Setelah pemesanan tiket yang melelahkan TUJUH (7) bulan sebelumnya, sampailah trio kwek-kwek ini ke Thailand, sebelum nantinya pindah-pindah ke negara-negara Indochine lainnya. As planned, we were in Thailand for 10 days, starting with Bangkok, Phuket, island hopping to Phi-Phi Island, and Krabi. We wanted it as easygoing kinda trip, manage to make it to several attractions, but also at least could unpack and spread the backpack into the wardrobes, so we stayed at each place for about 2-3 days. Karena storiesnya boanyak, dan gak mungkin sangat detail, pastinya gue pecah jadi beberapa bagian ya…enjoy the reading trip!

Bangkok

Karena termasuk happy traveller (maksudnya murah meriah ketimpring) (gak menjelaskan juga yah), kita nginep di area backpackers, di Khaosan Road, kira-kira 1 jam deh dari airport (yah kayak di Jakarta aja deh macetnya). Kita mesen kamar di Rambuttri House, harga kamarnya 1100 baht/malam untuk bertiga (harga berdua sih beda) – dari www.khaosanroad.com dan karena kita newbie, kita pun memesan penjemput yang costs us about another 1000 baht also! Gaya-gaya an pake limo private taxi, padahal pake taxi dari airport Cuma sekitar 450 baht aja. Jadi, gak usah lah mesen penjemput, kecuali dateng ke airport malem banget setelah jam 9 malem.

Kamar di Rambuttri House cukup lah untuk sekedar tidur aja, minimalist room and shower room, but it was clean, and the bedsheet didn’t smell nor stained of something suspicious J. Tapi sempet tuh di malem ke dua, kita mendengar ribut-ribut tetangga di area sebelah hotel (apa belakang ya), saking itu area kecil dan dempet-dempet, bagusnya (apa sebelnya) mereka ngoceh pake bahasa lokal jadi kita terpaksa denger tapi gak ngerti hehehehe.

Area Khaosan sih sebenernya enak buat stay in, selain murah meriah, mau jajan dan makan apa aja juga ada, dari rujak, salad mangga yang seger-seger itu (Cuma 25-40 baht), padthai (25-40 baht), nasi goreng, mie tek-tek, sampe cafe-cafe, bar dengan segala minuman warna-warni dalam bucket (yes bucket) lengkap berderet di sebelah hotel dan di depan kita. Mirip area Kuta Legian Bali lah. Mau belanja juga ada pasar kagetnya yang ada dari sore-malem, dari kaos-kaos (100-300 baht), celana (yang ada di kuta juga!), topi, tas, anting, kalung semua murah meriah – sampe kartu keanggotaan ISEC palsu seharga 100 baht aja! (FYI, thic card, is supposedly a student card, which entitles you discount exe :for flying or public transportation if you go overseas). Hebatlah. Ginian aja sampe dibajak juga. Dasar turis murahan, dapet harga 100 baht aja nawarnya sampe mampus. Yang akhirnya mengakibatkan ketidakpuasan di dua belah pihak dan hilangnya transaksi kaos, topi dan lalin-lain. Padahal pas diitung, 100 baht itu kan 30 ribuan yah….hehehehehe

Bangkok by Day : kita gak mau buying stuff dulu, karena kalo udha belanja gawat bener, berarti bawaan sampe negara-negara lain bisa kacau kan. Backpack kecil pula, mana muatttttt. (hoorah for my small backpack that stopped me from shopping), so we decided to go sightseeing by day. Ada banyak temples penting sih di Bangkok, tapi dari segala WAT, kita putuskan hanya ke Wat Po dan Wat Arun aja.

Wat Arun, temple of dawn, better to be visited at dawn karena cahaya matahari nya akan jatuh pas di kepala candinya katanya sih..tapi tentunya kami-kami kesana pas siang bolong dan pas banget panasnya pas kita harus manjat steeps nya yang setinggi nyaris 100 m dan tanjak abis! Itung-itung latian sebelum ke Angkor Wat sih, tapi akibatnya paha jadi kenceng maksimal dan pegal edan. Masuk Wat Arun ini 50 baht aja, dan kita nyebrang pakai kapal nyebrang lewat belakangnya Grand Palace, pp per orang 6 baht aja yang sekaligus bisa nyebrang ke Wat Po.

Wat Po, selain terkenal dengan giant reclining buddha, juga terkenal sebagai pemasok Thai Masseuse paling top, pokoknya semua tempat pijet biasanya majang “masseuse from Wat Po” sebagai penarik pengunjung. Masuk ke sini juga bayar 50 baht, tapi sayangnya kita gak sempet nyoba Thai Massage disini. Capek foto-foto sama patung Buddha yang besoar itu, walhasil kita malah jajan-jajan aja disitu. Di luar banyak tukang sate tusuk ayam mangkal, dimana per tusuknya 10 baht, jadi mari kita ngemil!

Grand Palace termasuk prioritas untuk dikunjungi, dan ternyata walking distance juga dari hotel, kira-kira 15-20 menit lah. Cuma karena panas total bikin gue kepusingan, apalagi harus nyebrang lapangan besar. Gue dan menyebrang memang bukan teman baik. Banyak scam yang terjadi di Bangkok ini terjadinya di depan Grand Palace, dan sudah gue ceritakan di postingan sebelumnya, jadi gak gue ceritain lagi di sini ya. Grand Palace sendiri buka dari 9 pagi sampe jam 5 sore, nonstop-tanpa break. Jadi kalau ada yang bilang di jalan kalo Palace lagi tutup dan silakan balik lagi 2 jam lagi, jangan percaya!

Entrance fee Grand Palace 350 baht, dan jangan lupa pakai pakaian yang sopan, baik baju lengan dan celana panjang, otherwise you can always borrow in front of the gate. Di bulan April pun tempat ini sumpah mampus penuhnya, antriannya cukup panjang karena kita bertarung dengan tour group. Tapi enaknya adalah kita bisa nyelip di antara tour group untuk nguping guide nya, sialnya kebanyakan yang gue nguping-in adalah group Taiwan (bahasa cina), group Jerman (pastinya bahasa Jerman), dan group dari Itali (yo mama…non comprende..), intinya susah nguping hehehe.

Selain scams, akan banyak juga yang menawarkan tour di Chao Praya river selepas keluar pintu gerbang (malah belum keluar lho), dan akhirnya kita pasrah terhadap 1 bapak-bapak tua yang kita pikir baik hati (haaaaa….)menawar dan akhirnya membayar 550 baht each untuk keliling sungai Chao Praya, yang menurut gue – kok kayak menyusuri area banjir Jakarta yah??? Soalnya sungai ini membelah residential juga jadi kita menyusuri area belakang rumah orang-orang, bener-bener berasa lagi naik kapal penyelamat area banjir. Yang nyebelin lagi, kamera gue kok habis batre, jadi gak sempet foto-foto juga (masalah klasik ketika gue jalan-jalan). Yang seru justru perjalanan menuju ke tempat kapalnya yang ada di area belakang Palace, jalan kira-kira 10 menit, melalui pasar dengan aneka makanan, buah yang bikin ngiler… Perjalanan dengan boat di Chao Praya ini juga diakhiri dengan bayar 10 baht di landing pier.

Selain sibuk wisata kuliner kiri-kanan dari pad thai-lumpia-sate ayam-tentunya nyeruput teh thai yang khas itu, dari pinggir jalan, sampe resto di jalan besar yang dari luar tampangnya gak meyakinkan (tapi ada tanda halal, jadi kita coba), turns out tepatnya di belakang besar dengan hall dan meja-meja dan makanan yang super duper enak dan murah! Gak semurah pad thai atau nasi tek-tek pinggir jalan sih tapi selalu ada saat dimana eating spree harus dilakukan, masa mau berhemat terus, itu pun hanya keluar gak lebih dari 400 baht untuk ber3 dengan lauk nasi biryani daging, ayam, lumpia, dan cemilan-cemilan lain. Buat yang bit foodaturous alias food adventurous (gue kok asik-asik aja nyingkat kata), boleh lho beli fried insects (cockroach, dragonfly, and other bizarre insects that I was so disgusted to know more) yang banyak di pinggir-pinggir jalan. Tapi hati-hati makanan ini gak bisa sembarangan difoto, karena banyak tukang jualan yang majang tulisan “kalo motret mesti bayar 10 baht!” walhasil gue mesti kucing-kucingan dan berlagak kayak motret orang lain hehehehe.

