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Friday, December 19, 2003
Yascam! 
| | I just bought an item at a Yahoo store. At the end of the session I was offered a $10 discount on the next purchase. I followed the link. A voice came on and told me I was now going to get two discount rewards, $10 each, for filling out a survey. At the bottom of the survey was a form for filling in credit card information. It disclaimed... |
| | Register any major credit card or debit card for your Reservation Rewards benefits. (A valid credit or debit card needs to be registered.) Our secure software encrypts your information as you send it to protect you and your privacy. |
| | Smelling something scammy, I read down the right column past |
| | Congratulations... here's your Thank You Reward for your purchase today! |
| | Thank You...please claim your rewards! |
| | Savings at leading Retailers and Service Providers |
| | Discounts up to 50% at Top Attractions |
| | Dining Discounts -- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE |
| | Extra Reward -- two $10.00 Cash Back Awards on your next purchases from the store you bought at today |
| | And other boldfaced subheadlines with pictures of $10 bills and such, until I got to the boxed Offer Details, in tiny print, which include the exact scam details... |
| | Get all the valuable benefits of Reservation Rewards, including your two $10.00 Cash Back Awards on your next purchases and Money-Saving Discounts FREE for the next 30 days, with our compliments. It's a special Thank You Reward for your purchase and filling out our survey today! If you are 100% satisfied during your trial, do nothing. All your Reservation Rewards discounts and protection will automatically continue for just $9 a month billed by Reservation Rewards to the credit card or deducted from the debit card you registered. In the event your monthly membership fee were to ever change, you would be notified before you are billed. Reservation Rewards benefits may be enhanced or modified at any time without prior notice... |
| | Consent to receive electronic disclosures. Please read carefully and save or print a copy for your records. Reservation Rewards will communicate your benefit and other membership information to you, including payment authorization made by clicking Yes, by electronic communications, including email and electronic postings on our site. Your Membership Kit email will also include a copy of the Offer Details for your convenience. In order to view this membership and benefit information in electronic form, you need to have access to a computer with Internet browser version IE 5.5 or Netscape 4.7 or higher. In order to receive Reservation Rewards you must agree to receive these communications electronically and by clicking Yes you consent to do so. You may withdraw this consent by canceling the service... |
| | Of course I boldfaced the most significant, and also the most buried, small print. |
| | I wonder if Amazon and other relatively reputable outfits support this kind of scammy stuff. Be interesting to know. |
| | This certainly makes me think less of both Yahoo and the store I bought the goods from, since it isn't clear to me where one ends and the other begins. |
A pox on all their blimps
| | As always, brilliantly done and funny as shit. |
Twelve blind elephants, feeling themselves
| | I guess the problem with describing blogs to nonbloggers is a bit like the old essay question, Define the Universe and give three examples. Can't be done, basically. |
| | To me blogs are just linky journals. What matters most about them is not where anybody falls on the power curve, but that every writer inhabits a place where anybody can write anything about anything, with a good chance that, if it's interesting, others will find it, remark upon it, and use it to scaffold a shared understanding of whatever-it-is, and then some. |
| | Unless, of course, the subject is blogging itself, which seems to have permanently plateau'd somewhere south of Full Understanding. (Noble and informative efforts by Rebecca and others withstanding.) |
| | Bonus link: Speaking of an exploding universe, the Guardian also reports this. |
Write on
| | The other day, I did an (extremely) unscientific survey of 300 AZ tech-oriented people, who are also marketers, pub-licists, or otherwise firmly established in other professions as well. I asked what they thought about blogs in general and got respon-ses ranging from ³blogs are only good for marketing purposes if you want to have a folksy, personal approach,² to the electronic equivalent of the blank stare. |
| | That¹s OK — it just let me know I had my work cut out for me in letting writers, marketers, and everybody else know how important blogs are going to be, and already are. |
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