E-Mail I’d Rather Not Get

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Today’s crop of e-mail messages illustrate how bothersome people can be.

I get about 10-20 unsolicited non-spam e-mail messages today. These are e-mail messages from people I don’t know.

One of the reasons that number is so low is because I actively discourage people from contacting me for help. While this may turn some people off, it’s the only way I can limit e-mail so I get work done.

But today’s inbox included three examples of e-mail messages I try to avoid. They’re either nasty or they’re trying to pull me into a discussion I’m not interested in being a part of.

Mass Times?

The first e-mail came from the reader of a web site I maintain with information about my town. The site’s called wickenburg-az.com and it’s full of content submitted by contributors to the site. It’s not funded by anyone, although we occasionally do get a donation to help cover hosting costs. It’s also not designed to provide every piece of information anyone could want to know about the town. The town is small, but it would take a full time staff of at least 20 people to manage that kind of information.

I’m not sure, but I think person who sent the e-mail message read a post I’d written back in 2006 about St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. It’s a beautiful little church in downtown Wickenburg. I’m not a religious person, but I do appreciate good architecture and the main gist of this short piece was to show a nice photo of the church.

Or he may have read another post called “Churches in Wickenburg,” also from 2006, that the Webmaster used to list the names and phone numbers of all the churches in town.

In any case, his nasty message was as follows:

I’ll bet many Wickenburg visitors are forced to phone you to find out the mass times. Why should this be so?

It is NOT difficult to put this info on your home page and it would certainly be a service to visitors.

If you want to use the internet, use it to your advantage.

First of all, no one phones me about Wickenburg, mostly because my phone number is not listed online or in the phone book. And besides, wouldn’t it be easier to call the church in question than to call me? And does he really think I’m going to put church service times on my site’s home page?

Also, many — but not all — people who use the Contact Us link to contact us can read where it clearly says:

All of the information we have about Wickenburg, its businesses, and its events are included on this Web site. We do not have any additional information that we can send out to site visitors.

The people who can read and comprehend this realize that they’d be wasting their time asking me for more information. The ones who can’t read or comprehend it really do waste their time because I simply delete their messages without a response.

But the ones who are nasty to me, get a nasty response. Here’s what this jerk got today:

What are you talking about? No one calls me for “mass times.” I don’t even know what you’re referring to.

And if YOU want to use the Internet, I suggest you stop being so rude to people providing FREE services.

He may think that for some reason I care whether he visits the site. If so, he’s wrong. I really don’t care. The site’s a labor of love and it’s not for people who don’t appreciate the effort that goes into it — people like him.

And is it me or is this just another example of the hypocrisy of these “Christian” types? If they’re so good, then why are they so nasty? What would Jesus say?

Premiere Operator?

The next guy wasn’t so bad, but there was something in the tone of his message that got under my skin. Maybe I was already revved up by the churchgoer referred to above.

This was in reference to the Robbie book I’m distributing in North America for its Australia-based author. I did a mass mailing of postcards to Robinson owners that has resulted in a few orders and general interest in the book.

I received a postcard offering for sale your book “Robbie” which I’d like to order. I reviewed your web site for companies you photographed and noticed the premier remote Robinson R44 flying company, “XXX Aviation”, wasn’t on the list. Is that the case or is it actually part of the book?

I XXXed out the name of the company here because I didn’t want to embarrass anyone. I’d never heard of the company and have no clue where it’s based. I know that the author of the book tried to visit as many Robinson operators as he could but many operators simply told him they weren’t interested in being included.

I think it was the word “premier” that hit a sore spot with me. It was almost as if he were saying, your book can’t be very good if you left out the best company out there.

I responded as follows:

First of all, the book isn’t ours. It’s a publication of Eye in the Sky Productions in Australia. Flying M Productions is the North American distributor and has no control over content.

To my knowledge, the only companies included in the book are the ones listed on our site. They’re the same ones listed on the author’s and publisher’s sites.

