Spam + Scam = Scammers

Have you ever woke up one morning, checked your emails and believed - even for a sec! - you've finally become a millionaire? Yes!!!

How great would it be if we never had to enter any competitions but could still win all the prizes! In a nutshell, the best medicine against spam and scam is "think before you act". If it's too good to be true then there's most definitely a catch.

At the end of the day, all scams are the same. There is a bait - usually in the form of money reward, and there is a catch that you are going to be asked to be ripped off very kindly.... in the form of advance fees, administration fees, gesture of good faith, etc.... you get the idea! ;)

In order to protect yourself the best thing you have got to do in case you receive an email suggesting that you've won something from an unknown to you personally sender is not reply at all.

However, if you find it entertaining or for educational purposes and you do decide to answer, then please make sure you do not share any sensitive personal information with the scammer, such as bank account details, date of birth, passport number, etc. and most importantly do not make any payment whatsover.

One thing you need to bear in mind is that once you pay them there is probably (that's a 99.9% probability!) very little you could do to recover the money. Yes, that's the stage where you need to admit to yourself: it's too late for all this now. I have been officially conned.

The UK National Lottery scam email looks as follows (quite professional I'd say... I have seen much worse - those Nigerian scams are the best, you know which ones I am talking about! When your help is needed to access that large amount of money that a deceased has left behind ....)


UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL
UNITED KINGDOM (Customer Services)

ATTENTION: WINNER

This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of (£1,000,000.00) One Million Great British Pounds held on the 12th of October,2009 in London UK.

Contact our fiduciary agent for claims with:

Name:Mr.Marvel Mark
Tell: +447024039995
Email: mr.marvel.mark@live.com

Winning Parameters:
REF NO: UK 200-26937
BATCH NO: 2007MJL-01

Fill the below:1.Full. Name:_____2.Address:_____3.Marital Status:____4.Occupation:____5.Age:_____6.Sex:7:____8.Country of Residence:____9.Telephone Number:

Congratulations!!
Mrs.Christiana Criswell.
U.K ONLINE LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL

To help combat scammers please report any fraud email activity to the Fraudwatch International. A quick internet search will also help you identify the most popular email scams and you'll soon become a scammer savvy.

Good luck!

O2 Runs Out of iPhone 3GS

Crap! Since the very first time I heard about iPod I was intrigued to buy it! Not that I am your classic kind of "I-love-any-gadget" type of person but the possibility that you could hold in your hands an interactive, user-friendly, smart and devilishly quick (yeah, yeah... I heard you complaining but hope dies last. And I betcha that compared to my current rather problematic and still so bloostiff Sony Ericsson typing and navigating through the iPhone will feel like popping the clouds!)

In the beginning, having heard of all the criticism surrounding the launch of the iPhone I decided to wait a bit, just to see what happens. You see, Apple has managed to raise the audience's expectations a far way more than any reasonable marketeer would advise them it's safe to do... and that's why they were bound to come up quickly with a better and much faster version or say goodbye to their.... million investment. In July 2007, New York Times reported on the consumers' anger over how "bad investment" they though iPhone was.

Two years later, the new version is here and while we are all so excited about it (ok, we might not be the 'early birds'.... we hesitated yes, but do we deserve to be punished in this way? )

I have been waiting nearly a year for a my contract to finish so I can buy the new iPhone at last. But allegedly O2, currently the exclusive provider of iPhone 3GS has run out of iPhones! How is this possible? I have been calling O2 every other day for the past two months trying to figure out what is going on with the iPhone supplies. No stock. They got no iPhones.

Do they know when the next delivery will be? No- they don't.
Can they provide an estimate? Absolutely not, you should just call back again and again.
Do they take orders? Absolutely not, you should just wait until it's restocked.
When will that be then? Nobody knows...

Bur rumour has it that their exclusive deal with Apple is to expire around the 9th of October. Now, this might explain a lot. It could be that Apple decided to cut O2 down just before the exclusive deal expires so they can negotiate far better deals for themselves with the other mobile providers given the unprecedented level of demand.

If that's the case I can wait a bit longer. It's highly unlikely given the current level of demand that the providers will enrol to a price- war, but it still means that we will at last have the luxury of choosing the provider we reckon is best.