Bangkok, kebanyakan orang datang ke sini buat belanja gila. Gak salah sih, beberapa hal memang murah, walaupun ada barang-barang lain yang menurut gue di Jakarta gak kalah murah atau sama. Kaos-kaos standarnya 100-200 baht, dress-dress 150-250 baht. Kita gak masuk ke Chatuchak (padahal jadwal sudah disusun sedemikian rupa biar sampe kesana, eh tetep gak sampe), dan hanya shopping di Suan Lum Night Bazzaar, beli silk scarf yang harganya kira-kira 70-100 baht, jam tangan gelang cute hanya 100 baht, tempelan kulkas 100 baht untuk 3 buah, gantungan kunci 100 baht untuk 5 buah. Lumayan, skill nawar gue bisa diuji disini, dengan sedikit jual mahal tapi dapet! Pengen karaoke di karaoke box disitu, apa daya semua nya dalam bahasa Thai kriting, gimana cara….?

Capek keliling, paling enak relaksasi pake Thai massage yang terkenal itu. Jangan kuatir soal jam operasi tempat pijet disana, panjang! Khaosan, is also heaven for massage places, karena banyak tersebar di antara gang-gang kecil, dan gak bosen jerit-jerit “MASSAGE MADAAAAAAMM..CHEEEEAAP CHEEEAP MADAAAAAAM…MASSAGE FOR YOUUUUU MADAAAAMM..YOU SIRRRRR???”

Harga massage bervariasi, sekitar 120-250 baht tergantung tempat dan durasi. Kita ngambil yang agak masuk gang, karena jam 12 malem masih buka juga, dan masih mau terima pelanggan (kita ngambil yang 1 jam an lho), dan bayar 190 baht. Gak tau deh mbak-mbak nya lulusan Wat Po apa bukan, yang penting pijet! Tempat pijetnya sendiri sebenernya kayak warung germo setelah gue pikir-pikir, kecil, di rumah, lantai 2, tangga nya kecil, dan di atas temaram banget. Tapi karena udah lelah banget, kita langsung buka baju dan telentang pasrah, dan Cuma mengguman “hmmmmmmeeerrrr” pas mbak-mbak nya bisik-bisik “please turn around madaaaaaaaammm” dengan logat khas nya itu. Dan setelah kelar tampang kita kayak habis ‘dipake’ dengan mata kuyu siap bobo, sambil dapet pemandangan bos tempat pijit yang ngorok abis dengna kencengnya di salah 1 bangku disana. Dan pemandangan ngorok itu berlangsung kira-kira sampe sejam kemudian karena di luar hujan sederes-deresnya….

Untuk transportasi, karena kita nginep di Khaosan, sebenernya agak repot dari tempat-tempat belanja kayak Siam Square, Suan Lum, Chatuchak etc, karena gak tercover oleh BTS (monorail). Pake tuk tuk kayaknya kisruh ya, kalo siang-siang muka kita bisa tebel karena polusi dan asap, mana tuk-tuknya brutal ngebutnya, sedangkan pake taksi macet total. Biasanya kita pake tuk-tuk untuk yang deket-deket aja dari hotel, one way sekitar 50 baht aja. Pengalaman kita pake taksi dari hotel ke Siam Square untuk ketemu temen yang dateng dari KL untuk jumpa depan Hermes (gak penting ya), makan waktu kira-kira 1.5 jam, dengan supir taksi yang rada tricky, sok-sok muter padahal kalo kita liat di peta dia salah jalan, dan baru muter ke arah yang agak bener setelah kita protes. Huh! Bagus dia pake argo, gak kayak taxi yang kita pake sebelumnya, tawar-tawaran dan brutal. Cuaca panas, AC mati, padahal taxinya toyota Altis pink! Setelah dipikir-pikir mendingan taxi di Jakarta, asal tau perusahaan taxi mana ya.

Ngomong-ngomong soal taxi, bahasa tubuh sangat berperan penting dalam komunikasi. Kita dari Chatuchak area dan gak ngerti cara tercepat ke hotel gimana caranya, akhirnya naik taxi karena kita ngejer flight ke Phuket dalam waktu kurang dari 1.5 jam lagi. Untung backpack udah siap semua, tinggal diangkut. Perjalanan dari sana ke Khaosan aja udah nyaris sejam sendiri karena macet banget, dan temen gue yang udah sampe di airport duluan karena sebelumnya pisah sama gue sedang berusaha keras merayu airasia untuk nungguin kita (jiaaahh hebat!) – walhasil bahasa Tarzan beraksi “HOTEL RAMBUTTRI-KHAOSAN-BAG-AIRPORT-FAST-FAST-FAST-WE-*adegan tangan gesek-gesek fulus*MORE MONEY MORE MONEY-FAST” – dan akhirnya dia zig zag nerobos lampu merah dan antrian – zinggg zaaaangggg zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang – dan ngebut di tol – dan alhamdulillah – SAMPE. passssss banget sebelom pesawat boarding. Dan gue bisa pipis! Lesson learnt : money, isn’t always everything, but surely can speed things up!

-kericuhan dalam perjalanan gak berhenti di adegan kejer pesawat – adegan kejar mengejar juga terjadi di tempat lain…continue di postingan berikutnya!

more pictures can be seen at:

http://narizza.multiply.com/photos/album/95/bangkok-phuket-krabi

Several months ago, I posted an article about the practice of some charities sending people checks in hopes of getting a donation in return.

A REGIONAL member had come to the office, having received a letter and check for $2.50 from the National Cancer Research Center. They instructed the recipient to cash the check if they wanted to, but to consider sending them $10 instead, for their annual fund drive.

At the time, I wasn’t sure what the deal was, but I did suggest erring on the side of caution and not cashing the check at all. Details about the National Cancer Research Center were pretty sketchy, and it just seemed like a weird chance to take if you’re trying to raise money. What if every person you sent the check to cashed it?

Talk about your instincts being right.

Since then, I’ve heard of some other alleged “charities” sending people checks for small amounts of money, using a similar pitch. What I didn’t consider at the time was this: when you cash one of these checks, the people who sent it can get a copy of it when it hits their bank. That puts your account number and routing number into their hands. At that point, they can drain your account at will.

So I’m going to slightly modify what I said months ago: if a charity sends you a check for a small amount of money, do not cash it and do not donate money. You are, in all likelihood, looking at a scam.

You can, however, file a complaint with the Postal Inspector, if you’re a proactive type of person.

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur

“Everything sounds so much more impressive in Latin”

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In this essay I have borrowed freely from the book:

Sustainable Energy – without the hot air

Copyright ~ David JC MacKay 2009

I have chopped and changed it around to the point that he might not recognize his own work anymore, that is mostly in order to cover and emphasize the points that I wish to make, but these are also points that he raised and he says it very nicely, hence my borrowing from him.

Here is what he says(redacted):

What to do about carbon pollution

We are not on track to a zero-carbon future. Long-term investment is not happening. Carbon is not even being captured at any coal power stations (except for one tiny prototype in Germany). Why not?

Most politicians seem to think that the way to close a stable door is to create a market in permits-to-leave-doors-open.

Well, we can pfaff around with carbon trading – trading in permits to emit carbon and of certificates of carbon-capture. But I still wonder whether it would be wisest to close the stable door directly, rather than fiddling with an international market that is merely intended to encourage stable-door closing.