I know from discussions with Jon Davison that there were MANY Robinson operators that turned down his offer to be included in the book. Perhaps XXX was one of them? This is something Jon could answer for you, if you need to know. He can be contacted through his Web site, http://eyeinthesky.com.au/

Hope that didn’t come off as nasty.

Loved Your Book; Can You Help Me?

The next message followed the tried-and-true formula so many readers use to contact me for help and advice. The first sentence or paragraph tells me how much they liked one of my books. The next sentence or paragraph is their plea for help.

Here’s today’s catch:

First, I have read your great book on WordPress, and I just want to thank you for a job well done.

My question: I was thinking about creating a site similar to yours for my town in NY where I live. I would like to know your opinion about it, and whether it’s possible to make money out of it.

In defense of this person, he used the contact form on wickenburg-az.com instead of the one on this site. The one on this site basically tells people that I don’t provide support or advice via e-mail or any other method. Instead, I provide Q&A posts for each book that’s still in print and ask them to comment there. This way, their question and my response can be read by others who might have the same question.

In this case, the book in question is 2-1/2 years old and covers WordPress 2.0. I’m pretty sure it’s out of print, since we decided not to revise it for WordPress 2.5. WordPress is now up to version 2.6, with 2.7 due out shortly. Since 2.5, I’ve been doing video courses about WordPress for Lynda.com.

To be fair, his question wasn’t about WordPress. He wanted to know if I make money on wickenburg-az.com. While I realize that’s not exactly what he asked, reading between the lines results in that question.

First of all, I don’t. Second, it’s none of his business. Third, I know from experience that a response would only start a dialog that I have no desire to participate in.

But I responded anyway:

Thanks for the kind words about my book. In answer to your question, no.

I’m a Bitch and I Know It

I know I can really be a bitch sometimes. It’s one of my shortcomings. It has to do with my complete lack of patience. That’s likely because I was born and raised in the New York City area, where we learn from a young age not to tolerate bullshit.

In fact, during a job performance review, I was once complemented on my failure to tolerate bullshit — using that exact word. My boss said something like, “What I like about you is that you don’t take bullshit from anyone. That’s good.” In the real world business of finance, accounting, and auditing, it is a good trait to have.

Elsewhere, it’s kind of limiting.

I do like to help people, but it irks me to no end when you provide a service for free and people have the nerve to complain about it — especially in a nasty way. This is something that bloggers deal with all too often. It just reminds me that there are people out there who would look a gift horse in the mouth (so to speak) and still complain bitterly if the horse’s teeth had gold fillings but one tooth was missing.

People also need to realize that I simply don’t have time to enter into one-on-one e-mail advice sessions with anyone who happens to have read one of my 72 books. Let’s be real, folks. The purchase of one of my books does not entitle anyone to free, unlimited advice and support for the rest of my life. I’ve written about readers who just don’t get it here and here. And I’ll likely write about it again in the future.

Comments? Keep it civil.

The Seeds I’ve Been Tweeting About

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And the plant they come from.

The other day, the red Mexican Bird of Paradise plant outside my office window began shooting its seeds. Since then, I’ve been collecting them.

I like the seeds. They’re like pretty little rocks. The plant throws them all over the area at the end of its growing season, but they seldom sprout. They’re just too hard.

Butterfly in Mexican Bird of ParadiseThe red Mexican Bird of Paradise is a low-water plant that’s popular in Arizona. We have two of them on a drip irrigation system in our front yard. They grow slowly until the nighttime temperatures warm up, then grow like weeds. At the height of the season, they fill with red and yellow flowers. As shown here, the flowers attract butterflies in addition to the hummingbirds that are always attracted to red.

Time passes. The flowers fade and seed pods appear. You can see an example of one on the far left in the photo below. The seeds in the pods fatten up. Then the seeds and pods dry out. The pods split on their seams, twisting as they break apart, shooting the seeds all over. You can see a recently split pod in the middle in the photo below; there are still two seeds stuck in it. I collect the seeds because I like the way they look. There’s a bunch of them in the photo on the far right. They’re about the size of a very large pea.

