I have a negative climate change rating?

I don't fully understand the rating, but my blog "The hoax is that there is no climate change" was given a -0.72 rating by The Carbon Capture Report,

Does this mean that the raters or the rating programs don't understand irony?  Many think that climate change is a hoax.  So, isn't a way to spoof the idea that there is no climate change is to call the idea of no climate change a hoax?

There I went again!  Using convoluted thinking to show an idea is not valid and few understand my meaning.  Sigh!

Suit with cigar, another update

Was the suit with the cigar at the Occupy Twin Ports demonstration a real counter-protester or was he a spoof? See "Occupy Twin Ports, 12 Oct. 2011" and "The suit with the cigar, an update".

One friend opined that he was a "Colbert", meaning that he was doing a Stephen Colbert skit.

Today another friend said she was sticking her sign in front to the suit whenever she could. She said that he said he had never smoked a cigar before. I guess that clinches that he was spoofing.

BTW, I looked up Stephen Colbert and went to http://www.colbertnation.com. There was a wonderful section with Harry Belafonte. The interview was a good mix of humor and seriousness.

Report spoof email as often as you can

It seems that every day I get some spam that intimates that it is from a major corporation and that my account has been compromised. I report almost every one of these to the spoofed corporation (if I've found an email address for such) as well as to the Federal Trade Commission (spam@uce.gov) and the Anti-Phishing Working Group (reportphishing@antiphishing.org).

Sometimes it is hard to find an email address for a spoofed company. Somewhere on a home page or a help page you might find a link to spam, spoof, phishing, fraud, or security.

You might think that it is a bit of work to report spoofing, but consider it like calling the police when you see suspicious activity around a neighbor's house. Consider also this statement that I received from PayPal after reporting a phishing message:

Every email counts. When you forward suspicious-looking emails to
spoof@paypal.com, you help keep yourself and others safe from identity
theft.

See also my blog entry Phishing against which bank this week?

Whoa to a tale of woe!

This morning I received the following email:

It is with profound sense of sadness i wrote this email to you. I don't know how you will find this but you just have to forgive me for not telling you before leaving. I traveled down to United Kingdom Yesterday for a short vacation but unfortunately,i was mugged at a gun point on my way to the hotel i lodged all my money and all other vital documents including my credit card and my cell phone have been stolen by muggers.

I've been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all,Things are difficult here and i don't know what to do at the moment that why i email to ask if you can lend me £1,500.00 so i can settle the hotel bill and get a returning ticket back home. Please do me this great help and i promise to refund the money as soon as i get back home.

I look forward to your positive response.

It was with the email address of a cousin. Very strange! One, we are not very close and she would have no reason to let me know her travels. Two, she has others who are closer relatives who would be able to find help. Three, she lives in California and wouldn’t go “down to United Kingdom”. Four, why would an American ask another American for money in pounds? Five, I can't believe that the police and embassy were of no help. Six, I do know that my cousin writes much better than this.

I called her and left a message and then called her stepmother about it. Her stepmother called her and then called me back. Sure enough, her email account was hacked and she is closing the account.

I don't know if I was the first to warn her, but it leaves me feeling better that I know she knows about the problem.

What does bother me is that I could not find any way of reporting this to her email provider. You would think that they would be interested in tracking down crooks like this hacker.

No spam!!

Yesterday I had not a single piece of spam to my main mail account. Unbelievable! Maybe word got out that I report bank spoofs to the banks and to the FTC. Maybe my name has been taken off the spammers' lists.

But like one cold day doesn't disprove global warming, one spam-free day doesn't prove spam has disappeared. As of this posting I had received one spam today.

Phishing against which bank this week?

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Netting phishers

I received an email today that claimed my Bank of America card had been deactivated. Strange, I don't have a Bank of America card.

I didn't open the email but I looked at its source. Sure enough, a look-alike URL was used for the link to "verify" my data.

Often I don't bother with reporting fraud to companies that I don't do business with. On the other hand, the more of us who report fraud, the tougher it will get for the bad guys.

I had checked Bank of America's web site once before but hadn't found any fraud report link. I checked today, started with "Contact us", and a couple of pages later found a "Report Fraud" item. It said that fraudulent email should be forwarded to abuse@bankofamerica.com. I did so and deleted the fraudulent email.

The most active tracker of fraudulent email that I know is PayPal. If you get suspicious email supposedly from PayPal, forward it to spoof@paypal.com.

It may take you only a few minutes to report fraud, but you may save many other people years of grief.