Lately it has been a chore to post Blogger, so I am wondering WTH is up...fellow Blogger users are you having the same trials? I know one is because she posted so. Rolling and stuck screens and "not responding" error messages. Blaaaaaach! I have been far too busy lately to share much but now our guests have departed (hallelujiah) and some semblance of what used to be normal returns. Outside the wall de and re construction is on day 2.
And another thing, I was convinced to remove the word verification for those wishing to comment on this blog direct after several other bloggy pals said it was cumbersome and discouraged comments and possibly blog traffic. Ok so it has been gone. My traffic has not increased and some still send email, not using the net direct. Lately though I have been getting strange occasional spam messages. These comments are usually over complimentarytoward my writings but written using poor grammar, spelling and cumbersome phrases. They are always posted anonymously and then invite me to see their blog. Well I do not click on their blog link and mostly I am "flushing" these, thank you for the term and advice, Ticklebear.
I suppose these are relatively harmless net surfing's and so far no damage done. I am considering reinstituting the must be approved for all comments before allowing them to show on the blog. That would preclude these strange postings.
Today I received an internet scam warning from our ISP. Every time I read one of these I am amazed at the gullibility of folks. It did not advise the source but basically, you receive an email from someone who claims you have ripped off, invaded or violated their email and taken their photos. This is being targeted toward college students and the University of Wisconsin has published a warning on their website. Apparently when the unaware try to respond by clicking on the email or replying, they are hacked. This sounds like a regurgitation of the scheme last year using fake Facebook alerts....by the way, beware on Facebook game sites and responses. I am a heavy user of Facebook but easily ignore games and applications there. Here is the site at Blaze that describes this scam on hacking....
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/black-friday-scam-alert-beware-of-facebook-and-itunes-emails/
Months back I got an email alert thanking me for sending $60 via Pay Pal to Shane Peterson. Whoa, sez me, I didn't do that. So I checked my Pay Pal account online which did not show such a payment. But feeling a bit uneasy, I called Pay Pal and the phone rep. immediately knew why I was calling. They had over 3,000 such calls the same day for what was a giant spam scam out of San Jose, CA that most Pay Pal account holders received. It was to entice the unwary to respond and there by be hacked. What a strange online world! I use my delete button easily and especially with emails from those I don"t recognize. If it is legitimate they can contact me again or by another method. I have never been a fan of the SPAM in the can and will run the other way if offered the same, so I suppose the very word "spam" and "scam" are enough to cause my nose to turn up.
There is a proliferation of online sites to educate oneself about the dangers including this onguard on line which shows a dot gov address, presuming it is government sponsored. I do no know about that but it does share information for the uninformed. http://onguardonline.gov/articles/0002-common-online-scams
There is also a site that identifies the Top 10 Internet scams and how to ignore them...
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/scamsandidentitytheft/ss/top10inetscams.htm
Be safe out there....
I created this blog to record our RV trips and ;morphed into life in our retirement lane and telling my tales of life. Now my tales of life are on widowhood, my new and probably my last phase of l I have migrated to Facebook where I communicate daily, instantly with family/friends all over. I write here sometimes. COPYWRIGHT NOTICE: All photos, stories, writings on this blog are the property of myself, Patricia Morrison and may not be used, copied, without my permission most often freely given.
Since I use Live Writer instead of the Blogger interface to compose and post to my blog, I can't say I have seen the posting errors you have.
ReplyDeleteSpam on blogs is up -- that I can say without a doubt. Between comment and referral spam, the black hats on the Net have been busy.
I use to use Firefox to create my blogs but for some reason I get all sorts of trouble. I find that the program Chrome works just fine for my blogging purposes. I don't like Chrome as much as they have simplified the application but it seems to let me move smoothly through my blogging job.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder about Chrome, Larry. I had used that for a bit and then forgot about it. Maybe that's the ticket...
ReplyDeleteI have avoided the FB apps and games but recently I have been deluged with spam. The filter works well and puts almost all of them in the spam folder where they are automatically deleted in 30 days. I was using the cancel thing but I think they just ignore it and sell the address to others. I recently found another method which, using the address of the sender, is supposed to automatically send any messages from that sender to the 'trash.' I'll see if that reduces spam. I still have to check the spam folder though as occasionally some legitimate mail is sent to spam. I have yet to have any trouble with hackers or virus. X = Fingers crossed. Tom
ReplyDeleteAlways feel free to be trigger happy with that delete button. That's what I do!!
ReplyDelete:)~
HUGZ
Hi Pat, I read this post previously and thought I had left a comment, but see I didn't so here's my few cents worth. We removed word verification too after some comments from fellow bloggers about how cumbersome it was to leave a comment. We were blissfully ignorant it was even on because as blog authors it never displayed for us when we commented on a post (ignorance WAS bliss). We do get an occasional Anonymous comment which is always garbage in the form of gibberish and a link to either a naked celebrities site or other nonsense. Blogger seems to be able to catch these Anonymous comments and does put them in the trash so they never appear on our blog. We just get the emails which we delete.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your observations about folks being gullible and I am overly careful (admittedly) and won't even open forwarded messages from friends (some have had accounts hijacked, so who knows for usre IF it's from a friend). And I make sure people know I delete any chain mail messages. As a result, I get very little annoyances like that. I also report any fraudulent emails to the proper companies like Paypal or ebay or a credit card company. Every little bit hopefully helps.