Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

FUNNY SCAM ALERT

I awoke this morning to check my emails which means I have to also check my SPAM folder due to all of the aggressive filters. Ultimately, if I don’t read through every spam headline I miss important emails sometimes. Well when I saw the email address from info@fbi.gov, it grabbed my attention.

I had to open it to make sure I wasn’t somehow in trouble with the F.B.I. and wow, to my surprise I am the winner of the F.B.I. lottery! Ha ha ha, I hope nobody falls for this, but if they do … they deserve it.

info@fbi.gov

show details 7:30 AM (3 hours ago)

from info@fbi.gov <info@fbi.gov> reply-to revjamesmoore@aol.com to date Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 7:30 AM subject NOTICE FROM THE FBI

hide details 7:30 AM (3 hours ago)

FUNNY SCAM ALERT

Washington Field Office Banner with FBI Seal linking to FBI Home

Anti-Terrorist and International Fraud Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
Seattle, Washington.
Telephone Number : (206) 973-2572

ATTN: BENEFICIARY

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly completed an Investigation with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you legally won the sum of $800,000.00 US Dollars from a Lottery Company outside the United States of America. During our investigation we discovered that your e-mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have authorized this winning to be paid to you via a Certified Cashier’s Check.
Normally, it will take up to 10 business days for an International Check to be cashed by your local bank. We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds are to be drawn from a registered bank within the United States Of America so as to enable you cash the check instantly without any delay, henceforth the stated amount of $800,000.00  US Dollars has been deposited with Bank Of America.
We have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have been deposited at Bank Of America you will be required to settle the following bills directly to the Lottery Agent in-charge of this transaction whom is located in Lagos, Nigeria. According to our discoveries, you were required to pay for the following -

(1) Deposit Fee’s ( Fee’s paid by the company for the deposit into an American Bank which is – Bank Of America )
(2) Cashier’s Check Conversion Fee ( Fee for converting the Wire Transfer payment into a Certified Cashier’s Check )
(3) Shipping Fee’s ( This is the charge for shipping the Cashier’s Check to your home address and this fee includes Insurance )

The total amount for everything is $200.00 (Two Hundred-US Dollars). We have tried our possible best to indicate that this $200.00 should be deducted from your winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been deposited at Bank Of America and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee’s to the Agent in-charge of this transaction via Western Union Money Transfer Or Money Gram.
In order to proceed with this transaction, you will be required to contact the agent in-charge ( JAMES MOORE) via e-mail. Kindly look below to find appropriate contact information:

CONTACT AGENT NAME: MR. JAMES MOORE
E-MAIL ADDRESS: revjamesmoore@aol.com
Telephone Number : +234-813-822-3603

You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:

FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE:
AGE/SEX:
DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:

FUNNY SCAM ALERT

You will also be required to request Western Union details on how to send the required $200.00 in order to immediately ship your prize of $800,000.00 US Dollars via Certified Cashier’s Check drawn from Bank Of America, also include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately identify this transaction : EA2948-910.
This letter will serve as proof that the Federal Bureau Of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the required $200.00 ONLY to Mr. Benson Edward via information in which he shall send to you, if you do not receive your winning prize of $800,000.00 US Dollars we shall be held responsible for the loss and this shall invite a penalty of $3,000 which will be made PAYABLE ONLY to you (The Winner).
Please find below an authorized signature which has been signed by the FBI Director- Robert Mueller, also below is the FBI NSB (National Security Branch) seal.

FBI Director
Robert Mueller.
NSB Seal

Authorized Signature
NSB SEAL ABOVE
NOTE: In order to ensure your check gets delivered to you ASAP, you are advised to immediately contact Mr. JAMES MOORE via contact information provided above and make the required payment of $200.00 to information in which he shall provide to you.

In the news today it has been stated that Verizon plans to cut 8,000 more jobs by the end of the year 2009. It is said that the lack of their enterprise solutions sales are partially to blame.

Their enterprise solutions include managed hosting, CaaS, data center, wireless voice and data, and more. They have built quite a brand for themselves, but as a viable business solution I have yet to see them even chip at the block of what could become their enterprise customers.

