Nice Try

I received this in an email yesterday. First of all, we don’t even have an account with Chase anymore (that was one of the first cards to get shredded, paid off and closed – in that order). But, there are some other things that make this an obvious phishing email.

First of all, the return email address is a dead giveaway. “Chase Online [sfsbsa@mssffa.com]” What is mssffaa.com?! Sounds more like a sneeze than a major financial institution. But while this was an obvious giveaway – don’t rely on the return email address that Outlook (or another email client) displays because these can be spoofed.

The more obvious giveaway is that when I hover my mouse over the link “Click here to access your account” – it will show me the web address that this link would take me to (this works with all links - try it on the links in this post - in Internet Explorer the web address will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the window). Again we see the mssffaa.com address. If this was really from Chase, the web address would have been something more like "chase.com".

But what if the web address had been http://chase.mssffaa.com? Nope, still a bad address. Web addresses are made of different parts. For example: http://subdomain.domain.com/directories (the “.com” part is called the top-level domain and could be other things like .net or .org). If I own a “domain”, I can have any “subdomain” under it that I want. So if I own the domain “tycen.com”, I could have anything under it like blog.tycen.com, pictures.tycen.com, mail.tycen.com…or even chase.tycen.com. It doesn’t matter what the subdomain is – what matters is what the domain is – the part right before the .com (or top-level domain). Everything after the .com (directories) is just different folders of information/pages on that site.

Once you’ve identified that it is a phising email, I would recommend not clicking on the link - you don’t know what kind of site it will take you to. They can also design the links in such a way that once you click on it it identifies to whoever sent the email that your email address is a valid one (out of the gazillions of emails they sent out) AND that they’ve got a clicker (you) – and this will likely not be the last email you get from them (spam).

But, I couldn’t resist – so I clicked on the link. It took me to a page that was designed to look just like Chase.com. If the unsuspecting person that went there proceeded to entered their Chase username and password, whoever runs that site would then have that information. I would be willing to bet that then the site would have tried to get more information from you – SSN, address, DOB, etc – all under the ruse of “confirming” your identity. (I just tried going to the site again and it looks like it’s been taken down since I went there yesterday)

I’m using Internet Explorer 7 (the most recent version) and it has a built-in phishing security feature and it warned me that this site was reported as a phishing site. But, don’t rely on phishing security alone – they may not always work.

What should you do about this? First of all, just realize there are bad people on the internet who want to steal your identity or personal information and be suspect of any emails like this – common sense is the rule of thumb. Second, if you get an email like this and you actually have an account with the company – don’t click on any links in the email – go directly to the company’s site (i.e., chase.com) and log in as you normally would. Or, better yet, call the 800 number and talk to a live person. Third, pull your credit report once a year to make sure accounts haven’t been opened in your name. Most states (if not all) allow that you get one free credit report every year – go to http://annualcreditreport.com. Fourth, and finally, I would recommend signing up for ID Theft Protection from Zander Insurance. Sonja and I signed up and for a couple it’s only $12.50/month ($6.50/month for singles). In the event that we are victims of ID theft, Zander will do a lot of the leg work and provide reimbursement for lost money/time to help us get everything cleaned up.

Something else you can do to check out emails like this (though not as reliable) is to pick some key phrases out of the email and Google them. If it is a phishing email, you will likely find information about other people receiving it.

Oh, one other thing you can do…get rid of the stupid credit cards! See how much hassle they cause!

So that's what those are for...

Sonja and I had two amazing things happen to us this weekend. Well, amazing for us anyway.

First, we started and finished a house project in one weekend - we cleaned out our garage! See, our town is the permit capitol of the world - you need a permit for everything -even a garage sale. But, once a year they do a city-wide garage sale weekend when they allow anyone to do a garage sale without a permit. And, even better, the following week they do free garbage pick-up. That's right, you can stack as much garbage as you want (with some exceptions) out on the curb and they'll pick it all up for free! Last year we got in on this just after we moved in. So, we figured we would take advantage of it again this year. As we were cleaning out the garage and going through boxes, we made three piles: 1) keep 2) garage sale and 3) trash. Of course whatever is left over after #2 will become #3 as well. We think we did an awesome job! And thanks to Craig's List we were able to get rid of some big item and make a little extra money.

The second amazing thing that happened to us is that we discovered if a person actually cleans out a garage, there's a lot of space in there. In fact, I told Sonja that I bet there was so much room we could actually fit a car in there! Crazy stuff! And I was right! Can you imagine people actually parking their cars in their garages?!? You've probably seen that email joke (or some variation) that goes around - "Only In America" - I've always thought the one was pretty funny: Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage. Sonja and I were joking one day a few months back that someday we'll just be honest and stop measuring garages based on the number of cars you can get in there (like a 1-car garage or a 2-car garage) and we'll start calculating their capacity based on the number of boxes they can hold. "Look over there, George is building a garage - boy, that must be a 100-boxer!"