Carbon tax

The most important tax to increase, if we want to promote fossil-fuel free technologies, is a tax on carbon. The price of carbon needs to be high enough to promote investment in alternatives to fossil fuels, and investment in efficiency measures.

So politicians need to agree long-term reductions in CO2 emissions that are sufficiently strong that investors have confidence that the price of carbon will rise permanently, we need a carbon price that is stable and high. How best to arrange a high carbon price? Is the European emissions trading scheme the way to go?

The view of Cambridge economists Michael Grubb and David Newbery is that the European emissions trading scheme is not up to the job – “current instruments will not deliver an adequate investment response.”

The Economist recommends a carbon tax as the primary mechanism for government support of clean energy sources. The Conservative Party’s ‘Quality of Life Policy Group’ also recommends increasing environmental taxes and reducing other taxes –“a shift from pay as you earn to pay as you burn”. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution also says that the UK should introduce a carbon tax. “It should apply upstream and cover all sectors.”

The principal problem is that carbon pollution is not priced correctly and there is no confidence that it’s going to be priced correctly in the future. When I say “correctly,” I mean that the price of emitting carbon dioxide should be big enough such that every running coal power station has carbon capture technology fitted to it. Solving climate change is a complex topic, but in a single crude brush-stroke, here is the solution: the price of carbon dioxide must be such that people stop burning fossil fuels.

Greening the tax system

“We need to profoundly revise all of our taxes and charges. The aim is to tax pollution, notably fossil-fuels, more; and tax work less”.  ~ Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France

The tax-and-market approach fails if the person choosing what to buy doesn’t pay all the costs associated with their choice.

At present it’s much cheaper to buy a new microwave, DVD player, or vacuum cleaner than to get a malfunctioning one fixed. That’s crazy. This craziness is partly caused by our tax system, which taxes the labour of the microwave-repair man, and surrounds his business with time-consuming paperwork. He’s doing a good thing, repairing my microwave – yet the tax system makes it difficult for him to do business. The idea of “greening the tax system” is to move taxes from “goods” like labour, to “bads” like environmental damage. Advocates of environmental tax reform suggest balancing tax cuts on “goods” by equivalent tax increases on “bads,” so that the tax reforms are revenue neutral.

What should we do to bring about the development of non-fossil energy supply, and of efficiency measures? One attitude is “Just let the market handle it. As fossil fuels become expensive, renewables will become relatively cheaper, and the rational consumer will prefer efficient technologies.” I find it odd that people have such faith in markets, given how regularly markets give us things like booms and busts, credit crunches, and collapses of banks. Consumer choice is not determined solely by price signals. Many consumers care more about image and perception, and some deliberately buy expensive. Once an inefficient thing is bought, it’s too late. It’s essential that inefficient things should not be manufactured in the first place…

(if you are interested – read the whole of his book here )

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And so to my .05 cents worth on the matter.

Carbons credits and carbon trading are a waste of time, it is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.  If you can’t solve the problem upstream then you are just playing at the margins.

Worse, I am deeply suspicious that the whole carbon trading scheme is nothing more than a scam. This was a plan that was concocted by politicians and businesses. Please, give me a break, even a casual glance at the headlines on this whole issues reveals interest and sector groups lobbying for exemptions, tradeoffs and sweetheart deals. It was also originally pushed by the worlds biggest economies like the US, Britian and France. Does anyone seriously think they are out for anything but their own financial self interest? As I have also already noted about gamblers, give them a casino in which to fudge the rules, trade in financial instrument and gamble on outcomes – what do you think is going to be the outcome there. They have stuffed up one market after another and now they want us to create another “free” market for them to play in - I think not!

Trading carbon credits isn’t the solution, it is too easily gamed, politicised and is only marginally effective anyway. In other words, the perfect political “compromise”, traded away until nothing effectively changes and nothing effective gets done. Except that a few people will get rich off the trading game.

So I recommend an alternative solution, like the quote earlier said, pay as you burn. Phase in a 100% tax on all fossil fuels – add on 10% a year tax increase over the next 10 years.

This will be deeply unpopular, but – tough. No-one is going to like any solution. No-one is ever going to like to pay more, do more, or change their habits.

But if the actual objectives are in fact to reduce our dependance on imported fossil fuels, tackle CO2 emission levels and address global warming concerns, then we need to seriously address cause and effect.

Who burns or otherwise consumes fossil fuels? Trains, planes and automobiles, the plastics industries, ships and powerplants. OK, so if the raw bulk price of a ton of coal or a barrel of oil is X, then add on a base tax to the same value right at source. Thereby the cost to anyone who uses it will be at least 2 times X. Then there is an instant cost incentive to trim your use of fossil fuels, and a relative price advantage to alternatives.  Simply, yes?

There is certainly an instant revenue surge directly into government coffers, rather than into Traderz pockets. Alternative energy suppliers are much more cost competitive and waste of resources is materially reined in. Direct costs flow straight up the line and it get everyones attention. It is simple, direct and universal.

Where this is really not going to be popular… is because it is simple, direct and universal. There is no wriggle room, no loopholes or complexities in which to hide, avoid or evade. Unfortunately, for far too long, far too many businesses and fortunes have been built upon being able to not have to pay their share of the costs and by passing off the costs onto some-one else. The best friend of the scam is complexity, when one-one really knows what is actually going on, because it is all too murky and convoluted. You know – like an emissions trading scheme with it exemptions and variances.

Well, thats not the limit of the objections, regular Joe Public wage earner and taxpayer commuting to work in his car or swanning about in his boat also isn’t going to be too happy about a material increase in his expenses either. All the disgruntled parties would likely aim to form a coalition to oppose any additions to their cost. Well, thats what people do of course, bitch and moan about having to change anything – politics as usual.

But in the end, the entire objective is that we do need to make everyone change their habits. What we are doing is not sustainable, so either we plan what our response is, or we have change thrust upon us at some point whether we like it or not. What I find particularly objectionable is the current practice of foisting off costs onto the future so we can have it easy today. The advantage of a carbon/fuel tax is that you pay now for what you do – at the very least it is ethically defendable. On a purely practical level, the financial benefits flow to the public purse; it avoids the socialising of costs and the privatising of profits dynamic. That means there are resources available to encourage research and new developments, and ideally too, taxes in other areas could be reduced.

Best of all it’s simple, which is a test that the carbon trading scam schemes fail. KISS, yeah? What’s more, this in no way necessarily precludes any attempts to deal with carbon emissions in other ways. Say for instance a private power station burning fossil fuels put in place carbon capture technology and so didn’t emit any CO2 from its plant. Under that circumstance, a tax to discourage and penalise the burning and emitting of Carbon would be inequitable. But that is easily dealt with, once a consumer has bought and consumed a quantity of fossil fuels, once they can demonstrate that they didn’t release any CO2 from that process, then they could claim a tax credit for the amount of the fuel tax. If it is cost effective, then there is a clear incentive for them to do it, and it doesn’t need to cost the rest of us anything. The costs are all on them, but the benefits can still make it worthwhile for them to go to the trouble.

And that puts the costs and complexities where they deserve to be.

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With Thanksgiving now behind us and the Holiday Season fast approaching, we are all looking at finding that perfect gift. Using the web, you can usually find it but can you get it at that bargain basement price. Well, unfortunately scammers know what we are looking for too. Fraudulent and malicious sites are popping up all over the internet, at this time of year, promising to ship the items you are looking for at real cheap prices. We all know about looking for TLS (Transport Layer Security), formally known as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates before entering any personal information on any e-commerce site. We all know about checking URL’s to ensure that the site we are entering our personal information is, in fact, the site we intended to visit. But sometimes in the hustle and bustle that comes with the season, we forget, and get careless. Well, this is what the scammers are depending on. With phishing, scareware, browser hijacking, and malware on the rise, we could use all the help that we can get.

