Posts in category 'General'
Everyone with a pulse and an email account has been subject to at least a dozen or two email scams. Almost all of them can be grouped into just a handful of categories, however. One of the most common email scam themes is one in which some purportedly credible, wealthy person somehow needs the help of a complete stranger (i.e., the scam’s victim) in order to regain access to his funds. This person promises a portion of these gains to you if you only temporarily part with a small amount of money in order to gain access to his fortune.
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Despite all of the press coverage devoted to this scam, it is hard to believe how effective it continues to be at relieving people of their hard-earned money. Preventing yourself from falling victim is extremely easy though–simply ignore unsolicited email. Just as you would do with traditional postal mail or people on the street, just refuse to give money to strangers. Besides, it can safely be said that 99% of most average Americans need not do business with anyone in Ghana, Togo, or Nigeria anyway.
Email lottery scams are very similar in nature to the previous scam but instead rely on fooling the recipient into thinking they have won a large sum of money rather than asking for help. In this case, the scammer, posing as the lottery’s “claims agent”, gets his money by requiring a “processing fee” before he or she can release the winnings to the victim. Again, protecting yourself from this scam is simple. If you didn’t buy a lottery ticket, you are in no position to win one. Lotteries tickets are not generated from thin air. Furthermore, legitimate lotteries cannot require winners to pay a few in order to claim their prizes. Any real fees, charges, and/or taxes that could legally be imposed must be subtracted from the winnings rather than assessed beforehand. Lastly, lottery email scams almost always originate from “freebie” email accounts offered from sites like Yahoo! or Hotmail. They almost never originate from “custom” addresses using their own unique domain names.
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Another all-too-common email scam revolves around the scammer posing to be an authoritative figure at an institution with whom you do business (i.e. a bank or merchant). Their email requests you to verify your records with them by logging into your online account. Clicking on the so-called login verification link embedded within the email leads you to an impostor site designed with the sole purpose of conning you into revealing your username and password. This one is particularly dangerous, as the fraudster can user your login information to delete your account, commit identity theft, or even bleed your bank account dry.
Chain letter scams are another form of all-too-common email trickery commonly seen these days. Although cloaked in many colors, a popular chain letter scam involves fake offshore companies enticing the victim into participating in an investment scheme by sharing their bank details and convincing their friends and relatives to follow suit by forwarding on the email. Chain letter scams are not new, however, as one of the most famous ones was seen as early as 1997. At that time, millions of email users began receiving email claiming to be an offer from Microsoft which paid out thousands of dollars if individuals forwarded on the email. Dozens and dozens of variants have been created ever since, ranging from phony investment schemes to sob stories preying on one’s emotional side.
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If you receive an email even faintly resembling one of the above, the best advice would be to delete these emails right away. More often than not, these emails fall in the “too good to be true” category and nothing other than centuries-old scam tactics modernized for the Internet-age. For those who just can’t seem to resist, at least verify the email’s credibility through an independent “hoax-checker” website like Snopes or HoaxBusters. These sites can not only put your curiosity to rest but also serve as credible sources to back up any emails you forward on to your friends and family in efforts to stop them from furthering these nuisances on to other innocent bystanders. At the very least you should warn the person who sent you that the email is bogus and should no longer be forwarded.
The field of biotechnology is constantly advancing. From finding ways to slow down the process of food spoilage, advancements in genetic engineering, to adapting organisms to clean up contaminated environments, new applications and biotechnological inventions are continuously being developed to help improve our world. Here are five breakthrough biotechnological innovations currently underway.
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PC Magazine just published an article on the essentials of an At-Home IT Toolkit, which I found very helpful and interesting. They listed 17 of the most popular computer tools IT experts use or should use to help save them time and money when it comes to any computer-related issues. Here are my top 8 picks from the list.
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If you ever gave SherWeb a call, you might have been surprised to be first greeted in French.
