Phenomenally bad phishing
Experian, the credit reporting bureau, reports that a study has found a connection between consumers with high credit scores and their chances of being a victim of credit fraud. Of course, identity theft criminals likely would seek out victims that would provide the most lucrative returns.
But I may be giving those outlaws too much credit. I just received one of the most idiotic phishing emails I’ve ever seen.
This is to inform you that the sum of £500.000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds) has been awarded to you as cash grant from the Microsoft and AOL Company for this year 2009 cash grant Award. You are to send us the following details so that we can proceed to process your claims.
The lucky winner is told to provide personal information, including phone number, address and marital status. The email, which contains a return address of result@microsoft.co.uk, directs responses to a hotmail.com address.
As much as I could use Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds, I’ll have to route this offer to the junk folder.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Newspaper nips ‘net on noodling news
I’m an Internet junkie, and love to find funny, bizarre and up-to-the-second reports by surfing from blog to blog. This week, a couple of my favorite stops have posted about the incredible phenomena of people WHO FISH WITH THEIR HANDS!
It’s called noodling. And if you’re from Oklahoma, this probably isn’t news to you. As a card-carrying member of the mainstream media, I gotta say been there, done that.
Don Mecoy
Business News
Twitter porn looks like ID theft scam
Twitter porn, an apparently harmless game, could trick users into revealing more than they realize, according to a PC World blurb. I’m usually fairly sensitive to scams, but this one flat eluded me.
The porn names game has a few variations, but the information that all of the versions elicit is the same. To find your “porn name” you are asked to take the name of your first pet, and combine it with the street you grew up on or your mother’s maiden name. Silly, sure. But look more closely: All of these are common security questions.
So look elsewhere for mindless Internet fun.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Why Americans don’t save
From Fail Blog, one of my kids’ favorite sites.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A Martian view of U.S. oil industry
This 1956 cartoon created by the American Petroleum Institute, and archived by the Internet Achive, was designed to promote the oil industry. It is surprisingly entertaining. Martians, who already had developed interplanetary travel, needed help from America’s oil industry to understand how petroleum and competition can boost the standard of living for all Martians.
The oil industry information gets going in earnest at about the 7:30 mark. Notice how the oil companies use explosives to search for oil deposits. (via Boing Boing)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Greatest resignation letter of all time
It just is. (Use the arrow keys)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Yahoo shutting down Geocities
This isn’t necessarily surprising news. But it does seem like a good time to recall how much Yahoo spent to buy Geocities in 1999.
It was $3.6 billion.
From the Jan. 28, 1999 CNN story:
Based on Yahoo!’s closing stock price of $335.875 on Wednesday, the transaction is valued at roughly $3.57 billion, a hefty premium over GeoCities’ market capitalization of $2.3 billion.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Baby shaker iPhone app yanked
An iPhone app that required the user to shake the device to quiet a crying baby has been pulled from the iTunes store after at least a couple of groups raised a stink about it.
The Associated Press reports:
The iTunes description included the line, “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!” Once the iPhone owner finishes shaking the device, the on-screen baby is depicted with large red X’s over its eyes.
Apple has refused to sell other iPhone applications it has deemed objectionable, including one that allowed the user to manipulate a woman’s breasts and an application based on the show “South Park.” However, “fart buttons” are among the most popular items stocked at the iTunes store. Go figure.
Edit: Now that I’ve seen the video, this is offensive in addition to being pointless.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The Twitter biz
In this article, Wharton business faculty discuss the business potential of Twitter. Some think it will be swallowed by a larger Internet site:
Wharton faculty argue that Twitter’s best future may be as part of a larger service. Indeed, Facebook and Twitter have already partially integrated their services; Twitterers who also use the Facebook service can have their Tweets delivered as Facebook status updates. Salesforce.com, which makes on-demand customer relationship management software, has integrated Twitter into its application. And Matwyshyn says Twitter would make a lot of sense as part of Google’s Gmail or Yahoo Mail.
But selling out to Google or Yahoo, as some have proposed, may be limited by Twitter’s rather grown-up demographic:
Research firm Nielson notes that teenagers aren’t the primary users of Twitter; more than 60% of Twitter’s users are between the ages of 25 and 49. In the 18 to 24 bracket, Twitter’s user base was too small to register. Users under 17 accounted for 3.6% of Twitter users.
If making money is the aim, Twitter’s founders might want to do something pretty soon, the Wharton folks say:
It’s quite possible that a third party could find a way to make money off of Twitter before the company itself does. Twitdom, a startup that tracks Twitter applications, already counts 610 applications that piggyback off Twitter’s service. Any of those applications could find a way to take Twitter’s flow of comments and make money from them.
Unless you’re already sick of the Twitter conversation, it’s worth a read.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
On Twitter, they know if you’re a dog
So much for Internet anonymity.
Dallas Business Journal reports:
A couple of University of Texas at Austin researchers have developed an algorithm for a “de-anonymization technique” that, by tracking common relationships, identifies the posters on social Web sites such as Flickr and Twitter.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
