Habitat for Humanity: A Despicable Scam
This looks to be a scam despite the fact that Habitat for Humanity is a registered charity. They have a donation page which allows you to donate direct with added Gift Aid, so why would they need to employ people to do this anonymously?
Hello Prospective Employee,
At HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, we work hard to improve and provide training, technical expertise and support in fund-raising to the national organizations in all the regions of the world. However, the actual work of HABITAT is carried out at the community level by affiliates that have been officially approved by the HFHI Board of Directors. The International Board of Directors (IBOD) are volunteers from around the world who share a deep concern for the problems of poverty housing.
This is demonstrated in our role as a corporate sponsor for the HAITI RELIEF PROGRAM with money raised going towards helping displaced and disabled children and their families.
We are an organization with a remarkable heritage.
You’ve got a chance to be one of our representatives and earn a commission for funds raised.This Could earn you an average of $200 – $500 weekly and as much as $2000 (TAX FREE) in a month depending on how active you are.
You can be rest assured that you WOULD NOT be required to pay any fees upfront and this won’t affect your current job earnings or disability payments in any way and you can conveniently work from your desk at home.
Private donations will be made in your name from our esteemed Voluntary Donors in your region and other parts of the world and you’ll be allowed to deduct 10 percent (10%) of the total amount on these donations. This serves as your remuneration for the great service you would be rendering in support of saving lives in the third-world countries. Balances (after the 10%) shall be required to be forwarded to the Regional Co-ordinators of the various charitable projects we are involved in around the Globe.
Please Note: You won’t have to do any travelling and WILL NOT be required to pay any fees, this position won’t affect your present employment.
To apply, Kindly forward the following info: to our Human Resource Department at the email listed below for further instructions.
- FULL NAME :
- FULL ADDRESS :
- CITY :
- STATE:
- ZIP CODE/POSTCODE: ..
- PHONE NUMBER (S) :(must be valid) would be called to confirm.
- GENDER : ..
- AGE : ..
- EMAIL ADDRESS:…
- COUNTRY : …
Your prompt response is solicited
Coordinator’s Desk,
Habitat for Humanity International
- 121 Habitat Street
- Americus, GA 31709
- 1-800-800-2190
- Registered No. MHQLTH1084442
- REPLY TO BE SENT THROUGH : habitathumanity7@gmail.com
It just breaks all of the rules for a sensible e-mail; bad spelling, undisclosed recipients, GMail e-mail addresses etc.
But remember if you really want to give money to Haiti, would you give it to an intermediary who creamed off a percentage? No way! You’d probably do it through someone legitimate, as then they’d get extra tax relief.
It’s a scam. Ignore it.
I am a member of Facebook, but I don’t use it that often.
Why?
Am I worried about abuse and don’t hold with their refusal to put an abuse button on every page?
No! I think that an abuse button would be a mistake, as all and sundry would click it to see what happened. We actually need to educate everybody and not just children about how to be safe on the Internet. I also think that kids are the ideal people to teach vulnerable adults how to use the Internet and stay safe.
The reason I don’t use Facebook very often is simple.
I run Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 and find that Facebook has a strong tendency to crash my machine with annoying regularity.
I Get Bored With These
I just had this one. Does the guy think I’m an idiot or something?
Dear Sir,
My name is Didier and i was the personal account manager to a national of your country who was involved in the ill fated Kenya Airways that crash in coast of Abidjan. He is a beneficiary to a deposit with our bank which is at a summary of US$15 million. As his account manager, hearing the report of his death.
I made enquiries to trace he’s extended family relatives to come forward to claim their inheritance but my efforts were aborted. It was during one of my research that i came across your email address and now decided to inform you of this information.
Since you bear the same surname with him i whish to appoint you as his next of kin, with this arrangement, the bank management will acknowledge you as his next of kin and will accept to release this money in your favor. I am giving you this classified information in order to connive with you to get the money out of my bank into your bank account as his next of kin, of which we shall be shared accordingly. If you are ready to cooperate with me on the claim of this fund, email me back with the following information:
- YOUR FULL NAME
- YOUR AGE
- MARITAIL STATUS
- ADDRESS
- PHONE NUMBER
- YOUR COUNTRY
- YOUR OCCUPATION
I will be most glad to hear from you.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr Didier.
