Archive | Scams
Christmas is nearly here again!!
It’s a special time of year for many people for many reasons -many enjoy the festivities, decorations, and the holiday spirit, whilst others simply enjoy the act of giving, whether that be in terms of presents or donating money to their favorite charity too.
Unfortunately, there are many donation scams, and they are certainly far more prevalent at this time of year as scammers realise that many people are, perhaps, far more generous around the Christmas period.
Donating to charity is a very worthwhile cause so please protect yourself from giving to online donation scams, several of which circulate on the Internet.
The majority of online donation scams will arrive on your doorstep via spam email messages and fraudulent posts in online forums.
They will be asking for donations, often using the names of well-known and legitimate charities, or disaster victims and survivor funds.
Such emails often provide links to fake websites that have been designed to appear to be official.
Also, such phishing techniques can be employed over the phone, so it’s wise to be skeptical of phone calls asking for donations to charitable causes too.
AVOID XMAS DONATION SCAMS
Here are 11 useful tips to help you avoid those Christmas donation scams -
- Ensure that your computer is secure by utilising a firewall and anti-virus.
- Ensure your operating system is kept up to date with the latest patches and fixes.
- Implement spam filters to minimise the chances of receiving unsolicited email.
- Use the Microsoft Phishing Filter or other protection software.
- Be wary of unsolicited email from charitable organisation which ask for money. Don’t click on any links or enter any personal information.
- Don\’t reply to solicitations at all - search out who you wish to donate to yourself.
- If you receive an email request from a charity that you would in fact like to support then go to their website by manually typing their address into your Internet browser, rather than by clicking a link in the email message.
- Double-check the spelling of the organisation’s website, and get into the habit of always looking at the actual Internet address (for example, ‘http://www.redcross.org’) before you continue browsing a website. Spoofed websites often use deliberate, easily overlooked misspellings to deceive users.
- Be wary of emails that claim to attach photos of disaster victims or areas - these attachments could be infected with computer viruses or worse.
- If you provide your credit card number or personal information to a charity-related Web site, make sure the site uses legitimate site certificates and that there is a written policy about protecting personal information.
- Keep up to date on the latest online scams by visiting Scam Types dot Com and through other trusted technology news providers, government agencies, and other professional sources.
Historically, the time around Christmas was a celebration of when the days began to lengthen.
However, many religious groups throughout history have claimed the winter solstice as a holy day.
THE WINTER SOLSTICE
The date of the Winter Solstice is not absolute.
Over the centuries it has moved forward, having originally been in early January.
Though it is often associated with December 25th, it now actually falls on the 22nd, and will be earlier still in the centuries to come.
MITHRAISM
In Roman times, well before Christians recognised Christmas as a time of celebration, there was a religion known as Mithraism.
Worshippers believed that Mithras was born on the 25th of December.
Interestingly, it was said that his birth was witnessed by 3 shepherds.
Also of note, is the fact that Mithraism celebrated this date with the Nativity of the Sun.
PAGANISM
As I mentioned previously in my post about Halloween, many Christian celebrations, and other dates of note, are based upon old pagan festivals.
For example, the integration of the Roman Saturnalia and the Scandinavian and Teutonic Yule, which are clearly pagan in origin, now feature during the Church’s year.
SUN-DAY
Back in the times of ancient Egypt, the god Osiris represented the sun.
Coupled with Akhenaton’s belief in monotheism, this may have led to the concept of the ’sun of God’, alternatively recognised as Jesus.
Either way, early Christian imagery generally depicts holy people with a light backdrop of rays of light, or corolla, around their heads.
This is clearly designed to show that they represent the sun.
The worship of the sun was a common element in many early pagan and Roman religions.
For this reason, even to this day, Sun-day is held to be a holy day in many religions, including Christianity.
It’s Ironic, then, that when God said to keep the Sabbath holy, that he was actually referring to Saturday. How many Christians around the world worship on a Sunday instead?
THE REAL MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
Considering the links between December 25th and the Winter Solstice, would it then not be logical to conclude that the real meaning of Christmas is sun worship?
In ancient times everyone knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that life itself was dependent upon the sun.
Almost all religions, current and past, hold sun worship as a pillar of their philosophy.
Major celebrations and large festivals were held at the Winter Solstice in order to recognise and affirm the victory of the strength of the sun over the forces of darkness (evil) that try to suppress it.
Prior to the Roman emperor Constantine’s push for Christianity in his realm, Christmas was not celebrated by Christians at all.
That only came to pass through integration with Mithraism.
In Catholicism, it was believed that only the heathens celebrated the sun on the 25th of December.
However, in order to integrate the masses into the Church of Rome, December 25th was made a temporal date for the birth of Christ in order to appease them.
JESUS WAS NOT ALONE ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Further evidence to suggest that December 25th is not a true celebration of the birth of Jesus may be highlighted by the fact that he was not alone in having that birth date.
