Warning: UK fraudsters target online car sales

I am selling my car and posted on Autotrader last weekend. So far I received no less than 4 scam emails from crooks trying to part me from my cash. Fortunately, I did my research and came across this excellent explanation from Jim at Autoshippers UK. I am trying to summarise it here but please read his comprehensive post.

The typical scam involves a "buyer" purporting to be a garage wanting to pay the price and pay you extra for you to pay his shipping agent directly. Say you sell your car for £5K and shipping costs £500. You accept his offer, receive a cheque for the car plus extra for the shipping (£5.5K). Your bank informs you that the cheque has been paid to your account. You pay the shipping agent as instructed for £500, usually through Moneygram. A few days later, your bank informs you that the cheque has bounced and withdraws the amount from your account. Leaving you with having paid "shipping fees" of £500 to some unknown untraceable "shipping agent".

You have been warned.

Zinio: Search and read over 50,000 international magazines... for free.

Goodbye press-clipping fees! See Zinio Inside. The coverage in Europe seems limited but worth adding to your "PR on the cheap" toolbox.

As read on Micropersuasion.

World Philosophy Day: Something to think about.

Philosophy was one of my favourite subjects in school. Today it is world philosophy day (so I just learned) and the BBC has a thought-provoking article with 4 questions guaranteed to make you think... twice.

iPhone Google application baffled by British accents

"The free application, which allows iPhone owners to use the Google search engine with their voice, mistook the word "iPhone" variously for "sex," "Einstein" and "kitchen sink". AFP.
I can't imagine what my French accent would have produced...

The Long Tail: When faith meets facts

Thought-provoking article from Tom Slee in the Register. Is the long-tail a theory that flies in the face of real-world evidence? More on his long tailed debunked blog.

The economics of Spam: 0.00000008% response rate = $3.5M turnover

Academics at Berkeley used the "Storm botnet" network to blast 350 million emails for "male enhancement products" at a cost of about $80 per million emails sent. 28 sales resulted with an average purchase price of $100. They estimated that such campaigns when fully utilising the network could mean gross revenues of $7,000 to $9,500 a day, or $3.5 million a year for the spammers.

First read in The Register.

Full study here.

How to monetize bloggers' ego?

1. Create an award for "Best Blog". Include as many categories as possible so everyone stand a chance.
2. Mass-email bloggers to enter the award.
3. Charge $275 per blog for entry ($195 if you enter before November 14, $250 before December 15).
4. Mass-email bloggers to vote for their favourite blogs in the proposed categories (less work for you).
5. Laugh all the way to the bank. Repeat next year.

Chapeau!

Monks brawl at Jerusalem shrine

BBC video. So much for "turn the other cheek"...

The World has voted: Change we can finally believe in

Across the World, Obama won 9,115 electoral colleges vote against 203 for McCain. The only countries where McCain overtook Obama were Iraq, Algeria and Congo. See full results on the Economist website (Courtesy of El Blogador). In the U.S., the race was narrower with 52% of votes to Obama v. 47% for McCain (CNN).

Obama and McCain: Dance Off!

Awesome.

Skiving Aussie busted on Facebook

On the Register.

Email error ends up on road sign

The Welsh sign reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated." From the BBC. Instant classic.

Amazon's one-click patent invalidated?

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled that business methods are not patentable unless they meet fairly narrow rules.

Via TechCrunch.

Wassup Obama: Original Budweiser wassup cast stars in pro-Obama ad

Smart and funny.

Ground breaking Youtube ad for Nintendo Wii Wario Land game

See for yourself. (wait 10 seconds in the video...).

Seller threatens lawsuit after negative eBay feedback

While it is important that businesses have means to protect their reputation (especially on the ground of defamation), a victory for the scorned seller will be bad news for buyers AND sellers. Buyers will have less incentive to post feedback due to the threat of lawsuits. They will also have less trust in reviews and ratings since they know it is forcibly positively biased. As a result, the reputation system that benefit sellers will lose its credibility. Everyone loses. From the Register.

The end of Web 2.0?

Less money for start-ups, business models solely based on advertising under strains and heavy posturing from VCs to freak out entrepreneurs and extract more equity for less cash. Well summarised in Rob Hof's post "Is That the Sound of the Silicon Valley Web 2.0 Bubble Bursting?" and John C Abell's Wired article "The End of Web 2.0?"

The Shanghai Restoration Project

Thanks to uncle Raja for introducing me to this band.

Japanese restaurant takes cost cutting to the extreme

It employs two monkeys as waiters and pay them peanuts.

Ultrasound machine 'turns cheap plonk into fine wine in 30 minutes'

"Inventor Casey Jones says the £350 gadget uses ultrasound technology to recreate the effects of decades of ageing by colliding alcohol molecules inside the bottle." From the Telegraph.