I believe heavily that their marketing strategy is partially to blame, especially in the SEM sector. It is apparent to me they use mainly a CRM model for online advertising with very little focus on a large search market available to them through the major search engines. Upon keyword research and some searches, it appears I am correct.

While I do not know their entire marketing practices, I can almost bet they are allocating a lot of their marketing projects to a larger and more costly arena of methods. I can almost guarantee their campaigns mainly consist of direct marketing and trade shows when they should be penny pinching and building their enterprise solutions brand through less costly PPC SEM online.

What is your take on their marketing practices for their enterprise solutions?

Okay, I’m leaving this post up, however I think Jim D in the comments explained the situation and I am relieved now. Thank you Jim D for the explanation.

Today’s subject is a story that is true and happened a few  days ago (July 25 2009) in Santa Cruz, California. I will tell you it is shocking and unbelievable what happened and I will keep this short. I must warn you though, if you value your freedom as an American citizen and do any banking from an ATM, prepare to be shaken to the core … the world is changing fast apparently.

So this weekend my friend and I were doing a long overdue bar hopping session. As with all alcohol adventures, you spend a good amount of money. Well before we decided we were going to hit the town my friend wanted to withdraw additional funds from his bank account for the excursion.

We decided we didn’t want to waste our time finding his bank so we decided we would go to WaMu/Chase where they give fee free transactions at their ATM machines. The bank was already in our sites so it was an easy decision.

Well he inserted his card as usual, put in his PIN, amount of money … yada yada yada. Waiting for the money slot to open the screen beeped and lit up instead and read something like this “your transaction could not be completed due to an outstanding warrant in the state of California“.

WHAT!??!?! We couldn’t believe it. I asked him if he had warrants and he stated he had some traffic tickets but they should all be taken care of. We tried a second time and the same message came up. Well, wow … government can now  dictate your funds based on THEIR versions of criminality. This is a shockingly amazing eye opener to me on government and the banking system. I feel we are loosing our freedoms by an anti-constitutionalists government, and yes, I will even use my site of business to share this with my fellow Americans.

I had an experience with WaMu some years back when I wanted to open a checking account for TopSavings.Net and was shocked to be denied because they said my site aided terrorism based on the Patriot Act Bill. What was aiding the terrorists you might ask? They told me that the sales of “calling cards” whether it be first, second, or third party was against their policy in banking in cooperation with the Patriot Bill. I hardly doubt a terrorist ever bought a calling card from my site, but if they did, I would have been unknowing of the actions of my customers and would not dare spy on my own customers to find out!

I think it’s time to take a harder look at our Bill of Rights, Our Constitution, and our government. I will tell you one thing, I will NOT be banking at Chase or WaMu ever … I suggest you Americans follow suit.

This is scary in a science fiction way and never thought I would have to post a personal experience like this one on my own business blog, but this is TOO BIG to ignore. Share this story with others, and even try using your  card at WaMu/Chase banks ATM to see what happens to you. If anyone else has the same story with these banks or any others, share it with us … please.

Okay, so before you watch this video and panic, not all cell phones in this video are as radioactive as the one you may be holding, especially the newer models. I will be updating this post with the more safe phones in some time. In general, the rule of thumb is to find a cell phone with a low SAR rating. I will be posting cell phone models that are the lowest in this rating to help you out, for now just know that this is the deal with this video. I still don’t know if this works like they show on the video, but it can be discouraging for any regular cell phone user. I will get back to you all with that list as I compile it.

Cellular & Mobile Phones: How Safe Is Your Cell Phone?

Wow, so while I sell you these devices (cell phones) I also feel that I am obligated to always share useful information to protect the consumer (you). I was somewhat amazed to see this video. I cannot vouch for it’s authenticity in reporting and facts but all the same think it should be watched, especially if it’s true. If anyone has verified facts with links to scientific data on this video subject matter, please comment this post.

Notice they mention older cell phone models but do not exclude today’s more modern smartphones. They claim because our smartphones are all made in China that our safety is at risk due to lack of regulation. Again, if you have relative information, please post!

Cell Phone Safety