I said I can wait but to be honest I really can't wait to get my hands on that beauty! :)

Swine Flu Update

Since the advice on Swine Flu at the end of April there has been a significant change in the way the health authorities around the world are dealing with pandemic. Some might argue that they have now managed to turn the pandemic into a very healthy sustainable business making tones of money.

In the UK the policy had been to contain the spread of the virus by using a number of public health interventions. This included giving antivirals (Tamiflu) both to those who were symptomatic as a treatment as well as to their close contacts to prevent them from developing the disease. That's killing two birds with one stone... But is there a cure?

Doctors have confirmed that antivirals used in the treatment of flu are not a 'cure'. They reduce the virus spreading in the body, help the patient to recover more quickly and reduce the risk of complications. They also reduce shedding of the virus by infected people so that its spread may be delayed. However, they do not offer longer term protection. Only a vaccine can achieve this and it is not anticipated that this will be available until later in the year (October is frequently quoted as the anticipated date).

Once the virus is widespread within the community, the value of antivirals in terms of slowing the spread of the disease or offering individual protection is greatly reduced. This is because people are likely to be repeatedly exposed to the disease. It is not possible to eliminate the virus using antivirals. As a result the policy of containment has changed to one of treatment. What does this mean for F&C staff?

The advice is still to
•Maintain good basic hygiene, for example washing hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of virus from your hands to face or to other people.
•Dispose of dirty tissues promptly and carefully.
•Cleaning hard surfaces (e.g. door handles) frequently using a normal cleaning product.

What should I do if I develop flu like symptoms?
You should stay at (or go) home and contact your Doctor or the health authorities and follow their advice. Your return to work should be on a date to be agreed with your Doctor.

What should I do if my family develops flu like symptoms?
Maintenance of good basic hygiene remains paramount. If you do not have flu like symptoms you may continue to come to work. However, you must consult your Doctor if these symptoms change and follow the advice given.

Will the controls on business travel be relaxed?
It continues to be good practice for only essential business travel to take place. This should be approved by your member of the Executive Committee.

Share your Thoughts with your Friends

Thoughts.com is the online network ideal for sharing your thoughts with your friends or the members of this online community. The user interface of Thought.com is customizable, one can personalize the page and fill it up with interesting content: blogs, videos, breaking news, podcasts or photos.

In the Breaking News page the members can read the most emailed, most viewed, most recommended or the most bookmarked news but what you and your friends will surely enjoy is the Oddly Enough section where you can read that the Rat Island finally went rat-fre, a police station is Sierra Leone was taken over by poisonous snakes and other strange news from this funny world we live in.

In the Podcasts section you can listen online to songs or to other users tortured by talent while playing the piano or other musical instruments. Dust off all those music pieces you compiled a while ago, upload them on Thoughts.com and let your future fans worship you. The language lessons are very useful as well - play a Spanish lesson about adjectives while you are surfing the web. The good news is that the users can upload their favourite music into this section, so after you read this we should expect an increase in the trance podcasts available on thoughts.com.

I am intrigued to see how this one goes... this 'experiment' will say a lot about the nature of the social media networking sites... Are they just hubs of gossip (like Twitter) and spying tools (employers are using Facebook to spy on their employees - this is now thought to be what we'd call a "normal practice") or do people really want to communicate with each other and expand their horizons? Will they share their thoughts or do they only want to show off their lifestyle?

Internet offers unlimited possibilities to a user today and so does social networking. So we can't really label anything (or any website for that reason) as good or bad... The real challenge lies in answering the question how do/will people choose to use the available resources.

Have you registered to VOTE yet?

If not, then this is definitely the time to do so! It's easy and it's actually the only thing that will make you feel good next time a scandal bursts! "At least, I did not vote for these bastards", you'll think... Trust me - it works. And that's why I find it very sad that more and more intelligent, fine young people prefer apathy over power and willingness to change the world.

Yes, change the world! If you have a good opinion and you keep it to yourself, who is it good for? Nobody. We complain about the party leaders, the parties themselves, the government, the whole bloody system but everything is how it is because we - people - let it be.

Think about it for a sec! And keep on reading... this year we are all voting!

At what point in history did people object an idea, a monarch, a tyrant, even a war... anything(!) and did not manage to overturn it?

It is no magic. It is no coincidence. It is people that make it happen, again and again and (let's do it!) again... throughout the human history. But people who believe in themselves. People that will not take no for an answer. People like you and me that just had enough.

