Random Thoughts of Mine...

E-tailers snagged in marketing 'scam' blame customers

First, the good news for consumers: the U.S. government's investigation into how dozens of well-known online stores worked with controversial marketers to "deceive" customers out of $1.4 billion has prompted some retailers, including Continental Airlines, to sever ties with the marketers.

Now, the bad news: the marketers--Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty--are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members of the U.S. Senate have called a "scam," "robbery" and "theft."

While the U.S. Senate Commerce committee produced a staggering amount of documentation during a hearing last week that appears to show consumers are misled into signing up for so-called loyalty programs, the retailers continue to suggest it's their customers who are at fault.

The controversy began last May, when the Commerce committee launched an investigation into the practices employed by Vertrue, Affinion, and Webloyalty. The committee's investigators found thousands of complaints going back years from people who said they discovered "mysterious charges" on their credit cards and struggled to discover how they got there.

Read the rest of the article here.

McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas'

Retailers aren't the only ones gearing up for the holiday season. Criminals are also out in force.

To highlight the increased crime during the holidays, security company McAfee has come up with the "12 Scams of Christmas" ranging from bogus electronic greeting cards that deliver malware instead of cheer to fake charities that steal your money and your identity.

It's especially important to be extra careful this time of year, says McAfee's David Marcus. "The bad guys know people are spending more time online, they're paying more bills online so [the criminals] stand a chance of being a bit more successful this time of year.

In a podcast interview (scroll down to listen), Marcus counted down the 12 scams of Christmas starting with:

1. Charitable phishing scams: Marcus warns consumers to be wary of e-mails that appear to be from legitimate charities. Not only will they take your money and deprive charities of needed funds, but they will also steal your credit card information and identity.

2. Fake invoices from delivery services: During this period, scammers will send out fake invoices and delivery notifications appearing to come from Federal Express, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service or even the U.S. Customs Service saying that they were unable to deliver a package to your address. They ask you to confirm your address and give them credit card information to pay for delivery.

3. Social networking friend requests: Bad guys take advantage of this social time of year by sending out authentic looking friend requests via e-mail. Marcus recommends that you not click on those links but sign into Facebook and other services and look for friend requests from the site itself. Clicking on a link could install malware on your computer or trick you into revealing your password.

Read the rest of the article here.



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I've tried multiple times to do this post, but MyOpera kept crashing on me.

Anyways, about 2 weeks ago I was in New York City with Kerstin. I picked her up from JFK Airport on Sunday, the 18th. It was windy, about 50F (10C) and drizzling that day. She wanted to go into Manhattan, so we hopped on the subway. We took the train to the World Trade Center. This was my 1st time being there since 9/11. We then walked along the Hudson River down Battery Park City to Battery Park. We were cold by that time, so we took the subway up to Times Square. Times Square is a bustling area. I remember growing up how different the area had been, especially 42nd St. between 7th and 8th Ave. The area was more rundown, but now it has been revitalized. The Times Square Information Center was not around when I was growing up. We went there and Kerstin did this quick post from there. We ended up in Times Square and Starbucks everyday Kerstin was there.

The next day we took the subway to Grand Central on our way to the United Nations. It had been years since I had been to the UN. They were doing construction so the Security Council building was off limits to the tours, which lasted about 45 minutes. We took the subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is near City Hall. The weather was warmer that day & sunny. We walked halfway across the bridge taking pictures. Then we went to Chinatown, Little Italy and Greenwich Village. We ended up at the Apple Store on 14th St. that one of my cousins had mentioned. This one was 3 stories, thus being the largest Apple store I've ever been in. It's larger than the one outside of FAO Schwartz that we went to later in the vacation. It's no secret that Kerstin is an Apple fan, so we went to the store almost everyday too.

Later, we went to the 86th Floor Observation Deck of the Empire State Building. There are actually 2 observatories: the outdoor 86th floor one, and the enclosed 102nd floor. I've never been in the 102nd floor observatory, but it does seem quite small from the 86th floor. That day was sunny but, it was a bit smoggy out so you couldn't see as far as you would on a very clear day. You could still see pretty far though as you can see in one of her pictures. Kerstin & I got some good pictures from up there. We went to Central Park, FAO Schwartz, the Apple Store, Louis Vitton, and Rockefeller Center. The Ripley's Believe It or Not exhibit used to be in the basement of the Empire State Building, but is now expanded on 42nd St. That was a pretty interesting place to see.

The day we went to both Ellis & Liberty Islands, the weather was 70F (21C), sunny with a slight breeze blowing. I was very happy with it. Too bad the next day, it dropped 20 degrees. Anyways, I'm glad that they opened up the Statue of Liberty again. It had been closed for a number of years after 9/11. Now you have to get there early if you want some of the limited tickets to get access into the Statue. We had missed it by the time we got there, but getting to walk around both islands was well worth the trip. When we went to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Harlem, we happened to arrive when the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra was practicing there. Neither of us had any idea that would happen, so we got treated to a free, relaxing concert that day. We then hopped back on the subway to walk through Central Park and see the Great Lawn near the Metropolitan Museum.

It was another cold, wet and windy day when I took Kerstin back to the airport. I can honestly say that I had a great time with her in my city. I'm very glad that we met here on MyOpera and became friends. It was great to have been able to finally meet her in person. Maybe next time, I'll have to visit her in Sweden, which sounds great since I love to travel. Also, here is my NYC photo album of the trip.



