Peevish with Blogger, spammers and other trivia

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....