Prepare For Massive Wave of Earthquake Scams 158
wiredmikey sends this quote from Security Week:
"Today's tragic events of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami, as sad as it is, is a dream for scammers and fraudsters around the world. Tragic events are always something scammers use to their advantage, helping them prey on and exploit innocent victims. Scams are already spreading across Facebook, which started in a matter of minutes after the news broke of the earthquake in Japan. As I write this, scammers are hard at work, registering new domains and cranking out templates for their fake donation sites. This will be followed with massive volumes of email spam, Tweets through Twitter, and Facebook posts, as scammers gear up to solicit donations from around the world."
As coverage of the earthquake and resulting tsunami has proceeded, collections of videos and pictures are showing the extent of the devastation. The NY Times makes the excellent point that things could have been much worse if not for building codes and quake-resistant engineering. A state of emergency was declared at one of Japan's nuclear plants, after the earthquake caused cooling problems at one of the reactors. No radiation leakage has been reported, and the US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant by air.
Disgusting (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that people would take advantage of the disaster and misery at the cost of thousands of people just disgusts me. It happened with Katrina, it happened with Haiti, and I guess they're gearing up for this disaster. You fuckers, I hope you rot in hell.
Re:Disgusting (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously.
Scamming is nasty business at the best of times, but (imagining I were a scammer) I could see people in places like Nigeria justifying it to themselves as getting their share from the rich west.
But this is just out and out profiting from human misery and death.
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I have seen scammers in my own city selling fake cancer cures. The victim turning down real treatments in exchange for magic often loses their life as well as their money and the authorities are powerless to do anything about it. Use the word "Faith" and you have 100% legal immunity, doesn't matter how many victims you kill.
People are killed by frauds all the time.
Far more often than people like to believe, and it's happening in western countries.
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as these people are considered the below the lowest forms of scum on the earth, you can realistically color me not suprised by this.
These people have folks just waiting around for bad stuff to happen all armed with their templates for and within momemnts of word of the events breaking out they have their domains registered and sites up ready to part you with your cash and leave you a nice thank you note in the form of malware and other viruses on your systems.
They rely on the fact that in a time of distres
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But even I have to admit, when up early watching this this morning...one of the first thoughts to hit my head was what domains would you register to take advantage of this situations.
I don't know why that crossed my brain..I mean, don't get me wrong I'm good for just about any legal activity that will make me a dollar, but not sure why this one hit me.
I mean...what if you did put up a site to collect for those hit hard in Japan, collected in good f
Re:Disgusting (Score:5, Insightful)
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just as a note
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton [redcross.org]
should be close enough of a link to be useable (this is the ARC site for those not in the US)
Re:Disgusting (Score:4, Interesting)
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Unfortunately donations are not helping that much here in Japan at the moment. The problem isn't lack of materials or money, it is simply that the affected areas are dangerous and have been pretty much wiped away. There are thousands of people without homes to go back to, their entire towns and lives washed away. It really is a huge problem because they have no way to live a normal life now, no job, no home... Rebuilding is going to take years and in the mean time it isn't clear what can be done.
People here
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Don't worry there is a special place in hell for people do that. It is the place reserved for child molesters and people that talk in theater.
All kidding aside those people are extreme low life scum.
BTW I know it is not been in the news a lot but Haiti is still in a world of hurt folks. Japan is a rich country and the things they need the most right now are not things you can really buy with money. They need SAR teams, heavy lift choppers, and heavy equipment. A lot of that is on the way. Japan doesn't need
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Most of the major charities who'll be dealing with this are atheist (eg. Red Cross)
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Most of the major charities who deal with this are non-religious which is a world of difference away from atheist: we may disagree on theology, but we all agree that help is needed, and we want to be a part of it. And that has nothing to do with GP's point of wanting scum like this to burn in hell.
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Worst than spam (Score:2)
No lifes will do anything for a buck >:(
THIS is why we pay so much for our Military! (Score:2, Funny)
A state of emergency was declared at one of Japan's nuclear plants, after the earthquake caused cooling problems at one of the reactors. No radiation leakage has been reported, and the US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant by air.
This, right here, is why a well funded military is so needed!
Because it's cheaper than paying for the aftermath of a godzilla attack!