The following deities were also born on ‘Christmas day’ -
- Vishnu
- Osiris
- Hercules
- Mithras
- Apollo
- Adonis
- Tammuz
- Buddha
- Indra
- Horus
- Dionysus
Does this list suggest that the whole concept of celebrating Christmas, supposedly the birth date of Christ, is at best a misled philosophy?
Is it not possible that the whole concept of Christianity is just a collection of borrowed dates, newly spun versions of older stories and, ultimately, a religious scam?
Could it be said that the all-embracing Christian faith simply stole other religious dates and then applied their own belief systems to them, in order to appeal to the mass market?
CONCLUSION
Christmas time often sees many arguments between different groups.
Non-Christians will moan that Christmas is too religious.
Christians complain that Christmas is associated too closely with pagan rituals.
However, the simple fact is that the 25th of December has always been associated with Sun worship, dating back thousands of years prior to the advent of Christianity.
Consider the traditions of a modern Christmas -
- Christmas trees
- Decorations
- The Nativity
All are pagan in origin, yet are intrinsic to how many people celebrate the 25th of December, regardless of their religion.
Nevertheless, Christians will still be happy, safe in the knowledge that they are deluding themselves into thinking that the day has some relevance to Christ.
Equally, pagans should be happy, knowing that the sun is being worshipped in one form or another.
Those without religion, well, they get the commercial and social pleasures of the holiday season don’t they?
What does Christmas mean to you?
Was Christmas stolen by Christians, from the pagans?
Does that make any difference to your beliefs, or do you not care?‘
Later in this article I will state why I think Halloween is a scam.
Firstly though, here is what Halloween is all about -
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
Around 2,000 years ago the people of Ireland, then known as the Celts, celebrated their new year on November the first.
This date signified the beginning of winter, a time when mortality rates were much higher, due to the cold and dark associated with the following few months.
Therefore, the Celts believed that on the night before, October 31st, there was a link between the worlds of the living and the dead.
On this evening, they thought that the ghosts and spirits of the dead would return for a night, intent on damaging crops and causing great mischief for those they left behind.
To this end, they celebrated the night with a festival known as Samhain which was a time for Druids and priests to make predictions about the coming year.
Furthermore, the Celtic people would wear costumes made from animal skulls and skins, and would sacrifice animals and crops to their deities on huge bonfires.
In later years, the Celts became integrated with their Roman conquerors and there was a mixing of their respective cultures, beliefs and festivals.
The Romans honoured Pomona, goddess of trees and fruit. Her symbol, an apple, became associated with Samhain and may explain why ‘apple bobbing’ is still popular on Halloween to this day.
Later still, Pope Boniface IV attempted to hijack Samhain for the Church.
This he did by assigning All Saint’s Day to November 1st. The olde English translation of All Saint’s 
Day was ‘Alholowmesse’ which later evolved into ‘All Hallows’.
Therefore Samhain, the night before, became known as All Hallows Eve.
I believe the majority of Americans still use this term, though in Britain the phrase further evolved until October 31st became known as Halloween.
MODERN COSTUME
A large part of modern Halloween celebrations involves dressing up in costumes, much like the original Celts.
However, the nature of the attire has changed somewhat.
Instead of animal skins, people are far more likely to be seen dressed as ghosts, skeletons, vampires or even popular television characters. (Staggeringly, the winner of the best Halloween outfit at my kids’ school last year went at Snow White!!).
GAMES
Bobbing for apples has already been mentioned but it is not the only game that is based on the early celebrations.
Another game often played is divination where a blindfolded child has to choose a piece of paper upon which is written a prophecy.
By making the choice themselves, it is said that the prophecy will come true for them during the course of the following year.
Another game that is well known is trick or treat.
This is probably the main point of interest for children at Halloween, as they not only get to dress up, but they also go knocking on people’s doors, asking for treats.
If a treat is not forthcoming, then a trick will be played which will often involve throwing eggs at windows for example.
PUMPKINS
The pumpkin is itself a part of Irish tradition, though not originally part of the Samhain festival.
Whilst emptying a pumpkin and placing a light inside to turn it into a lantern was begun by the Irish, the carving of faces onto pumpkins actually originated in America where crops grew to a much larger size.
WHY DO I THINK HALLOWEEN IS A SCAM?
At the beginning of the article I stated that I believe Halloween is a scam.
Why do I think that?
Well, it has nothing to do with occultism, something that ‘Devil’s night’ has become associated with in recent years.
That is because Halloween, as you now hopefully know, was never a Christian festival in the first place.
Instead, my belief that Halloween is a scam is to do with the commercialism of the event.
Samhain began as a festival, borne on the fears of those who lived at the time, who did not fully understand or comprehend the world they lived in.
Two millenniums later and modern man has a good grasp of science, adequate heating (in the majority of countries), crops tend not to fail and, for the most part, people do not believe in mischief-making ghosts and spirits coming back to play havok on October 31st.
Why then, do we still recognise and celebrate Halloween?