Seed Pods

Red Mexican Bird of Paradise SeedsA close-up of the seeds reveals tiny imperfections and cracks. But don’t let the cracks fool you. These seeds are as hard as tiny rocks. That makes them difficult to germinate. So despite the fact that hundreds of them drop in our front yard each autumn, we’ve only had two plants sprout from seeds.

When the seeds are all dispersed and the nights get cold, the plant loses its leaves. In the dead of winter, it looks like a bunch of ugly sticks. In the spring, before things start to grow, we cut them back to a few inches above the ground. Then, as it warms, the entire cycle of life begins again.

How Not to Get Caught in a Phishing Net

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Don’t get fooled.

Today I got an e-mail message from American Express. It said, in part:

During our regualry scheduled accounts maintenance and verification procedures,
we have detected a slight error regarding your American Express Account.

This might be due to one of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information (i.e. address changing)
2. Submitting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
4. Multiple failed logins in your personal account.
3. An inabillity to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal error within our system.

Please update and verify your information by clicking the following link:

Continue To American Express Online Update Form

*If you account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to access your account will be restricted.

Thank you,
American Express , Billing Department.

The type was tiny, which is probably why I didn’t notice the typos and spelling/grammar mistakes. Or perhaps I didn’t notice them because I’ve become so accustomed to skimming incoming mail rather than reading it.

The message looked official. It had the Amex logo and used their normal color schemes. But what really made it look genuine was the note near the bottom:

E-mail intended for your account.

If you are concerned about the authenticity of this message, please click here or call the phone number on the back of your credit card. If you would like to learn more about e-mail security or want to report a suspicious e-mail, click here

Note: If you are concerned about clicking links in this e-mail, the American Express mentioned above can be accessed by typing https://www.americanexpress.com directly into your browser.

The hint that this wasn’t as legitimate as it seemed came when I pointed to the link to supposedly update my account information. The URL that appeared in a yellow box in my e-mail client consisted of an IP address followed by /home.americanexpress.com/.

Of course, the e-mail message wasn’t real. When I typed http://www.americanexpress.com/ into my Web browser and logged into my account, there was no indication of any problem.

Phishing, Defined

Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia, defines phishing as:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites (Youtube, Facebook, Myspace), auction sites (eBay), online banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase), online payment processors (PayPal), or IT Administrators (Yahoo, ISPs, corporate) are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose URL and look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

My spam protection software is very good at weeding out phishing attempt messages, so I rarely see them. This one almost fooled me. If I’d been suckered in like so many probably were today, I would have clicked the link and entered my American Express login information in the screen that appeared. That information would have been captured in the phishing net and used to access my American Express account online.

It Isn’t PayPal

One of the Web sites I maintain is for a friend of mine who makes and sells helicopter ground handling wheels: HelicopterWheels.com. He’s an older guy who’s only been using computers for a few years. When I set up the original site, he asked me to set up online ordering. I’ll be the first to admit that I know little about setting up ecommerce solutions. So I set him up with the easiest and most secure method of accepting payments that I knew: PayPal.

Now PayPal has a bad reputation with some folks and I’m really not interested in hearing reader complaints about it. I use PayPal for my online ordering needs and although it isn’t a perfect solution, it does work and it seems safe enough to me.

Unfortunately, my friend received an e-mail message telling him that he had to verify some PayPal settings. The message was a phishing scam and my friend fell for it. He got hit for a bunch of money — which I’m not sure if he recovered. He immediately blamed PayPal and had me take the Buy Now buttons off his site.

I felt bad for him. After all, I’d recommended PayPal. But I’m also not the kind of person who gets sucked in by phishing schemes. I assumed he wasn’t either. I was wrong.

Don’t Get Caught

So here’s the only rule you need to prevent yourself from becoming the victim of a phishing scam:

Never click a link in any e-mail message.

