Beware of Empty Blogs

In a way, having my identity stolen several years ago has paid off. I was placed in a credit monitoring program which is fairly comprehensive, in that they monitor EVERYTHING, not just credit.

A few days ago, I received an alert that my password to my two blogs on Word Press had been 'compromised'. 

I promptly changed them, and then contacted a technician at the monitoring program.

After some digging, he found that the password had been stolen by whomever created an empty blog.
Earlier I had mentioned (and posted) that I was receiving empty blogs. I wrote about it, titling the post "What are they trying to accomplish?" Well, now I know. 

 As you know, Word Press notifies you by email that Someone Liked My Blog Post "-------", and that I should go see what they're up to.

I did. First time it was 'cuteanimal pictures". Puppies and kitten pictures lifted wholesale from the web. No writing. No credits, no comments,  Nothing "about me" Nichts, nein nada. 

I removed the jerk. Next time it was something a bit different: "Loveanimals" or some such rot. Again: pictures stolen from the web (no name of owner, no weblinks, etc). No writing. No information, no opinion, etc. Nothing "about me".

I began to call this 'blishing'..someone crawling around on the blogosphere, trying to get someone to click on a link (hidden, mind you) in their blog. It's 'phishing' on the blog.

I removed that person. I wondered what are they doing? Trying to get a like without working for it? Trying to get on a 'fairly' successful blog? Trying..what?

This last time, though, I received a 'like' from  "Cookingwithevan" and did I want to see what they're up to? Well, I KNOW an Evan. So I looked at it and foolishly, clicked on a recipe. It took me to SOMEONE ELSE's blog. Not 'Evan". No information about who Evan is. It's certainly not MY Evan.  No recipe. No credit for the true owner or author. And again, No information about the original "like", Evan.

Well, this time, "Evan" got me. Somehow he got my password to Word Press. This is quite a feat because I never remember it!

That set off alarms with my credit monitoring program. The tech told me that clicking on the recipe inserted a code that sent my password back to the thief. Now it was all over the "Dark Web". He used a term that I can't remember...after all, I was a bit excited.. that means the password is sold to thieves in the underworld of cyber theft. 

I changed ALL my passwords, because it would have been very easy, once the thief got my password, to start rummaging about. But I wasn't quick enough...the thief tried to change my mailing address! Not my webmail...my SNAIL mail address.

That set off another alarm. 

I called the USPS and let them know someone has stolen my ID. AGAIN. And trying to steal whatever.

So BEWARE, Bloggers and Word Pressers! BEWARE. Someone is out there who has figured out that people blog and are fairly trusting. He knows what you like and will do everything he can to steal from you. Beware. Beware of empty blogs

19 February 17.
I am adding this as a postscript.
After I posted this, I ran the fourth of virus checks in as many days. Up until yesterday, I'd never had a virus show up. Now I have FOUR. They were inserted at various times in the past two years and were all activated yesterday. 
Don't worry, I'm on a different computer, so you won't 'catch' my infection.  I disconnected the infected PC from the net and it is now in my truck, awaiting my taking it to the 'doctor' for cleaning.

Again, beware. Some nasty effers have figured out how to infiltrate one's computer through a blog and are willing to destroy everything you have worked on and for...for what? I don't keep account numbers, credit card statements, etc on my computer. 

Beware.  

Maddening computer glitches

     Despite coming from the shop, polished, spiffed up and vaccumed inside and out, with the assurances of the geeks saying she all better, my computer ain't.

   I had the same issue today. Turn on the computer (a desktop PC). It beeps once and hangs up at the mother board logo page. No response to any peripheral (i.e. keyboard, mouse). Nix, nein, nada.  Hard shut down (meaning holding the power button in rather than going through windows 7 shutdown because, well, I don't GET the windows screen.) This is not a good thing, it effs up the 'registry', as I've been told.
     I have to start and stop it several times until it 'catches'. I haven't the damnedest idea what is wrong. I've gone surfing from my tablet and found a  thousand different 'fixes', most of them entailing more expertise than I will ever have, and usually in a lingo I will never understand. For instance, "defragilate the goomber switch, cycle it using PCII protocols, making SURE you don't ground the hevertine and then it should work." What the eff?
For me, a decidedly unsophisticated, non-technological biologist, I think I'd have just as much luck burning incense and sacrificing a goat to the PC demons. 

