Every now and then I like to check on that email dummy account I use to sign up for various downloads and free hockey pools, ect. Last time I looked at my most recent of such accounts, I had 1287 emails for various related products for which I have rancor bordering on ardent apathy. It is really too bad that Spam can’t be cashed in at the local grocery store for the real variety. There is the solution for world hunger right there. Traditionally, I likes mine with a smathering of ketchup. Mmmm.
I have had the pleasure during my life to work in the field of internet tech support. I came to the sad conclusion that the reason I am constantly bombarded by, spam, fishing scams, pop-ups, and spyware is that there is a lamentably large population of yokels out there that believe this stuff. It says here that my computer is full of spyware they would say. I would advise not to click on it. They invariably answered, ooops. I would then explain that the person trying to get them to pay $20 for the spyware removal put it there in the first place. I envisioned little lights going on, but still had to wonder if anyone was home.
All that to say that navigating the internet is not as straight forward as one might imagine. It requires some cyber savvy and a dose of common sense. I got back into Ebay about six months ago and was surprised that things had changed drastically in the about 8 months I had been gone. I keep getting these emails from what appear to be legitemate customers asking about items I am not selling. At some point I must have clicked one of these by accident, because a day later I find myself locked out of my account. Someone posing as me is now selling a lot of high end items to people in Britain, using my sellers rating to cloud common sense about the feasabilty of shipping motorcycles from Canada to the UK. I got that sorted out, but it appears I am now a plump duck with a target on its hindquaters, getting a similar scam fired at me daily through that email account.
I love the internet the way it is, but often find myself wondering if a little regulation wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Wouldn’t it be great to have a big brother watching over things, some universal internet authority one could appeal to in the face of injustices like I have mentioned above. (Yes, that is a reference to 1984.) Traditional policing is terribly inaffective dealing with internet deceit.
Hahahah. ha. Yes, well i think pretty much everyone could agree that a little regulation would be nice. And impossible? Yeahhh…if only. I go crazy with pop ups- seriously, the vein in my forehead pops out and i have to pop some pills and count to 10. A lot of popping. Anyways, i enjoyed your post.
sincerely,
iliketogroceryshop
Yeah that would be nice for things like spam… but who would get to be in control of such a regulatory body? And whose interests would this regulator serve? Ours, his/her own, those of his/her investors? Such a service would be costly to operate and you can bet we would all start to get some spam mail and pop up ads reminding us of the great service those regulating the internet are doing.
I also thought it was a little funny that you took a shot at users or “yokels” getting dooped into paying for spyware removal and than later discussed how you yourself “by accident” clicked on something you shouldn’t have which resulted in losing access to your ebay account. Anyone home now? I hope the lights come on for you!
I did notice that that experience also put me into the class of yokels, but I decided to leave it in as I did not think any of the other yokels would figure it out. Guess I was wrong. (He, He).
This blog is pretty cool. Just wanted to say hi!