BOOTY OR EVIDENCE!

What do you call a pile of mobile phones, wallets, passports and assorted jewelry? Depending on what you do for a living, it's either "booty" or "evidence."

Eight women and seven men were caught sitting around a pile of booty (or evidence) by investigators. The suspects are being charged with the time-honored craft of pickpocketry. They were reportedly using a more traditional technique, handed down from one generation of petty criminals to the next: taking a sharp blade and slicing open bags while their owners aren't looking. Other items were taken through the more conventional picking of pockets. Investigators witnessed some of the lady suspects engaging in their trade and trailed them to their hideout. They were all arrested while they were dividing up their booty--or evidence, if you will.

PHISHERS? SPAMMERS? FRAUDSTERS?

Fraudsters stealing identity are on the rise.

I got an email from PayPal informing me that there were three attempts to access my account, but failed because they were using different passwords.

Internet fraudsters known as "phishers", pose as banks, credit card, phone companies, consulting firms, executors, heirs to huge amount of money, advertisers, etc., to extract personal information of unsuspecting users.

Don't be fooled. There are ways to avoid becoming a victim of phishing. If you receive an email claiming to be from your bank, phone company, or from any company asking for personal information, take the following precautions:

• Check the email address it comes from. Phishers trying to pose as a company are unlikely to send email from the company's official email address.
  
• Check for external links. Phishing emails often require you to click a link to make payment or enter personal details. Check where these links take you. They are likely to be pages on third party websites (not the company's domain) that are made to look like the company's website.
• Check phone numbers provided. Phishers will include customer support phone numbers to appear legitimate. Check these numbers. If they are in countries the company's not known to have operations, it could be a case of phishing.
  

Don't fall victim for email phishing scams!