August 2008 – Page 3

Seems like a few people have been fleeced of their money via a bogus Olympic ticketing web site.

As you can see www.beijingticketing.com looks very professional and there really isn’t much to give it away as being a scam. A story in the Sydney Morning Herald gives you some of the dollar figures for people who have been fleeced, and it ain’t small money!

This again demonstrates how sophisticated the bad guys are becoming in the quest to part you from your money. There is no simply solution to overcoming this issue because if you can fool the human at the keyboard you are well on your way to payday.

I know hindsight is 20/20 but if you read the About us page you do find some grammar issues like:

“We are special for providing sold out event tickets in very economical prices.”

and

“For being in the ticket market since a long time we have become very popular in football fans and music lovers”

Now I admit that bad grammar on a sophisticated web site does warrant concern but I don’t think it would have mattered in this case. Simply because most people would have been taken in by the professional look of the web site and secondly most would not have bothered to check the About page. Finally, grammar issues could have been put down to the site being converted from Chinese (maybe).

So all in all a very hard one for even the most vigilant computer user to pick. I suppose the only adage that can be applied is “if it seems to good to be true, then chances are it is”.

Bad guys 2 – Internet users 0

I’ve been doing some research and contemplation about emails of late. Interestingly, I came across the following article from Slate called – The E-Mail Addict. The article raises a number of issues with email that I think most people, including myself fall, into.

To start with, ever do this?

“people have a tendency to simply open their inboxes and scroll up and down for several minutes, knocking off two or three messages so they feel better”

It is all too easy isn’t it? Not feeling like doing anything, drifting along, what can I do you, you think? Rather than face an unpleasant or difficult task that NEEDS doing it is so much easier simply to scroll through your inbox and delete or reply to one or two emails. You now feel that you’ve done something so you drift off onto something else. Sound familiar?

Secondly, what about this?

“Lots of e-mail makes you feel important”

So, not only is email a good time waster for most workers but the more they get interrupted by email and the more they store in their inboxes the more “important” they feel. Silly isn’t it?

There was a time when emails were are real productivity improvement but sadly they have plainly become an excuse to waste time. Why? Simply, people have allowed the technology to control them. They have lost the discipline of saying enough is enough. They have become so insecure that they need emails to confirm their self worth. Ad infinitum.

Finally, consider:

Today, scholars talk of the “communication enslavement” that occurs when someone sends e-mail to someone else.

I had never really thought of it that way but in many cases this is right on the money. You send some an email and EXPECT a reply and EXPECT the reply instantaneously.

It is interesting if you take a step back and really have a look at the VALUE of Internet communications (in all their forms). Consider whether they are really improving your productivity or are they simply giving you something to do and something to feel good about. It is a brave person that can walk away from emails in today’s overloaded environment but the studies seem to indicate that unless you do you are doomed to life tethered to a machine. That certainly isn’t suppose to be the way it should be, in my my opinion.

I will happily admit that I fall into the same traps as well but I am trying to do something about it. My starting point? The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris (see my review, in my opinion a must read), and yes I am reading it AGAIN!