Simply, because clever marketing tactics are employed by retail companies looking to turn a profit, and here’s how -
- Overpriced pumpkins
- Overpriced and flimsy costumes, unlikely to be re-usable the following year
- Increased sales of sweets and other gifts to be handed to trick or treaters
- Associated sales of plastic teeth, ambient music collections and other worthless rubbish
Oh, and don’t forget that dentists see an upturn in business after the kids have eaten all the sweets they receive too 
CONCLUSION
Halloween can be great fun, especially children who come home at the end of the evening with a huge amount of sweets.
Conversely, it can also be a huge annoyance.
I know personally that after the 50th knock on my door it starts to test my patience.
Additionally, some may either live in fear of Halloween.
I know some elderly people in my area who feel quite intimidated by elder children who levy all kinds of threats if sweets or money are not given to them.
Ultimately, Halloween in this day and age bears little to no resemblance to the original festival of Samhain.
Verdict : Halloween has become a RETAIL SCAM, designed to extract money from those who probably have no idea what they are commemorating in the first place.
Much has been written about the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September the 11th, 2001.
Despite the vast commentary from experts and laymen alike, there still seems to be many unanswered questions about who exactly was behind the attack, why they orchestrated it and how they were able to organise it.
If you search Google for the phrase “9/11 conspiracy” then there are some 7.2 million results!
Is this because there really was a huge conspiracy behind the attacks on that fateful day or is it the case that an awful lot of people want to believe in alternative theories?
THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES
The reasons why some people believe that the 9/11 attacks were anything other than the official line of an attack by Al-Qaeda are numerous, to say the least.
Here are some of the more common alternative theories -
- The planes were flown by remote control as evidenced by the fact that some of the alleged hijackers were found alive after the event
- The US government had advanced knowledge of the impending attacks and chose not to act to prevent them
- That the attacks were co-ordinated by foreign security services, with or without knowledge of the US government
- The attack on the Pentagon left a hole in the building that was far too small for the aircraft that was supposed to have hit it and that, therefore, a missile must have been fired instead
- The Twin Towers were built to withstand earthquakes and extreme heat and should never have collapsed in the way they did, leading to some concluding that explosives must have been used
There are, of course, many other conspiracy theories out there too, ranging from the involvement of Mossad to links to ‘The New World Order‘ and a whole host of other possibilities which range from the plausible to the downright incredible.
WHO, OR WHAT, DO YOU BELIEVE WAS BEHIND THE ATTACKS ON 9/11?
SATWANT KAUR HAD HIGH HOPES FOR HER FUTURE ON THE DAY SHE GOT MARRIED.
She sincerely believed that she had found both hope and happiness.
She had found herself a husband who worked and had a career in Italy.
He had returned to India to find himself a bride.
Satwant was looking forward to a new and exciting life in Italy after leaving her home in Punjab, northern India.
Her hopes and happiness were soon dashed though.
Less than a week after her wedding she realised that her husband, Sarwan Singh, was never going to take her to Italy with him.
The marriage was purely a scam.
DOWRIE OR DEATH
With the cost of living and incomes varying between countries, Indian men who work abroad are quite a catch as husbands because their incomes are relatively high when compared to typical salaries in their native country.
For this reason, their families typically demand extremely large dowrys, despite the fact that such a practice is banned in India.
Satwant Kaur says that her family paid $15,000 to Sarwan Singh and his family purely for the wedding festivities.
Such a sum for an Indian family is a huge amount of money.
Within days, Sarwan’s parents listed more demands.
They required a house, a television and another $15,000.
They threatened to murder Satwant if her family did not furnish them with all of their desires.
ABANDONED
Kaur, who is now 30, fled back to her family in India, along with her 3 year old daughter who was conceived during a brief visit from Sarwan.
Due to Indian culture, Satwan and her daughter now live with the stigma of having been abandoned.
Satwan is not the only Indian woman to find herself in this position.
It is believed that up to 15,000 women, purely in the northern state of Punjab, are victims of this ever more common scam which sees Indian men from overseas arranging marriages back home, expressly for the purpose of extorting wealth from their brides’ families.
This problem is more acute in Punjab, due to the fact that they have a large proportion of residents who work abroad.
It is estimated that some 6,000 children have been sired by non resident Indian Punjabis.
In many cases the Punjabi girls’ parents have then found themselves having to pay dowrys that typically fall into the range of $30,000 - $40,000.
Many non resident Punjabi men are returning home to take wives, not because they wish to marry someone from their province, but because they desire the money they will receive from the woman’s parents.
Often new brides will be quite literally left standing at the altar, albeit after the wedding ceremony has taken place.
NO CONSEQUENCES
The Indian men behind these scam marriages are often confident that they will not be caught as little effort is put into tracking them down and prosecuting them.
Satwant Kaur, however, is hoping to have Sarwan Singh extradited from Italy so that he can face charges of fraud.
(Thanks to Aruna for the spelling corrections!)
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Friday, November 7, 2008
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