This is where WOT (Web Of Trust) comes into play. It is a lightweight plug-in that works in either Firefox or Internet Explorer and will alert you should you visit a known malicious site due to the “spirit of the season”. But this is not a certified authority, like VeriSign, that is a singular authority that verifies sites. WOT is made up of a large team that has checked over 25 million websites and will alert you before you click where you should not. WOT works with Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. Before you click on a search result, you will notice either a green, yellow, or red indicator as to the websites safety rating.  Green means that the site is safe, yellow indicates that caution should be taken, and red is telling you that the site you are about to enter is known as a malicious site.  WOT will also warn you should you click on a link to download software from a known malicious site. It will give you the option to over-ride the warning, but I would take the recommendation seriously.

To use WOT, download the add-on for your browser of your choice. Once it is installed, and you do a search, you will notice colored circles to the right of the search result. By hovering your mouse over the circle, a drop down window will appear showing the rating for the site in various categories including trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy, and child safety. Should you click on a known malicious site, a large warning will appear on your screen. Think carefully about clicking on a site in which you get this warning. You do get the option to proceed, but again, I would seriously consider against the click on the link. Sites, in which, WOT does not have sufficient information will be marked with a question mark.

Especially, during this festive season, it is imperative that we get all the help that we can in order to keep our computers malware free. But more importantly, it is imperative to keep our personal information out of the hands of the cyber-criminals.  WOT is a great tool that is lightweight and will aid you in ensuring that you do not click on something that could harm either yourself or your computer. This is not fool proof, and should be used along with your best weapon…..common sense!!!!

To view a video about the Web Of Trust, click HERE…

To download the Web Of Trust, click HERE…..

Just another tool to help keep you safe.

Happy Holidays!!!

Note:  This is part 6 of the series on the Dangers of Facebook

Part 6 Your Hot Facebook Pics

I bet that got your attention, didn’t it?  Hot Pics!  Well guess what, if you post a ‘hot pic’ of yourself on Facebook…it gets everyone’s attention.  Guys do not take a picture of yourself with your shirt off and post it as your profile picks and girls don’t put a revealing pic up for your profile picture either.  Your friends already know you have great cleavage..don’t let everyone on Facebook in on the secret.

Your profile pic is available for everyone to view…think about that before you decide what it should be.  Potential employers, complete strangers, sexual predators, etc.  If people are looking at friends lists they will always stop on a revealing pic.  Do you want or need this attention?  Go to a dating site if that’s what you are looking for with this pic.  Don’t use Facebook for this.

Let’s talk about that profile pic a little bit more.  I urge everyone to use a pic that is not of your face.  I have seen people use a picture of a stuffed animal, clip art, the sky, nature pics, or an animated character.  This protects your face from people you don’t know.  Once someone becomes your friend then they can see your other pics but why not protect your face from people you don’t know?

If someone from your past is searching for you and they find your name and a picture of the sky for your profile, they won’t immediately know who you are.  Is that a bad thing?  No.  They can send you a message and ask if it is you from Smith High School.  If they don’t want to send that message, if they think that is too hard, then did they really want to reconnect with you in the first place?  Plus, they can still see any mutual friends that the two of you have so they will have a decent idea if it’s you or not.  So what’s the upside to posting an actual pic of yourself in your profile?  We already know the downside.

I get a ton of hits on this blog to the strangest things…and I bet that I will soon be getting hits daily on “hot facebook pics” or something like that…which means there are people searching those things.  All the more reason to protect your privacy.

Part 7 Changing your Facebook Privacy Setting = To Max Protect

Step by Step Instructions for those who want it.

Coming Soon.

Note:  This is Part 5 of the series on the Dangers of Facebook

Part 5 Your Naïve Friends

Alright!  Great Job!  You scrubbed your friend list, told your mom not to sign up for Facebook, rejected every fan page request in the world, and removed all your info from your account.  Protected right?  Nothing to worry about?  Wrong.

Even if you have removed all of your friends that aren’t really friends, you still have a problem.  Your current real friends haven’t read this and are naïve.  Their choices affect your privacy and security.  If their account gets hacked into…your information is now available too.  Let’s say ‘Tom’ is one of your best friends and he uses Facebook all the time.  He likes to post on your wall and make fun of you about things in your personal life…your favorite team, where you live, etc.  He also hasn’t protected his account and therefore his account gets hacked.  The hacker chooses to browse your information because it seems as though Tom likes to post on your wall a lot, so he’s got more to work with.  You are now a target because of Tom.  Tom’s not a bad person, he’s a great friend…just naïve.  And now it costs you.

What’s the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself from Tom?  Send him this link of course.  Even if he does a few of these things it will help and lessen the chances of something happening.  It will make him a less attractive target and make you a much less attractive target.

Part 6 Your Hot Pics

This information can be found at
http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/091130.aspx

This holiday season the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) is reminding people that cyber criminals continue to aggressively create new ways to steal money and personal information. Scammers use many techniques to fool potential victims including fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, and sale of fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at a discounted price.

Fraudulent Classified Ads or Auction Sales
Internet criminals post classified ads or auctions for products they do not have. If you receive an auction product from a merchant or retail store, rather than directly from the auction seller, the item may have been purchased with someone else’s stolen credit card number. Contact the merchant to verify the account used to pay for the item actually belongs to you.

Shoppers should be cautious and not provide financial information directly to the seller, as fraudulent sellers will use this information to purchase items for their scheme from the provided financial account. Always use a legitimate payment service to protect purchases.

As for product delivery, unfamiliar Web sites or individuals selling reduced or free shipping to customers through auction sites many times are deemed to be fraudulent. In many instances, these Web sites or sellers provide shipping labels to their customers as a service. However, the delivery service providers are ultimately not being paid to deliver the package; therefore, packages shipped by the victims using these labels are intercepted by delivery service providers because they are identified as fraudulent.

Diligently check each seller’s rating and feedback along with their number of sales and the dates on which feedback was posted. Be wary of a seller with 100% positive feedback, if they have a low total number of feedback postings and all feedback was posted around the same date and time.

Gift Card Scam
Be careful about purchasing gift cards from auction sites or through classified ads. If you need a gift card, it is safest to purchase it directly from the merchant or another authorized retail store. If the gift card merchant discovers the card you received from another source or auction was initially obtained fraudulently, the merchant will deactivate the gift card number and it will not be honored for purchases.

Phishing and Smishing Schemes
Be leery of e-mails or text messages you receive indicating a problem or question regarding your financial accounts. In this scam, you are directed to follow a link or call the number provided in the message to update your account or correct the problem. The link actually directs the individuals to a fraudulent Web site or message that appears legitimate where any personal information you provide, such as account number and PIN, will be stolen.

Another scam involves victims receiving an e-mail message directing the recipient to a spoofed Web site. A spoofed Web site is a fake site or copy of a real Web site and misleads the recipient into providing personal information, which is routed to the scammer’s computers.

Tips
Here are some tips you can use to avoid becoming a victim of cyber fraud:

Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) e-mail.

Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail.

Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. Virus scan the attachments if possible.

Avoid filling out forms contained in e-mail messages that ask for personal information.

Always compare the link in the e-mail to the link you are actually directed to and determine if they actually match and will lead you to a legitimate site.

Log on directly to the official Web site for the business identified in the e-mail, instead of “linking” to it from an unsolicited e-mail. If the e-mail appears to be from your bank, credit card issuer, or other company you deal with frequently, your statements or official correspondence from the business will provide the proper contact information.

Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the e-mail to verify if the e-mail is genuine.

To receive the latest information about cyber scams, please go to the FBI Web site and sign up for e-mail alerts by clicking on one of the red envelopes. If you have received a scam e-mail, please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

For more information on e-scams, please visit the FBI’s New E-Scams and Warnings webpage at http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm.

One thing people “in transition” (recent graduates) need to be on the lookout for are scam jobs,false companies whatever you want to call them.

Here’s a little story.

Two things I have to say.

1. I have amazing Intuition (Thank you God)
2. Thank God for the Internet

I have been looking for work in my field but just recently I decided to look for any entry level job. I took a look at one opening for a marketing company called Heat Inc.