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FTC Guns for Blogger Shills—and Misses

Blogger payola is risible, but the new FTC guidelines are misguided, unenforceable, and utterly useless.

by Dan Costa

The FTC released guidelines designed to crackdown on the blogger payola—the risible practice of paying people to write favorable things about your products or company. As the editor who runs the Reviews team here at PCMag.com, I thought it would be worth my time to wade through the 81-page guide of regulations. After all, the penalty could be $11,000 per violation. Near as I can tell, the regulation will require every blogger to disclose payments, gifts, and professional interests for every tweet, post, or email that supports a given company. In other words, this mess of regulations misunderstands media, creates unenforceable rules, and, quite possibly, violates our First Amendment right to free speech.

For starters, let me review how PCMag.com does business. Vendors loan us products to review. We test them. We send them back. That's pretty much it. Staff can't take cash or gifts of value from vendors—although you will be hard-pressed to find a staffer without at least a dozen 512MB USB keys filled with press releases and images. There is also a drawer full of T-shirts. Our advertising department has no say in what we write and neither do vendors. Sometimes companies are upset about what we write, but they know the deal going in.

PCMag has been in business for longer than I have, and I take lot of pride in working here. Truth be told, many of our competitors also have rigorous editorial standards. A lot of established blogs have standards that are just as high. For that matter, I know individual bloggers who are informed, scrupulous, and utterly enjoyable to read. So why is the FTC setting up different types of rules for PCMag, or indeed, why is it setting up rules at all?

The new rules extend far beyond bloggers. Facebook updates, Twitter posts, Tumblr photos, even word-of-mouth marketing can be now be regulated by the FTC. Like most people, I despise this type of covert marketing more than anything. But, at some point, I think we have to let people post, blog, tweet, and say what they want to one another. We can decide whether or not to believe them.

Read the rest of the article here.



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Here comes the bribe...

Yesterday, I went to the movies twice in one day. The first movie that I saw Saturday afternoon was The Proposal. I will do a post on the second movie I saw on Saturday later.

The Proposal stars Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate, Ryan Renolds as Andrew Paxton, Mary Steenburgen as Grace Paxton (Andrew's mom), Craig T. Nelson as Joe Paxton (Andrew's dad), Betty White as Grandma Annie, Oscar Nuñez as Ramone, and Denis O'Hare as Mr. Gilbertson of the INS.

In this movie, Margaret is an executive editor-in-chief who is feared and hated by all that work under her. This includes her secretary, Andrew, who has been working for her for 3 years. He also dreams of becoming an editor. When Margaret enters the office, Andrew warns everybody by instant message that, "The witch is on her broom!" He planned on going to visit his family for his grandmother's 90th birthday, but Margaret tells him that he has to work instead. She gets called upstairs by her bosses for an urgent meeting. She tells Andrew to come get her soon. Upstairs, she learns that she is about to be deported back to her native Canada because her visa application has been denied. She thinks she will work from Toronto, but is told that she can't work for an American company if she is deported. Andrew walks in and a quick-thinking Margaret tells her bosses that she is engaged to Andrew. Later, she warns him that if he doesn't marry her, then she will be deported and he will lose his job. So he reluctantly agrees to it and they head to the Immigration office. There, Mr. Gilbertson warns them that if they are commiting fraud, then she will be deported and Andrew can face 5 years in prison. So they head to Sitka, Alaska to surprise his family with the announcement.

In Alaska we meet Andrew's family. Especially funny are Grandma Annie, Ramone and the family dog. The dog hates Margaret. It had been a while since I had seen a romantic comedy (or any comedy for that matter) in the theatres, so I decided to see this film. There were quite a few funny moments that had me and the audience laughing. The cast did a good job on this film. There were some slow moments and this is probably not the funniest movie of the year, but I would recommend The Proposal.

Below are some movie clips:

The Baby Maker


It's Morning


Why Are You Naked?


Easter Egg Hunt





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Microsoft fans call for Opera boycott
Don't pick on little ol' Redmond

Windows enthusiast site JCXP.net is asking fellow fans to delete the Opera web browser from PCs and devices in an act of solidarity against European antitrust action.

"Today we are proposing a complete boycott of all Opera software," David Taraso, editor of the JCXP group, wrote in a blog post late on Friday. Taraso blames Opera Software for goading European regulators into a regulatory showdown with Microsoft.

The European Commission filed antitrust charges in January alleging Microsoft unfairly stifles competition by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. The investigation was spurred by a 2007 complaint from Opera Software, maker of a rival web browser and long-time outspoken critic of Microsoft's dominance. Although the lawsuit was later joined by Google and Mozilla, Taraso blames Opera as the instigator.

The plot thickened in the EU case on Thursday, when Microsoft said it would ship the upcoming Windows 7 operating system in Europe without Internet Explorer, in an apparent attempt to preempt antitrust measures. The EU hastily rejected Microsoft's response as inadequate, with Opera jeering at the sidelines.

"This is absolutely nothing more than a company who can't legitimately gain market share trying to squeeze their unpopular browser onto Windows systems," Taraso wrote. "Opera is simply upset because their browser is dead last in market share, and has already been surpassed by the recent released Google Chrome browser and Apple's Safari browser for Windows."

Read the rest of the article here.

I, for one, will not be boycotting Opera! As many of you know, Opera Software is working to take the web back to the old days. I might try that feature out when Opera 10 comes out. Back to the EU/Microsoft case; Lanc Ulanoff wishes that the EU will just leave Microsoft alone already.




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