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Prepare For Massive Wave of Earthquake Scams
wiredmikey sends this quote from Security Week:
"Today's tragic events of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami, as sad as it is, is a dream for scammers and fraudsters around the world. Tragic events are always something scammers use to their advantage, helping them prey on and exploit innocent victims. Scams are already spreading across Facebook, which started in a matter of minutes after the news broke of the earthquake in Japan. As I write this, scammers are hard at work, registering new domains and cranking out templates for their fake donation sites. This will be followed with massive volumes of email spam, Tweets through Twitter, and Facebook posts, as scammers gear up to solicit donations from around the world."
As coverage of the earthquake and resulting tsunami has proceeded, collections of videos and pictures are showing the extent of the devastation. The NY Times makes the excellent point that things could have been much worse if not for building codes and quake-resistant engineering. A state of emergency was declared at one of Japan's nuclear plants, after the earthquake caused cooling problems at one of the reactors. No radiation leakage has been reported, and the US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant by air.
The fact that people would take advantage of the disaster and misery at the cost of thousands of people just disgusts me. It happened with Katrina, it happened with Haiti, and I guess they're gearing up for this disaster. You fuckers, I hope you rot in hell.
No lifes will do anything for a buck >:(
A state of emergency was declared at one of Japan's nuclear plants, after the earthquake caused cooling problems at one of the reactors. No radiation leakage has been reported, and the US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant by air.
This, right here, is why a well funded military is so needed!
Because it's cheaper than paying for the aftermath of a godzilla attack!
It appears that one way to improve your chance of survival in a tsunami is to not have a white car.
http://i.imgur.com/ddHiq.jpg
Not just to charities created because of tragedies, but to any charity at all. Websites such as Charity Watchdog (http://www.charitywatch.org/) exist to allow you to confirm how legit any given organization is. (When in doubt, just throw ten bucks at Red Cross International or Doctors Without Borders.)
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
isnt news for nerds, we have known for a while this happens.
what i want to know as a nerd is completely off topic,
but in the nation of japan how is it the death toll so far for this tsunami has only been reported as "hundreds" of people and not thousands dead?
what technology has japan used or is japan using thats saved so many lives?
Will they use rescue-robotics like robo-q or the quince prototype to locate and identify survivors?
or something more powerful like the Tmsuk T53 to lift heavy concrete slabs and debris?
Good people go to bed earlier.
"Prepare For Massive Wave"
Don't you think it's a bit soon to be making puns?
Listen, people are idiots and fools are easily parted with their money. More, people have a short attention span and never follow up on the results.
People were suckered into the whole Haiti thing last year. Morons "texting" cash to charities and schiesters like Bill Clinton and George Bush encouraging people to "just send us your cash". And in the end? No accountability. I don't even need to go into the troubles with the Red Cross and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars, can't seem to account for where all that money went to. Last I recall, Clinton was present to see the handing over of three million bucks or some similarly ridiculously low number.
You had global donations from governments promised in the billions (at least five billion, I believe). You had moron celebrities holding telethons and telling you that you should give your cash.
And idiots gave their cash. But they never looked in on what was going on. Why should they? I texted my $10 to some place, so I'm a good person now! I don't need to figure out whatever happened after that!
Meanwhile, it's a year later and we're told that people are still living in tents and everyone is dying of dysentery or whatever.
Of course, Japan is less likely to be prone to this kind of problem, I think. The only concern there will be with fake charities trying to scam you out of donations through fake websites and other services. And that's what this article was talking about, to begin with. The problem in Haiti was different, in that they're not the power that is Japan. They're fucking Haiti. And actual real organizations simply behaved criminally after extorting donations from you.
What I hear most charities say is that people should give regularly so the agencies will have the resources to handle these emergency.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Give to the Organization for Scam Prevention Now!
Have gnu, will travel.
So I'm just a bit in the gray on this issue. Where's the line drawn on what's morally acceptable with this? If I immediately run and sell all my Japanese stocks and instead buy into rice after seeing all the fields on tv being destroyed, does that mean I'm evil and taking advantage of this situation? I would still end up being in a financially better position as a result of a tragedy.
This is the first word that come to me when I see the pictures of the hearthquake. Incredible...
Daniel Colleman
http://www.danielcolleman.com
Does that mean I should ignore that email I got about a Japanese princess?
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
I mean, aside from the immediate need for search and rescue, is Japan really going to need donations to recover from this? Last I heard, they were one of the wealthier nations.
Godaddy is a scam and a ripoff.
No aid needed. The GOP has voted to send an emergency humanitarian shipment of tax cuts to the affected area.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
Just like AIG mortgages, Katrina floods, So Cal wild fires, and America's heath plan, when its time for that insurance in times of disaster, suddenly you realize you don't really have the coverage required to restore your losses. Its kind of like most things when you pay in advance of receiving the goods.
....
Lets just see if the insurance industry fell into the cracks, yet again, leaving flood victims "high and dry" in the low and wet. I bet that earthquake coverage just got washed away by all of that salt water. So it you gotta have boat insurance under that much water.
"Its a Tsunami not an earthquake, Mr. Miagi....so sorry"
All of those disaster policies only sold you a false sense of security, in exchange for years of cash..... Who gets to break their legs if they don't pay...another act of God, or the Yakuza?