It seemed like something I could do in the meantime especially since they said recent graduates should apply, and that they were willing to train. They had a link to the website and I thought to myself “ok,well if they have a website it might be legit”. Then I saw the address. I felt it was sketchy. I know that building. I used to work there before and I hated working there. They paid me crap money and most of what they sold at my old job were lies so I just associate that building with scumbag salespeople.

I wasn’t going to apply. But then I said “eh why not? It’s not the same company or people or even suite number. Let’s see what happens. But I bet they are going to email/call me for an interview as soon as I send it. If they do that, then it’s another red flag that they at least pay really crappy.”

So I sent it. What happens? They email me right back 20 minutes later.  I felt my suspicions were confirmed a bit but I went and scheduled an interview anyway.

I was supposed to go for it today. I still had this nagging feeling. I had trouble sleeping all night thinking all sorts of things but regardless the theme of the thoughts was that it wasn’t legit.

I couldn’t fight the feeling off so I was going to check the website again to analyze whether it was authentic. I couldn’t remember the url so I googled it and on the suggestions dropbox is ” Heat group inc scam” so I clicked on it.

It is a scam. Take a look. This is the order I found the links.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ripoffreport

http://www.ripoffreport.com/sales-people/ksw-marketing-now-he/ksw-marketing-now-heat-market-4e478.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/employers/ksw-marketing-ken-we/ksw-marketing-ken-weinraub-t-f3w34.htm

http://cbs3.com/investigations/undercover.investigations.jim.2.885154.html

No “Marketing” jobs for me.  Maybe God is trying to tell me something. I’ll stick solely to TV/Film.

2 December 2009 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. It was the night of 2nd December 1984 when over 35 tons of toxic gases leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, owned by the US based multinational Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)’s Indian affiliate Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL). In the next 2-3 days more than 7,000 people died and many more were injured. Over the last 25 years at least 15,000 more people have died from illnesses related to the gas exposure. Today, more than 100,000 people continue to suffer from chronic and debilitating illnesses, for which treatment is largely ineffective. The disaster shocked the world and raised fundamental questions about government and corporate responsibility for industrial accidents that devastate human life and local environments. Yet 25 years later, the survivors and various organisations are still fighting for justice. Issues of plant site, toxic wastes and contaminated water have not been resolved. And strikingly, no one has been held to account for the leak and its appalling consequences. Bhopal is not just an incident of industrial disaster and human suffering from the last century. It is very much an issue of the present century of corporate accountability, peoples’ rights and government responsibility. The lack of mandatory laws and norms governing multinationals, legal complexities, and government failures are serious obstacles in ensuring justice for the people of Bhopal, and for the victims of corporate complicity in crimes against environment, peoples’ lives and safety.

The Role of Companies

UCC owned 50.9% of the equity of UCIL, and maintained extensive corporate, managerial, technical and operational controls over UCIL. Despite that, since the leak, UCC has argued that the Bhopal plant was not under its control or management, and that UCIL is an entirely separate corporate entity. However, UCC’s 1984 annual report stated: ‘Union Carbide Corporation’s business worldwide is conducted principally through the divisions, subsidiaries and affiliates listed below.’ One of those listed was UCIL, which was also included in UCC’s consolidated balance sheet for the same year.

Urging that the case be thrown out of the USA, UCC argued before the US District Court: ‘Indeed, the practical impossibility for American courts and juries, imbued with US cultural values, living standards and expectations, to determine living standards for people living in the slums or “hutments” surrounding the UCIL, Bhopal, India, by itself confirms that the Indian forum is overwhelmingly the most appropriate. Such abject poverty and the vastly different values, standards and expectations which accompany it are commonplace in India and the third world. They are incomprehensible to Americans living in the United States.’ UCC has subsequently refused to submit itself to Indian jurisdiction.

In 1994 Union Carbide sold its 50.9 per cent share of UCIL to MacLeod Russell (India) Limited of Calcutta, and UCIL was renamed Eveready Industries India Limited. Union Carbide stated: ‘As a result of the sale of its shares in UCIL, Union Carbide retained no interest in – or liability for – the Bhopal site, and Eveready Industries continued to retain exclusive possession of the land under lease from the state government of Madhya Pradesh.’ In February 2001 UCC became a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company. Even though Union Carbide continued to be a separate legal entity, its corporate identity and all its business was now fully integrated with that of Dow. Dow Chemical has publicly stated that it has no responsibility for the leak and its consequences or for the pollution from the plant.

A pending criminal case, failure to extradite Warren Anderson (the then Chief Executive Officer of UCC), a public interest litigation in Madhya Pradesh High Court, an out-of-court compensation settlement between Union Carbide and the Government of India, denial to get any redress through the US court system: this is all we have in the realm of fixing the company’s role. No international norms or national laws to govern the multinational companies existed at the time of the Bhopal disaster. However, UN Norms on the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights came into existence in 2003. But the Indian government has failed in applying its provisions, not only in the case of Bhopal, but also in other ones of human rights violations by the global companies. According to Article 14 of UN Norms, transnational corporations and other business enterprises are responsible for the environmental and human health impact of their activities. The commentary of the article states in detail the concrete measures to be taken in this regard. Article 18 asks on transnational corporations and other business enterprises to make reparations for damages done through their failure to meet the standards spelled out in the Norms. Article 17 asks on states to have in place the necessary legal and administrative framework to give effect to the Norms: ‘States should establish and reinforce the necessary legal and administrative framework for ensuring that the Norms and other relevant national and international laws are implemented by transnational corporations and other business enterprises.’

Right to Information

The Company decided to store huge quantities of the ‘ultra-hazardous’ Mythyl Isocyanate (MIC) in the Bhopal plant in bulk, but did not equip the plant with the corresponding processing or safety capacity. On the night of the gas leak, crucial safety systems were not functional. After the leak, UCC maintained that MIC was nothing more than tear gas, even though the company’s own manuals clearly said that MIC was a fatal poison. Till date UCC has refused to identify the reaction products released, and related toxicological information of the products that leaked. This has prevented doctors from developing an appropriate treatment protocol for victims. Later UCC also claimed that the leak was an act of sabotage caused by a disgruntled employee, whom it has since refused to name. In 1994, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) stopped all further research on the medical effects of the Bhopal disaster without any explanation. The full results of the research carried out and the data with the ICMR have yet to be published.

The single biggest factor in the Bhopal disaster – beyond the dangerous process in use – was the failure of Union Carbide to adequately inform the Indian government, its workers, and the surrounding community of the dangers. Equally disturbing is the fact that what happened in Bhopal is not unique. Many other cases around the country demonstrate the urgency of providing critical information about a company’s operations, in order to protect the environment and the lives and human rights of local communities and workers. We now have the Right to Information Act in the government sphere, but this law does not apply to the private sector. The present conditions call for more public disclosure, more transparency, and more accountability on the part of the companies. Without information, local communities live in the dark, employees unknowingly work in hazardous ways, and shareholders make uninformed investments. There is thus a strong case for the application of the Right to Information in the private sector. Information disclosure standards on environmental impacts (data on toxic releases and health risks to the local community), labour standards (information on workers’ exposure to dangerous chemicals, and basic labour practices including child labour), business practices (terms of agreements between the company and the government) and community relocation (information on displacement, compensation and rehabilitation) should constitute the core of it.

Bhopal survivors have a legacy of suffering and struggling. Ordinary people have shown immense strength in organising and raising vital issues of human well being and rights. Their diverse organisations and support groups — Zehreeli Gas Kand Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karmchari Sangh/Morcha, International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, The Bhopal Survivors’ Movement Study, Students for Bhopal — have kept lives and hopes alive. Our governments have a prime responsibility to address outstanding problems of health care, safe water, cleaning up the site, compensation and rehabilitation. However, there is no substitute for taking steps to regulate the activities of corporations. Laws must be developed and enforced to allow governments and local communities to control the activities of companies operating in their territory. Ensuring public participation and transparency in decisions relating to the location, operational safety and waste disposal of industries using hazardous materials and technology is an essential step to heighten risk awareness and responsible behaviour, as well as to ensure better preparedness to prevent and deal with the consequences of disasters like Bhopal.

