Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 21:36:39 -0800
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
To: TOURBUS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: TOURBUS -- 20 FEBRUARY 1997 -- ANAGRAMS / YET ANOTHER INTERNET SCAM
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TODAY'S STOP: ANAGRAMS / YET ANOTHER INTERNET SCAM
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
http://www.genius2000.com/anagram.html
http://www.tourbus.com/
http://news.com/
http://www.fraud.org/report.htm
Hi, kids! Before we start the latest journey of our little bus of Internet
happiness, I have two pieces of shameless self-promotion that I want to
share with you:
1. For those of you who are fans of the Southern Words of the
Day, I am pleased to announce that the Southern Word homepage
has (finally) been updated! The homepage now has *every*
Southern Word that we have used since we started our little
tour back in 1995, and you can find the words on the Web at
http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
This page may take a little while to load during business
hours, but it is well worth the wait!
2. The folks at USA Today have decided to lower their standards
and are (reportedly) going to print my picture in conjunction
with a story that they are currently writing: "Geeks on the
Net -- people that you should avoid at all costs." (I'm
KIDDING! I think the story is actually going to be about
Internet hoaxes and myths). I'm not sure when the story will
appear, but I expect it to run in a week or two. :)
Finally, I want to give special thanks to today's sponsor for making
today's post possible. Make sure you stop by Mass Music's homepage and
thank them for keeping our bus on the road for another week!
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ANAGRAM GENIUS
--------------
Our first stop of the day is at an absolutely delightful anagram generator
in the United Kingdom. While I was writing that "Fear and Loathing at the
FCC" article last week, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could
find any anagrams for the words "Chairman Reed Hundt" (he's the Chairman of
the FCC). As I said last week, I was *REALLY* interested in finding ANY
way I could to avoid studying for my two economics tests.
Well, because of my aversion to studying, I happened to find this wonderful
anagram generator on the World Wide Web at
http://www.genius2000.com/anagram.html
For those of you who may have forgotten what anagrams are, they are words
or phrases that are made by rearranging the letters of other words or
phrases. For example, "sick cruel propagandist" is an anagram for "Patrick
Douglas Crispen" (and "hidden Carter human" is an anagram for "Chairman
Reed Hundt"). :)
If you are looking for "what lurks within the letters of YOUR name, or that
of your boss, employer" or anyone else, you have *GOT* to visit the Anagram
Genius server! What makes the server unique is that you can customize your
anagram search by:
1. Assigning a gender to the text that you enter;
2. Choosing if you want your anagrams to be satirical,
flattering, or both;
3. Including vulgar words in, or excluding vulgar words from,
your anagrams;
4. Picking if you want your anagrams to use American or British
English; and
5. Deciding how many anagrams that you want to have sent to you.
One other thing that makes the server unique is that the server *E-MAILS*
the results to you. This can take a little while -- my first anagram
search took a couple of hours -- but, like the Southern Word homepage, it
is well worth the wait. :)
The only bad thing that I can say about the Anagram Genius Server is it
really didn't find any funny anagrams for "Doctor Bob Rankin." Oh well. :(
YET ANOTHER INTERNET SCAM
-------------------------
If you are new to the bus, the following my be a little confusing because I
am about to refer to some sites that we have visited in the past. Don't
panic, though ... all of the old TOURBUS posts can be found in TOURBUS' new
archives at
http://www.tourbus.com/
I have received several letters recently asking me if the following story
is true:
Consumers who visited a pornographic website (www.sexygirls.com)
last month got a big surprise on their phone bills. After a few
teaser pictures, [surfers were told that they] needed to download
a special program to view the archived images. That program was
actually a viewer with an entire communications suite hidden deep
inside (a non-self propagating Trojan Horse). The program
disconnected user from his/her ISPs, shut off the volume on the
modem if it was computer controlled, and dialed a number in
Moldova -- a small, former republic of the Soviet Union wedged in
between the Ukraine and Romania. All the while the consumer was
on the website, and even if he/she then browsed other sites on
the World Wide Web, the Internet access was being provided
through the Moldova number, resulting in huge international phone
charges
(quoted from http://www.fraud.org/february97.htm)
Well, unfortunately, the story is indeed true (and, yes, the calls really
went to Moldova). According to a report published yesterday at cnet's
news.com site (http://news.com/)
The Federal Trade Commission today won a court order to shut down
"free adult entertainment" Internet sites that it alleges
illegally billed Net surfers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The report goes on to state that
CNET reported that at least two pornographic Web sites--
"sexygirls.com" and "erotic2000.com"--used the program to make
international calls. Along with "sexygirls.com," which was
inaccessible earlier this month, the FTC is targeting
"beavisbutthead.com" and "1adult.com."
(both quotes are from http://news.com/News/Item/0,4,8077,00.html)
One of the best ways to protect yourself from Internet scams and hoaxes is
to keep yourself informed. Fortunately, there are 3 ways that you can do
this:
1. Keep reading TOURBUS. Unless I hear otherwise, I'm going to
assume that y'all want me to keep telling you about the latest
Internet scams and hoaxes as I hear of them.
2. Visit cnet's "news.com" site on a DAILY basis
(http://news.com/). If you point your Web browser to
http://news.com/
and then click on "The Net," you will find the latest news
about EVERYTHING that is happening on the Net. I try stay up
to date with the Internet's current events, and a good portion
of the information that I have learned about these current
events came from cnet and news.com.
3. Read the National Fraud Information Center's Internet Fraud
Watch daily reports at
http://www.fraud.org/report.htm
We'll talk more about the National Fraud Information Center
next week. For now, let's just say that the Internet Fraud
Watch daily reports give you advanced warning of Net scams
before almost *anyone* else knows about them.
That's it for this week. Have a safe an happy weekend! :)
TODAY'S ADDRESSES: http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
http://www.genius2000.com/anagram.html
http://www.tourbus.com/
http://news.com/
http://www.fraud.org/report.htm
--------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------
PRIOR - noun. A talk with God.
Usage: "As long as teachers continue to give their students tests,
there will be prior in school!"
(Special thanks goes to Dave Zubal for today's word)
YOU CAN FIND ALL OF THE OLD SOUTHERN WORDS OF THE DAY ON THE SOUTHERN WORD
HOMEPAGE AT http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/word.html
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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1997, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved. Redistribution is allowed only with permission.
Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to get on the Bus!
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { The University of Alabama
/ . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net
|-| '-' \ } http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~crispen/
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
