Are Fake Job Adverts Returning?
I haven’t seen any for some time, but this one turned up this morning.
Hot Jobs from Reliable and Successful Company Running its business since 2005, Company has several openings for goal-oriented and independent individuals looking for excellent career opportunities.
Requirements
– 25+ years old
– UK citizenship
– No criminal record
– Good credit history
– Basic computer skills
– A proven level of secondary educationWhat we offer
– high and stable income
– exciting career opportunities
– two weeks’ paid holiday a year
– great team to work with
– bonuses and our private employee loyalty programme benefits
– and many other thingsWhat you do is just work from home and get advantage of all these opportunities, as the job we offer requires only a few hours of your time spent on your computer.
You are full of energy, learn fast and seek for best career opportunities? Do contact us at xxx@xxx.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
We look forward to welcoming you as a new employee.
Sincerely,
irvine thierry
It was a bit better than most of the previous scams, which are designed to get your bank account details, so you can donate large sums of money to the criminals. It was even sent from what looked like a valid UK e-mail address, although mine was addressed to a man called Fidole Shem, who is definitely not me.
It was also marked by my anti-spam system as spam.
But what was a real giveaway was the low level of paid holidays. I wouldn’t get out of bed for a job like that!
So it went the way of the others and I dispatched it humanely with the delete key.
Visual Basic 6 Programmer For Hire
A couple of times recently, I’ve met people, who have said that my skills in Visual Basic 6 may still be needed, because in the City of London, there are still a lot of important systems written in the language. Hence this post, which is almost an advert to say that I’m looking for work.
At my age and with my hopefully sensible finances, I don’t need a permanent job, but old programmers never give up coding, even if they just do it in their mind. Living alone, I have plenty of time on my hands to spend with my therapist, but sometimes I feel I need to do something constructive. Even if it’s just to prove I still can!
So if anybody is in trouble and needs a good Visual Basic 6 programmer who still has most of his marbles, I’m here just north of the City of London, a short bus ride away.
On the legal side, I have complete sets of discs and manuals, so I would not be working outside of any licences.
CyberCriminals Up The Stakes with New TDL-4 Botnet
According to this report on the BBC, an indestructable botnet called TDL-4 has been created. There’s another report on the BCS web site here.
If you read the BBC article, it would appear that the UK is quite infected, but that the botnet comes from porn and pirated film sites. So be sure what you look at!
Text Messaging Is Good For You
This article in the Guardian reports on a study where motivational text messages helped people to quit smoking.
I’m no psychologist, but it strikes me this technique could also be used to stop other additions and help in losing weight. And why does it have to be an SMS message? Could it not be a desktop alert or an app for a smart phone?
I’m certain a decrepit programmer like me could write some of the software.
I’ve Just Been Spammed By Pitney Bowes
I thought they were a respectable company, but an e-mail from them has just ended up in my spam trap.
So they’re now on my “Never do business with this company” list! It won’t make any difference to them, as far as I’m concerned as I use proper stamps anyway.
But when will these companies ever learn?
Would Anybody Ever Use Western Union?
I had four spam e-mails this morning with a title of “You have $250,000.00 Lodged in our Western Union” and a body of “RESPOND FOR DETAILS”
I like the fact that they call it our Western Union!
Does it mean they own it or there’s another one, we don’t know about? The e-mails came from a supposedly Peruvian .pe e-mail address.
Western Union’s name is now so discredited that I and I suspect any serious person, who uses the Internet, would ever use it. I have never used the company in the past and probably never will in the future.
Although looking at the financial results of the company, they seem to be doing quite well.
A Spammer Gets Screwed, Glued and Tattooed
I don’t like spammers and this story is worth a read.
The hero is actually an American law firm, that took up a ridiculous case against a British anti-spam organisation; Spamhaus, on a pro-bono basis.
Will LulzSec Target the UK Legal System Over Jailing of Joanne Fraill?
LulzSec are a group of hackers, who have broken into various computer systems all over the world, including a web site linked with the CIA.
I do wonder whether the jailing of Joanne Fraill for discussing a case where she was a juror on Facebook, will get a response from LulzSec. Especially, as some reports say all jurors who use Facebook to discuss cases will be jailed.
How long before the idiots on Facebook start a “Free joanne Fraill” campaign?
I can’t help feeling, that this one will run and run and in a direction that the government and the judges won’t like.
What Joanne Fraill did was wrong, but then it was also incredibly stupid. So are we now jailing people for doing things, they don’t have the intelligence to realise are wrong? In Joanne Fraill’s case, she should have been given a community sentence. Perhaps one working with the victims and problems of drug addiction, that her actions have inadvertently made worse, by stopping a trial of drug dealers.
Justice By Facebook
I think that this is the biggest threat to justice, I’ve seen in the last thirty years. In this case for example, according to the Guardian, a juror contacted the defendant and the trial collapsed at a cost to taxpayers of £6,000,000.
I don’t know how you stop it, unless you ban those who know about the Internet from juries.
So it might be the end of the jury system in many cases, and we go to a system, where defendants are tried in front of a panel of judges.
I hope not.
