Latte Mom That Likes Motorcycles And Men

Carmen

At work early.  Coffee, check.  Raisin bran muffin, check.  Opening Outlook email…waiting…, check.  Whoa, what’s this?  A half-dozen “business proposals” from London and several people in South Africa who I don’t know are waiting for my “urgent reply” with a bank account number…  Important, I am.

According to a recent survey about one in six consumers have at some time acted on a SPAM message.  Huh?   Don’t they realize this only reaffirms the economic incentive for spammers to keep churning out millions of obnoxious pitches per day.  And now comes Twitter SPAM… designed for all us motorcycle enthusiasts who click the “follow” button to stay in touch.  There are many Twitter pages which are simply redirect links for suspicious activity and/or violate usage rules with ad’s about personal body part enhancements.  You know the ones… “I’m now following you”… then you click the link to validate the person and find 3 updates in as many months, but wait… they are following 2,714 people… if you dare click on the web link up comes a clear ruse with no social redeeming value!

Rather agitated on the last “following you” notice, I was going to report the violation – but, then I thought I’d SPAM the SPAMMERS!  I know… I’ll pose as a 35 year-old single mom (Carmen – likes Cars/Motorcycles and Men – get it?).  I have this wounded bird theory and selected a profile with 4 kids. My oldest son, Ricky, is 16 so he’s taking care of Tabitha, 6, and Billy, 4. My youngest, Jeremy, 3 months, is somewhere around here. He’ll turn up. He usually does.  Since I’m still evolving my faux on-line landscape I’ll evangelize my Fav’s as: “Likes to go on long motorcycle rides in the moonlight…” You see, I’ve got this hot body with money to burn and looking for a guy who doesn’t believe everything he reads!

Twitter Suspension Notice

I’m hip and learned from a piercing article in Tattoo that unemployed spammers spend half their time trolling Twitter and other social networks to try and help or pick up 30-something’s.  So, as Carmen I took joy in making my profile very public. It’s good knowing that a lot of spammers scour these sites looking for hot single moms. I posted my pics from before I had my 4 kids and before the crank took my teeth so, I look pretty good in my profile. Just got an email from an unemployed car salesman in Miami, Florida. He could be the one! But, the businessman from South Africa made a lasting impression with that Queen offer in Benadir.  I had no idea it was so easy to travel to Mogadishu!  Wait, as long as they’re still collecting unemployment benefits in the U.S. bring them on! After I finish this post I’ll head over to CafeMom and surf the boards to see how many people responded to my moonlight ride post. Still looking for a real man to take care of my kids. My welfare check arrives on Friday’s and I can’t wait to buy a new iPhone 3Gs.

What’s my point?  Clearly people on-line are not always honest.  More important though is being careful out there with your information.   In my previous post about how to leverage Twitter I did not reinforce the need to block people who randomly want to follow you… especially if they have suspicious motives.  And finally, in surfing the information on the web its disturbing to say the least. The type of information being shared is pretty scary and I often see detailed information about the person and their family.  Or you’ll see links to Facebook proudly displaying H.O.G holiday photos of the kids including geo-tags of their house location along with other content that could be used to identify them. Some of the things people post makes them look completely clueless or like they are sitting at the computer “tweeting” while their kid festers in a dirty diaper. Are single parents really this dumb? As far as I’m concerned, parents posting too much information aren’t really fit to be parents because they put their families at risk or at the very best look like they are wasting time on the computer when they could be doing something productive…. with their kids!

Have to go now. Billy can’t find Jeremy. He’s probably stuck behind the furnace again. *Sigh* Do I have to do everything around here?

Photo taken at CES.  Full Disclosure: Carmen is a fictional character.  Email or comments about a “ride in the moonlight” is barking up the wrong tree.

All Rights Reserved (c) Northwest Harley Blog

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Due Diligence

Good morning.  It appears that I’m not the only one up early this morning surfing the web.  Wow, I hit the sleep number mattress for a few hours and the site is ambushed by “FU” or “Anonymous.”  He’s one busy guy!

A few comments about blog trolls and SPAM.  First of all I’d like to express my sincere appreciation to those posting who have kept things respectful and provided level headed, well thought out responses (while disagreeing) which added to the collective intelligence and discussion on this blog.  Thank you!

However, I must confess that my herculean due diligence efforts to moderate all the comments each day and then make a determination after reading the author’s mind as to their real motive means — I may have made a couple errors and ‘inadvertently’ deleted some posts.  I hate when that happens!  Below are some examples, the full contents of which are not available for posting, but represents their sentiments:

1. To the dude out of Las Vegas…give it up…please cease and desist your dullard (look it up) posts. They are not going up.  Oh, so sorry about that IP address getting published above…
2. To the financial institution who needs my bank account information for a lung transplant – Not gonna happen.
3. To the high school kid in Quebec that rallied all her “friends” to email me – I’m not as dumb as your parents so get over it.
4. To the woman who faked cancer (three times) – I’m not cruel, but just between us, are those tears real?  See #2 above.
5. To number “23” – how many souls are truly looking to be adopted into the “brotherhood?”
6. To “big 1” and the x-rated site redirects – Thx for the URL’s! A person can never have enough animal romance DVD’s – NOT.
7. To the Italian site who copies all my posts/content including photo’s.  I must admit you’ve become my technology challenge of the month, but know that I’m working it!

The point being?  I’m down on you blog Trolls, but let’s be clear — I’m not a free speech squishier.  It’s a fine line I walk and lately its one that has become increasingly difficult.  I’ve seen comments posted under the guise of “concern” for others or be incendiary and deliberately flame the author to disrupt dialogue or undermine the thread.  They generally start out as condescending and quickly resort to name calling.   The intent is to derail, stifle or control the dialogue.  In some cases these posts are there for the sole purpose of agitating people, sparking arguments, inflaming without substance and in general lack the ‘class’ to address the essence of the topic.  Please know that your comments will not be approved or deleted if you elect to try and “fake” the moderator.

I’m sure some do not share in my sentiments.  That is fine.  It’s one of your freedoms and a choice to disagree.  For those of you who feel trolls are quite intelligent and fully aware of their excessive self-importance as forum “enthusiasts” I say — there are many, many other blogs and forums to post your mindless dribble — your “noble” efforts are not welcome here.  See ya.

Full disclosure – I lack the ability to read minds.

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