If you get a message from your bank or credit card company or PayPal or any other service that requires you to enter a user ID and password to access it, do not click any link in that message. Instead, go directly to the site by typing the URL into your browser’s Address bar or using a Bookmark/Favorite that you’ve already set up. If there is a legitimate problem with your account that requires your attention, you’ll find out after logging in the safe way.

Of course, there are plenty of clues that can help you identify phishing attempts:

  • Messages not addressed to your name. For example, Dear Cardholder instead of Dear Maria Langer.
  • Typographical, spelling, and grammar errors in the e-mail message. Do you think American Express would spell regularly wrong?
  • Messages sent to an e-mail address that you did not register with the organization supposedly sending the e-mail message to you. For example, the message I got today was sent to my Flying M Air e-mail account, which is not on file with American Express.
  • URLs that point to IP addresses rather than recognizable domain names. For example, http://35.32.185.43/account rather than http://www.americanexpress.com/account.

But you don’t have to worry about any of this. Just follow the golden rule listed above. Here it is again, in case you’ve forgotten: Never click a link in any e-mail message.

If you follow this rule, you should stay safe from phishing schemes.

Got a story to share? Use the Comments link or form for this post to speak your piece.

Facebook Ads

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A more targeted approach to advertising?

The other day I discovered Facebook ads.

Let me take a few steps back before I move forward.

I have a Facebook account. I even have 50+ friends on that account. But I don’t use Facebook. Frankly, I feel that I have far better ways to spend my time than “writing on walls” of my friends, playing online games, and browsing a social networking site for social interaction.

The only reason I ever go to Facebook is to respond to friend requests. If I personally know the requesters or interact with them on Twitter, I accept the request. Otherwise, I ignore it. I also ignore invitations to most groups. After all, if I’m not there, why join a group?

Every once in a while, I come really close to killing my Facebook account. Then I figure, what the heck? It doesn’t cost anything and I have most of the notifications turned off so it doesn’t even bother me much.

But the other day, when I was on Facebook responding to a request from someone I don’t know who happened to go to the same high school as me (I can’t make this stuff up), I noticed the ad column on the right side of the page. At the very top was an “Advertise” link. Since I’m always looking for new, affordable ways to advertise my helicopter tour and charter business, I clicked the link.

I won’t bore you with the details. Simply said, the advertising feature makes it very easy to create targeted text/image ads that link to a site or page. You can pay per impression or per click. You can set per click and per day maximum budgets, so you don’t have to worry about going broke. And, since the only place these ads appear is on Facebook, you don’t have to worry about some Webmaster clicking up a link to squeeze a few more pennies (or dollars) out of you.

Arizona by HelicopterGift they Won't ForgetI set up two ads. One (left) is for my multi-day excursions. It’s displayed to male college graduates throughout the US, aged 25-50 who like helicopters, adventure, etc. My logic is that this is the kind of trip that would appeal to men and since it’s not exactly cheap, the college graduate and age requirements may limit the impressions to folks who have more money to spend. (Although who has any money to spend these days?) The other (right) is for Christmas gift giving. I targeted that geographically to the Phoenix area, with no other limitations. Clicking either link takes you to Flying M Air’s Web site where the clicker can find more information and pricing.

Facebook has some good management tools to help you see how many times each ad has appeared and has been clicked. For example, on the first two days my ads were online — and that’s not even 2 full days — they appeared a total of 60,000 times and were clicked 16 times. While you might not think that’s very good, I’m thrilled. I don’t want people to click if they’re not interested, since I have to pay for each click. The campaign is under its daily budget (so far) and I can remove or suspend either (or both) ads any time I like.

So I’ve set up two ads to run for a full month. Let’s see where it takes me.

Comments? Want to share your experiences with Facebook advertising or some other pay-per-click system? Use the comments link or form for this post. Please limit your responses to experiences as an advertiser, though. I’m not interested in reading about the success or failure of someone’s get-rich-quick on Web advertising scheme.