    (Now I understand the frustration non-horsey people feel when a bunch of us horsepeople start talking in our lovely if exclusive and archaic Horseish)

   What it ultimately means is no one has an effing clue. So I am probably going to have to fix it the  way I learned to fix tanks in the Army: Keep throwing parts at it until it stops being broke. But that gets expensive, especially when it's me, not Sugar, buying the parts.

   Honestly, were I not so insistent on blogging and writing in general, I could do very well with just a tablet. I use my computer mostly for surfing the web on topics that interest me, and email.

   But tablets are murderous on your wrists and eyes if you want to type. I love my sprawling QWERTY keyboard and my big ol monitor. And my muse is a bitch...she's been especially active, perching on my shoulder and murmuring topics that must be blogged immediately, knowing full well that my computer is deadlined.

   OK. I guess I could handwrite it. But my penmanship was never very good, and that was in the days when I had a shoulder that would allow me to write. They're shot now, and I don't write at all, if I can help it. 

   No, I won't use my husband's. It's not MINE, you know?

   It's also frustrating that the thing was in the shop for several days, the geek who worked on it went by a check sheet, and mentioned, "only boots up after several tries."
Well DUH? that's what I took in for in the FIRST place.  And, "runs slowly". Hello? Didn't you try to fix that?

  Oh, man. This is frustrating.
Couple that with the fact that Blogger still refuses you to make comments on this blog.

   So if you comment, please send it to me via email (if you can) and I'll try to respond.

My computer loses her mind.

I've been offline for about a week.

     My desktop computer had a mental breakdown. It's a 'homebuilt'. I didn't build it, of course, but I had it built by a geek. It's worked fairly well, but we had a tremendous windstorm last week. I was too stupid to not work on it during the storm. Two power surges, both so fast I had absolutely no time to react, blew her mind away.

     So she went to the Geek Squad repair shop. Now she's home, and I"m working to restore all the changes I made to Microsofts idiotic platform. Many aren't so easy to fix...for instance, now I find little check boxes next to desktop icons. What in the eff is this? Microsofts infuriating insistence on changing things for the sole purpose of change is driving me right around the bend. But what else is there? Nothing. The one thing Microsoft does best is make it ever more difficult to do even the smallest of changes. Their corporate mission statement must be, never let the customer think he's anything more than a moron.  Microsoft's idea of intelligent organization...well, it doesn't exist. If Microsoft ran the telephone system, when I wanted to call my dentist to schedule an appointment, I'd have to buy a raffle ticket first. That's where they'd keep the dentist's phone number, under Purchase. (NOT raffle, not dentist, not appointment, not ticket) The two are completely unrelated to each other, but...that's what Microsoft does. Hides even the simplest of functions under arcane names and even more unintelligible procedures.  The "Start" button to shut off one's machine is absolutely the classic example of that.

     While my computer was in the shop, I learned that thousands of  Word Press bloggers had been hacked.
      Go figure. WP spent millions of dollars and a year 'improving' (meaning infantilizing) their blog editing software, pissing off thousands of loyal Pressers, refusing to listen to the thousands of agonized pleas to return to the original, well working software. Yet their vaunted software engineers had neglected to notice a huge opening in their security software, allowing the invasion by hackers in the former Soviet Union. I wonder how they handle security in their offices? A big neon sign says "This way to the WP company safe. Combination is printed in big letters on the door."

     Worse, they're blaming the blogger. "If you hadn't done this update to an arcane and unintelligible program in WP, the hijacking of your blog is your fault." Not once did WP ever make me aware of one, the need for an update, two, the capacity or expertise to accomplish it, and three, the tools with which to do an update. But that means nothing to WP. Once again, WP is dodging responsibility, dismissing their customers (many of whom paid a bunch of money to supposedly secure their own domain) as whiners, and neglecting even the most basic steps of internet security.

     Which is, again, why I'm glad I moved here to Google. Blogger is clunky and doesn't work well. I have to take half a dozen steps just to get my dashboard to appear, and I still cannot figure out why it won't allow people to comment.
But so far it seems to be fairly secure against evil slimemold shitheads from hacking into it.