SPAM ALERT: KNOW WHEN NOT TO CLICK

We all live in a digital world whether you like it or not. (Unless you live in a jungle where there’s no signal or electricity.) Technology advancements are made to make our lives more comfortable. But there are those who use this to take advantage of the gullible. You’d be surprised with how many still fall for the “I have a business proposal for you” email and “Please send me load. I have an important message to tell you.” text messages. I even know some who fell for it! Crazy? Perhaps not at all.

I make it a habit to check my spam messages from time to time as some legit emails get stuck there for some reason. And one of the spam emails that caught my attention was Metrobank’s email saying I have a problem accessing my account.

When I opened the email, it asked me to click a link. When I placed my cursor over it, it was leading me to a trekking tour site. I’m 100% sure it won’t lead me to “unblock my account.

But the email address customer.care@metrobank.com.ph seems legit. Or maybe not.

I backtracked and searched for my previous emails with Metrobank and I found out that the right email address should be customercare@metrobank.com.ph! No period between customer and care.

These guys are getting smarter and smarter!

Here’s another example…

I got an email from Mystery Shoppers Inc. offering PHP10,000 weekly. Sure, it was tempting as I know how mystery shopping works. But it sounds sketchy.

Nonetheless, I checked the email. True enough, there’s a link. I am allergic to links so I made a bit of research first.

I checked the company name and the only one I saw was a Facebook page. Okaaaay, that makes it very credible. Not!

Since I couldn’t find much information about the “company” I decided to Google the only other information I have, the sender’s email address.

And my hunch is right! The email address is not connected in any way to mystery shopping. In fact, @uni-oldenburg is the email used by University of Oldenburg, Germany.  Goodbye PHP10,000 weekly.

These people have a lot more tricks under their sleeves. It is up to us to be smart enough not to fall for it.

Be extra careful!

P.S. Click the images for clearer view. 

Attack of the Fitness Nagger

For some reason, I think that the Fitness Nagger is following me.

It all started way back in 2009 when I first joined St. Paul College, Pasig or SPCP’s Family Fun Run. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy it at all. The fact that I was running out of air, it removed the fun out of the picture. (Okay, that was extremely corny.) But it inspired me to become more fit because for a 3.7 K run, I reached the finish line after 54 minutes whereas the best runners finished their 5K run in less than 20 minutes. (Shame!!!) And yes, some grandparents had a better time. How did they do it?

The next run I participated was… this year. Apparently, I wasn’t very inspired to become fit. But hey, I did a lot of walking for 5 months when I stayed in Korea. It was same place, same distance—SPCP’s Family Fun Run 2011. It was still tiring… and I got slower! I finished the race after an hour and four minutes.

Since I felt that I wanted to become more athletic, I decided to “upgrade” and joined the 5K run during the Good Housekeeping Family Fun Run (which was also an event for the latest magazine Good Dog—a dog magazine). I saw several colleagues during the run so I was really shy to do speed walking. It was a great motivation though as I finished the race under an hour (which was still a terrible record but loved the idea that I improved and broke my personal lame record).

That run made me desire to be fit again thus I began to look for running shoes with a friend. I was pretty concerned with the support and cushion as I have weak knees (wonder if it’s due to too much eating). In the end, my friend who did not plan to run at all was the one who went home with a paper bag with running shoes and I went home with a tummy full of chocolates, other sweets, and Chinese food. FAIL.

Finally, another “motivation” appeared (via email this time)…

Hmm… should I go?

Shopaholic me: Go!!! Can’t you read? It mentioned S-A-L-E

Glutton me: Why spend it on shoes when you can buy lots of munchies instead? Let's go explore Makati instead!!!

O.o