Shashank Rana

The ‘One-Up’ Spammer, Pretending to be from FBI!

I received the following email about an hour ago. The sender’s name as it appeared in my inbox is Agent Thomas Green. The name is obviously a common name and a simple Google Search will reveal that this email has already done quite a few rounds. The Subject of the email is ‘Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)’. When I received the email, I opened it because I wanted to ensure it wasn’t from a customer who had lodged a complaint (which would have been a first ever). I couldn’t stop laughing when I opened it, and I knew I had to post it here because it is worth reading, and learning from!

Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001

From: Agent Thomas Green
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

(IC3 accepts Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant.)

My name is Agent Thomas Green of the FBI, I’m using this medium to inform you that we recieve a complaint about some internet frauds attempt which involves you and some culprit. Your complain has been reviewed and approved for immediate actions.

After our thorough scrutiny, we realise that you have been defrauded in one way or the other by some people claiming to have huge funds waiting for you. Some of the culprits reside in your country while some are outside of your shore. We have so far arrested atleast 6 people involved in these schemes and further investigation is still in progress.

Meanwhile, the FBI compensation department has agreed to refund a partial amount of the money recovered from the culprit totalling the sum of US$250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars) to be returned to you. To avoid any illegal/fraudulent act, these money has been preloaded into an ATM card for your own conveniences and you can cash it at any ATM machine in your country.

To utilize your claim, we request that you provide the following information for proper filing:

Your full name:_____________________
Your mailing address:_______________
Your mobile number:_________________

Fill appropriately and send to our paymaster via email:

Agent Fredy Simon
e-mail: fredysimon@aol.com

For security reasons, your Personal Identification Number (PIN) code has not yet been activated until your final review.

Best regards,

Agent Thomas Green
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

While I post this here, I want you to know that I know at least 3 instances where people have fallen prey to this Nigerian scam and lost their money. They feel bad not because of losing money only but more because they were well educated and knew that there is no dead relative, old banker, Iraqi General or Oil Baron who would leave money for them.

Greed!

Tags: 419 scam, advance fee scam, email scam, email spam, fraud email, greed, lessons from life, nigerian scam, russian scam, scam, spam

You Need to be Connected to remain Disconnected!

Please bear with me as I give the background of this story.

I was trying to look for a nice template for Zen Cart, which I have installed for the new domain, ITShopIndia.com. This site is supposed to be a place where the buyers of Computer parts and Accessories can connect directly with the suppliers and manufacturers and get products at wholesale prices. I reached the site of Kuroi Web Design, which has demos of free Zen-Cart templates. To appreciate the service by Kuroi Web Design, I decided to Tweet the page using Twitthis. I started to browse the top twitted pages and found a nice article by Seth Godin, the marketing guru. Phew!

The article is about personal branding and the Google effect. It talks about three people who applied for a job and how Google revealed the truth behind their claims. It is important to realize that privacy has a new meaning in the Internet era. People may think that they can disconnect their lives by not signing up to FaceBook, Orkut, MySpace and the likes, but it is not true.

Recently, I was seeing my own profile on FaceBook and realized that someone had tagged me in a photo. With over 2 billion photos uploaded, almost everyone in the world who has ever been clicked must have been tagged at least once, or will be tagged soon. It is true that you can restrict people from tagging you in pictures but you need to have a FaceBook profile for that!

You need to be on the network to ensure that you are not on the network!

It is difficult to remain behind closed doors when there is someone on the prowl all the time. The crawling spiders will not let any stone unturned. It is better that you are in control of the situation and manage your Online Profile judiciously. Even if you consider your privacy very important, just ensure that you have a decent public profile available to those who seek it, lest they will have to settle for what is made available to them.

Tags: facebook, google, myspace, orkut, privacy, public profile, seth godin, social networking

The Art of War – Sun Tzu

There are various books that I have read. There are many that have influenced me. The Art of War by Sun Tzu is one book, which has really made me think about life in general and business in particular. Every statement of the book is a complete learning in itself.

There are armies that must not be attacked, positions that must not be contested, commands of sovereign that must not be obeyed.

The simple application in business is that it is not possible to do everything. At times we have the opportunity to divulge our energy into things that we really wanted to do. These opportunities may even seem very lucrative. It is, however, not intelligent to do all that we want to do. It will be like eating all that is served or taking all that is available.

I’ve had the desire to acquire more clients and get more business. The only reason I have stopped myself from doing it is because I know that it may not be possible to keep all of them happy. It will only mean that I may even lose the existing bunch; not a happy thing to happen!

There have been multiple translations of the book and I have two different versions, however I like the one with a foreword by James Clavell, for he has also re-presented a few sections of the book in accordance with the modern times.

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

One may KNOW how to conquer, without being able to DO it.

I recommend this book to everyone and I believe that it is a great book for someone who wants to be a good leader. It is available for download and reading HERE, without any cost.

Tags: books, modern business, strategy, sun tzu, the art of war, warfare