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The US military isn't allowed to operate inside of US borders, IIRC. This is what the National Guard and state millitas are for, which are largely separate from the budgets and congregational wartime budget extensions (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc) are passed for. Local forces receive very little of this extended funding, from what I understand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act [wikipedia.org]
The Act prohibits members of the Army, and Air Force, from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States.
The statute prohibits Army and Air Force personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly
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Lol I was in the military.
Yes we can train, I always trained on federal land. I dont know how much training they do elsewhere, but the best I can remember I never saw it.
Yes there may be combat operations, if congress approves it.
Yes there may be Disaster Relief, usually only reservists and NG.
Intelligence Operations? Expand on that please.
The military can do pretty much everything, but it all boils down to congressional approval in most cases. There were big concerns with standing armies in the early da
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We saw this played in in the Katrina disaster. There were actually a good number of military resources, the National Guard for instance...that were staged and ready to act, but our then Gov. Blankstare...errr...Blanco...waited forever to give the ok for them to act within the state borders as they needed to.
The NG stayed on for quite a time after Katrina to help police in New Orleans..but it was on a temporary measure and only as long as the te
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My comments were aimed more at the active component of the military needing congressional approval.
Your absolutely right that the NG can act on orders from the state government. If I'm not mistaken the enlistment oath for the NG even reflects that. The reasoning for that (I believe) is because the NG doesn't act as a standing army, but more of a state militia. They are also funded in a large part by the state (IIRC).
I spent my time active, so I only have a passing familiarity with the way the reservists
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I misunderstood what you were saying. I agree 100% with you...
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You don't need a military to have massive waterlift capability. Well-funded fire fighters would to the job.
Militaries are there to kill people and break things. If you're using them for something other than that, you're using them too much.
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Is that sarcastic enough, or should I try harder?
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To say that you missed the point of my post would be like saying that the sun is just a little warm.
How about we just not have those expensive logistical systems in the first place? Trim back the military spending and stop relying on them for every single problem that comes up. The military is not a hammer, and all of society's problems are not nails.
Re:THIS is why we pay so much for our Military! (Score:4, Interesting)
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Who do you thing built the roads in the Roman Empire
Slaves.
built the castles dotting Europe
Slaves.
that wall thingy in China
Slaves again.
You really like having slaves around, don't you?
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This, right here, is why a well funded military is so needed!!
You don't need a well funded military to do disaster relief. Any well funded Disaster and Emergency Response team will do.
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Yeah, because we couldn't deliver coolant by air if we didn't have a trillion dollar military.
White cars (Score:5, Funny)
It appears that one way to improve your chance of survival in a tsunami is to not have a white car.
http://i.imgur.com/ddHiq.jpg [imgur.com]
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Ah - the problem with that theory is that the waves washed the colors right off of those cars, so we can no longer tell which ones were white, and which ones were other colors.
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My theory is that those were being carried by the planes, which fell out of the sky independently of the quake.
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Not really. The relevant video [cnn.com] also shows plenty of black, grey, green, and blue cars being washed away too. And boats!
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It appears that one way to improve your chance of survival in a tsunami is to not have a white car.
http://i.imgur.com/ddHiq.jpg [imgur.com]
Nah, it's just that lighter cars float so you can see more of them. The dark ones sink.
Elementary psychics.
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white and silver (Score:2)
FYI, White is the most popular color for car in Japan
Yes, but silver is a close second in japan and the world-wide favorite...
http://www2.dupont.com/Automotive/en_US/news_events/article20101207.html [dupont.com]
If you look at the picture more closely, there are probably a similar number of silver colored cars floating there too...
Always do your research before donating (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:arguably (Score:5, Informative)
what technology has japan used or is japan using thats saved so many lives?
Japan has an impressive Earthquake alert system. They picked the shaking 1 minute before it main force hit. That gave time for most of the people to evacute the buildings as needed. Same goes for the Tsunami. Where they didn't have time to react though, like in Sendai, which was absurdly close to the epicenter, the death tool was worst.
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I'm imagining some huge rotating steel tentacle with a claw on the end. Is that what you meant?
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Where they didn't have time to react though, like in Sendai, which was absurdly close to the epicenter, the death tool was worst.
So how did this death tool work? Why would they use it when they did not have time to react?
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There's a significant difference between "number dead" and "number confirmed dead". The actual number who have died is unknown, so most outlets report the numbers that are known to be dead.
That means that the number will (sadly) climb much higher. With 1,300 miles of shoreline affected by the tsunami, I expect we won't be talking in the hundreds for very long, unfortunately.
