Monkey Musings Daily Open Discussion #7 9/30 - 10/24/2007

[MuffyBee]

Good morning Mum and all the monkeys and readers out there in SM Land     

Mum ~  you have a lot of choices this weekend, it looks like.  You have Beth's book to read, a new tv to watch and best of all, your DD home for a break  Of course like many of us, you have to work that in with all the things in real life    I saw an unusual deer this morning in my front yard.  He was a deeper brown then the white tails, eyes wider set, chest deeper and his body looked more substantial then the whitetails.  He had a small rack of horns on his head, with about three points each.  Wonder what kind of deer he is?  I guess I need to research him. 

[MumInOhio]

Good morning Mum and all the monkeys and readers out there in SM Land     

Mum ~  you have a lot of choices this weekend, it looks like.  You have Beth's book to read, a new tv to watch and best of all, your DD home for a break  Of course like many of us, you have to work that in with all the things in real life    I saw an unusual deer this morning in my front yard.  He was a deeper brown then the white tails, eyes wider set, chest deeper and his body looked more substantial then the whitetails.  He had a small rack of horns on his head, with about three points each.  Wonder what kind of deer he is?  I guess I need to research him. 

Muffy, I love living out in the boonies as you put it!  In the winter I try and track the birds and have one thats been here the last two winters that I haven't been able to identify.  DH took a photo, but he was too far away.  Hoping he returns and we can get a good shot of him and we'll ask at the Metropark or nearby State Park if they can help.  I have 3 books and haven't been able to identify him, even looked on line and can't find him...LOL maybe it's a her and that's why I can't find it. All the books I have tend to show the males as they usually more colorful.

[Jerry from Ohio]

  Just a quick note to DiHannah  I also have had vocal chord surgery and had to be silent for two weeks at a time and untill you have done that you'll never know what qa precious thing  our voices are .
  Rest and get well soon Di and we all will keep ya in our prayers  .
                  Jerry from Ohio

For those of you seeking Dihannah, she told me she had another vocal cord surgery and she is ticked off the whole thing is taking so long. After each surgery, she cannot talk for a week or so and she wants and needs to talk but she can't. She is my new daughter, as she lost her mother and I lost my daughter.

Louise - thanks for the update on Dihannah!

Must be very frustrating for her!  Tell her we hope she recovers quickly and completely!

[Anna]

Lost my first post about this--trying again!

GOOD MORNING, MONKEYS!


This is interesting.  Perhaps it should be called the Dutch Scam instead of Nigerian.  I post this because of all the Dutch connections in the Natalee Holloway disappearance:

Feds crack down on international e-mail scams

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer

Published on: 10/03/07
 
WASHINGTON (AP) — The e-mails arrive out of the blue, from Nigeria or other exotic countries. They tell of inheritances, political problems, other reasons someone needs to get money out of the country. If you help, they promise to let you share the money.

Unfortunately, thousands of people fall for the scam, losing an average of $3,000 to $4,000 each.

So far this year, an average of more than 800 people a month have filed complaints about such scams.

Hoping to stem the losses, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced an international crackdown Wednesday in which more than 540,000 fake checks with a face value of $2.1 billion have been seized.

There have been 60 arrests in the Netherlands, 16 in Nigeria and one in Canada, the Postal Inspection Service said, and the effort is continuing.

"There is no room in the mail for any of these phony come-ons," Postmaster General John Potter said.

Most of the cons start with e-mails telling of an inheritance or lottery win and ask the victim to help bring the money to the United States. The victim is asked to cash a check that comes in the mail and to send part of the money back to the person sending it, said Greg Campbell, inspector in charge of global security and investigations for the Postal Inspection Service.

Then that person disappears with the money and the original check bounces, leaving the victim with a loss.

Retired people have lost their nest eggs and young families have been defrauded of their savings for a home, Potter said.

Many of the cases originate in the Netherlands, where West African con artists operate from Internet cafes, said Johan Van Hartskamp, commissioner of the Amsterdam police.

In what he called "Operation Dutch Treat," police have arrested 60 people there, with three extradited to the United States and four more facing extradition. The rest are being prosecuted in the Netherlands, he said.

Ibrahim Lamorde, director of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said the problem is monumental and "will only be surmounted through global efforts."

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher said: "There is no lottery. There is no inheritance. The checks are not real. But there are real victims. The crime knows no borders, and our coordinated law enforcement knows no borders."

—

On the Net:

Postal Anti-Fraud: http://www.fakechecks.org

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/10/03/FakeChecks_F0183.html?cxntnid=amn100407e


I hope Lala's sees this with her recent hacking.  Just yesterday I received a very real looking alert from Paypal that was fake.  When I check message sources, it says this:

Received: from huurpart@reseller13.pcextreme.nl by rs0 by uid 1003 with qmail-scanner-1.16

It is very genuine looking with all the Paypal logos, etc. and tells me I have 1 security alert in my Paypal messages.  I don't even have a Paypal account.

Remember you can click on the Properties of an email and then Details and Message Source to see where something comes from without activating any of the hidden codes in it.  You can also even read the message, etc. other information.

[Anna]

In addition to the above, I was sent a check recently by Fed Ex (guess they want to avoid the postal inspectors who have a tremendous reputation for tracking down people) for $4800 which appeared even to experts to be genuine, a Traveler's Check.  I was to forward the "change" from a puppy to a certain account and someone would come for the pup.

First of all, I don't place pups that casually--you gotta answer questions and prove you are a good home, etc.--and I never ship mine, etc. so was a no go from the start but I didn't even know who sent this to me as the return address was obviously fictitious.