I’m afraid Mr. Didier that I will not be contacting you. However, I’ve reported this to a very nasty man in your country, with a very rather club and an Oxford English Dictionary. The latter is to teach you to spell properly.
The Communication Wall
Sometimes you think of ideas, sometimes they just grow on you. This is probably not my idea, as someone has probably already thought of it, but who cares, I’ll post my thoughts on it.
Where is Technology Going?
In fact I’ll concentrate on three pieces of technology.
The first is screens. As I watch this I’m watching the television on a 50 cm. screen. Not very big, but I know, although I don’t know where it will come from, but that in a few years time, I will be able to have a screen perhaps four metres to two or even bigger.
It will also have all the following features :-
- Low power, as a screen that size mustn’t act like a space heater.
- High pixel density, so that small details will be shown well. I would suspect a density about the same on the average laptop.
- Touch screen.
- It might also have other features like being curved and flexible.
How will it be driven? This leads to the second point.
It would probably be driven by Windows, although it might be bigger than 10,000 x 5,000 pixels. But the way computing power is going, that will not be a problem. Remember too, that Windows has the ability to run media displays, do e-mail, show web pages etc. already.
The third piece of technology is apps, such as you see with things like iPhones.
If it is Windows, then these would be easy to write.
I know that I’m biased against Macs, but once the screen is developed it could work with either system. Or Linux too! But it needs to be a generally available computer operating system, that people are happy working with.
You also have to take into account that in a few years or even possibly months, all video and audio content will be instantly downloadable. So if you want to watch Two for the Road, then you just select it and play it over the Internet.
A Few Basic Apps
The screen and its computer driver would support the following :-
- TV and video. Obviously multiple video screens would be created in different areas of the screen.
- It would have an e-mail or SMS address or several, so that you could send messages to the screen, or in fact an area of the screen. How many wives have telephoned their husbands to not forget to put the casserole in the oven? The message would be flashing in his area of the screen.
- It would have the ability to just touch the screen and write a message there, just like you can on a whiteboard. But the computer would remember everything that is written.
- Obviously, you could also use a remote pointer and keyboard to control everything, but when you touch the screen, you would also have the option of a keyboard.
I hope you get the idea.
The Domestic Wall
This is where I started.
All of the clutter of TV’s, video-players, umpteen remote controls would be reduced to a large screen, decent speakers for sound and a pointing device with a keyboard. As I said earlier, all video/audio content would usually be over the Internet or from the hard disc of the computer. Sad to think that albums with all their glorious artwork would be gone, but wouldn’t every audio download have a video feed to go with the sound.
As you could have multiple TV screens, you could monitor several channels at once. I do this sometimes with say cricket on one channel and football on another, whilst listening to the radio. You could click and change at will. Also, if like me you have CCTV cameras here watching horses, then these would be small screens at the edge of the wall.
Or you could show a film or sport on the whole screen.
Then there is the communication aspects.
- E-mails or SMS messages could be sent to the wall.
- Replies could also be sent quickly, just using your fingers.
- Notes could be written for all and sundry.
- All messages would get remembered.
And why not use it as a giant and funky photo-frame when it is not being used? Or to introduce subtle and beautiful lighting effects into the room.
Once you get the basic system going then you can add apps, that do specific tasks.
Imagine a shopping app for Waitrose!
You might have a simple scanner, that is wirelessly connected to the screen. You need two cans of tomatoes, so you just scan one tin, the appropriate number of times. This would build the basis list on the wall, which can be added to so that your on-line shopping never misses what you need.
The Business Wall
This would be basically be similar, but with more emphasis on messages than TV and video.
But who knows?
After all, because apps would be developed, that would handle various business applications, the world is the system’s oyster.
One thing I bang on about to clients is the need to communicate. I’ve found that if the company’s performance database is easily available, then the productivity often improves, as managers spend more time managing, than repeating the same messages again and again. Junior staff too have better information and make better decisions.
The trouble is there are too many managers who believe in mushroom management.
What Next?
Someone develop the screen and the rest as they say will happen!