So...two days, three Craig's List postings and a church service skipped finds us with a much emptier garage and a car that is safe and warm. Amazing.

(Editor's Note: I know on the right side of the picture there it doesn't look that clean - that is the "garage sale" pile area and will be cleaned out in a few weeks.)

New Old Job, Old New Job

Ah how the wheels of life turn. So, just three months into my new job and I get a call from my manager at Jobster…offering me a position and wanting me to come back. So, after a week or two of Sonja and I giving it some serious consideration I accepted and will head back to Jobster on May 1. Hi ho, hi ho, back to Jobster I go. My resume is going to start looking like I copied and pasted one too many times: Tyrnstone > Jobster > Tyrnstone > Jobster.

I’m a little nervous because this is the company that laid me off (I mean, “dissolved my position”) just three months ago. But there are some good reasons to go back like great benefits (insurance and such), awesome team (Ops/IT) and a new/better position (Lead IT). Josh reminded me of one of the downsides of working for Jobster though - the commute. I do feel bad for leaving Tyrnstone again, but I will be able to wrap up (or mostly wrap up) the store installs project. I broke the news to my boss at Tyrnstone on Tuesday and while he seemed a little disappointed, he was pretty encouraging about it all. That was one call I was dreading to make (yes, I had to do it over the phone because I’m on the road so much and I wanted to give him as much notice as possible).

I just hope the company provided snacks in the Jobster kitchen are still as good as the were.

Halle?

At church yesterday we sang a song that we’ve sung a few times before. The song is called “That’s Why We Praise Him” (sample and lyrics). I like the song and our worship leader does a great job with it – very upbeat and worshipful (is that a word?). But, there is one part of the song that really bothers me. It’s at the end (or bridge) when we all sing “Halle, Hallelujah…” over and over again. Here’s my problem: “Halle” is just gibberish.

“Hallelujah” is derived from a Jewish word – according to Wiki:

Hallelujah is a composite of Hallelu and Yah (Jah). It literally translates from Hebrew as "Praise Yah, [third-person plural]!" or simply "Praise Yah!" Yah is the shortened form of the name Yahweh (Jehovah)

But, my gripe is that “Halle” is nothing. It’s just a sound that some song writer made up to make his or her worship song flow better. I think it bothers me even more that sometimes in church we just sing whatever is put on the screen – not stopping to actually read and consider the words. Most of the time, when I actually read and consider the words of a song, I am greatly edified – especially Hymns! But, a number of times I’ve caught myself singing along jubilantly with some song, only to realize the words are unbiblical or silly or, in this case – gibberish.

So what’s wrong with that? I think it’s a bad spot to be in because at that point worship has just become an emotional thing, carried along by the hype of the song, and is no longer intellectual. Now, don’t get me wrong – worship is an emotional thing – it’s ridiculous to think we can interact with the Almighty God in worship and not feel an emotional response. But, worship should not be only emotional – we should also worship with our minds. Worship without emotion is misplaced piousness (and I think is like what C.S. Lewis is talking about when he talks about the “cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church” in Mere Christianity). On the other hand, worship without intellect is a step in the direction towards cultism – that is, when we detach our minds and let someone else direct us emotionally, it is then when we are most open to being misled.

Of course I trust our worship pastor and our church. And, I’m sure I’m making a much bigger deal out of this than it is. But, that kind of stuff just bothers me. I will say though, that we had a great Easter service yesterday. The church was packed, the worship was great, and Pastor's message was good. So, I guess I should just get over the whole "halle" thing.

Stonehenge

Earlier this week I was down in Oregon doing a couple of installs (work stuff). I happened to be driving by one of my favorite “places to visit” and so decided I needed to stop and stretch my legs. Being a fan of medieval fiction, this place is really fun for me. I took Sonja there once when we were dating while driving down to visit my parents – it was before we were even engaged (which was narrow window of time – 4 ½
months between “just friends” and engaged). I told Sonja that I loved this place and now that I had taken her there she could never break up with me because if she did any time in the future that I visited the site, I would think of her and it would be all sad. Whew…dodged that bullet!

Anyway, you can read more about it, but it is basically a replica of what they think Stonehenge looked like (you know, thousands of years ago). I haven’t been to the real Stonehenge, but I doubt it has the view that this one has.

So, if you find yourself passing through Biggs Junction on I-84 east of Portland, pull over and take a look.