The Only Free Cheese You Get Is In A Rat Trap

That was the advice I got when checking up recently on a wonderful sounding message from a Mr. Mark Taylor who claimed to be the Microsoft Fiduciary agent in the United Kingdom. His news was very tempting in these days of economic chaos and seemed to be risk free.



He told me that my e-mail address had been selected as the second winner of a free lottery and that I had won over $500,000.00 in Canadian dollars. (That would be roughly the Canadian equivalent of the English Pound.) Needless to say that would fill a lot of financial holes.



But the reality is that it would burn a hole in my pocket and leave me not richer but poorer by anywhere from some $400 to $1000 depending on how I wanted my winning cheque shipped.

Although I was suspicious about how I could be winning such an amount of money from a lottery I had never entered I did not Mr. Taylor's instructions to contact AirFer Couriers Limited in England to make arrangements for delivery of my winnings.

They responded with an e-mail telling me that yes they did have my cheque, but that I would have to pay for them to send it to me. I was to send them a payment to them by Western Union

This would range from $265. USD to $825. USD – depending on how I wanted the cheque shipped. They assured me that my winning cheque had been picked up from Microsoft Headquarters in England and was ready for dispatch to me – but I would have to remit the money to them by Western Union – first. All of this was beginning to sound more and more like a fraud to me.



And a fraud I found. To somebody easily captivated by the possibility of finding a $10,000 cash poke by "rolling up the rim of a Tim Horton's coffee cup here in Canada it was all very tempting and at first I was scratching my head to try and figure out how I might be able to raise that type of money – before I received some heartbreaking message from this Mr. Taylor that I had waited too long and they had cancelled my winning cheque. But in the end common sense prevailed and I decided to check it out.



I found the title for this post, " The only free cheese you find is in a rat trap" --and that certainly is true.

And in the end Microsoft confirmed my suspicious. They warned that all was an example of phishing – enticing victims to pay large sums of money up front in the hope of getting that promised "pot of gold".



In the security world security officers are warned to always assess, plan, and then act with stress on the assessing part of it when they run into unexpected situations. Obviously that is something we should all be doing in all areas of our lives in order to protect ourselves from very persuasive con artists like I ran into. And there are a number of very good web sites in England where particular scam originated as well as other countries. Check them out.

Protect yourself!










 

Protect Yourself and Others – Don't Drink and Drive

 

According to journalist Stephen Hume despite the best efforts of the police and courts we are still killing more people in traffic accidents than are being killed by enemy combatants since World War II.



He wrote in his Saturday March 13, 2010 column in the Vancouver Sun, "Impaired drivers are killing their fellow Canadians in numbers that exceed our war casualties in Afghanistan." And figures show that between 1980 and 2006 the traffic casualty figures are about the same number as the number of Canadian soldier casualties fighting the Axis powers.

He cites from very alarming figures claiming that in 2006 alone 1,278 persons were killed, and some 75,374 persons were injured, with property damage reach the $12.8 billion mark.

In order to help reduce this carnage drivers  should be making drastic reductions in the amount of alcohol  consumed before driving. Studies in Japan show that driving skills deteriorate rapidly once the average person has reached the .02 level -- never mind .08 which is the current indicator used by police forces and courts for determining that a person is legally impaired.



So as drivers and pedestrian we should be voluntarily greatly reducing the amount we drink before driving -- and throwing our support behind proposed changes that would see the legal impairment level reduced from the current .08 level to .05 or even .02.

This would not only protect our own lives but also the lives of our loved ones and fellow drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.



Wait until we get home to drink with family and friends or at the very least stopping playing Russian roulette behind the wheel and have a designated, sober person  drive us home.


Drinking would be much more enjoyable knowing that we hadn't  endangered  other persons' lives or wiped out a young child and mother because we had too much to drink.



 

Vary Your Routine and Be Observant

 

Copy a tactic of experienced business travellers who know it is a good idea when travelling around ( in their case especially in foreign lands) so people who might be tracking and planning to attack and rob them do not know exactly what time they are going to do something or what route they're going to take.