There is an add-on for Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox that may help keep you from visiting a fake site that could infect your pc with malware or worse.  The program called “Web of Trust” (From http://www.mywot.com/), monitors trends (using their own information as well as information from other security providers) from the bad guys who set up these types of sites and either puts a marker or presents you with a message when a link that you are opening is considered to be either a known “phishing” site (a fake site meant to still your information) or a site that is high risk and could be a “phishing” site.  The add-on does not actually block the sites, which means that you as the user still needs to use common sense while surfing the internet, as you could click on the message and tell it to continue to the site in question. 

     The add-on which is easy to install, will show the following type of notice on searches (Green as safe sites, Red as sites that would be recommended you avoid)

     In addition when visiting sites that could put you at risk you will see the following message

     As already noted above, this is only an alert, this add-on with all of the browsers will still allow you to “Click here to continue to the page anyways”. That means that this program does not replace common sense, it is a tool to help you better chose but ultimately its still up to the user to use their own common sense. 

     Since I like giving real world examples to explain, here is how I explain Web of Trust.  Consider WOT like your house or car alarm. When you leave your house, you set your alarm, but because you set the alarm doesn’t mean you don’t lock your doors (At least I hope it doesn’t).  Consider your common sense as the looking of your door, if you don’t do it, your still at risk. 

Internet Explorer Add-On (LINK: http://www.mywot.com/en/download/ie)

Firefox Add-On (LINK: http://www.mywot.com/en/download/ff)

Opera Add-On (LINK: http://files.myopera.com/PH%60/UserJs/wot.js)

It seems that the bad guys are at it again, and this time they are using the holiday shopping season to try and trick people into infecting their pc’s.  Panda Labs released a post on their Panda Labs site (LINK:http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/archive/Black_2800_hat_2900_-Friday.aspx) concerning the fact that if you go online and run a search that many of the links showing on search engines  have been compromised and the results actually lead to fake sites that are just there to infect your pc. 

From the Panda Labs post here is an example they show with results that will do nothing but infect your pc.

Google Search:

     If you happen to access one of these fake sites you will get infected with an old favorite, the fake antivirus notices that wont go away until you give the bad guys your credit card information (One of the many others names you may have heard of this is AntiVirus2009 LINK:http://techgeekandmore.com/2009/10/19/rogueware-with-new-ranson-technology/), since they will claim your infected until you but their product. At the moment you do, in a miracle your pc is clean, but a good chance that so would your bank account or credit card since you would have handed the bad guys your information.

In case if you do click on a bad link, you will see the screen just like it shows in the example below (or a slight variation). What you will need to do is follow the information from the recent post “What to do if you get a virus or malware” (LINK: http://techgeekandmore.com/2009/11/23/how-to-what-to-do-if-you-get-a-virus-or-malware-via-a-pop-up-message/) to attempt to clean your pc.

Fake Antivirus Page:

     As always take precautions and use common sense when going to links including those that come up on search engine sites (Like Google, Bing, Yahoo).  If your trying to get to the site of a major site, but the link showing says pleaseclickme.cm/SoIcanmesswithyou (This is just an example), then you may really want to think about it before clicking on the link.

**Images for this post are from the Panda Labs Post.  Presented for the benefit of TGM readers.

This was a new one on me.

The other day, a REGIONAL member called the credit union because he had received an interesting phone call.

The caller claimed to represent Publisher’s Clearing House and informed the member that he had won something like three million dollars, and that the Prize Patrol would be stopping by his house that day.

However, in order to claim his prize, he had to pay some sort of fee up front—$3,500, to be paid via wire transfer immediately or the prize would be forfeit.

Well, our member didn’t take the bait at all. It was yet another version of the same old advance fee fraud.

I wondered if this was a local job, since Publisher’s Clearing House was kind of a goofy choice. Well-organized fraud rings are usually a little sneakier than that (they’re just as easy to see through, though, if you’re paying attention).

No matter, though—the takeaway here is that in a legitimate sweepstakes, you never send money first in order to claim your winnings.

By Rosalin Smith-Carr

Like any industry involving the exchange of information and money, real estate has its share of schemes and tricks designed to separate you from both. Some of the easiest ways to recognize the most prevalent scams for real estate lawyers according to the Law Society of Upper Canada include:

The client has a copy of the transfer/deed, but no other paperwork involving the property like purchase documents or surveys.

The client does not have fire insurance or utility companies do not have any records indicating the seller actually owns the home.

A real estate agent is listed in the agreements but is never seen or communicated to, or there is no real estate agent at all.

And for the rest of us:

Most real estate scams are related to false deeds used to get a loan secured against the property. Once the thief disappears with their money, the owner of the property is in danger of foreclosure. These problems can often be rectified by closely examining the deed and discussing the issue with the bank.

When a real deed is used, after from stealing it from the owner and tricking them into signing it, the reversal process is far more difficult, especially since the papers were legitimately signed. These thieves often prey on the elderly or even family members.

Nigerian scammers, or 419 scams, are like a plague when it comes to anything listed for sale online. The scammers are not always necessarily from Nigeria, but this is primarily where the crime originates and is mostly found, leading to the nickname.

It can work two ways. The most popular is when the scammer will contact you through your ad and offer to send a cashiers check for far more than the original price, telling you to cash it and send them any extra while keeping a hefty chunk as a bonus for yourself. The money comes out of your account, but the original check was a fake, leaving you with the costs.

The second popular method is copy and pasting your online ads and selling your things themselves, telling potential customers they had to leave town unexpectedly and need to take care of the transaction remotely. You send them money for an application fee or background check for them to ensure you apply, and then they disappear with your money.

Despite the obvious nature of the scams, a lot of people fall into these traps. News stories circulate the media every year about educated people falling prey and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  By being aware of some common scams you can keep yourself and your money protected.

Rosalin Smith-Carr is a Sales Representative with Royal LePage R.E.S. Ltd., Johnston & Daniel Division.  Rosalin can be reached at rsmithcarr@sympatico.ca or visit www.primetorontoneighbourhoods.com

Over the past few days, a discussion has been going on on a list that I’m on regarding publishing. More pointedly, the post has become a discussion about my experiences with PublishAmerica and how other authors have gotten caught up in the scam. It became clear to me that this mistake needed to be addressed on my blog.

The Tempest’s Child was published by PublishAmerica in 2006. It was a decision that was made rather hastily early on in my career. I honestly can say that I have no regrets in publishing the book, but I do regret using PublishAmerica to do the job. And in this post I am going to outline why.

The editing issues aside, I can tell you that PublishAmerica misrepresented themselves to me at every turn. I had every assurance that they would help in promoting the book. They would do press releases, send emails, and support any author initiated efforts to publicize the book. Royalty rates were given, the advance came as promised, and at first I was completely blissful having that book in my hands.

It was a glorious accomplishment, in my eyes. It was in print, it had my name and my picture on the cover, and it was just amazing for me. It also came in as my mother had just come out of surgery and was at home recovering. It was, we all felt, the realization of a long held dream.

I was naive enough to believe what I was told about marketing. I sent out press releases of my own. I set about trying to figure out how to schedule book signings, maybe doing some speaking engagements, or interviews with local press. And I was encouraged when I found two other PublishAmerica authors who were doing book signings in the local area.

Then, I started getting sales letters from my publisher. These are always worded : “If you want to have books on hand…” and promised discounts of 55-60% off the cover price to authors on order over so many books. Here lately they promise things like sending my book to Oprah, local libraries, and schools as “donations”. I always have to buy books for this to happen though.