Re:arguably (Score:4, Informative)
Compare to China recently where a less powerful [nytimes.com] quake sent brick buildings toppling onto and killing tens of thousands of people, including government buildings such as schoolhouses that collapsed and killed the children inside.
Building codes are one of the areas where it's almost impossible to argue against the need for government regulation.
Mod Parent UP!!!! (Score:4)
It's not robotic rescue dogs, it's building codes that reduce the need for them in the first place.
I live in SoCal. I tell my friends from other places that the safest place to be when an earthquake hits is "somewhere else", but if you can't be there, then SoCal (and NorCal, too) is one of the best places to be.
Why? Because we know that the Big One is coming... someday... Our building codes are designed so that while the building might not be safe to occupy, it will stand long enough to let you get out. And the codes are under constant revision after every earthquake. Example, the '94 Northridge quake was a kind they hadn't seen or planned for. Codes got revised because of it.
Both Los Angeles and St. Louis sit on top of major faults. Which city would you rather be in when a 7.5 quake hits?
I'll bite (Score:3)
Building codes are one of the areas where it's almost impossible to argue against the need for government regulation.
I propose a building code that stipulates carbon nanotube framing and internal airbags, plus a municipal ordinance prohibiting tchotchkes weighing more than 2 kg. Surely that would save even more lives in the event of an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
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I'm not sure I understand you, but I do realize bad regulations are worse than none at all, and overkill is possible and undesirable even when there is a valid need for reasonable regulations.
My point is that there is no objectively "reasonable" building standard, only what the user, according to his subjective value judgment, and the supplier, according to what it would cost him, are willing to settle on at a certain price.
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On Shakey Ground (Score:2)
Don't you think it's a bit soon to be making puns?
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no, the waves move fast in the ocean. If you don't make the joke before the wave hits shore, it would be a complete wash out.
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It didn't help last time. (Score:4, Insightful)
Listen, people are idiots and fools are easily parted with their money. More, people have a short attention span and never follow up on the results.
People were suckered into the whole Haiti thing last year. Morons "texting" cash to charities and schiesters like Bill Clinton and George Bush encouraging people to "just send us your cash". And in the end? No accountability. I don't even need to go into the troubles with the Red Cross and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which raised hundreds of millions of dollars, can't seem to account for where all that money went to. Last I recall, Clinton was present to see the handing over of three million bucks or some similarly ridiculously low number.
You had global donations from governments promised in the billions (at least five billion, I believe). You had moron celebrities holding telethons and telling you that you should give your cash.
And idiots gave their cash. But they never looked in on what was going on. Why should they? I texted my $10 to some place, so I'm a good person now! I don't need to figure out whatever happened after that!
Meanwhile, it's a year later and we're told that people are still living in tents and everyone is dying of dysentery or whatever.
Of course, Japan is less likely to be prone to this kind of problem, I think. The only concern there will be with fake charities trying to scam you out of donations through fake websites and other services. And that's what this article was talking about, to begin with. The problem in Haiti was different, in that they're not the power that is Japan. They're fucking Haiti. And actual real organizations simply behaved criminally after extorting donations from you.
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Listen, people are idiots and fools are easily parted with their money. More, people have a short attention span and never follow up on the results.
It's quite true actually, I didn't even read past this line...
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Use known agents (Score:2)
What I hear most charities say is that people should give regularly so the agencies will have the resources to handle these emergency.
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Of course, they say that. They need a regular source of income for their highly paid professional charity executives.
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Sure, you should be compensated, but if you're in the "charity business", you would think you'd be a little more ethically inclined. How do you justify hundreds of thousands in salary for a position where you head a *charity*? I would say $500,000/yr is a bit extreme for the Red Cross and $1,000,000/yr is a bit extreme for the United Way. You aren't talking about providing salaries that make sure these people can focus on the job rather than living in a cardboard box. You're talking about paying them enough
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Help Prevent Disaster Scams (Score:5, Funny)
Give to the Organization for Scam Prevention Now!
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I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
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I find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
That's going to cost you. How much do you have?
Where's the line? (Score:3)
So I'm just a bit in the gray on this issue. Where's the line drawn on what's morally acceptable with this? If I immediately run and sell all my Japanese stocks and instead buy into rice after seeing all the fields on tv being destroyed, does that mean I'm evil and taking advantage of this situation? I would still end up being in a financially better position as a result of a tragedy.