 

This is also a technique of experienced security people when patrolling sites so anybody scouting the site to plan a break-in or whatever is not readily aware of exactly where the security guard is. They really mix up their patrols and activities so that in many cases even mobile supervisors visiting their sites have to contact them by radio or cell phone to locate them.

 

Doing things like this can be even more critical if you are a female living alone or you go out on solo hikes or jogging on a regular basis. Mix up your times as much as possible and take slightly different routes each time. Both of these practices make it harder to any stalkers to easily set up ambush points along your route.

 

It is also good to carry some personal alarm or even better take along a canine partner -- especially one that is very protective of you sand stay observant of your surroundings. It is really surprising how many people are out there walking or jogging – sometimes in some very isolated areas completely oblivious to what is going on around them.

 

Keep in mind the "Rule of Three". If you suddenly keep encountering the same person walking along your route or watching from a park bench, bicycle, or parked vehicle as you pass that should send up some warning signals. In the end the person might turn out to be harmless but take precautions by changing your route or times or even calling the non-emergency police line to see if they can send officers to check the person out.

Don't become known as a person that keeps calling the police without a good reason but don't hesitate to call them if you have real concerns.

A Few Tips On Safety in Your Vehicle

 

There a a couple of things you should keep in mind when sitting in a car whether your are a security professional, private investigator or private citizen – things that could protect your from injury or death.

 

First of all if a part of your job involves working on your laptop or making notes or records with a pen and paper or even just talking on your cell phone for a long period of time do not get so engrossed in what you are doing that you do not stay aware of your surroundings and possible threats from others. Take a few minutes to look around once in a while to see who might be observing or approaching you. Don't get paranoid about this – but do stay aware.

 

The second thing is that if you are sitting in your car he keys should be in the ignition, ready to use to start your vehicle if you have to move out quickly and if possible have your emergency brake off so all you have to do is put your car in gear and move quickly.

 

Third, especially if you are in an isolated area or alone and notice that somebody has been watching you it does not hurt to turn your engine in you see somebody walking towards you, again so you can escape quickly if that person or group of persons becomes a threat.

 

Fourth, be cautious when you are sitting in your car and somebody is suddenly outside your vehicle window. This was impressed on me by a friend when I was doing site surveillance work from my Jeep Patriot.

 

He had come up to me and was talking pleasantly to me through the open window when he suddenly pushed his hand through the open window and punched me on the chest twice . "Just a wake up call," he said as he walked away, looking back in utter disbelief at how easy I would have been to take out as he later told me.

 

He made his point. That could have been a knife or some other weapon instead of his fist.

He cautious about who is standing outside your vehicle window – especially if for some reason you might be vulnerable to sudden attack.

 

These are all little points perhaps, but if you keep them in mind and take t he appropriate precautions they could help to protect your from injury or death if somebody does attack you.

Protect Your Furniture and Your Cats

 

According to an article in The Pet Connection February 2010 the UnitedStates government has banned the declawing of big cats in captivity such as lions and tigers because of the extreme suffering it causes while in the meantime thousands of house cats are routine put through this agony in order to protect the owner'[s furniture. The author of the article, Dr Michael W. Fox, wants to stop this cruel practice which he says is similar to somebody amputating your toes and fingers at the first joint

As well as making it much more difficult for the cat to climb and hold things many cats suffer from other things such as chronic arthritis as well as bone infections when the pads on their paws shrink .

 

In addition to this suffering such an operation causes your pet it often backfires as way to protect your property because it often causes your to become much more aggressive and prone to bit to defend itself -- and -- "un-housebroken" as Dr. Fox says, refusing to dig in the litter box with sore paws. Corners of carpets under furniture or in closets become much more attractive places for your cat to pee or defecate.

The bottom line with all of this is that it is a good idea to think twice about resorting to such drastic measures as cutting your cat's claws. The cost of such an operations as well as the cat's suffering could be avoided by using other techniques to discourage furniture scratching. And older wooden chair or stool or other piece of furniture left near the cat's feeding station could encourage it to use that to sharpen its claws if your do not want to buy one of the fancy scratching posts or they are not working for some reason.