Equifax Alert: The "Jury Duty" Scam

While you should remain vigilant of all potential identity theft threats, some are especially alarming. The "Jury Duty" scam is remarkably easy to fall for. Learn how it works so that you can stay safe if you receive this ominous call.

Imagine this scenario: you receive a call from a jury coordinator informing you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest due to your failure to appear for jury duty. When you explain that you never even received a summons for jury duty, the coordinator asks for your Social Security number and date of birth in order to verify your information and cancel the warrant. Of course you're willing to provide this information; there's obviously been a mistake and you want to avoid arrest at all costs. Problem is, this is all part of the scam. There never was a warrant, and you've just had your identity stolen.

This scam has been reported in 11 states so far and is growing. So if you receive a phone call that seems suspicious or threatening, don't panic. Simply ask for more information, the caller's supervisor, or a number at which you can reach them after doing more research. Nothing foils an identity thief like an educated response.

Thanks to Commissioner David Millron of Avondale Estates, GA for this information.

Security Essentials for your Parents' PC

Gina Tripani from Smarterware.com wrote a good post on this one stop shop internet security software that is available for free now from Microsoft. She is one of the smartest software folks I know of so I'd be happy to take her suggestion. I haven't tried it yet and I'm also pretty happy with Panda's new Free Cloud antivirus which gets pushed updates around the clock, that still requires an antispyware/antimalware client or two, though.

Anyway, have a look at this new product or just watch a video about it here.

A simple thing you can do to improve communications

Add a signature to your email. A “signature” is a block of text at the end of your emails that contain all your contact information. It saves your recipients the hassle of asking for your address and phone number or searching for them on your website.

Here's what mine says at the moment:

--
Best regards,

Alan Thornton
Decatur Computer Help
On-site Computer Troubleshooting
(404) 932-4348

http://www.decaturcomputerhelp.com - site
http://decaturcomp.blogspot.com/ - blog
twitter: @decaturcomp

Referrals appreciated

You'd be surprised how often I try to give someone this info and they say that they already have it. Doing this is one of the best uses of 2 minutes work time I can imagine.

Twitter

The most common question I hear about Twitter is, "What it it?" Followed closely by, "Why would I want it?" and, "How would I use it?"

I think the best answer is, Twitter is a very quick and simple way to communicate with a group of folks you enjoy.

The account is free. The posts are so simple you can send them from your cell phone. Posts are short (limited to 140 characters) and encourage folks to be clever and precise, unlike what I'm doing here. (chortle, chortle)

Still there is enough room for a short statement and a link to a website, article, photo, video or the like.

During an event like the Oscars or Election Night, it is fun to either chat back and forth with your chosen friends or to watch the comments of the entire Twitterverse on a site like Twitscoop.

There is a short video on the subject here that may explain things better than I have.

Oh, and there is one more question that I should mention. The main question that Twitter asks you is "What are you doing?" You'll be surprised at the diverse answers.

...and one more thing, if you want to follow my posts there, just add "decaturcomp" as a person to follow, I'll get a note and follow you back, then we'll be able to keep up with each other. See you there.

Report voting problems by phone, text or Twitter

The right to vote and have our vote counted is sacred to most Americans.
Voting problems have plagued our last two Presidential elections. This time there is a way to track problems virtually in real time:

On November 4th 2008, millions of Americans will go to over 200,000 distinct voting locations and using different systems and machinery to vote. Some voters will have a terrific experiences, and others will experience the same problems we have been hearing about for years - long lines, broken machines, inaccurate voting rolls, and others will experience problems that we haven’t heard about before. That’s why a new citizen-driven election monitoring system called Twitter Vote Report (www.twittervotereport.com) was just launched. Using either Twitter.com, iPhone, direct SMS, or our telephone hotlines, voters will have a new way to share their experiences with one another and ensure that the media and watchdog groups are aware of any problems.

And YOU can help! Be a citizen journalist! Submit a report about conditions at your polling place.

