Procrastinators of the world unite! Today was Laundry day for me. With an unusually large load and a severe headache, it was a real mess. To be frank I hate doing laundry and as a true laundry hater, I have enough essential garments to last me two months … but like with any other thing there is always a limit and today I was forced to get out of my stupor finally do the laundry. (I had to remind myself that I am no longer a college going free soul but a office going soul under bondage)

It started out real good though. I was happy to not carry the huge load of quarters and instead use my credit card(the American way) to pay for it. The only problem was that the washers started without the lids being closed and no cloths in them. I was under the impression that these washers were supposed to stop if you open the lids but no such luck for me. So I had to make quick time and fill up the 4 washers with cloth after the rotors had started. Next came the dryers part. Learning from my previous experience I decided to put the cloths in first before I use the credit card machine. Only this time when I came to pick up my laundry I found out that the dryers had to be manually started; and since the time lapse was great I had to pay for them again (loss of 4$s). I also accidentally started another machine because of a messed up key board. So over all it was a truly laundromessy place.

Updates on the tsunami

The after-effect killers have started already.

The social evil still remains among some. It only goes to prove that sometimes just sometimes some people don’t deserve to be called humans.

Politics still reigns in the ruins

The Falcon foundation is in the process of being officially established. I’ll keep you all updated on the happenings.

It’s hard to answer what’s wrong… when nothing is right

n.

1. Any of various large birds of prey of the New World family Cathartidae or of the Old World family Accipitridae, characteristically having dark plumage and a featherless head and neck and generally feeding on carrion.

2. A person of a rapacious, predatory, or profiteering nature.

The vulture has always boded evil and suffering. Of all the species of vultures out there, probably nothing is more dreaded than the human vultures. They seem to take pleasure and make profit in the suffering of their fellow human being. In the 21st century they are also hi-tech and use the last methods of people engineering. I don’t know if you have heard the term phishing. It is used to describe the act of duping information out of people. This has been a big problem especially in the US.

Usually phishers, send out emails to unsuspecting people with some outrageous offers asking them for their credit card and personal information. They also mask their emails to make it as though the email was coming from a legitimate source. All they need is to setup their website visually similar to the real ones. I have samples for the yahoo and hotmail login page that could get your email id when you type it in and send the details to me(or whoever has set it up). Now with the American people going all out to help the tsunami victims, these phishers have got into the act. Yesterday Mastercard announced that they found 133 cases of Tsunami related phishing. Now the FBI along with Mastercard and other member banks have setup a task force to catch these phishers. To you my loyal readers please follow these following guidelines that could prevent you from falling into this trap.

· Be wary of phishing e-mail. Banks do not contact customers to ask

them to provide sensitive information such as passwords and PINs online.

Look for indications such as spelling and grammatical errors that expose

the e-mail as being not genuine.

· Do not click hastily on links appearing in incoming e-mails and

provide payment card or other personal information. Make it a practice to

connect to an institution’s Web site only by directly typing the

institution’s valid Web address into the Web browser.

· Notify your bank and local law enforcement authorities promptly by

forwarding suspicious phishing-type e-mails. This action will help shut

down the fake Web site and to take action against the criminals.

· Monitor the transactions appearing on your statements, and quickly

report suspicious transactions to your bank.

· Change passwords and PINs periodically.

· Install anti-spam and firewall software on your personal computer to

stop receiving spam and to prevent unauthorized access.

· Turn off your computer when not in use, to avoid criminals gaining

access and misusing it for fraudulent purposes, which includes launching

phishing attacks.

· If you suspect that you have become a victim of a phishing attack and

already have divulged your sensitive account information to fraudsters,

please contact your bank immediately to discuss the appropriate remedial

action.

· Continue to monitor your statement for unauthorized transactions, if

your account is not closed.

· Regularly obtaining personal credit reports from all three credit

reporting agencies and carefully reviewing the information. Question – and

correct – any inaccuracies. The contact information for the credit

reporting agencies is:

· Equifax, call (800)-525-6285 and write: P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA

30374-0241

· Experian, call (888)-397- 3742 and write: P.O. Box 949,

· Allen TX 75013-0949

· TransUnion (800)-680-7289 and write: Fraud Victim Assistance

Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834

Laters…