Phishers of Memes

Sometimes, my friends worry me.

I don't mean normal worries, like are they home safe or are they happy or how are their children worries -- those are a normal part of the give and take of friendship.
Lately. I have worried, probably way too much, over how gullible they are to "just for fun" Facebook memes.

It started with the silly holiday names. Mostly they go by initials, but some are poking around for your birthdate. Or someone else's initials, such as your first child's. Or maybe your father's.Those are harmless, for the most part. The phishers are building themselves a "just for fun" reputation.

Once that is achieved, the goal becomes one's birthdate, in all its unedited glory.
You see, on Facebook, many of us are wise enough to not put the year. The day, yeah, but the year is questionable.
Because one of the cues/clues to your credit/financial identity is your full birthdate.

So how old were you in 1969? I can do math enough to know that if you were 11 that means you were born in 1958. And if I can figure it out, believe me, someone smart enough to code can do so in half the time. They may even have a chart.

Now, they -- either the memes or the phishers; you choose -- have become a bit more nosy. Now they have people posting their family tree by last name. I am a who. My dad was a who. His mother was a what. My mother was a why. Her mother was a how.

What is the standard security question for online access to financial accounts?
Mother's maiden name.
BINGO!

You have given them information not only to your accounts, but also to those of your mother and your father, and possibly your grandparents, if you went back another generation.

I have seen where some say, "Yes, but the information is out there anyway. If they want it that bad, they can find it."
True, but why on earth would they go looking when you just hand it to them? If you don't play along, someone else will.
Do you really think they care WHO they defraud? They'll take everybody they can get.

And boy do they get a lot.

Phishers bait their hooks, cast their lines, and plan their next trip.
Already the memes are sneaking in to spell your child's name with the last four letters of your dad's middle name and the first initial of your maiden name.

What will you fall for next?
And who will be to blame when your, or your parents, bank accounts are emptied and the credit cards maxed out?

How fun is that?

Playing Games

I just recently started playing games on Facebook beyond Words With Friends and Scrabble, both which allow you to choose your opponents, one at a time.

Now, I have had those annoying posts about someone needing keys and maps and send a chicken and whatever.  I have been over-zealously invited to become an inhabitant of innumerable "--world"s. I've been Facebook notified that I have 50 new notifications only to find 45 are game related. That's so disappointing.

So, before I ventured into the gaming world, I promised myself (and my 'friends') that I was not going to be that player.
That's easier said than done.
I have had to quit  two games because they demand that I make demands on my friends.

I made my brave venture with the Criminal Case game. It's mostly finding objects in a scene, but there are also puzzles and maze-y things and fill in the rest of the number.
The best/most interesting aspect of this game is that they kind of toss you in with people from your own friends list. For the most part, you get to play with people who are already playing, even to the sending of energy and cards and things. Criminal Case has a nice little list of who you know that already play.
Later on, you do get a list of everyone to send requests to, but it's easy enough to edit that list. And it happens at intervals, not after every play.
BUT -- right now, Criminal Case keeps trying to give me free stuff. To get all this free stuff, I just have to give them my banking or credit card information.
How stupid are people?
The game can still be played though, without the incessant nagging to add or invite. I do enjoy playing.

So, I ventured to Candy Crush. I played to level "youneedkeys" and had to quit. I will not send to every single person on the list and I have no idea which of my friends are playing that game and which aren't. Well, I do know 2 of the people. One is a friend, the other is someone I'd rather not play games with.

So, there's an end to that.

The other game that I have almost quit playing is Words of Wonder. Talk about a nightmare!

The game itself is fine, and enjoyable, and challenging, but it has turned into pages and pages of friends sending energy and gifts. These generous givers include absolute utter and complete strangers!
Not only is the game letting people I don't know know something about me (that I play that game), it is still insisting that I send similar generous gifts to everyone on my list (and their lists, too, I suppose, if they come to look at the game.)

Nope, not doing it.
Not sending or accepting anything else, because the game makes that part of it work -- picking and choosing from the donors -- before you get anywhere near the game itself. And then again between levels or chapters or episodes.

Listen, Facebook Game Designers: Games are supposed to be FUN! Not work.

Definitely not work through many lists many times a visit.

If they could all be like Criminal Case --I hope it stays that way. (I'm only at level 20 or so.)
List the friends who  already play, offer the option to invite others only at certain times. If they did that, fewer people would complain, and a few more might even actually play, if they can do so with relative privacy and no nagging.

Then we could all just play the games that interest us, and we could even -- GASP -- have fun doing so!