Morning folks,
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Today I am working from home. We were hit with a fairly significant winter storm last night and it is still snowing outside as I type this. I don't know the exact snowfall amount but it appears to be around 10 inches of snow.
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Remember that great idea I had a couple weeks ago to develop an addon for World of Warcraft? Well I learned today that Blizzard (the makers of World of Warcraft) have released a new addon development policy disallowing anyone to charge money (or accept donations, subscription services, etc) for addon development. This comes as a huge blow to the addon development community and already there have been many developers who have announced they will no longer be upkeeping their addons because of this. The offical policy can be viewed here http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/policy/ui.html
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There goes my grand idea. Now I'll just need to come up with something a bit more imaginative and hopefully get back on track with my multi-million dollar plans! Right...
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I've been doing a lot of thinking these past few days. One thought came to mind that I hadn't really considered until just recently. It has to do with companies who call your house whether it is just for a survey or for whatever. Have you ever had your bank call your house or even a utiliy company? Have you answered the phone and were greeted by, "Hello Mr/Mrs. Whoever, I'm So-n-so calling from InsertBankHere to inquire how you are enjoying your banking experience and to see if we can do anything to assist you today. My first thought is, ok you're a bank so what's the catch! Despite my huge distrust in banks, they are a necessity these days so they can pillage your funds however they see fit and there's nothing you can do about it. So I accept the caller and before the conversation goes any futher they are asking a few questions to verify my identiy before continuing. Normally this wouldn't phase me in the slightest; I guess I'm a fairly trusting person when Unknown Name Unknown Number calls me. In most cases, I answer their basic questions freely without giving a second thought; after all, my birthday isn't a huge secret is it? My address? My telephone number you JUST CALLED ME AT?!
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Ahhh. Anyway, I give over my valuable information and am thanked. I find out the bank can't do anything for me right now and I hang up wishing for the last 10 minutes of my life back. Then I pause. What if that person who just called from Unknown Name Unknown Number wasn't from InsertBankHere? What if they were a scammer who just happened to know I banked at InsertBankHere because they rummaged through my garbage and found a banking statement? What if that person only needed a few extra pieces of information to identify themselves and convince the REAL person at InsertBankHere that they were me? Folks, that's how identiy theft starts and how easy it is to get someone's information and use it against them.
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I've decided to take a stand against such things! From now on, when Unknown Name Unknown Number calls I will ask THEM to verify themselves to me. YOU give me my DOB, YOU give me my address, YOU give me the telephone number you JUST CALLED ME AT! No, that won't work now will it? Of course not, it would be too simple for someone to hijack my incoming calls and pretend to be me. So what is the best way to verify that the person calling you is from where they say they are?
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One of the best ways I can suggest is to get the phone number and extention of the person calling. Tell them you want to verify they are who they say they are and you will give them a call back. Once you've gotten the number from them, immediatly look it up on my new favorite website: http://whocallsme.com/ This handy website is a repository of useful information regarding phone numbers from people have received. Every wonder what that 012-345-6789 number is? You can look it up on this site and see what other people have said about it. In some cases, you can quickly find out if the number is a known scammer or if it's a legit number. Of course you can also use 411.com or 411.ca to verify if the phone number is registered to the proper expected business or not. Once you've verified the number and are satisified they are who they say they are, call them back and explain what you were doing, I'm sure if the person/company is legit, they'll appreciate the effort you took to protect yourself.
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So what do you do if that number isn't legit? Oh boy, let's have some fun! First thing you'll want to do is post about it on http://whocallsme.com/ so others will know about it. Secondly, you can call the number back and falsify your information. Tell them you're birthday is on the same day as Elvis and see if they can guess it. Then play a game with them with your address. If you live on Pine street, tell them the same of the street you live on rhymes with the word spine. Basically, take the time to completely waste their time because every second you have them on the phone is a second lost to a potential victim who may fall for their tricks and have their identiy stolen.
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Well folks, that's all I have for today. I must get back to work and finish getting caught up on all the emails and issues from when I went on vacation. Take care and we'll see you again soon.
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Cheers,
Al
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