Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse!

First it was blackmail. Now they have stolen my identity! I spent the morning filing a Fraud Alert and updating my LifeLock information.

Apparently, the bad buys got my name, Social Security number and date of birth off the dark web. That’s all they needed to get new credit cards.

Fortunately, thanks to an alert vendor and LifeLock, the fraud was detected, and the cards shut down before the bad guys had a chance to activate them. Let’s just hope there isn’t more that I haven’t discovered yet!

If this happens to you, immediately contact one of the three major national credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax or TransUnion, to place a fraud alert on your credit report. Whichever one you contract, that credit bureau will notify the others. The fraud alert puts lenders on notice that your personal information has been compromised. Because of the fraud alert, new lenders must take extra steps to determine that they are dealing with you—the real person.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Audio versions of The Claret Murders and  Diversion are available from iTunes, Audibles and Amazon. eBook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBook’s Store and Smashwords.com. 
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

I Stand Corrected

In my prior post updating readers about the attempted blackmail, I said that the men I knew didn’t spend their time viewing porn. But, it depends on your definition of porn. My wife reminded me about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, Playboy magazine, Hustler, etc. and “it was not just for the articles”. As she pointed out, there was a time when Hugh Hefner was celebrated—even among the liberal Hollywood crowd.

And, women are reading—Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, etc. with articles like 50 Ways to Seduce a Man, and lots of info on looking sexy and hot.

Yes, men do like to look at beautiful women and women aren’t exempt from looking and thinking about men. I think God made us that way.

The Internet porn I was talking about in my prior post seems different from the magazines. Not sure what makes it different. I suppose it is the anonymous side of it—something doable in secrete. Whereas, the magazines are on store shelves. That must be a validation of some sort. Apparently, the Internet is different enough that someone would be willing to pay a blackmail demand to keep from having their Outlook contacts know they watched a porn site.

To read my original post go to Attempted Blackmail. For the follow-up go to Blackmail Follow-up.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Audio versions of The Claret Murders and  Diversion are available from iTunes, Audibles and Amazon. eBook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBook’s Store and Smashwords.com. 
Published by I-65 North, Inc.

Blackmail Follow-up

Well, nothing happened. The day I was supposed to be exposed came and went with no mega email burst to all my contacts. I say nothing happened, but I changed a lot of passwords and I started using a password system, Dashlane, to protect myself. And on day two, the blackmailer dropped his price from $6000 to $1000—still wanted payment in Bitcoin.

I have also learned from law enforcement that this scheme is rather common. I wonder just how many people are taken in and actually pay up. I guess it doesn’t take many to make the blackmailer happy. It is a poor commentary on society, that the assumption is a lot of people are secretly watching porn. I should add that the “Me Too” movement promotes the idea that all men are lecherous dirty old men. If we are not molesting women, we are in a dark room somewhere watching porn.

I think that is a bad rap. At least in the circle of my friends and business associates. It is a stereotype that places men in a guilty until proven innocent position—as our new Supreme Court nominee is discovering. It appears there is no equal footing when it comes to the issue of innocence or guilt. Maybe in such matters, it was always one sided—just the other way around. But either way, the presumption of guilt is dangerous and destructive for society.

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For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and eBook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. Audio versions of The Claret Murders and  Diversion are available from iTunes, Audibles and Amazon. eBook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBook’s Store and Smashwords.com. 
Published by I-65 North, Inc.