Internet | I'm Just Sharing

Anatomy Of A Scam

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 13, 2010

This post is actually shorter than it looks. What I’m about to share with you is an email that basically only had 3 brief conversations, but the last bit contains the scam of it all. I wasn’t initially sure until I saw the very last line of the email. Oh yeah, I’m going to post the guy’s email address as well, since I believe it’s fake. By the way, this was a response to a Craigslist posting I have out there locally indicating that I do minor computer repair:

desguy909@yahoo.com

I got 5 Acer Atom laptops that i want to repair, Its just a software problem, I need you to reformat everything for me. I got all the necessary softwares (original) with license keys. How much will this cost me and what time duration? I got external drives for them all. The programs that you need to install on them for me are OS, anti-virus and Micro-Soft Office.

Please write back.

Thanks

Greetings,

I’ll do all 5 computers for you for $225. I can’t tell you how long it’ll take because I don’t know the specs of the computers; size of hard drive, processor speed, even operating system I’ll be wiping and adding back. That’s why I’m going to give you a flat fee instead of charging by time. If this is acceptable, let me know where we can meet after the holiday, since I’m presently out of town.

Thanks for the reply. I am okay with the price i have all the necessary software needed for the service installations…. I will instruct my secretary to prepare a check for you on your name and have it mailed to your address. Send me your full name, address and your phone number so to prepare the check. I have a reliable shipper that will bring the laptops and pick them up when you are done with them. I am looking forward to hear from you, so we can have payment and shipping asap. There is something you need to do for me when you get the check, you will get it cashed and get the shipping fee in the check because it will be included to the shipper in malaysia since the laptops are coming from there. Okay?

NB: Laptops will brought to you when you cash the check and have the balance on the check sent to my shipper and also when you are done fixing them, they will picked up from you

That’s it; that’s the entire email. I never responded. I thought about contacting the local authorities or the post office, then figured what was the point. Instead, I share it with y’all to help highlight the fact that there are scammers everywhere, putting out stuff like this that seems legit, yet when evaluated you just know something’s wrong with it.

If it even has a hint of phony, don’t do it!

Internet | 20 Comments

RockMelt Browser

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Dec 2, 2010

Things are always changing in this world. One thing that really hasn’t changed all that much is the internet browser. Sure, there are many of them out here, and we all have our favorites for whatever reason they may be. But in general, a browser is a browser; right?

Well, maybe not. There’s a brand new browser, so new that it hasn’t really officially launched, although you can get it now if you so choose. It’s called RockMelt, and it’s pretty much been created to be a browser for folks whose lives are built around social media. It was brought to my attention by my friend Monica of Clarity Management Consulting.

There’s really no way I can explain it better than their own video explains it, so let me just share that with you so you can make up your own mind, and after watching the video, which is only about 2 1/2 minutes, let me know what your thoughts are.

And that’s not all. Flock, which called itself the original social media browser, has an update trying to compete with it; here’s that video:

New Flock from Flockstar on Vimeo.

Yup, a short post, but the videos are enough to keep you going. And in case you’re wondering, I’m sticking with Firefox for now, but if it keeps hanging on me from time to time…

Internet | 24 Comments

Buying Used On eBay; Go At Your Own Risk!

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Oct 5, 2010

I am a Palm pilot fanatic; always have been and still am. The problem is that they’ve stopped making them. The new smartphones lack many of the features that the Palm had, and thus I haven’t purchased one because, for me, it’s kind of a waste of time.

I decided to go a different route. Because my wife is an eBay fan, I decided to go to eBay to see if I could get a deal on a used one. There are actually a few people who are selling new ones, but the prices are outrageous and thus I haven’t gone that route yet. I found one at a fairly reasonable price and put a bid in on it. Eventually I won that bid, and within a week I had my “new” Palm.

Five days later is when the trouble first began. The screen gave out. It still lit up, but it looked like it was broken, and you couldn’t see any of the data. I felt cheated. I contacted eBay and they connected me with the guy I bought it from, who said I could send it back and he’d fix it.

I did that, and though it took 5 weeks, I finally got it back and I thought all was right with the world. That is, until two weeks later, when I noticed that the sound had gone and that I’d missed a meeting because the alarm didn’t go off. I had the guy’s address and phone number, called, and he said I could send it back and he’d fix it.

