DONT BELIEVE IT

Today it was technical advice. Yesterdays it was a news story. Both were bogus.

The news story was the worst. After reinstalling Windows, my browser home page was still set to the default, rather than my preferred home page. News stories were appearing and one caught my eye. I clicked on it to learn someone in my home town was making thousands per month working from home. I know there are a lot of ‘work at home’ scams, but this was a news story of a neighbor who was surprisingly successful at it. But what perplexed me was that in my small town news like this travels fast – and I had heard nothing about it yet. I decided to Google this ‘hit it rich’ person, since I didn’t recognize the name. I discovered that this single mom making big bucks from her home lives in many places besides my home town! She lives here, there, and everywhere. The “news” article itself was a scam, and had inserted my home town into the story text based on my IP address.

The technical advice was not a scam. It was written by a well known "expert" in her daily computer column. She often provides helpful information, but occasionally is clueless. One would think she would ignore those areas where she is inexperienced. However, ignorance apparently doesn’t slow her down trying to sell her advice. Consequently, it makes me doubt everything she espouses.

I guess the lesson to be learned is to believe the collective wisdom available on the Internet, rather than just one website. In other words, you better believe that I intend to ‘Google it’ before I am convinced.