Community Service Recognition -- Beware of Who’s Who Scams

Lovely, kind and personalized message that came in the mailbox today:

Good morning!
We wanted you to know that you received Honorable Mention in yesterday's article titled "Who's Who in Local Communities" by Stephen Bozanek, recognizing individuals and businesses who have recently contributed to improving their local communities.
The article will remain available at www.newsdigest.co for the next few hours and is available for on-demand download and printing.
We wish you the best of continued success.
Sincerely,
Lisa Davis
News Digest International
http://www.newsdigest.co

----------Yet another, received previously:

Dear Candidate, 

You were recently appointed as a biographical candidate to represent your industry in the Who's Who Among Executives and Professionals, and for inclusion into the upcoming 2008-2009 "Honors Edition" of the registry.
We are pleased to inform you that on November the 10th, your candidacy was approved. Your confirmation for inclusion will be effective within five business days, pending our receipt of the enclosed application.
The Office of the Managing Director appoints individuals based on a candidate's current position, and usually with information obtained from researched executive and professional listings. The director thinks you may make an interesting biographical subject, as individual achievement is what Who's Who is all about. Upon final confirmation you will be listed among thousands of accomplished individuals in the Who's Who Registry. There is no cost to be included.
We do require additional information to complete the selection process and kindly ask that you access this form on our website by Clicking Here
Sincerely,
Bill Fields
Managing Director

Advise on how to 'treat' such lovely message is  by James F. McGrath: Beware of Who’s Who Scams

Extract:

"If nothing jumped out at you in the above, then you need to learn more about how to identify a potential scam.

First, if what is being referred to really involved a selection process and your identification as worthy from among a larger pool of people, you would expect the e-mail to address you by name. A generic form of address indicates that this is a mass mailing, and the link offering you the opportunity to unsubscribe confirms this...."

 On the same shelf:

• Which 'Who's Who'? - On Hiring - The Chronicle of Higher Education
• That 'Who's Who' invite aims at your ego -- and your wallet 
• Without A Purpose: Gee Wiz, I'm a Candidate for Who's Who?
• 64.254.132.151 | Mail Server | IP Address Inspector | Project Honey ...

A bit of humour to end the day in this timezone... Yet another forward, but KM related

Thanks to Lucie and Allison for forwarding it; sent on the KM4dev Dgroups: .

Top 10 Reasons You Know you're working at an aid organization headquarters if...

1.You just had a pre-meeting to discuss your strategy planning session for the new initiative to reduce poverty by increasing access to safe water/credit/food/health care through fair and equitable distribution to those with the right to said good or service through engagement with duty bearers in the government and other stakeholders and civil society organizations.

2.You just repeatedly slammed your head into your keyboard after spending the last 20 minutes trying to get your Skype conference call between Port au Prince, West Bank/Gaza, Delhi, Nairobi and New York to work only to fail miserably...

6.You realize that you just used cheers, karibu, Insh'Allah or namaste in casual conversation despite the fact that you are neither English, Kenyan, Arab or Indian.
7.You realize that your favorite and most frequented cafe is located in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
8.You just finished depressing a volunteer caller from the Red Cross for the 12th time this year who reluctantly agreed that you are not eligiable to donate blood because you just got back from .
9.You're pumped with antibiotics more frequently than a cow in a concentrated feeding operation.
10.You tell yourself it's not failure if you turn it into a lessons-learned document.

Continue reading all the Top 10 Reasons You Know You're Working at an Aid Organization Headquarters, by Brooks Keene

Why INDIA is in trouble? [Nice Joke, Yet another forwarded email]

PS. Source, our digg says, the idea of this joke comes from: forwards4all.com; The pictures' courtesy: zadtee's blog

Population: 100 crore

-9 crore retired
-30 crore in state Government
-17 crore in central Government (both categories don't work)
-1 crore IT professionals (don't work for India)
-25 crore in school
-1 crore are under 5 years
-15 crore unemployed
-1.2 crore u can find anytime in hospitals
Statistics say you find 79,99,998 people anytime in jail.
The balance two are you & me.

BOTTOMLINE: You are busy reading my E-mails and sending forwards! I am busy reading your forwards, and forwarding e-mails to all my friends!!! How can I handle India alone?

Forwarding, Forwarded Emails - Quotable quotes about waste of bandwidth, mindwidth and timewidth

“A new chain letter has entered the charts claiming that the MSN will be closed down unless the bogus email is forwarded to family, friends and colleagues. As always, these chain letters are best deleted as they waste bandwidth.” Carole Theriault @ ThinkExist.com

“We advise all companies to consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to curb the spread of these annoying emails that can cause mail overload and results in down time and loss of profits. Although they do not cause serious network damage, certain hoaxes, such as the HIV Needle email, are cruel tricks that can be very upsetting for those users receiving them.” Carole Theriault @ ThinkExist.com

“Chain letters like this are too easily forwarded to friends, family and colleagues without people using their common sense. Stories like this become urban legends, constantly being repeated without anyone bothering to check the facts. Hoaxes and chain letters like this are not harmless - they waste time and bandwidth, and can be a genuine headache for support departments. Users need to be more skeptical, and ask themselves whether everything they are told by email can be believed.” Graham Cluley @ ThinkExist.com