The Gambling Spam Keeps Coming
I’m still getting the gambling spam, I reported about here.
I have only been counting since the 19th July, and as of this morning, I’ve received over 680 in a month.
This must rate installation in the Guinness Book of Records.
There is an iunsubscribe link on the e-mails. But it either doesn’t work or Outlook and my anti-spam system, doesn’t allow it to be used. I of course pass the link to my test machine, which means if it gets infected by a virus, I just delete everything.
MPs Don’t Like Google’s Tax Affairs
According to this article in the Daily Telegraph, Google only paid £6m tax on revenues of £395m.
Obviously, it is not in the interest of the UK, that major international companies pay so little tax. It’s also not in the interest of small UK companies, who perhaps pay high rates of tax and see their foreign competitors in the UK, paying very little.
Years ago, I was involved in monitoring the perception in the press of major companies. After a couple of quarters bumping along at the bottom, companies quickly picked their ideas up.
So perhaps a publicly available table on the Internet, showing the turnover, tax and a few other figures of companies, might not be a bad idea.
Suppose say it was obvious that a well known restaurant chain, was paying a very low rate of tax. Would it mean that customers went elsewhere? Possibly, but it might mean they did other things to justify the low rate, that were of benefit to the UK.
A Country I’ll Never Visit!
I’ve enjoyed the Czech Republic in the past, but I doubt I’ll be going to the neighbouring country, Slovakia, despite this enticing poster.
A Country I’ll Never Visit!
It’s all because I get around thirty spam messages a day promoting dodgy gambling sites, from a site with connections to the country. Here’s an extract from the domain registration.
fname: Dobran
lname: Sulaj
address: Letaliska 101
city: Kidricevo
pcode: 2325
country: SI
phone: +486-40-167802
email: support@dlypromos.com
Get your act together Slovakia!
Creating A Funding Circle Account
I have just created a Funding Circle account, as I want to see how other peer-to-peer lending sites work.
As a Zopa user for many years, I could be considered biased, but although I got registered quickly, there are some things I liked and didn’t.
E-Mail Address Based Account
All accounts, should be based on e-mail addresses. They are in Funding Circle.
Passwords
Because of my gammy left hand, I don’t like passwords where case is important, as I often get it wrong, when I use the shift key. Funding Circle insists on at least one Capital letter and one number.
At least though they didn’t use the dreaded Captcha system beloved of so many sites.
Check Questions
They did have, who was my best friend at school as a check question. This is a question, that I don’t really have an answer to, because I had a bad time at school with personal relationships.
Addresses
Because I’ve only been at my current address for less than two years, I was asked to enter my previous address. I made a mistake and ended up with the wrong address in my profile. I was able to change it easily to the correct one.
Debit Cards
The first investment was by debit card, which brought up the dreaded Verified-by-Visa system. I would prefer to use a Direct Debit or a Bank Transfer. Especially as fake Verified-by-Visa e-mails are being used by fraudsters.
But I did successfully register my account and transfer £1,000 into the account.
Facebook Tries The Gambling Route
Facebook has decided that the way to salvation is to take the gambling route. They’re starting with bingo according to the Daily Telegraph.
That’s all parents want isn’t it! – Kids addicted to bingo on the Internet.
A Verified-By-Visa Scam
Moneywise is reporting a scam on that stupid so-called security system, Verified-by-Visa. I’ve never liked it.
I also only ever use my Visa card on the Internet, when I have no choice. But as the Olympics will be over soon, I shall probably be sticking my Visa card somewhere, where I’m not tempted to use it on-line.
Technology At The Olympic Venues
One thing that has dissappointed me has been the information at the venues about what is happening elsewhere. For instance, I really didn’t realise yesterday how we had won the team show jumping until I got home.
Perhaps it’s because everybody relies on their smart phones. But I don’t! I would have paid for a medal update text alert. But I couldn’t find one.
The Rise of Gambling Spam
I’ve had the impression for a week or so now, that the amount of spam I’m getting from dodgy gambling sites has been grown somewhat.
On the 1st, to the 7th of August, I’ve received 26, 32, 25, 21, 35, 24 and 29 messages respectively. A few months ago, they were quite rare.
They are ideal practice for using the Delete key on your computer.
I must admit I do like the odd small bet, but then only when I have inside information about the nag involved.
The only thing I do with Spam is occasionally eat it, as I’m a coeliac and it’s gluten-free.
I have now found that most of this spam comes from a website called http://www.promotion-rewards.com,which is registered with a Slovenia address.
It Must Be The Silly Season!
I’m getting masses of spam, trying to get me to join casinos. I haven’t seen it at this level for a couple of years.
They say there’s one born every minute, but it would appear that most of them are promoting on-line casinos. I suppose it could be due to a large number of unemployed kids, who’ve just left university and this is the only job they can get.
It’s so sad really.
WordPress Change Picture Sizing
One of the things that annoys me is when people have a good system and then they change it for no good reason.
When I enter a picture in WordPress, I like them to be a particular size of 450 x 337, just like in this post.
I enter everything in visual mode and then once I’ve uploaded the picture, I edit it to get the right size. You used to just click the picture and then got an edit dialog, where you type in the size you want.
Now though the edit icon wants you to resize the picture using the mouse. It’s crap, as far as I’m concerned.
So now, I have to switch to text mode and change the values directly.
Why don’t people leave well enough alone.
The Anonymous Widower 