Coeliac Disease and Ischemic Stroke
I’m up early and playing on the Internet with Google. I’ve just typed “stroke coeliac” into the search engine with a couple of modifiers to cut out some of the things I already know about.
I have now found this paper by El Moutawakil B, Chourkani N, Sibai M, Moutaouakil F, Rafai M, Bourezgui M and Slassi I working in Casablanca in Morocco, entitled Coeliac Disease and Ischemic Stroke. This is the extract.
INTRODUCTION: Neurological manifestations of celiac disease are various. An association with ischemic stroke is not common and has not been well documented. We report two cases.
OBSERVATIONS: The first patient had experienced several transient ischemic strokes in the past 2 years and then had an acute ischemic stroke involving the territory of the right posterior cerebral artery. Investigations revealed celiac disease with no other recognizable etiology. The clinical course was marked by persistent visual aftereffects, but no new vascular event. The second patient had been followed since 1998 for celiac disease confirmed by pathology and serology tests. She was on a gluten-free diet. The patient had an ischemic stroke involving the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. Apart from a positive serology for celiac disease and iron deficiency anemia, the etiological work-up was negative.
DISCUSSION: The mechanisms of vascular involvement in celiac disease are controversial. The most widely incriminated factor is autoimmune central nervous system vasculitis, in which tissue transglutaminase, the main auto-antigen contributing to maintaining the integrity of endothelium tissue, plays a major role. Other mechanisms are still debated, mainly vitamin deficiency.
CONCLUSION: Being a potentially treatable cause of ischemic stroke, celiac disease must be considered as a potential etiology of stroke of unknown cause, particularly in young patients, and even without gastrointestinal manifestations.
I’d always fancied going to Casablanca to see the ghost of Humphrey Bogart.
Google Flu Trends
I found reference to Google Flu Trends in The Economist in an article about how Google are searching blogs and other information to find out what is going on.
An interesting graph is shown, but why are the UK, Finland and Denmark left out?
I wonder if the same techniques could be used to check for relationships. For instance, I wonder if my being a coeliac means that I am more likely to have strokes. So what if there are a lot of blog posts, with these two words in them? Obviously, it would need powerful and correct statistical analysis.
As an aside here, some years ago I wrote a program that used Google to deep search the Internet, create a database of all possible results and then display them in a Daisy chart. It showed a lot of promise, but I then had other things to do. That’s my life all over.
Facebook Virus Removal Tool
This is going the rounds on the Internet.
Hello,
This is a message to all Facebookers, we have had several reports of a virus spreafing itself through Facebook applications, if you or any of your friends have used any of the following applications within the past 48 hours it is essential that you run the “Facebook Virus Removal Tool” which is attached to this email. Please be aware of the threat these viruses contain, they log keystrokes on certain banking websites in order to steal your I.D.
Thank you for your cooperation to stop these theifs!
It’s actually a virus addition tool to find out the secrets of your computer, bank account and personal details.
Note the spelling. “i” before “e” except after “th”.
Job Scam – Hyde Park Hotel
I’ve stayed in the Hyde Park Hotel and very good it was too. But it is now called the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel, so when I got the e-mail below I thought something was not correct. It now turns out there is now a new hotel called The Hyde Park Hotel, so I suspect that the scam is based on the fact that the hotel has just opened and it has a very good name to use to fool people.
Good day, I am applying through online and Hyde Park Hotel send me an application form and other documents regarding my application. I’ve done in the documents for for signing with that documents and email them back for the documents. Then day past they e-mail me back again they advice me to Print the Employment form out and fill it up then forward the filled Employment form to UK Home Immigration Office for your work visa process, through their e-mail contact address, ukhomeimmigrationbureau@yahoo.co.uk
Then after that the UK Home Immigration email me back they are requiring me to pass some of the necessary documents in order to process my visa. I have pass all the documents except one of their requirements and that is the LABOUR AUTHORIZATION CERTIFICATE from the UK Labour Department Office with their contact e-mail address, uklabourdepartmentoffice@googlemail.com
They require me to contact that e-mail address so I have send an e-mail that I am inquiring on their office about the Labour Authorization Certificate. Then day past I have receive an e-mail from UK Labour Department Office. The E-mail contains Labour Research Department, Department for Work and Pensions, Richmond House 79 Whitehall , London SW1A 2NS, UNITED KINGDOM , TEL +44703 180 4830.