Keep in mind that my book is 194 pages – which is relatively small for a novel. They set the cover price at $19.95 USD. Even I can tell you that I generally don’t pay $19.95 for a paperback book unless it is some sort of reference book. I knew that I was going to have a difficult time selling it to anyone at that price. So, even at 60% off, I would be charged around $8.00 for the book.

I took my book and went to bookstores. They congratulated me on the accomplishment and some offered to take a percentage if I wanted to supply the books. A few actually booked me for signings. And then I hit the big ones. Barnes and Noble cited PublishAmerica as being the reason for their refusal. Despite my contract stating that the books were fully returnable, Barnes and Noble apparently had other experiences with them in the past and so, refused to book. The story was the same with BooksAMillion, B Dalton, Walden Books, and others that I tried. Eventually, I gave up altogether.

I’ve signed approximately 40 copies of Tempest for people who have read it locally. I know my family has bought multiple copies.  A friend found the book on some sort of top ten list in the UK, and then found the book under another publisher as she was trying to purchase her copy. I’ve been paid for a total of 24 copies of the book. And they refuse to give any sort of support to their authors. I’ve even been told, when I inquire about the discrepency, that they only run the numbers every six months and then they avoid the issue.

My inquiry about the other publisher, just so you know, has been ignored.

Needless to say, I won’t be submitting any future work to them for consideration. Nor would I advise any aspiring author to submit to them. In fact, I would say to run from them.

The sad part is that it wouldn’t do any good for me to sue them for rights to the book back. They will just tie it up in court until they expire anyway. Then you have the issue of two attorneys and I haven’t got money for that. So, I’ll let it go and chock it up to experience.

Tempest is not my best work anyway. I’m working on my dynamic projects now. They have more compelling characters, better plots, they are far more polished, and have garnered more response from my beta readers than any project before.

I’ve learned the value of a good agent through this process and am now actively seeking representation. I’m looking toward a long career in this field rather than just being an overnight success or one-book wonder. I’m confident that I will find an agent who is willing to believe in my work as much as I do now. I just have to get the work into the right hands.

So, I’m building a platform now. I’m doing all the things that I should have been doing before I published that book. I’m researching more. I am developing my skills. I am looking to network more with other writers by going to conferences and workshops. In short, I’m learning about the business of writing and how to be my own advocate for success.

People think that you publish a book and things are all roses. The truth is, it is hard work and perseverance that makes a career. You learn from the mistakes and you move on from them to be better the next time.

So, I’m moving on. I hope that the readers I’ve already won over with Tempest will take the rest of the journey with me. But I also know that you can’t please everyone all of the time. So, I’ll do the best I can and hope that I can please some of them most of the time and that I can always appreciate the loyalty of fans who subscribe to the blog, newsletters, and who come out to see me when I do make appearances for my work.

The fans make it or break it. I know this, not only as a writer, but as a performer. I’m grateful for my fans. And I hope that with all the changes, they’ll find me on the web and follow, comment, and keep tabs on this journey.

Subitled, “A Romance.”  Sub-subtitled, “Happy Thanksgiving!”

The names in this story have been changed to protect both the guilty and the innocent. 

My friend “Barbara” and her boyfriend of four months now, “Larry”, were scheduled to go to Alabama (name changed to protect an innocent State) to spend it with her family.  (I will say that the location is somewhere in the South, and Barbara’s family is kind of like Dukes of Hazzard meet the Hell’s Angels.  Larry is originally from New York, so that alone would have made quite a tale.)  They were planning to leave on Wednesday, but Larry called her on Tuesday and said he’d been called to an emergency meeting at his regional headquarters in Orlando (its real name), and for her to go on ahead and he would get a plane from Orlando to Somewhere, Alabama on Wednesday night. 

Wednesday he called and said he was not going to be able to make it.  The meeting that day was to tell him he had to work on Friday due to a sensitive, politically involved issue at his workplace.  (Clarification:  “Larry” is the project manager for a multi-million dollar construction project in the city where he and Barbara currently reside;  Barbara permanently, Larry temporarily, at least until 2012.  His “permanent” home is in another Florida city.)   However, he said, he had changed his plane ticket and she should pick him up at the Somewhere Airport at 5:55 P.M. on Friday evening.  Then they would drive back together as planned on Sunday morning. 

She said never mind, Why didn’t he just drive to <Other Florida City>, spend Thanksgiving Day with his own family, and she would go ahead and drive back herself on Friday rather than Sunday.  That way they could spend the weekend together. 

I may not have this whole story completely straight, but in any case, Barbara drove back on Friday, and never heard from him.  On Saturday, he called to say he was on his way back and they needed to talk. 

Now let’s hear a little background info on Larry.  Larry was married for 20 or so years to “Roxanne”, who died of cancer some years ago.  As coincidence would have it, Roxanne’s best friend was also named Roxanne, and during the course of wife Roxanne’s illness, he and friend Roxanne became close, and eventually became a couple.  However, he said, they lived separately, and it was never a  romantic sort of relationship, at least on his part, more of a friendship and convenience sort of thing.  But it continued to get more complicated as now girlfriend Roxanne became close to his sister, who was also suffering health problems.  Once he and Barbara had been seeing eash other for a while, he said he was breaking it off with Roxanne.  It was early enough in the relationship that Barbara said, “Don’t do that on my account, because I’m not making any promises.” 

“No no no,” said Larry.  “I’m not really doing it because of you.  It was inevitable.  If it hadn’t been you, it would have been someone else.”

Rewind back to Saturday night when he returns, and says, Barbara, I’ve been lying to you since Day One.  Roxanne is not my girlfriend, she’s my wife.  We’ve been married four years.  But really, really, I don’t love her.  I love you madly.  This is killing me.  Barbara coolly says, “So was there ever a plan to come to Alabama?”  He said no…no plan, and no plane ticket–ever.  And Barbara said, I have to leave (they were in his apartment) and left his key on the kitchen counter. 

After telling me this story, Barbara said, “What would you do?”  She was still in shock, and unsure, because while she is hurt, she still has feelings for him.  Ha ha.  Fakename has not survived this long by answering questions like this.  Today’s villain is tomorrow’s husband, then you become the villain by having said all those bad things about him.  But to be honest, Readers, Fakename is furious. 

This is like a bad movie on Lifetime TV.  Woman Scammed by Charming Rogue.  What makes me angriest is that sociopaths exist, and they can be men or women, taking advantage of the trusting nature of ordinary people.  And by trusting, I do not mean gullible.  My friend is anything but.  She is smart and competent and loving.  I hope she makes the right decision.  “How can I ever believe anything he says after this?”, she asked.  Indeed, Fakename thought, silently. 

Had Fakename been inclined to reply, she would have asked, Is walking the plank still illegal?  We will close this post with a poll:

1.  Larry is a well-meaning guy who is under a lot of stress.  He really did mean to do the right thing by everyone concerned, but in the process of trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings, he just got caught up in a series of dilemmas he saw no way out of.  He’s trying to do the right thing now by coming clean with at least one person.  He really does love her, and hopes she will forgive him. 

2.  Larry is a scumbag, who thinks he has played this just right.  Having been involved with Barbara long enough now to be semi-comfortable with her attachment to him, he thinks he can keep her on the hook.  If not, well there are other fish in the sea.  In any case, it would be a lot more complicated to disinvolve yourself with someone to whom you were financially connected (e.g., wife).  While we’re at it, who believes there are two Roxannes?

A SPECIALIST integrity unit has been formed inside the Department of Immigration to deal with widespread fraud in the working holiday visa program, on which industries such as fruit growing depend.

More than 200 internet advertisements have been found offering to buy or sell documents allowing backpackers to claim they had worked in rural jobs without them leaving Sydney, and thus extend their working holiday visas. The standard fee is $400. So far, 64 visas have been cancelled over the fraud and at least 19 more are being reviewed.

One man, an Irish national, has been convicted of fraud. ”There’s been more than 100 fraudulent claims identified this financial year,” a spokeswoman for the department said. ”The answer is we don’t know [the full extent of the fraud]. At this stage it’s too early to determine and we will be looking at it over the next six months.”

