Lee.org

I mean, come on people, is anyone on the planet dumb enough to fall for this?

RE: AWARD WINNING NOTIFICATION: FINAL NOTICE.

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today of winners of the CARMLOT JACKPOT LOTTO WINNINGS, PROGRAMS held on the 15th of March,2005.Your company or your personal e-mail address, is attached to ticket number 9901-0148-790-691, with serial number 6109-17 drew the lucky numbers 990-11-815-37-10-83, and consequently won the lottery in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$300,000.00 in cash credited to file REF NO: MELI-T/17-F044262312. This is from total prize money of US$9,000,000.00 shared among the Thirty (30) international winners in this category. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 25,000 names from Australia, New Zealand, America, Europe, North America and Asia, as part of International Promotions Program, which is conducted annually…

By the time I got half way though reading this, I was squinting my eyes and scratching my head. “Where the f… do they get this drivel?”

That it made it to me is a testament that the technical staff defeated Spam Assassin and Microsoft Outlook Junk email filter. So why can’t I get a picture of Ed McMahon in my email or an Easter Seals phishing attack or some such. I’m bored with these International lottery phish. One (1) a day makes it through my shields… and that’s one (1) a day too many.

I was initially impressed with the quality of the Washington Mutual “reset your password” attacks. But then they started getting sloppy.

I was most impressed with a couple Paypal attacks I got. Fonts, images, style, all dead on… except for a little grammer. And that was the first time I had gotten an email from a phish that LOOKED like a text email with a link in it, but was actually an HTML email made to look as such with the links altered appropriately like this…(imagine the font is Courier New):

Go to the Paypal site now by clicking below
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_login

Nice.

Health insurance for an individual is, as we all know, quite expensive. About 6 months ago, I did some hunting around to try and find health insurance for my self. Here’s what I found. I live in NJ so some of this advice might not be appropriate for you.

I’d get a great break on insurance if I had a company with just other employee (must work at least 25 hrs a week or so)

NJ Blue Cross Blue Shield (the “official” provider for NJ..) is freaking expensive. They wanted to charge me $650/month for moderately good insurance.

The IEEE has a good insurance program. You’ve got to be a member for 2 years before being eligible… Since membership is $100/year and it would save me $150/month in insurance, I immediately joined. I’m still waiting for my membership to mature though.

You want to be in a group. 1 person obviously gets more sick, more often than that same person as long as he’s paired up with someone. Hurumph.

NJ law makes it so that I can’t get cheap but crappy insurance. Instead, I must get good, expensive insurance… well, expensive at the least. This differs from many states. I noted that you can get things like $10,000 deductible insurance in California for $90/month

Don’t be afraid to get phone numbers and call on the phone. I sometimes got more done in a 20 minute phone call than an hour browsing confusing medical insurance websites.

I eventually ended up going with a trusted client’s recommendation. I get my Health insurance from Medical Insurance Claims Inc. of Kinnelon NJ. I pay about $370/month for a good Oxford plan… $30 copays, RX paid 1/2.

Here’s some links I collected. They may or may not be useful or still valid:

http://www.workingtoday.org/resources/insurancebenefits.php
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http://www.workingtoday.org/productsservices/products.php
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http://www.asmeinsurance.com/
I have to be a member for 2 years first.
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ACM.org Association for Computing Machinery. $99/year
– Professional Liability Insurance – about $1800/year
– Major Medical – blue shield of NJ 212-476-1111
– Catastrophe Major Medical Insurance – no
– Disability Income – yes
– Auto – 1-800-524-9400 www.libertymutual.com/lm/acm
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Marsh Affinity Group Services 1-800-503-9230 http://www.seaburychicago.com/cwp.asp?assn=ACM
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IEEE computer society – http://www.computer.org/
$95/year to join IEEE and Computer Society as a professional (partial year)
– Comprehensive HealthCare Insurance – must be in IEEE for 2 years. 1-877-886-0110
– Disability Income – 20 units of $130/month, 90 day waiting period: $216/year
– Professional Liability – through Marsh Affinity Group
– Discount Prescription Plan
– msa plan
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Blue Cross of NJ (crappy insurance)
http://www.horizon-bcbsnj.com/members_rates.asp?urlsection=members
Plan: Plan A/50
Effective Date: 4/2004
Deductible: $10,000.00
50% coinsurance
$5,000 coinsurance cap
Monthly Rate: $242.52
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http://www.nationalbusiness.org/
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Small business something or another http://www.nfib.com (but not in NJ)
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insurance quotes at: http://www.ehealthinsurance.com
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http://www.keystonetosuccess.com/
What the frig is is? Just a discount plan? I was referred to this by http://www.nationalbusiness.org/NBAWEB/Premium3600/NBAcontact.htm
Ah… It’s a pharmacy discount
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Nationwide Health Plans–NFIB Ohio
1-800-551-4312, option 4 < --- Call --------------------------------------------------- update 8-1-05 Good to know: When you get your insurance, use a company that provides a real live human being at your service. When something goes awry and you are battling the insurance provider, it will be good to have an agent that knows all of the loopholes and such. I am right now in the process of getting health insurance in California. It is amazing, I can get very similar insurance in California for $170 that I would've paid $370 for in New Jersey. I am going to opt for a less inclusive $100 per month plan. A 70% discount!

I got this from a friend that forwards around jokes. This is pretty remarkable.
(and the last one has a punch line, of course).

It makes me wonder about that part of our brains that sees beauty in people and how gullible and flawed it is.
Why is there such a wildly different visceral reaction to each image? And isn’t it striking how these “pretty people” are all very normal people, just with good stylists and photographers.

Christina Aguilera

Pamela Anderson

Alicia Silverstone

Cameron Diaz

Christina Applegate

Goldie Hawn

Britney Spears

Madonna

Michael Jackson