FTFS:The NY Times makes the excellent point that things could have been much worse if not for building codes and quake-resistant engineering.
I saw what you did there Soulskill. The NYT is already using it to push its agenda and you fell for it.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
yep. politicians are already holding news conferences.
text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10
Read my Very Short "Stories"
It's not robotic rescue dogs, it's building codes that reduce the need for them in the first place.
I live in SoCal. I tell my friends from other places that the safest place to be when an earthquake hits is "somewhere else", but if you can't be there, then SoCal (and NorCal, too) is one of the best places to be.
Why? Because we know that the Big One is coming... someday... Our building codes are designed so that while the building might not be safe to occupy, it will stand long enough to let you get out. And the codes are under constant revision after every earthquake. Example, the '94 Northridge quake was a kind they hadn't seen or planned for. Codes got revised because of it.
Both Los Angeles and St. Louis sit on top of major faults. Which city would you rather be in when a 7.5 quake hits?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I do my best every day... why wait for a desaster to happen before helping a fellow friend.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I know this basically means that the USAF is acting like a glorified FedEx: expediting delivery of a critically needed resource. And I'm glad for that, a China Syndrome reactor accident would make Chernobyl look like Child's play (although, it's Japan, so it would be an Argentina Syndrome reactor accident).
But I couldn't get the image out of my mind of Slim Pickens riding a refridgerator out of a bomber's bay doors over Tokyo while whooping it up.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Building codes are one of the areas where it's almost impossible to argue against the need for government regulation.
I propose a building code that stipulates carbon nanotube framing and internal airbags, plus a municipal ordinance prohibiting tchotchkes weighing more than 2 kg. Surely that would save even more lives in the event of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
I know its prob already been said and I am well aware I am a horrible person for saying this but does anyone else find it morbidly comical that the US Air Force is now flying over Japan to try and prevent a nuclear incident?
The NY Times makes the excellent point that things could have been much worse if not for building codes and quake-resistant engineering.
Thank you Einstein, we would never have deduced that on our own.
Can you also comment if it is sunny outside, would I see blue sky if I step out of my house?
US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant by air
Well the coolant is water so I'm not sure if a power plant on the shores of the Pacific is necessarily extremely grateful for this generous gesture.
It's heartening though to see the US have done a 180 turnaround after the tardy hurricane Katrina fiasco.
FYI, White is the most popular color for car in Japan
Yes, but silver is a close second in japan and the world-wide favorite...
http://www2.dupont.com/Automotive/en_US/news_events/article20101207.html
If you look at the picture more closely, there are probably a similar number of silver colored cars floating there too...
The real scams are the long term 'prediction' scientists who milk poor countries out of money for earthquake preparedness. Elchin Khalilov and his Global Network for the Forecasting of Earthquakes is a prime example. He's managed to convince the (admittedly gullible) Turkish press that there will be an earthquake near Istanbul next year using his Atropatena Crystal earthquake predictor (scroll down on the home page). A little research shows how much he's spammed the internet with fancy-sounding organisations and associations to create an image of authenticity so as to get countries to dump money into his snake oil... So sad and yet they lap it up.
The yen ROSE almost 2% today. I couldn't figure out why and then it hit me, a massive amount of foreign aid is going to start coming into Japan driving up demand for the yen. Wall Street is taking advantage of this fact and lighter trading due to the Japanese markets being closed to ensure that wall street gets a cut of the aid action. Disgusting.
Monstar L
Since when Japan need help from outside? Last time I went tourist to Japan-Tokyo (2009), the hotel manager went to me with a towel and a soap and said: "Thanks for stay with us you can have it." Then I was: O_o? The hell are you talking about? Why I would need hotel stuff? Then he said: Because your people not from Japan always steal it. Don't even like to remember that, went to police, embassy... Was a fucking mess. He received some sort of punishment like help to collect garbage or donations to someone, not sure.
If the DHS insists on becoming the great Cyber Vigilante, they might as well do something useful, and at least tip off the FBI or something. Not that I think the DHS has any business on the internet, but here is a great chance to exercise their hot and bothered desire to attack cyber criminals.
Unlike the US economy, the Japanese economy isn't focused on scamming its own citizens for eventual redistribution to a wealthy elite. So I think the policies will hold up perfectly well, the Japanese don't regard risk-management as a taxpayer-financed casino, unlike certain countries.
Insurance companies pay when they are legally obligated to pay. They do not pay when they are not legally obligated to do so, obviously. So if the damage is a result of tsunami, and the insured does not have tsunami coverage, the insurance company is not going to pay them just because their situation is unfortunate. Why would they? Out of some sort of altruistic compassion for humanity? That'd last a year or two before the whole things becomes completely unsustainable. Inject as much outrage and normative bullshit into the discussion as you like, at the end of the day it is a numbers game. If you bet me that the Giants win with a 14 point spread, and the Giants win with a 7 point spread, I ain't paying you, and I don't care if you just bet me your child's college tuition. Now if you want to win on a 7 point spread, you better bet on a 7 point spread. There's just no guarantee that I'm going to take that bet. Ya dig? Yes, I am an insurance adjuster.
Its nice to see the US fixing a nuclear facility instead of passing around stuxnet.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it. -Alan Kay