They’re ripping you off

Ok, so I am grateful. But there may also be times to rant. (Maybe I’m grateful for getting it off my chest?) But I’m seeing a continual rise in how folks are looking to take advantage of me, and you. And I don’t like it. So, here are some of the ways they’re ripping you off!

So, first, it’s the rise in attempts to defraud you. That can be scams, phishing, or more. As I was creating this post, this was a repost on Bluesky:

Robocalls are seeing a massive increase lately. Keep in mind that efforts to stop caller-ID spoofing have largely had no real effect, because callers now use “throw away” numbers that verify correctly and then are abandoned after days or even hours. In fact, if you get an “unknown caller” on your phone, it’s likely NOT a spam call, because spammers can now so easily not bother spoofing or blocking their numbers, they just keep switching to different “legit” numbers that spam blocks usually don’t detect.

Email phishing is on the rise, and much of it now is bypassing SPF and DKIM checks (that Google and other large mailers started requiring for bulk mailings) due to techniques such as DKIM replay and a range of other methods. Fake PayPal invoices are flooding the Net, and they often are passing those checks meant to block them. It’s reported that many of these are coming from Microsoft’s Outlook, with forged PayPal email addresses. Easiest way to detect these is to look at the phone number they want you to call if you have a question — and if it’s not the legit PayPal customer service number you know it’s not really from PayPal. Getting you to call the scammers on the phone is the basis of the entire scheme.

It’s all getting worse, not better. – From Lauren Weinstein Lauren.vortex.com

Another one are Google Calendar announcements, and recently DocuSign frauds. Plus, of course, the continual fake invoices for Macafee, etc. I don’t know about you, but the earlier scam of pretending to be someone on LinkedIn has returned. I’m seeing a renewal of folks saying that I have an interesting profile, or that I’d be a good match for their company’s new initiative. Without knowing anything about me, of course.

Worse, I’m now seeing at least the former showing up in Bluesky (so I’m keeping Mastodon around; quinnovator on both), and even on Academia.edu! I hear about some attempts to crack down on the factories where they house (and exploit) folks to do this. Which, of course, just drives them to smaller and harder to find such activities. The tools are getting more powerful, making it easier.

The one that really gets me is the increasing use of our data to train language models. I was first alerted when a tool (no longer freely available) allowed me to check one of the AI engines. Sure enough, this blog was a (miniscule) percentage of it. In the column on the right, you can see I’m ok with my posts being fodder. Er, only if you aren’t making money, share alike, and provide attribution! Which isn’t the case; I haven’t had contact nor seen remuneration.

This is happening to you, too. As they say, if you’re not paying, you’re the product. If you use Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT), you’re likely having your prompts tracked, and any materials you upload are fair game. Many of the big tools (e.g. Microsoft) that connect to the internet are also taking your data. Some may make not taking the default, but others aren’t. In short, your data is being used. Sure, it may be a fair exchange, but how do you know?

In short, they’re ripping you off. They’re ripping us off!  And, we can passively accept it, or fight. I do. I report phishing, I block folks on social media, and I tick every box I can find saying you can’t have my data. Do we need more? I like that the EU has put out a statement on privacy rights. Hopefully, we’ll see more such initiatives. The efforts won’t stop; shareholder returns are at stake after all, but I think we can and should stand up for our rights. What say you?