavy punishments for even the smallest of crimes.  Draco wrote the law of Athens, 7th Century BC. It was put in place because prior to that the law was oral and it was interpreted whimsically. Draconian Laws though were written so harshly that they called for death for even minor offenses. Plus, the laws were flexible when it came to who you were.  The lower class had different laws from the upper class.

Therefore, Draconian Law is considered "Cruel and Unusual" punishment in America, to the U.S. Constitution, which this judge is "elected" to interpret. Cruel and unusual punishment is in violation of the 8th Amendment.  Therefore, this judge needs removed by the evidence we have in video, by his own words.  The children need restored to their parents and let's start the custody proceedings again, only this time with a judge who is actually sane!

I love this list of questions that brings to light a few interesting matters.  From the grandmother's perspective:

http://grannyleaks.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/10010656-questions-i-ask-myself

By the way, after reading through the Granny Leaks site, it seems this matter is sufficiently resolved.  But, how many others go on like this unnoticed and no one has any power to do anything about it?

$6.6 Billion Just Shows Up One Day

[image error]Okay, so I'm not entirely an understanding individual when it comes to the sheer amount of money our government seems to go through.  But, in news today it seems that $6.6 billion in lost Iraq cash is all of a sudden accounted for says inspector Bowen, specal inspector for Iraq reconstruction…

$6.6 billion in lost Iraq cash now accounted for, inspector says | The Envoy – Yahoo! News

Now, I've lost like $10 a couple of times.  One time I even managed to lose $100.  There was a weekend where I blew through about $500, and woke up on Sunday wondering where that was.  But, that really doesn't count.  I blew that!

So, $6.6 billion huh?  It's an easy thing for the government to just lose $6.6 billion?

But, oh wait!  They found it!  In fact, it was never missing.  It was there all along.  It was just not accounted for apparently.

"Hey guys, I found that money!"

"What money?"

"The $6.6 billion we lost during the war."

"Oh yeah?  That's great!  Where was it?"

"Uh, right here.  Behind this book."

Warren Buffett wouldn't even be able to missplace $6.6 billion.  But a quote I heard from him recently says it all, "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection."

Hmm, I wonder what he'd do about this…!