Runnin the numbers game
So, I’m a bit old fashioned. I come from a family with a mother that got me out of bad at 16, threw me the car keys and said go get a job. Mind you it wasn't a glamorous time in my life but fast food started my life as an employee. Since then Ive had good jobs and bad jobs. Jobs I’d easily go back to and some I’d erase from my existence. All in all though i have been working since 16.
One job Ive had that's been effortless to say the least is being a drummer. Sure i have to setup and tear down but all that gets left in the joy of the gig. So before we begin it is safe to say i have it made in that aspect of working. Before you run with that you need to know drumming is my side job or hobby as most call it. I have a real day job that pays the bills. Yes, I do the 9 to 5, or actually the 8:30 to 5:30.
On this subject there are several things that irk me. One is people not having a job and asking for handouts. The other are people scamming others as a means of making money. More or less using a cheap way out. Since becoming a computer guru back 20 years ago I’ve learned a lot about computers, but actually more about people as well. Being in tech support I’ve met and talked to all kinds of personalities. Also being a for hire tech you can also see first hand peoples computer habits.
It used to be only people with money and knowledge had computers. This mainly limited the problems one could have talking to a guy like me for some support. Now adays so many things can get on the interwebs that everyone owns at least one thing that can surf or browse the internet. Since the rise of the internet since the early 90′s, the one thing that has been a constant are scams. They started in the form of viruses.
Then as the need for computers and the internet grew, more and more virus protection became easier to obtain so crooks had to up their game. See, the way viruses worked to normal people is they jammed up or crashed your machine and caused you a mountain of issues. Actually that was only half of their purpose. You had to get it somehow so the intention was to fool you into contracting it using your own free will. So viruses starting showing up in email attachments and pop up screens alike.
Who wouldn't click on that cat pic attachment that was sure to be cute and adorable. I wouldn't (not much of a cat person), but most everyone did. Who wouldn't go to that website that promised free stuff or the site that had the chick with the biggest “assets”. We all did. So viruses were everywhere, The problem was is that some virus creators could never see their product in action. How would know if anyone successfully got it and it broke their machine? You wouldn't
So they had to make viruses work for them. That’s when spyware was born. Now the virus would go in and gain the creator access to the computer which would then grant them access to personal info galore. By this time online shopping was big, so credit card numbers were lurking around every corner. Spyware was getting bigger but the virus protection companies were staying on top of it. Now it was getting harder to get info from people.
At this time “Hackers” (bad terminology but the only label you will understand) had only tapped into a small part of peoples thought process. They had to hope you would follow a set of breadcrumbs to lead you into the trap of getting spyware. well people were getting smarter and protection was becoming more available. Then comes facebook. Once meant to keep up with friends and family, it quickly became a tool people felt more comfortable with.
There was this whole new generation of people that labeled themselves computer novices because they could get on facebook. They looked to it as their safe haven. No one can hack me in here. Oh yea? So now we get into the business. The business of preying on people in their safe haven. How do make money outside an area full of potential clients if they are protected by a wall? It’s easy you sell ladders. Corporations figured out so many people are on this facebook thing, that there has to be a way to make money.
This started the race for followers. The problem was is that corporations couldn't figure out how to get you to follow them. especially since their end goal was to flood you with advertisements you didn't want in the first place. Here is where the scammers found opportunity. someone one day woke up and realized they had a lot of friends because everyone trusted them and liked their posts. Well what if I made a page of harmless posts people liked and then they all came to the page and agreed to “like” it to keep up with it? Ding.
So now started the “i love pets page” or the “lets save the whales page”. Now all the sudden your the owner of a page with 10,000 followers hanging on your every word. The corporations were drooling. They wanted those followers and were willing to pay big money for them. So the i love pets page was sold to badass soda company and now all the sudden the page name is called “badass soda company. Now they are posting ads and invading news feed with their ads but you cant figure out why.
I dont even like badass soda but apparent at some point i liked the page. Hmmm. So (to be continued)