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Steve Bass's Weekly Newsletter
TechBite's columnist Steve Bass writes weekly commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them, and the gotchas that can cause computing misery. Plus a couple of weekly laughs.
AWeber Hacked, Perfect Scams, Audio Filter
In This Issue
A Sincere Apology
Secret Shopper Scam: Don't Get Nailed
AC3Filter: A Must-Have Filter
Image of the Week
Time Wasters
This Isn't a Scam
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A Sincere Apology
I almost titled this section "AWeber: I Love to Hate You," because I'm very unhappy with the company I use to send the TechBite newsletters.
The quick story is it was hacked. The worst thing that could have happened -- yep, you guessed it -- subscriber e-mail addresses were stolen. Read AWeber's ho-hum blog entry explaining how it happened.
It's a horror because your trust in me, and what I do with your e-mail address, has been damaged.
Even though he hates when I do it, you can write to Sean Cohen, the director of operations at AWeber, and mention your displeasure. I certainly have.
I'm considering either switching to Constant Contact, the e-mail service that sounds like a tea I used to drink, or moving the list in-house and use CMS software. The hassle for you is going through the annoyance of opting onto a new list and changing your e-mail filters set to route the newsletter to a special folder. I'll keep you posted. [top]
Secret Shopper Scam: Don't Get Nailed
My mother got a letter from a company in Canada. The cover letter, on decent-looking stationery, and with a real signature, congratulated her for agreeing to be a secret shopper. There were three pages of instructions and an honest-to-goodness Citibank check for $1,500.
The letter said she was to cash the check, use the money to buy items at Sears, Best Buy, and a supermarket, and then rate the stores. On top of that, she could keep whatever she purchased -- and get a $300 fee for her time. Sweet, no?
The last part of the job wasn't very glamorous, it said. She had to rate the service at Western Union and use a Money Gram to wire the remainder of the money back to the Canadian Secret Shopper company.
I was a little suspicious when she described the rating sheet -- it wasn't very detailed -- but that was the company's problem. One odd thing, though: The company insisted there was a time crunch, so once Mom cashed the check, she would have to do all the shopping within two days. By the way, the letter implied that she'd signed up to be a secret shopper (my mother couldn't remember if she did).
I told her to hold off while I scoured the Web. I didn't have to look far. Snopes wrote about secret shopper scams in 2006, as has the Secret Shopping Blog.
It was a well-designed scam. The check was real, all right, but the account was closed. So in the two-day span she'd cash the check, do the shopping, and wire about $800 to the Canadian scammers. In a day or two, Mom would learn from her bank that the check bounced, and whatever she spent -- and wired to Canada -- would come out of her account. [top]
Canadian Drug Scam: Talking about fraud, here's a doozy. If you've ever ordered drugs from Canada, watch out for cybercriminals posing as FDA impersonators. They call, or e-mail, and tell you that buying drugs over the Internet from Canada is illegal, and you've been busted. (Unless, of course, you're from Canada.) No problem, though, because you can easily pay the fine using a credit card. Like right now, over the phone. Uh huh... Read the FDA press release. [Thanks, Alex.]
The message for me? Scams sometimes still arrive the old-fashioned way: offline and by phone. [top]
AC3Filter: A Must-Have Filter
Every so often a video I've downloaded from Hulu or other site plays, but without sound. It's turned out I'm missing a sound codec and filter -- AC3Filter -- and it's a freebie. This won't help if you've accidentally clicked the mute button (nah, you wouldn't do that...). [top]
Image of the Week [Thanks, Jeff]
Hundreds gather to protest global warming...
Time Wasters
I can't imagine how many ghost stories evolved from these elusive white deer. [Thanks to Nina Salerno.]
The mysterious white deer of Wisconsin.
You're out in the street and desperately need to open a bottle of wine. But hell, you forgot your corkscrew. No problem, just watch a pro in "If you've forgotten a corkscrew."
Watch the absolutely ingenious "Pigeon Impossible," a six-minute video animation that tells the story of a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training.
The Laptop Steering Wheel Desk, available on Amazon, is the coolest device for diligent workers who like to stay productive during their commutes. There are over 430 very creative reviews. The best one so far...
"I read some 4 and 5 star reviews by those who used this device successfully to change a baby while driving. On that basis, I bought one. I put my baby on it and drove for over an hour. It did not change. Same baby. I am glad it worked for some people but I will be returning mine. (The steering wheel desk.)"
Rest your coffee cup or notebook
on the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk
I know you have some time on your hands. How about spending some of it with Multitask, a seriously difficult game? (Yeah, the balancing one is easy, but wait a while... once you start multitasking, you won't feel nearly as confident...) [top]
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This Isn't a Scam
Sure it is, but you're here, so you might as well keep reading. Now just highlight the link in bold below and send it to your smart niece and frumpy uncle, and tell them what they're missing by not subscribing to the TechBite newsletter Then ask them to take a $1500 check to Western Union and wire it to our Boulder address. http://www.techbite.com. By the way, if you're enjoying this newsletter and getting something out of it, become a TechBite member by sending us some financial support using PayPal. I promise, good things will eventually come your way... [top]
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Steve Bass is the publisher and self-appointed Chief Content Officer at TechBite; he continues to experience the cool feeling of having his own newsletter. Send him your feedback at TechBite. To sign up for TechBite's free Steve Bass Technology newsletter, head for our signup page.
Steve's also the author of "PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer," available on Amazon. It covers XP, but not Vista. If you haven't purchased your copy today, don't wait, supplies are limited...
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