Phishing Phollies

I’ve been spending my evenings and weekends in my woodshop making ornaments. Take a look at my Google Picasa Albums. If you’d like to see them live I have a tree in my office with all of them displayed. I try to add one or two each day depending on how long my back lasts at the lathe.

Truffuls® Irresistible Delights

Many of you have seen these before, but if you haven’t, feel free to poke around. More will be added to this category when I get sick of making ornaments!

Lidded Vessels

Every day since my Florida trip I’ve gotten at least 5 phishing attempts, but since I’ve posted so many already I don’t see the value in posting them here.

Just be very sceptical of any email asking you to do anything concerning personal/financial information. There is an extremely high likelihood that it is an attempt to relieve you of your financial stability.

I’ll continue to post interesting samples to delight you, but for now, I’ll concentrate on other topics from the criminal underbelly.

Apparently, GPS Units are the hot item dirtbags are looking for this holiday "shopping" season. Last Monday, in broad daylight, in a busy parking lot, my car, not 30′ from my office, had its passenger side window smashed and my GPS stolen. Good thing they didn’t take the VHF Coast Guard radio or the Feds would be looking for them!

The joke is on them, our unit was broken; it didn’t hold a charge, and we were planning on getting a new one soon. But, I am disturbed that they have all my addresses that I frequent, even my dad’s in Florida. Now we have a groovy Garmin Nüvi 360! This thing has an 8 hour battery, interacts with your cellphone via Bluetooth and will even ready my Audible.com audio books! Oh, and it is password protected so it won’t unlock without the password or you are in our driveway!

From the intel I’ve gathered, they (the scum of the Earth), spot a GPS sucked to your window and smash and run. Some of them will even smash the window if they see a residual "suck mark" from the suction cup holder. A colleague reported that every car with a GPS on his block was broken into.

I made a small sign and am placing it on all the cars in my lot if I see evidence of a GPS Unit.

Ah, Christmas; it brings out the "BEST" in everyone!

A: Yes, and either way, you are screwed!

These are appearing more and more frequently in my inbox. They don’t send you to a bogus site, instead, they are sitting on their lazy backsides waiting for you to call them. Some of them claim this is a toll-free number, some claim they are in Indiana, or other states. Fact is, 641-665-XXXX is an exchange from New Haven, Iowa.

Interestingly enough, 641 is also used for calling card calls and other types of greedy tactics. Don’t people in Iowa have any legitimate business to attend to?

NEVER call a number provided in an email asking for personal info or telling you you’re a winner of some fortune or your card/account has been suspended/terminated, etc…. Call the number on your monthly statement or on the website you always go to (don’t click on a link in an email).