At least I know I've had enough...
of people telling me that I can't change the world....
that I am not someone special....
they even dare to say that I don't have the power! And they forget...


They forget that everything there is and there's ever been is created by and for people. And we are the people... but we seem to be tired and feel weak. Unable to react or even express an opinion (cast your vote!) about what's to fall upon our heads and our children's heads. And then suddenly it becomes cool not to be bothered.

Are you really not that bothered? - is my question.
"I am not bothered" is indeed a very catchy (and popular) comedy phrase and english comedy is renowned to be sarcastic and satiric. It's not surprising the comedians are holding up the mirror against our society, the funny thing is that we stand there and just laugh without realising that we actually do laugh at ourselves. If we realised we'd still laugh, but also move, change our ways.

But it is surprising that almost 80 years of experience of television is not enough for our species to evolve and actually realise when talented marketeers are playing games with their minds. Can scientists come up with some kind of bullshit-detector pill that we should take 3 times a day after food?

Some people blame their disengagement to their declining trust in governments and politics in general. I can fully understand the trust issues, you got me there! I, myself, was so disheartened by my home country's election results that promised I won't even talk about politics again.

But every time I am making such big-mouth statements I tend to think of my mother "So what! Who you think you are hurting?" - classic! - and most of the times the answer was "me?". I mean the little voice in my head, my actual answer is probably untranslatable (told you I had a big mouth).

Think about a village! Would the mayor dare take any decision, do anything at all that was not in the benefits of the village as a whole? When it comprises of let's say 500 people. He would not. And you know why! You have nowhere to hide in a village anyway, imagine being the mayor who's wronged the people that voted for him and coincidentally he went to the same school with, is somehow related, etc... And people tend to come together at villages and talk a lot and they know that even though John is now the mayor, he is still John and if they don't like him anymore they can get rid of him... pffff, easily.

The worst bit and what really grinds my gears is that "they" do not want us to vote. And that's what makes me want to vote that badly! Actually the less people vote the better it is for them, the rest they can manipulate or corrupt. But they can manipulate and corrupt only a few, this is how they sustain their wealth after all, who obviously have some kind of power themselves (power can come in many forms but mainly it expresses itself through money - this is a capitalist society after all!). These few of course control some others.... and we end up with a pyramid system that goes so high that we forget (to look up) to care! Do the math and you'll see there is hope!

The statistics are even sadder to read. In 2006 elections 16% replied "don't know" and 7% did not even cared to vote. Most of them between the ages of 25-34. Well guys, sorry to break the news... are you out partying? Too busy with your jobs? Because these are the best, most productive years of our lives and we should be able to live them in a way that we approve. Not just turn our heads away and pretend this is not happening.

It is happening and we actually are responsible for not stopping it. It is us they fear. It is our time to shine. We are holding the world in our hands and simply stare at it, instead of spin it all around and actually make it happen. That - which we all imagine but do not speak of.

I need to know. I want to see if everyone votes will things still be the same? Are we really braindead or just asleep?

Swine Flu - Death Toll of 149

Is it a mere coincidence that mankind is threatened by swine flu?
Or is it perhaps a sign that the world can’t take any more pigs? Especially, those of the human kind…

A moment of reflection… and the latter already sounds much more likely. How many more thick-skinned, sweaty omnivores can Mother Nature bear before she runs out of patience? Well, I think she did and so did I.

The current main concern is that this pig flu virus has the ability to transmit from humans to humans as a number of the cases who got infected have had no direct exposure to swine – at least not the animal kind, but I bet you they have been really close to the human kind pigs at some point. We all do. It’s inevitable.

And sad. So sad.

Stupid Boy

I didn't mind the cheating
him loving another body
kissing other lips

I don't even mind the images I keep on getting of him with other women...

But all these Lies and the Lying Liar who tells them
that I mind

I am in the fire in the middle of a storm
and I am reaching out to you old friend
outside the circle

Tears are burning my cheeks but I do not mind
My once big beautiful blue-green eyes are looking at me
almost like through a peephole; what with all this crying
beggingly

"Are you scared?"
"Please tell me what to do"
"Are you afraid?"
"Please tell me how to do this"

I love you - I believe you
I do not mind the pain
but all these lies...