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A big difference in your example is that rice companies are actually selling rice, charity scams aren't providing charitable works.
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You can do whatever you want, as long as you buy carbon credits to make up for it.
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Where is the moral gray area?
You are doing something that does not harm anyone as rice prices will go up no matter what you do.
Taking money under the guise of charity and keeping it is theft by deception. That is both theft and theft of money that could have helped others.
So... (Score:1)
Do they need aid? (Score:2)
Relax (Score:5, Funny)
No aid needed. The GOP has voted to send an emergency humanitarian shipment of tax cuts to the affected area.
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No that's not correct. You don't aid other people in disasters. They have to learn to be self-reliant. If you aid people in disasters, they will come to expect aid and cease to have their own disaster preparedness. I as a real American won't have any of this socialist disaster welfare. Altruism is evil incarnate.
</sarcasm>
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If you aid people in disasters, they won't learn to stop having disasters. Right?
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some people just seem to like disasters, they keep having them. and for some reason, i can't understand, certain Americans, socialists and fascists, they want to help them, to keep them in a constant state of disaster
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An important note: if you don't receive any of the tax cuts, do not be alarmed. The tax cuts will be distributed to the rich and should trickle down to you shortly.
Insurance policy exclusions will be the BIG SCAM (Score:3)
Lets just see if the insurance industry fell into the cracks, yet again, leaving flood victims "high and dry" in the low and wet. I bet that earthquake coverage just got washed away by all of that salt water. So it you gotta have boat insurance under that much water.
"Its a Tsunami not an earthquake, Mr. Miagi....so sorry"
All of those disaster policies only sold you a false sense of security, in exchange for years of cash..... Who gets to break their legs if they don't pay...another act of God, or the Yakuza?
Red Cross is Legit (Score:2)
text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10
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"US Air Force has helped by delivering coolant" (Score:2)
I know this basically means that the USAF is acting like a glorified FedEx: expediting delivery of a critically needed resource. And I'm glad for that, a China Syndrome reactor accident would make Chernobyl look like Child's play (although, it's Japan, so it would be an Argentina Syndrome reactor accident).
But I couldn't get the image out of my mind of Slim Pickens riding a refridgerator out of a bomber's bay doors over Tokyo while whooping it up.
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I can't understand why they needed the US Air Force to deliver deionized water which should still be available in other parts of Japan.
It's not like LWR coolant is some specialized material made in government labs. It's DI water. And in a severe emergency (like this?), you could use tap water.
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IANANuclear engineer, but I always thought reactors just used regular old water and pumps for cooling. this article appears to confirm it [washingtonpost.com]. The Air Force is also denying they sent anything.
The story had an air of unbeleivability right out of the box. Did Hillary even say anything like that? I dunno. If so, where did she get the info? I dunno.
Then again, maybe the USAF has some magical coolant that the aliens at Area 51 showed them. It works like this: 1. Pump coolant into reactor. 2. Heat is trans
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Indeed, I was watching Hillary say earlier that "Japan has run out of coolant, so we've had the US Air Force deliver some to them."
Made me mad that politians are allowed to just make up stupid crap like that and still hold any sort of position of authority. "Coolant" is water. Furthermore, you'd need several jumbos full of "coolant" to cool a single reactor - and as it's so heavy, you'd only be able to fill a jumbo about 1/4th. There's no way the USAF has delivered enough "coolant" to do anything.
Furthermor
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If the US air-force helped, I'm guessing it was by flying in diesel generators to power the cooling pumps where floods have damaged the onsite ones.
The US airforce has a big presence in Japan.
a China Syndrome reactor accident would make Chernobyl look like Child's play
How is that? Chernobyl's core caught fire, putting large amounts of fission product up in smoke.
A meltdown through the containment base could put some nasty stuff up in steam, but how is that so much worse?
Air Force (Score:2)
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I'm a bit perplexed about what sort of "coolant" could be needed that might be delivered in significant (i.e., useful) quantities by plane. Which makes me rather dubious that some reporters (or politicians) have got the wrong end of a comment.
IF (and for me, it is an IF) the Japanese have needed to move any equipment or material to the site, then this is a major planning failure. Really major. And it will have international im
Wall Street is beating them to the punch (Score:2)
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That's because the Japanese are honorary white people, and not poor, so of course we'll help.
Re:coolant huh? (Score:4, Informative)