As you may know, we are rooted in one of the most beautiful and only truly bilingual cities in North America: Montréal. Each and every member of our team speaks both English and French, and they will be more than happy to answer you in any of the two languages. So, if you call us and hear “bienvenue!”, remember that it does not only convey our pleasure to serve you, but also our proud origins.
One of our dearest wish for you is to have the chance to experience the liveliness and diversity of our city. Can you imagine the joy we had, when we saw this article, 36 Hours in Montreal, in the NY Times yesterday?
So, whenever you have time, don’t hesitate to drop by and say “bonjour”!
One season of CSI is all it takes to make anyone think twice about committing a crime. Experts in the various forensic sciences are highly skilled at gathering everything from teeth to fingerprints, bullet trajectories to DNA, and are proficient at comprehensively presenting them as evidence to a judge. It’s practically impossible to commit a crime without leaving some sort of physical trace. Enter computers. Thanks to the ever-evolving field of computer forensics, investigators are able to catch criminals based on their digital traces. Computer forensics is the science of collecting, analyzing and preserving information found in a computer, to be employed as evidence in a court of law. It protects society from internet fraud, industrial espionage, identity theft, child pornography, unauthorized disclosure of corporate information, and even mass murder. The following are six facts about computer forensics that anyone with computer access should be familiar with. Read more »
Long time ago, before you could call for delivery, was Caveguy – let’s call him that – standing next to a tree (not “standing” since long as a matter of fact!) and waiting patiently for lightning to strike, wondering how long he would have to keep eating raw brontosaurus while shivering briefly as the cool breeze that herald winter made its way through his furry breeches.
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Having spent over 10 years in the restaurant industry, I can’t even imagine how things got done before the implementation of touch screens. Running around with little pieces of paper, hoping the cooks can read your handwriting, praying one of those slips doesn’t get lost, calculating people’s bills, and if a group of 6 wants to split the bill…f***! Thanks to touch screen technology, I was able to punch in the drink orders, appetizers, main courses, desserts and coffees for huge groups of people in seconds. Once I pressed “Send,” the information was then printed in the kitchen, the bar and the dessert counter, complete with table and client number, so that not only does everyone know where the items are going, but which client gets what. The bills were calculated automatically, and you could split the price of a pizza 12 ways if you needed to.
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In the four years that I’ve had a Facebook account, their system and interface has probably undergone more surgery than Carrot Top. In these few short years, I’ve had to change my privacy settings several times. I’ve had to familiarize myself with whatever new interface Facebook has decided to launch on its users. I’ve found myself, time and time again, having to adapt to their changes in order to use their services. Which is funny to me, considering that in an interview with Tech Crunch founder, Michael Arrington, and Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg says that Facebook is “constantly innovating and updating its system to reflect the current social norms”. To me, it seems Facebook has become one of the driving forces affecting our social norms.
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A few months ago, I wrote a post about the Top Tech Inventions Shaping 2010. Number six on that list was Microsoft’s Project Natal for Xbox. Revolutionizing the way video games are played, players need only make use of their arms, legs, feet and hands to control the console. Project Natal, now officially called the Microsoft Kinect, is available for pre-orders on its website for $149 US. It is scheduled to launch worldwide, starting with North America on November 4, 2010.
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Everyone knows kids can be cruel and bullies are certainly nothing new but with ubiquitous technology and unprecedented access to the Internet, bullying has been seriously upgraded. Cyberbullying, as it is has come to be known, is different from regular bullying. Internet and social networking have enabled bullies to extend their sphere of influence outside the walls of your local school and into the walls of your home. Today, kids spend a large chunk of time everyday in front of their computers. If they’re not watching videos on YouTube, playing online games or checking their Facebook accounts, they are tapping away on their cells phones and firing text messages off to their friends. Between smartphones and laptops, your child can stay connected every waking hour of the day. This can leave your child continuously exposed to attacks from cyberbullies who use computers and cell phones as their digital weapons. Lobbing insults electronically can be done anonymously and hateful messages can spread instantly. Cyberbullies catch on to this all too quickly.
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