Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner which means online shoppers need to be extra vigilant and watch out for email scams such as phishing. These emails can make it past most security controls because they appear to be coming from a trusted source; someone they know or a trusted brand.
Common scenario: You receive an email from the sporting supply company you purchased from several times in the past. But look carefully, is it really coming from that well-known brand?
John Wilson, senior fellow of threat research at Agari by Fortra says:
Take a minute to pause and check. Before you click on that link with that great savings offer, check the body of the email and the sender information to look for misspellings. Is the email from amaz0ndeelz2022@gmail.com, not Amazon.com? Do not click on any links but hover over them to see if the URL is correct. Clicking on that offer link may be all it takes to grant a grinch access to personal or business data. If an email receiver does click on the link, it could be an imposter website created by a scammer imitating a trusted brand’s website domain. Make sure the URL in your browser’s address bar matches the brand’s actual website before giving up any personal information such as a username or password.
Google it. Type a short description of the situation plus the word “scam.” If you see 40 entries with similar stories, you’ve just saved yourself a lot of hassle.
Verify another way. If you get an email from what looks like a trusted organization or contact, verify that it’s real by phone. Just don’t use the number shown in the footer of the email, as fraudsters may have switched out the actual number with their own. If you receive a phone call that’s supposedly from your bank, hang up and dial the number on the back of your card.
Report the incident. Criminals count on victims to be too embarrassed or hesitant to report scams. But it’s important to file a police report and notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) about the fraud.”
Elon Musk Runs A Poll To Green Light The Return Of Donald Trump To Twitter….. And I Believe That This Is Really Going To Cost Him
Posted in Commentary with tags Twitter on November 19, 2022 by itnerdElon Musk is clearly going all in with this free speech at any cost thing of his. Earlier today he did this:
Yeah, he ran a poll asking the Twitterverse if he should reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account as he was suspended from Twitter, along with most other forms of social media because of his behaviour after the January 6th riots. And as you can see, the Twitterverse voted to reinstate his account. To which Musk said this:
By the way, Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” Though the cynic in me says that when this goes off the rails, Musk is looking for plausible deniability by saying something along the lines of “It wasn’t my decision. The people spoke and I gave them what they wanted.”
Here’s why Elon Musk likely made a huge mistake by going down this path. Let’s start with the fact that every time Musk has made a major decision, he sends people to Mastodon. How many people you ask? I can help you with that:
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we’re about to see another wave of people leave Twitter because of this and that chart is about to get another wave of Mastodon users added to it. As in a significant part of that 48% who voted no in that poll. That will start to affect Twitter’s engagement numbers, which in turn will send whatever remaining advertisers that are still on Twitter to the exits because there’s no point in advertising on a platform that people are leaving. That of course assumes that advertisers will want anything to do with a platform who is run by a guy who would pull this sort of stunt, and leave before even seeing the engagement numbers. And keep in mind, advertising is what keeps the lights on at Twitter. So if they go, Musk will be in deep trouble.
Another reason why Elon really played himself, again, with this stunt is that Trump doesn’t want to go back to Twitter:
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News in April, referring to the website Truth Social. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”
“The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter,” he added.
On Saturday, before the reinstatement was announced, Trump shared the link to Musk’s poll on Truth Social, saying: “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!”
Now he can always change his mind. But seeing as he’s invested lots of somebody’s money in Truth Social, I don’t see him returning. And again, the cynic in me says that this was a stunt by Elon to get more users onto Twitter. The only problem is that if Trump doesn’t come back to Twitter, it’s highly unlikely any of his followers will. And even if they do, they’ll likely bring all sorts of, shall we say bad behaviour that advertisers will want nothing to do with. Thus Elon will be no further ahead.
The fact is that Elon may think that he’s taken the moral high ground or something by running this poll and reinstating Trump’s Twitter account. But he may well realize that he just played himself for the second time in a week when he doesn’t get the result that he was looking for.
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