Four ways to submit reports to Vote Report:

* Twitter: include #votereport and other tags to describe the scene on the ground
* SMS: Send text messages to 66937 (MOZES) starting with the keyword #votereport plus other hash tags
* iPhone: We have a Twitter Vote Report iPhone app in the App store!
* Phone: Call our automated system at 567-258-VOTE (8683) to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone

And if you would like to talk to a human to report bad conditions you’ve observed, please call our partner 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

As news outlets and blogs will report on Election Day stories, www.twittervotereport.com is an invaluable resource for thousands of voters to get immediate help. From questions like “where do I vote” or “how do I make sure that my rights are being upheld,” Twitter Voter Report augments these efforts by providing a new way for voters to send text messages (aka tweets) via cellphones or computers which will be aggregated and mapped so that everyone can see the Nation’s voting problems in real-time.

Imagine a nationwide web map with pins identifying every zip code where Americans are waiting over 30 minutes to vote or indicating those election districts where the voting machines are not working. Collectively we will inform each other when the lines are too long and ensure that media and watchdog groups know where problems exist.

For more information, go to www.twittervotereport.com. The complete list of tags or keywords that you can include in your reports is listed there. And please help to spread the word — copy and email this to friends who haven't voted yet!

Electronics Recycling Day! AND Add Blogs to your Google Reader

Please Note:
This information is re-posted from the excellent local resource: Decatur Active Living. If you use a news reader, like Google Reader, I'd suggest adding them to your list. (this blog is already on there, right? To add a blog to Google Reader, just click the add link at the bottom and new post will appear in your reader regularly!

Saturday - 2008 Fall Electronics Recycling Day
2008 Fall Electronics Recycling Day
9 am to 1 pm, Saturday, October 25th
Decatur High School Parking Lot
(Corner of N. McDonough Street and Howard Avenue)

TV's will be recycled for $10 cash only with exact change. Don't throw away that old cell phone, camera or PC component! Save it and recycle it on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at Decatur's Fall 2008 Electronics Recycling event.

This semi-annual event has been hugely successful at diverting electronic equipment from landfills, where they may contaminate soil and water. Batteries and Styrofoam will also be accepted.For the first time at this event, TV's will be recycled for a minimal fee of $10 cash only per TV set with exact change. There is no charge to recycle other items.

The event takes place Saturday October 25, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Decatur High School Parking lot, on the corner of N. McDonough St. and W. Howard Avenue. Electronics dropped off that day will be sorted and disassembled into raw materials or cleaned for re use. The Decatur Waste Management Advisory Board investigates the recyclers involved to be sure the items are responsibly disassembled and not landfilled.

In addition to electronics, any metro area resident can also drop off batteries of any type, Styrofoam peanuts, and clean Styrofoam blocks free of foreign objects.
Volunteers assist in unloading items. To volunteer, please contact Scott Thompson at Scott.Thompson@Mindspring.com.

Early drop offs are not possible.

For additional information, please call David Junger at (404) 377-5571.

Evernote! Capture Websites, Send yourself notes by phone...

Evernote is spectacular. It has a "clip to evernote" button you can drag into your bookmarks bar and allows you to capture a webpage or just a highlighted part of it to your account. From there you can tag it for easy location later. Even if the websites should change or disappear, I'll still have my copies. (That makes it great for saving news stories, too.)

For example. I've been obsessed with travel lately though it looks like we'll only take a car trip to the beach for one week this year. I've captured lots of great packing, scuba diving with whale sharks and having fun on vacation tips as well as some camping related sites and tips from Lifehacker.com (great for all sorts of reasons) and tagged them all "travel." Now, I can enter travel on my Evernote page and all of those come up at once. They can have multiple tags of course, so the camping tips are also labeled "camping" in case I want just that info.

It's hard to explain fully but also hard to imagine going without. There's a short waiting period for an invite while its in beta (and free) but I have a few invites as of this writing if you want one. I think its one of the best tools to show up since Google Reader. Have a look, why don't you?
Evernote's Home Page

Oh, and you can also send yourself notes to evernote over the phone by using the free and also wonderful Jott.com. Jott will send you or anyone else in your address book an email transcribed from your voice. I tag my jotts the same way as the related media I've snagged for a particular project.