Their message contains below :-
We’re here by sub-let you be aware, that you are obliged to send to our office, these below documents, for the further procession & approval of your labour Authorization certificate, as well as the regime dispensation fee: (176 Pounds per each applicant), to facilitate our office approval coverage & sending of your skilled workers labour Authorization certificate, which we have customary & promise to process now. When writing back to us, you’re urging to send together with yours:
1. Full Photo Picture of yours; one copy.
2. Your Contract Agreements Letter; from Hyde Park Hotel Management.
3. Your labour processing Authorization certificate fee; total amount = (176 GBP. per each applicant)Memorandum:
Ours office received your visa file references number, from the Immigration Visa subdivision and bear in mind that after 6 working days without your accomplishment & forwarding of these required documents to our office back, for further procession of your labour Authorization certificate, we will lapse your visa ref file number including all the documents, which you sent to us.
You’re instructed to use this information when transferring your processing fee to our office.
Payment must be made through western union money transfer order, to our office.. You have to use the name of our office financial department Accountant to make your payment, and then forward it together with your affirmations to us.
Here are the essentials details that you have to use for the payment processing fee at any western Union Agent/ Bank there in your country.
RECEIVER’S NAME : SEVERINA ALVES
AMOUNT 176 POUNDS
DESTINATION : ENGLAND – UNITED KINGDOM
ADDRESS : 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS, UK .
Also you have to attach the payment transfer slip from the bank, for our office verification too.
Ones more you’re welcome to our beautiful country United Kingdom , with due respect we did appreciate your efforts towards the preparation of your work approval code & permit procession with ours office. Ours administration has staffs that, speaks five different Eastern-European languages in total, which enables them to screen candidates more effectively and promptly, then deal with day-to-day issues with temporary entering visitors.
This Labour sector is meant for overseas workforce programme section, for skilled workers registering and maintaining of their personal work details in strict compliance with Home Office requirements on prevention of illegal migrants & illegal work force’s in UK Cities..
Here our director general must stamp and sign your { UK Skilled Workers
Labour Authorization Certificate} and then file it in our labour statistics as to be use during the pension service also must be approved before the Immigration office can granted you visa pin code.This subdivision has close relationship with HM Immigration Office London, where your visa approval code will be issue to you, after we have approved you’re: (L.A.C) which must be done immediately we received the above requested documents and the Labour government processing fee, from you to enable us proceed further also in aspect of registering your information’s for pensions and pension schemes.
We look forward to helping you come to the United Kingdom !
Best Regards,
Mr Wilson Larry
Minister of State (Work)
Department for Work and Pensions
It contains all of the clues; e-mail addresses from Yahoo and Googleman, expensive +4470 phone numbers, bad and US spellings etc.
Note that Wilson Larry or Larry Wilson does not seem to exist and I can’t find any other posting of this scam on the Internet, so it may be a very new scam.
Don’t ever send these crooks any money.
Sir Chris Newson
Whoever wrote this obviously got a Z in English language.
Dear
With Due-respect I seek your consent to have a discussion with you. Do you suggest through your email or Phone Conversation??? .
You’re Name and Contact is needed.
Thanks
Sir Chris Newson
Chief Executive Officer ( CEO)
Stanbic IBTC Bank
E-Mial:newsonchris3@naseej.com
Tel: 234-80- 7999-8449
Note the spelling of e-mail and the Nigerian phone number.
The idiot needs certifying. It would be funny, if no-one believed him. But then there is one born every minute.
New Labour = NuLabor
On many forums or should that be fora, comments often contain the word NuLabor as a shortened form of New Labour.
I notice that no-one had registered the domain name, www.nulabor.co.uk. Unfortunately, www.nulabor.com had already been registered, but then I don’t think it was worth spending more than £6 or so for a bit of fun.
I registered the domain name at Low Cost Names. I have used them for some time and have never had a problem.
The Anonymous Widower 