The benefit of experiences is......

that you can recognise a mistake when you make it again!

"They" also say "Marry in haste, repent at leisure".

The point of all this?

My decision to stop my blog, Corporate Crime Watch, was premature and wrong.

I LOVE this blog, WHAT was I thinking?

Anyway, I hope you are still around or will come back and if you have no idea what I am rambling on about, it was nothing, forget it, please.

And if you are seeing this for the first time check us out at Corporate Crime Watch.

Ever wondered who "They" are?

Developments at Scam Stop

We have been very busy putting the services and sites in place to be able to fulfil our vision of assisting our members in STOPPING the scams, schemes, bogus job offers, sales frauds, spam and general abuse that plague us every day both online and in the “real” world.

Scam Stop offers its members a confidential advice and resolution service should they ever fall victim to a scam or fraud.

This service is available from the Scam Stop portal, http://scamstop.co.cc.

Scam Stop has a voluntary panel of experts who are prepared to provide assistance in their area of expertise.

They are:

David Alexander http://davidalexander.co.cc of Mercury Advisors who is a social engineering and fraud prevention education expert.

John Dierckx http://www.visualcv.com/johndierckx, of the Arcis Fraud Discovery and Exposure Centre, http://arcisfdec.com/ , who is an internationally recognised expert on all matters relating to fraud, Insurance fraud, computer fraud and the resolution of fraud situations.

Patrick Dacre http://www.linkedin.com/in/inbusiness4good, of Computer Helpers Without Borders, http://www.computerhelpers4good.net, and a member of the ICAN Anti Spam Task Force since 1995 is our computer safety expert and will advise members on any computer safety related issues.

Deborah Berchem http://www.linkedin.com/in/debberchem, of DLB and Associates, http://www.dlbandassociates.com/, who is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist and an expert on all matters relating to identity theft.

This group can only grow and flourish through the active participation of all members so we would request that you visit us often make us part of your online life and invite your friends and family, remember together we can do more!

We are committed to adding value to our members by assisting them to navigate the hazards of the online experience and to providing valuable assistance and advice should it ever be required.

Thanks

The Scam Stop Team

My move to Scam Stop

I am making some personal changes that have come about due to some very exciting developments in my business and professional activities going into the future.

I recently founded Scam Stop with Lynne Thackeray to aggressively address scams and fraud both online and in the "real" world.

This service is clearly timeous and very necessary as the demand for assistance, advice and information has exploded since the formation of Scam Stop.

This has resulted in me having to take a very close look at what I am doing and how and where my efforts can add maximum value to the members of Scam Stop.

In order to make our vision for Scam Stop a reality I will be making some changes.

One of the changes that I will be making is that this blog will be mothballed for the foreseeable future as I cannot devote the time required to do it justice at present.

I will now be writing on a daily basis on scams and fraud on the Scam Stop blog and I would request that you subscribe to that feed at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/ScamStop. You can also subscribe by e mail here.

I am sure that the Scam Stop blog will provide real value with factual and very well researched information on scams and fraud currently prevalent on the Internet and in the "real" world.

I will also be writing on the ARCIS blog as the South African associate of the ARCIS Fraud Discovery and Exposure Centre.

John Dierckx who operates this highly professional service is THE consummate fraud prevention professional and I know that ARCIS will add real value through it's fraud prevention services, information and advice.

Please join me on the ARCIS blog, it is a great resource for entrepreneurs, small and medium sized business owners and anybody with an interest in fraud prevention.

Thank you for your support over the past few months and I hope to see you at Scam Stop and on the ARCIS blog.

DANGEROUS ATM Urban legend!

I received this message in one of those infamous, mass hysteria, bulk forwarded e mail messages:

In the spite of armed robbery, here is something you may really need.

WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO
TO YOU.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I.E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521.
THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT
WILL ALERT POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF.
EVERY ATM HAS IT, IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP.
NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS.
FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE FOR.

Why do I say that it is dangerous?

BECAUSE IT IS FALSE! 100% URBAN LEGEND.

Picture the scene, your granny, mother or whoever desperately entering her PIN in backwards and waiting for the cavalry to arrive to rescue her.

Not going to happen.

That is supposing she CAN enter the thing in backwards in a moment of extreme stress. Most of us have trouble enough remembering our PIN forwards at the best of times!

The thing that cooks my blood is that 30 seconds on Google, or Snopes or About or any number of other sites will tell you that this is crap and dangerous to boot.

Yes, the technology does exist and has done for a long time but it is not in use.

NEWSFLASH!

NOT EVERYTHING YOU READ IN AN E MAIL OR ON THE INTERNET IS TRUE!

I have written about  forwarding e mails here. Please read it again.

This e mail IS NOT HARMLESS because it can lull people into a false sense of security thereby exposing them to danger.

Use your common sense, the layout, language use, the use of capitals throughout should alert you to the fact that this is a hoax.

Just ask yourself if FNB would EVER send out information that looks as bad as this one does.

Common sense tells you that this is a hoax even before you check it out.

It may be a well meaning hoax, maybe the person who sent it believes it but this does not reduce the damage that it could cause.

Please do your entire mail list a favour, STOP FORWARDING THE E MAILS and if you really, really think you must, the information is true and of critical importance, here is some advice that will keep you out of trouble:

• Check the veracity of the information, as mentioned just by using Google, or Snopes or About.com you can satisfy yourself if the information has a reasonable chance of being true. Invest the few minutes required and save yourself from a lot of potential embarrassment.
• Don't fall for the hysterical, urgent, critically important "you must do this now" appeal that all of these things contain (Don't worry the world will not stop and no curse will befall you if you don't forward the message to at least 10 people)
• If you decide that you must inform you entire network about the content of the email, here is what to do:
  • Copy the message into a new e mail.
  • Address it to yourself.
  • Put all your other contact's e mail addresses in the BCC field, this will protect your contact's privacy and not display their address to all and sundry. (Remember that your contact's shared their e mail address with YOU, not your entire network, it is only good manners and practice to respect their privacy)

You should NEVER just forward any e mail to your entire network, do this often enough and your contacts will start blocking you as an irritating, brainless, spammer.

And you are not, are you?

Let's stay safe, sensible and be a good, reliable, considerate contact, one who people know that they can rely on.

Play your part in reducing spam.

Don't give your contact to the "address harvesters".