At this point that was 2 1/2 months ago. For about six weeks he ignored my emails and phone numbers. I finally sent one from my business address saying if I didn’t hear from him I was going to escalate it. I finally heard from him, and he said that he couldn’t get it fixed and that it would cost me $75 to repair it. I said no, but I was also incredulous; you sold me a used Palm, you have other used Palms, and you’re not going to just send me one of those other ones? If I’d paid the extra money it would have come to more than what I would have paid for an original; that wasn’t happening.

I asked him to send it back and said I’d see what I could do on my own. That was two weeks ago; suddenly he’s not responding to any of my emails or phone calls again. What the hey? It’s only costing him postage to send it back, and I’m getting no satisfaction.

And get this; because the original transaction took place more than a couple months ago, it seems I can’t complain about it on eBay either. So, the only place I can complain about it is here. Now, I’m not going to “out” the guy here, because unlike a company I’m not sure that’s quite fair. What I will say is that I can’t ever see me buying another used product off eBay, and truthfully buying something used isn’t really in my makeup to begin with, mainly for things like this.

Unless you know the person and trust them I say “buyer beware”. Man, I’m irked!

Internet | 36 Comments

Sunday Question – When Is The Last Time You Wrote A Personal Email Letter?

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 15, 2010

I didn’t get into email until early 1996. When I discovered it, I couldn’t wait to find people who had it to write letters to. I’d always been a letter writer. I was the one who would find people from college and get caught up with them and keep them up to date on what was happening with everyone else. Initially it was on typewriters, then computer word processing programs before the modern Windows, and finally the good stuff, mainly Microsoft Word.

These days, I couldn’t tell you the last time I wrote a personal email to one person. I say it that way because I’m sometimes known to write a long compilation email and send it out to a whole bunch of people. And, as it figures, if I get anything back at all, it’s often a one or two line response.

What happened to the revolution that we were supposed to have in more and better communications because of email? Is it all time related? I ask that because I used to get to every email I got very quickly, and now sometimes it’s 2 or 3 days before I get to an email, even a business email. That feels so unlike me, but then there’s just so much email that goes along with all the research I do for all the writing I do. I’m always wondering if that excuse is good enough for neglecting friends that probably aren’t going to respond in kind. Thank goodness for my friend Kelvin; I think he is the only person I actually correspond with on at least a weekly basis, if not more often, and if history means anything, he was actually my first true email friend back in 1999 as the first person who actually told me he was going to send me an email and then did. Of course, I don’t expect him to see this so maybe I should say something bad about him and see if word gets out.

So, there’s the question; do you send personal email to your friends or family, and if so how often? Enjoy your Sunday!

Internet, Sunday Question | 20 Comments

Toolbar Overwhelm

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jul 14, 2010

I guess it was time for this post. I know I can’t be the only person who is suddenly hating all these toolbars popping up all over the place. It’s almost to the point where you can’t go to any site or blog without having either the upper or lower part of your screen filled with a toolbar that won’t go away. Heck, even my buddy Sire had one (he might still have one, but it’s not coming up anymore & I haven’t seen him talking about it any).

At this point probably everyone has seen either this picture to the right or something like it. These types of toolbars are bad enough because it seems like every piece of software wants to load someone’s toolbar onto your computer. I already have a search engine I used that I specifically loaded myself; why the heck would I want to keep adding other company’s toolbars onto my computer like this?

You go to a news site these days and there’s a toolbar at the top. You go to close it and sometimes it doesn’t close, just reduces itself to this little tab that seems to be saying to you “go on, you know you want to use me; I’ll just be sitting here until you’re ready”. If I closed your toolbar I’m not going to use it; take it away! And, for whatever reason, Firefox’s Adblock Plus can’t block them; what the hey? Guess I have to find some software or plugin that blocks pop-unders, which is kind of what these things are.

Why are most of these sites loading toolbars? It all comes down to money; it always does. Everyone is getting paid to add a toolbar in some fashion. Software companies, if it’s not their toolbar, are getting paid. Blogs that add toolbars get paid if someone actually uses it. I doubt there’s one truly altruistic company out there putting out toolbars. Heck, even Google’s toolbar, which I stopped using, was getting something out of the deal, mainly tracking people who used it, even on their own computers, so they could target advertising towards them based on their surfing habits. I wonder what kind of ads Google sends to those folks who only search for porn all day, since they don’t accept advertising from adult related sites.

Either way, I have to say that I didn’t purchase this 22″ widescreen monitor so someone could invade and fill up my space with a toolbar. Please, if you’re going to use one, at least allow us to be allowed to totally close it and get it out of the way.