When Good People Get Taken Advantage of...

There are a lot of opportunists in this world, and that is a sad thing to see.

For example, take the recent tragedy in Haiti.  The Red Cross and other humanitarian efforts have been taking legitimate donations, and I think that is awesome.  In an excellent use of technology, the Red Cross is using a new service called "Text 2Help" - this service allows you to send a text message to a special number and donate $10 (this will appear as a charge on your cell phone bill).  This is the first major catastrophe that I can remember seeing this used, and it's apparently worked.  This text donation plan has raised over $21 million dollars, according to CNN. 

However, as I said before, the opportunism is shocking.  Thomson Reuters reports that there are a number of reports of people taking advantage of this situation.  For example, people are using the same spam mailing lists that they use to try to sell you Viagra and say your bank accounts have been hacked to send out emailing claiming to be important people in Haiti who need YOUR help moving money...or advertising false charities and taking donations on behalf of the victims of the earthquakes...or setting up Web sites inviting people to enter their email address for more information on how to help...it's just a little disheartening.  It's not like this didn't happen before computers; people would call up and do this over the phone years ago and use it as a pretense to get people to give out credit card information.

It always seems so sad that people resort to things like that.

Scams: Jury Duty

There are all sorts of scams that don't require a computer to do. For example, with a little bit of work on the computer, I can find out your name, phone number, address, and what types of credit cards you have. I could then call and say "Hi, I am from Mastercard, I am looking for yourname. We have reports of fraudulent charges on your account". I could ask something that would scare you - like did you order $4,000 worth of video games to be shipped to South Korea". Of course, that is how scams really work. They create fear, so that you go along with them. In this case, the person would promise to clear the fake charges off your account, but only after "verifying" some information. To do so, they'd ask some really obvious information, and then eventually get your credit card information from you.

I read about something that was new to me - a similar scam regarding jury duty. The person wishing to scam you will call and say that a warrant has been issued for your arrest due to you missing jury duty multiple times. They'd ask for information for verification purposes to clear this, and of course when they ask for things like social security number, that is when they are getting the information they want.

The question I get asked when I bring these things up in class is "so how do I know it is real"? If you are not sure - call the company back. If it is a credit card, call the number on the back and get the fraud department on the phone. If it is a jury duty issue, get the county clerk on the line. If someone is calling you about it, then you should be able to call them and get the same information and get it worked out, and I am much more inclined to trust it if I am the one placing the call.

Link to jury duty scam article (fbi.gov)

Crazy Email Hoaxes

We get them all the time. Our friends or coworkers think it is a great idea to forward something - something that makes them angry, or makes them laugh, or something.

OMGWTF They are raising kittens in bottles like bonzai trees!!!! (Not really)

Bill Gates wants to give you money! (No, he doesn't). This little girl is lost! (no, this was resolved four years ago). Help me get money out of Nigeria! (No, this doesn't work).

These things invade our email boxes all the time. If I get an email that I really think is true, I always run it through a quick Web check. One site that does this very well is Snopes - the Urban Legends Reference Pages. This site has been around in some form or another since 1995, and is very reliable when it comes to anything you might think is, well, crap. For example:

Some recent examples of Web crap that I've heard include a false list of books Sarah Palin banned in her hometown of Alaska, a false claim about all of Barack Obama's funding coming fromMiddle Eastern nations, and other such things. It is election season, after all! Snopes is a great read, just for laughs, and also a great reference.

Web Links:

• 8 Crazy Web Hoaxes (MSN)
• Urban Legends Reference Pages (Snopes.com)

Awards Scams

Back in the mid 1990's, I ran a Web site that had some decent traffic. I used to get a lot of emails from people who wanted to give it awards. A lot of times, however, these people just wanted me to post a link to their Web site so they could steal some of my traffic.

The same thing still seems to be happening, not only with Web sites, but also with software. For example, this programmer created a program that did not run, and used a service to submit it to a bunch of software download sites. Can you believe 23 of them gave it a five star rating? Remember, this is a program that did not run or do anything!

Link to article

I suppose the part that scares me the most is how sites display banners that say "Hacker Proof", or programs display ads on their Web site that say 100% spyware free. Most home users do not know the difference between a McAfee certification and some no-name site that isn't worth anything.