The division of the FBI you contact for things like this is called IC3 for Internet Crimes and they take all your information.  Since I didn't actually send any money (ha!  not even close try) they didn't do much but they have the information and a copy of the check, Fed Ex label, etc.

So you can just be sitting around minding your own business and have a Fed Ex envelop with a check in it put in your door.

Not to mention nasties in your computer.

Please be very careful, My Monkeys.  Don't give any information over the net, ever , if you can help it and keep those firewalls and all security software up to date and run a scan daily.

[MumInOhio]

Thanks Anna for the info and reminder.

[Peaches]

Wisdom from a fellow Husker:

Water vs Wine

As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there
is freedom, in water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have
demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at
the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo
of Escherichia coli,

(E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are
consuming 1 kilo of poop.

However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer
(or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol
has to go through a purification process of boiling,
filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:  Water = Poop,  Wine = Health

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than
to drink water and be full of shit.

[MumInOhio]

LOL Peaches...better go back to the football thread and let Kiwi know you're a Husker!

[MumInOhio]

Hey Jerry...are you going to watch the Tribe tonight?

[NYC_lover]

Police is searching for this sex offender, Matthew Preston Caulk
More see:
http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=2214.0

[Shell]

Good afternoon you all
I asked a question in >Lounge/Computer Health Tools, and have not gotten an answer so maybe if I ask it here I will get an answer. How does a person know if their computer has been hacked? What are the signs? I have googled it, but I still don't understand. Maybe one of you monkeys can pleas give me the short answer (if there is one), or explain it in simple terms. Thanks

[klaasend]

Good afternoon you all
I asked a question in >Lounge/Computer Health Tools, and have not gotten an answer so maybe if I ask it here I will get an answer. How does a person know if their computer has been hacked? What are the signs? I have googled it, but I still don't understand. Maybe one of you monkeys can pleas give me the short answer (if there is one), or explain it in simple terms. Thanks

Shell - I'll make sure someone sees your post.  I don't know as I've never been hacked.

[Kiwi]

Klaasend Hi I load a picture on the sports section but how do I get it to stay without being logged in?

[klaasend]

Klaasend Hi I load a picture on the sports section but how do I get it to stay without being logged in?

  When you load up a photo from your PC, it actually makes a copy of it and places it in the forum.  It does not link directly to your PC so you don't have to stay logged on.  It's a copy of the one on your PC.

Edited to add:  Cute pic! 

[Shell]

Good afternoon you all
I asked a question in >Lounge/Computer Health Tools, and have not gotten an answer so maybe if I ask it here I will get an answer. How does a person know if their computer has been hacked? What are the signs? I have googled it, but I still don't understand. Maybe one of you monkeys can pleas give me the short answer (if there is one), or explain it in simple terms. Thanks

Shell - I'll make sure someone sees your post.  I don't know as I've never been hacked.

Thanks Klaas! 

[klaasend]

Good afternoon you all
I asked a question in >Lounge/Computer Health Tools, and have not gotten an answer so maybe if I ask it here I will get an answer. How does a person know if their computer has been hacked? What are the signs? I have googled it, but I still don't understand. Maybe one of you monkeys can pleas give me the short answer (if there is one), or explain it in simple terms. Thanks

Shell - I'll make sure someone sees your post.  I don't know as I've never been hacked.

Thanks Klaas! 

Shell - FYI, I know Anna was hacked and she might be able to give you some insight.  Look to see if she's around and ask her if you see her. 

[Anna]

Shell,

I don't know how to tell when mine is hacked and have to take it to a professional to tell me.  However, I have noticed some things before.  Once it simply wouldn't load at all, all the drivers had been removed.

But the last time, I began to notice things like lots of activity in the tower when I wasn't doing anything and nothing running in the background.  Then I noticed a Lenmax (I believe that's the name) printer installed and I have only ever had HP Printers.  I went on it's log and it had printed lots of my stuff.

Then I would open operating system files, the ones that are usually hidden with notepad and being very careful not to make entire or delete, just read, could see something trying to open programs and failing then trying another way.

The computer guy said it was very interesting and came out to my house and set up another computer, one of his on my line to see what happened.  Then he removed my hard drive for me to turn over to authorities with a folder he printed.

And I was out of a hard drive and am until this day, they still have it.  He said he could replace the hard drive but I just got a whole new system as I was afraid they would still be there some way.

Another thing I found was a folder with strange photos in it of some old abandoned cars and chickens with big feathers and a railroad crossing being built.  And I found several strange little folders with what appeared to be little programs in them, very short ones and when I opened them, one had a link to an IT forum in The Netherlands, the dreaded .nl.

The tech guy said they intercepted email sent to me between my ISP and my computer and "rode" it into my hard drive.  But mostly I would see a flurry of activity on my hard drive when I wasn't doing anything at all.

Hope this helps but I honestly don't know how you would tell if you didn't find strange printers and photos.

Those are pretty obvious clues.  I have to get a pro to check mine from time to time.

[mrs. red]

Maybe Dugga can weigh in on the hacking?

[MumInOhio]

Good Morning Monkeys!....Another great day to be a Cleveland sports fan...

Have a 4 hour window to wait on the dish guy, so will start on Beth's book...

Have a great weekend everyone!


Go Tribe,go Bucks, go Browns!

[Jerry from Ohio]

  Mums  had another commitment but did listen to the Game  we walloped them Damn Yankees  didn't we  ?  LOL

Hey Jerry...are you going to watch the Tribe tonight?