Mortgage refinancing? No thanks, not interested.

I got a call this morning from some guy from a mortgage company that wanted to talk to my brother about my brother's house. The guy woke me up, so the first thing I am wondering is first - why the hell call ME?! and second - WTF? --- turns out, after I woke up some, that it is a cold call from the mortgage guys that go around seeking mortgages that they can buy out, promising to lower the person's mortgage but in fact it is more costly in the long run - because while you have low payments, you have more of them and the interest is compiling up behind those payments so that rather than paying down the principle you are paying interest each month. Bad bad bad bad situation to put yourself in. If you are thinking about refinancing, look closely at those promises of lower payments - you might be setting yourself up to never own your own home.

Been a long time

I had not realized until now just how long it has been since I have posted here, and for that I apologize. It is not because I was not getting SPAM, trust me, I have tons of that, life just kind of knocked me upside the head here and there and made my getting back to this blog a little more difficult than I could overcome.

Right now I have to get back to work, but I will be back here later on this weekend and see what I can do to get this site all back up to speed.

eBay paid item scam

I got an e-mail a few minutes ago from some scammer pretending to be eBay, claimed that some user 1bencogroup1 had already paid for an item. I have not sold anything on eBay in well over a year or two, so I don't know how in the hell anyone could have already paid for an item. These guys are scammers trying to get you to click on the link in their e-mail so they can steal your information. DO NOT CLICK LINKS in e-mails. Go open a new browser window and type in the eBay url (http://www.ebay.com) and sign in there - nowhere else, not even via link here, open a NEW browser window and enter URL manually and log in there. If you really do have any disputes you WILL see it as soon as you log in. If you don't see any notice about a dispute you can be sure the e-mail is a scam artist trying to see if they can catch you and steal your log in information.

Phishing for PayPal

These guys are on a phishing expedition and I'm not biting. Their link went to something like paylplop or something, which I did not visit of course. I sent their message to the proper authorities; PayPal's security folks at spoof@paypal.com

If you get a message from a site like PayPal never click on the link in the e-mail, open a new browser window and visit the site as you normally would. DO NOT enter the link that the e-mail would take you to.

Most sites will tell you what to do with fake e-mails. If you want to report the e-mails the site will tell you how to do that. For PayPal you forward the e-mail to spoof@paypal.com then delete the copy in your inbox, if your computer saves outgoing mail I suggest also deleting the one in your outbox as well. Just to be safe. Here is what the phishing mail I got looked like - hyperlink disabled by me.

Subject: New Message
Sender: PayPal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Image was blocked by Thunderbird filters)

You have 1 new Security Message Alert!


Please visit the Resolution Center to resolve the problem.


Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team
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What do you think of my banner?

I've been messing with a banner for this blog, what do you think of this one? I have been told that the text is too dull, not at all eye catching so that the viewer looses interest before they read it. I take all criticisms, good - bad - ugly - just as long as they are toward the banner and/or blog and not toward me.

So, what'cha' think?

Oh goodie! How much you want to bet I win?

Got this in the e-mail a little while ago.

Do you have the winning $5000 cell phone number?

Is your number the winner.

(Link disabled by CyberCat)

Yup, that's all it said and the whole thing was a link to a website. Anyone want to take a bet that the link is not for a legitimate contest? I did not even have to look and see that it went to an e-mail I have not used in 6 years that I know for a fact was sold to multiple lists mailing out XXX and worse e-mails.

It really lowers my confidence in them when they get my e-mail off spam lists.

Such eagerness, they must really need my help... or at least my identity.

These guys are desperate. I got three copies of this one right after the other. They can't wait to steal my identity.

***COMPANY ULGENT REPLY***

attention please
we are searching for reliable persons/companies whocan act as a RECEIVING PAYMENTS AGENT who will act as medium of reach between our customers and us in their area of locality.Note that, if finally aprroved as ourRepresentative, you are entitled to have 20% of whatever amount you receive from customers who are making payments for outstanding invoices on behalf of the company.If you are interested in being a REPRESENTATIVE AGENT in the abovelocation and your locality, please send your following information via E-mail:(E-mail removed by CyberCat)
mr chimfanis gage

Notice the words without spaces between them, misspellings, improper capitalization, and other signs of very poor typing - not to mention cutting from one e-mail into another.

They were also in such a hurry they forgot to include the "your following information" section of the scam they were copying.