The working holiday visa (subclass 417) allows people to extend their stay in Australia by a year if they can prove they have worked in a rural area for three months. Applications are lodged online but have been abused by people selling Australian business numbers linked to farms so backpackers can falsely claim they worked on farms.

”Second year visas for sale,” one ad read. ”Will email completed 1263 form and add your details to my books so you can gain second year visa with ease.”

Another ad offering similar services, posted on the Gumtree website on Saturday, had received more than 2000 hits by last night. Unlike visa scams targeting international students, mainly Indians, this fraud is used mainly by European visitors.

One backpacker told the Herald he had been offered the false documentation as soon as be arrived in Australia, by people staying at the same hostel.

”People told me about buying the documents – getting the numbers to put in,” he said. ”When I arrived here people said you can go there [to a farm] or you can buy. Everyone knows about it. It’s easy. All the people who are here know about that.”

The federal Opposition spokeswoman on immigration, Sharman Stone, said the widespread fraud reflected under-resourcing of the department.

What a joke.

Imagine the police knocking on your door after an incident like this and you rebuffing them for a SECOND time.

What a freaking joke!

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ap-woods-accident&prov=ap&type=lgns

Robert Siciliano o fhttp://IDTheftSecurity.com was recently on Extra. He was showing how easy it is for a scammer to attach a skimmer to an ATM machine and steal the bank information from hundreds of people in one day. The even scarier part is that the ATM machine that Robert bought to demonstrate this was purchased on Craigslist.

Here is a link to the segment that aired.

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2009/11/protect_yourself_from_atm_skimmers.php

Boston Globe Article here:
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2009/11/22/independent_atms_pose_more_risk_than_you_think/

More here: http://www.finextra.com/community/fullblog.aspx?id=3551

By Dan Ferguson, Surrey North Delta Leader (Canada)

A 52-year-old woman from Lakewood, Colorado has been arrested for involvement in an Olympic rental scam that cost a Surrey homeowner $8,900.

Police in Lakewood, a municipality of 144,000 people near Denver, made the arrest earlier this month after learning the money was picked up at Moneygram offices at Wal-Mart stores in Denver and Lakewood.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

The original report is here.

Hey there, everybody!

Remember when I told you about the Twilight scam that was going around?  Well, there’s another one.  Yep, indeed another one.

This time, it’s apparently promising you the chance to watch the in-theatres-now Twilight Saga: New Moon online.  Just as it is in life, you can’t believe everything you hear, kids.

PC Tools’ Malware Research Center is warning web users of another online scam that hopes to piggyback on hype surrounding the new Twilight New Moon film.

The security software developer says the latest trick tempts movie fans by promising them they can watch the film for free, before installing malware on their computer.

PC Tools said fans are baited with the text websites, chat rooms and blogs that read: “Watch New Moon Full Movie.”

 

Source.

Let’s not be gulliable, “be safe“! :O)

As described in the movie, Bangkok Dangerous, it’s true that you need to be aware of the scams that often happen to tourists. Having the look like other Asian girls, and some people mistook us as locaIs doesn’t guarantee we would get away from the scams.

Scam 1.

Beware when walking to Grand Palace area, you’ll be strolling through a park where some people with bunches of birds (pigeons) gather round and you’ll be forced to feed the birds – whether you like it or not – and forced to pay some money. Not really much amount (30-50 baht) compared to what I have had in Milan (50 euros), but still! For those allergic to birds or fear of birds (like me) better run through other ways further across the street!

Scam 2.

When you finally manage to cross the street to the Grand Palace, there will be people (in our case, a nice gentle and polite man) who greeted you in much of politeness “please don’t cross here miss, there’s a zebra cross over there, much safer”.  He introduced himself as one of officer who worked at the government and told us that the Palace was on a break at at the moment so please come back again in 2 more hours. Please always check the schedule of the place you want to visit, and bad for us, we didn’t know the Palace had break time.

He suggested us go to some temples (as he said to be not really touristic but very local and good) while waiting the Palace to be open again in 2 hours, and also bargain the Tuk-tuk in local language to take us there for only 50 bahts (he said, that’s the price for locals, if we bargained it ourselves we would pay more) – and we thanked him for it. We thought – Wow, there’s still a nice man in this world!

Then the tuk-tuk drove us to ‘the temples’, and when we arrived there, it was only small temple, really a local one, and I wasn’t really fascinated with the statues there (after having seen some, they all look the same to me), not to mention there was DOGS there. I hate dogs.  We decided to walk out when greeted by a man who claimed to be Director of that temple (such small temple..) in local language and apologised when he knew we were tourists from Indonesia.  (later on we realised maybe that was his trick to judge whether we were tourist or not). We had some discussion about the statues, then he also suggested us go to…gem factory. “You know that Thailand is really famous for its sapphire, you have to go this gem festival, it only happens every 25 years for a week!! You are very lucky to come at this dates!”. And we were naivettes and just gasped to imagine “the gem factory”, which each probably would only cost 100-300 bahts! He said the price started at 100 bahts, and visa accepted. Hm. What kind of factory accept visa..but probably because it’s big, and everyone will buy like crazy – and to bring cash is only attracting some pickpockets there – I started to rationalised that.

Then again, he showed the tuk –tuk driver to go to this place, which he pointed as “very near, only 15 minutes” – turned to be a hell of tuk-tuk journey with at least 35-40 minute ride. There were big demonstration in Bangkok when we were there, theThaksin-pro people (red shirts) vs. Incumbent-pro people (yellow shirts). And lucky we werenot wearing red since the red considered to be the brutal ones – said the locals. But our Tuk-tuk driver wore red, he was one of Thaksin fans, whom he adored to have populist policy by giving them money (suddenly I remember our own President…)

Anyway. The ‘Gem Factory’ here turned out to be just a small shops, and exclusive one, in residential area, with none of it costed less than 3000 bahts,  and that was just a small piece. Indeed, you could always swipe your Visa here, because it wasn’t much of factory at all to my imagination. If the ‘factory’ was like that, you can magine then what the wholesaler looks like.

And the tuk-tuk driver insisted to take us to the wholesaler. Actually it was a nice place, and much bigger than the ‘factory-where there was festival that held in every 25 years to commemorate the King’, and we could just easily find ourselves drooling over the nice blue, yellow, red sapphire with silver or white gold. There was also the ‘small factory’ with some craftsmen and women made the custom-made ring or necklace or earings we order. Since the ring I eyed costed a fortune (around 29,000 bahts) (and when I was busy calculating with my brain in Indonesian, the beautiful saleswoman was on the ball and swift the numbers into Rupiah currency (she understood Indonesian!!) – we walked out of there with emptyhanded. 29K bahts equals the total cost of our trip in Indochine for the whole 2 weeks!

We were starved to death, and the tuk-tuk driver, again, brought us to exclusive restaurant. OMG. He didn’t know any good cheap food stalls??

And when we decided to go to Grand Palace, it was never on a break, and always open from 9 am to 5 pm, and there was a sign in front of the ticketing place written “DO NOT TALK TO STRANGER, THAT MAYBE A SCAM”. Oh, Thank you very much…!

This story, just doesn’t happen to me but also to other friends who visited Bangkok, the modus is similar, but maybe the improvisation is bit different, but the escorting to gem factory part is always the same thing. The players are : the man or woman (who tell us the Palace is closed), the tuk-tuk driver who gets commission from each places he takes us, the temple guy or director whatever, and also the gem place (well they take advantage of ‘forcing people’ to visit). For other cases, ou can check out the website : www.bangkokscams.com . Well not that you shouldn’t go there, Bangkok is still worth visiting, just put on extra cautions, tourists are always easy targets, wherever, on this planet J

Zscaler Research provides some tips on how to avoid scams related to Twitter.

Also, IT Business Edge explains how to protect your brand and reputation on Twitter.