I suppose it's reassuring, in a way. At least one of the eternal verities still holds good: in cyberspace, as elsewhere, there's one born every minute.
Electronic snake-oil seems to be even more potent than the original. It's odd that in a sceptical age so many of the over-technologised are still
sucked in by its excited punctuation and get-rich-quick vocabulary.
Several readers – and some IT colleagues as well - recently sent me an email along these lines: "This was in the Financial Review today, and I'm told it is legitimate. A growing internet company, FreeBanCo, is giving away free stock as a promotion prior to IPO to increase awareness of their offering [the last company who did this was Yahoo, now listed with NASDAQ and the stock has increased 3500%]. To participate in the promotion doesn't cost you anything, simply register on their Web site below and they will purportedly allocate five free shares. If you recommend it to other people who also register you're allocated 3 extra shares per person."
"Purportedly" is right. To all of them I replied, with a certain crispness, that it was obviously a new mailing-list scam. And sure enough, a visit to the FreeBanCo site at once revealed the scamster's footprint: multiple exclamation-marks!!!
A check of their own noticeboard also turned up a warning artfully planted there by one of the victims, and I found several more in penny-stock investor groups on UseNet, almost buried in the hype. It only took a couple of minutes.
In a day or two, no doubt after harvesting thousands of email addresses, the site abruptly vanished [www.freebanco.addr.com/registration.html] and the news-groups switched to sadder-but-wiser mode. I particularly enjoyed the tone of betrayal in: "I had a lot of referral shares and now it looks like they're all gone. I think they seduced us with stock, sold every email address for profit, and ran. Ran out the door and let the webmaster shut them down. They did not care... " [www.stock-talk.com/talk/IPOSTOCKS/1129.shtml]
Y2K opens up a whole new field of fire. It's with a sense of déjà vu that I share a couple of the latest fake-header rip-offs with those who are not, by temperament, professional victims.
Credit-card scam: your credit-card company contacts you - to protect your card from Y2K problems, they need to send a new magnetic sticker. What was that account number, again… ?
Advisory: if you expect a sticker, you're going to get stuck.
Bank scam: a bank rep mails to advise that all funds are being moved into secure accounts safe from the Y2K bug. Please confirm your account number and personal information.
Advisory: Happy Christmas!
ISP scam: "According to our records, payment for your Internet access account is late. Perhaps you have overlooked it? It is important that you contact us as soon as possible for continued access. To update your account information, go to…"
Advisory: users on two US ISP's, Texoma and Value Net, were fooled by this crafty little scam last week.
And there are many more. You'll find plenty of oldies-but-goodies at http://209.220.62.45/consumer/Consumer.htm; or for safety tips, which include the latest Federal Trade Commission alerts, visit http://intergov.org/public_administration/information/latest_scams.html.
And our own Ministry of Consumer Affairs now maintains an excellent Scam Watch at www.consumer-ministry.govt.nz/scam%20alert.html
Your surest defense against scamsters, though, is your fingertip: keep hitting the 'Delete' key till it bleeds…
BookMarks
MOST ENTERPRISING: PitStop
Brakes, mufflers, shocks, suspension… whenever your car
needs a little life-support you can book it in online
anywhere in New Zealand, with instant feedback on costing and how long the repair will take, plus an interest-free finance option. Cool site.
Advisory: "Wouldn't it be easier just to ring up?" a small voice kept asking…
www.pitstop.co.nz
CHILLIEST: surf.co
Surf's up, with livecams and national break reports from the far north to Dunedin's St. Clair, where there are plenty of waves [and sharks, it adds cheerfully]. Still some wipe-outs here and there – the site needs waxing.
Advisory: coming up: a national stolen-board report.
www.surf.co.nz
MOST FASCINATING: Australia's Thylacine
Sydney scientists will try to resurrect the Tasmanian Tiger [Thylacinus cynocephalus] in the world's first attempt at cloning an extinct species. This extraordinary carnivorous marsupial evolved into something like the real thing, but lost out to the dingo. DNA will be extracted from a specimen pickled in alcohol since 1866 and the cells cloned into a surrogate mother, the Tasmanian Devil, its last surviving relative. Let's get the moa back on the menu, I say…
Advisory: hello again, Dr. Moreau…
www.austmus.gov.au/thylacine
DODGIEST: Anguilla
It's the free market, after all, so what are you waiting for? - incorporate yourself in an offshore tax-haven, just like the big boys, from the comfort and anonymity of your PC. Five minutes and $250 will get you a completely legal company in the sunny Caribbean which pays no personal or corporate taxes - in Anguilla, at any rate; and maybe not here either, if your lawyer's got what it takes…
Advisory: just don't tell Winston…
www.anguillaoffshore.com
Comments: petersinclair@email.com
I suppose it's reassuring, in a way. At least one of the eternal verities still holds good: in cyberspace, as elsewhere, there's one born every minute.
Electronic snake-oil seems to be even more potent than the original. It's odd that in a sceptical age so many of the over-technologised are still
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