Like so many others, I spend my casual hours surfing the internet rather than watching television. (Most of my friends on facebook prefer to read books, but hey, we’re none of us perfect.) There is one site in particular that I enjoy: Snopes.com. It’s a dedicated team of researchers who look into spurious claims and outrageous sounding items presented as facts and reported to them for investigation. I often consult Snopes when coming across items of news that strike me as being suspicious. The site also sends me items I might have missed.
It endorses my long time held belief that there’s one hell of a lot of evil bastards out there. And an even greater number of dumb fuckers who fall for a wide variety of scams, spoof news reports and appeals.
Today I received a typical update. It includes several conspiracy theories regarding the missing Malaysia airliner, though none yet that blame Barracka Bamma (sic), and most amusingly the following:
Red Bull contains bull sperm.
200 million year old dinosaur egg hatches in Berlin museum.
Okay, good fun, but what’s the point (other than profitable enterprise) of Spoof News Websites, when so many lack the sense of irony to be allowed to read such crap?
Criminals, of course, have a field day reaping the gullible into exposing their valuable profile data. Phishing scammers they’re known as. I call them aunts, though swap the ‘a’ with a ‘c’.
This is the latest that I’ve seen:
“We have been sent a sample of your blood analysis for further research.
During the complete blood count (CBC) we have revealed that white blood cells is very low, and unfortunately we have a suspicion of a cancer.
Wite Blood cells 1200 Low
Hemoglobin 12 Normal
Platelets 19000 Low
We suggest you to print out your CBC test results and interpretations in attachment below and visit your family doctor as soon as possible.”
The c...crooks obviously work on the premise that a fair proportion of their spammed victims has recently had a blood examination and is easily fooled into clicking the link. I don’t think you have to be particularly stupid to fall for this one, just scared shitless into believing it might be true.
To the evil bastards who send out these foul e-mails I say: Just ask. You can have my identity. It’s of fuck good use to me. Why don’t we meet up for a pint and a friendly ‘chat’?
It endorses my long time held belief that there’s one hell of a lot of evil bastards out there. And an even greater number of dumb fuckers who fall for a wide variety of scams, spoof news reports and appeals.
Today I received a typical update. It includes several conspiracy theories regarding the missing Malaysia airliner, though none yet that blame Barracka Bamma (sic), and most amusingly the following:
Red Bull contains bull sperm.
200 million year old dinosaur egg hatches in Berlin museum.
Okay, good fun, but what’s the point (other than profitable enterprise) of Spoof News Websites, when so many lack the sense of irony to be allowed to read such crap?
Criminals, of course, have a field day reaping the gullible into exposing their valuable profile data. Phishing scammers they’re known as. I call them aunts, though swap the ‘a’ with a ‘c’.
This is the latest that I’ve seen:
“We have been sent a sample of your blood analysis for further research.
During the complete blood count (CBC) we have revealed that white blood cells is very low, and unfortunately we have a suspicion of a cancer.
Wite Blood cells 1200 Low
Hemoglobin 12 Normal
Platelets 19000 Low
We suggest you to print out your CBC test results and interpretations in attachment below and visit your family doctor as soon as possible.”
The c...crooks obviously work on the premise that a fair proportion of their spammed victims has recently had a blood examination and is easily fooled into clicking the link. I don’t think you have to be particularly stupid to fall for this one, just scared shitless into believing it might be true.
To the evil bastards who send out these foul e-mails I say: Just ask. You can have my identity. It’s of fuck good use to me. Why don’t we meet up for a pint and a friendly ‘chat’?