This blog is more of a hobby, and I get to write about what I like, which is usually related to Chinese Culture, Politics, Chinese Americans, Chinatowns, Chinese Food, and Learning Chinese. It's not usually a buy this type blog doing sell, sell, and more sell!

If you want to buy, please go to my website, and buy!

Meandering a bit here :-)

I just had to delete 58 at last count blog comments from the same person, all about a dress site. And it was not even my wife's dress site!  It was some site in the UK. Dumb. In blogger, all the comments got marked as SPAM. And Google, bless their automated hearts, pays attention and hatees SPAM as much as I do.

If your going to do SEO, get a clue and do it right! Don't SPAM people, it's bad manners, it upsets people (who may know a lot more about SEO then you and do something about your site, and it's actually hurts your search engine rankings.

While I was writing this, another 2 comments showed up from the same idiot.May be they are getting paid by the posting!

Labels: spam

Another new term for me - Chinese Water Army, the name coming from their ability to sweep away other opinions with a flood of comments by an army of paid commentors. In the US this is called astroturfing and sometimes reputation management.

Undercover Researchers Expose Chinese Internet Water Army - MIT Research

Labels: 50 centers, spam, US Chinese Image

Frustrating to be receiving this, the 2nd time someone sent me something suspicious via LinkedIn.  A question that comes to my mind, is when are they going to make the profiles more authentic looking?

I reported this one to LinkedIn via the spam button, but I never got a response to my first time.  My feeling is LinkedIn is still new to this and not set up to handle this, yet.  Microsoft does an amazing job, and I was also impressed by the response I got from Yahoo (after I finally figured out how to report a 419 account, AOL never heard from, Google is just automated).

Labels: 419, scam, spam

I got this E-Mail last night via LinkedIn:

LinkedIn

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX has sent you a message.

Date: 10/10/2011

Subject: Investment

Greetings!

I am a consultant and have at the moment, a client who seeks to invest his funds. Please, if you are interested in an investment opportunity, kindly send me an email on the below email address or give me a call ASAP.

Email: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mobile: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I will be very glad to talk more with you in regards to this opportunity.
Regards,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Strange E-Mail, that does not even name my type of business.

So I looked/Googled the E-Mail address as well as the telephone number.  The telephone number had been reported as a SPAM one, and I found another E-Mail on web that was the exact same.  Appears to be a 419 scammer, sigh.

I then documented all this up in an E-Mail and sent it off to report_spam@hotmail.com  and Microsoft closed the E-Mail account! Kudos to Microsoft for helping to make the Internet a slightly better place!

 I also reported it to LinkedIn, but no reponse yes (I clicked a button saying report Spam, which did not have the ability to give any details).

I deleted the name and E-Mail above, since I don't want any direct contact with the scammer or start a war with them. 

Labels: scam, spam

My daughter got a letter last night from Vector Marketing presenting an opportunity for a $16 an hour job.

I did a bit of googling, and it is a scam.

With the high teen unemployment rate, I don't think a lot of companies that target teens for direct sales jobs, where you need to buy the demo kit first ($200).


References:

Vector Marketing Scam - Spam Laws

Cutco Cutlery - It's a Scam, but the Knives Are Fantastic

Labels: spam

My blog has been Spam commented with Spam on four times so far by these Spammers, http://www.chineseclass123.com/ are spammers

And I have sent them three E-Mails asking them nicely to stop! So what can I do?

Here is a typical post by http://www.chineseclass123.com/ are idiots:

Hi, my friend! That's so great! You can study here www.chineseclass123.com, this is a wonderful school, here don't need to be afraid of time, you can have class anytime as you like! This is online course! You can save your time, you can study in office ,home any place where you can use internet. Just need to register here! You also can send email to this email-box: ChineseClass123_sale@seawolftech.com.
Good luck!!

Now, let's look at chineseclass123.com are spammers offering:

1. http://www.chineseclass123.com is very unprofessional and just annoying. I am not going to tell them how to fix their web site just from a design prospective.
2. Prices at http://www.chineseclass123.com for Learning Chinese, the less said the better.
3. More problems on chineseclass123.com - just look at their FAQ. How could anyone let this go live?

Labels: spam

I just received this E-Mail and it's the first time with Childbook in ten years of running it I have ever received anything like this. I guess I am just lucky. It's interesting about what it says about some people's perception of China and, I cringe/hate to use the word, but it's Racist.

At 11:26 PM 3/7/2008
Hey; Your a sick f***! The Chinese torture and skin our cats and dogs and eat them alive. Do the research buddy!! "The way of society and how it treats its animals speaks to the core values and morals of its citizens." I;ll tell everyone about this site!! Get out of the USA -

My position on Dogs.
The person obviously does not know me. My family is a dog family. My Golden Retriever of 17 years recently passed away and that's probably why I am spending more time than I should on this E-Mail. My grandfather received many awards with his dogs and in fact died when he had a heart attack on a field trial with his dogs. My Aunt is heavily involved with Chinchilla rescues and is the family dog expert. If you live in the Bay area and want to adopt a Chinchilla, please visit http://www.cachins.org/

My Ancestry
Get out of the US to where? Parts of my family since the Gold Rush. And some of my ancestors have been in the US since before the revolution. My mother has mentioned from time to time about working on becoming a member of the daughter's of the American Revolution. This part of my family were Scot/Irish tenant farmers who gradually moved out West till they ran into the Ocean and could not go further, so they stayed in California. Another part of the family supposedly has some Indian blood in it (big family debate on this - somebody someday is going to do a DNA test and find out the truth). I am married to a person born in Taiwan, who is ethnic Chinese. So my daughter is half and half. Reminds me of a book Half And Half by Lensey Namioka about a half Scottish and Chinese Girl. My daughter wanted to respond to the E-Mail, but I told her no.

China and Dogs
Yes, some people eat Dog in China, Vietnam, and Korea. Dogs are also becoming pets in China and they are starting to have a stray animal problem. Contaminated Pet Food due to a supplier in China killed many pets in the US. I have no idea what this has to do with me. With my love of dogs, I find it repugnant people eating dogs. I was brought up as a meat and potatoes person, and I have branched out to where now I eat a little fish and shrimp (advernturesome for my family). I also eat since I married my wife a lot of Chinese food as long as I can figure out what it is I am eating - I still have memories of somebody and her cousins trying to trick me to eat frog legs in Taiwan.

Summary:

I have no idea what this E-Mail has to do with my site besides I do sell products that teach Chinese and about the Chinese Culture. China has positives and negatives, but I try to keep my blog and store politically neutral (which is why I did not write about Panda Baiting in Taiwan). My goal is giving the best customer experience possible. I hope it's another 10 years till I get another E-Mail like this.

Labels: Racism, spam