I don’t hold the highest of opinions for social media, I figure it is just the newest and hottest ways for us to be conned into handing over our information under the illusion that the free stuff we are being given in return is actually worth something so that we can be marketed to.

So needless to say when I saw this infographic I couldn’t resist the temptation to share it with you.

Enjoy.

via Bit Rebels

Social media is ruining our minds and we have the proof [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Seattle welfare recipient and her husband had their home raided recently by federal officials after it was discovered that the unnamed female was receiving federal welfare checks and housing assistance. The raid occurred after officials realized that the couple were living in a $1 million lakefront home on Lake Washington.

First reported by KING 5 the couple’s names have not been reported because charges have not yet been issued.

What is known is that search warrant documents show the female receiving just over $1,200 per month in public housing vouchers, monthly cash and a disability paycheck from the government along with food stamps. According to records the welfare benefits have been received since the couple moved into their large home in 2003.

According to property records the home is valued at $1.2 million and features 2,500 square feet, large gardens and a boat dock.

An unnamed source for the federal welfare program says a “flaw” in the program doesn’t allow the agency to analyze where people are living, therefore a ritzy address in an affluent area goes unchecked despite the welfare recipient listing a posh address for their checks.

Court documents show that the couple used the money to travel to far off exotic locations including Tel Aviv, top-notch resorts in Mexico and Turkey. The couple also gave money to charity on a yearly basis.

Here’s a video of the incident:

Do you think the couple should be forced to pay back all money received plus interest?I personally would like to see this type of fraud met with an extended period behind bars, I would personally rather have money being taken out of my pocket to house a prisoner rather than having money taken out of my taxpaying pocket so someone can take trips around the world.

Seattle Welfare Recipient Found Living In $1 Million Lakefront Home is a post from: The Inquisitr

I have never been a bottled water proponent. In fact I think it is the greatest marketing con game ever pulled on consumer on such a global level; this was before I watched the excellent documentary called Tapped.

So it was rather interesting today to come across a post on the Yahoo! Green blog by Lori Bongiorno about a recent study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that analyzed the labels of 173 unique bottled water products, as well as company websites, to determine if the companies disclosed where the water actually came from, how it – or if – the water was treated, and whether they revealed any results from purity tests.

According to the report more than half of the bottled water products failed the EWG’s transparency test. Of the 173 only three brands: Gerber Pure Purified Water, Nestle Pure Life Water, and Penta Ultra-Purified Water, passed while earning the highest marks for disclosure as well as using the most advanced purification methods.

Flip the coin and we have at the bottom six brands that got the worst marks from EWG for not proving with a minimum of three basic facts about their bottled water product. Thos companies are: Whole Foods Italian Still Mineral Water, Vintage Natural Spring Water, Sahara Premium Drinking Water, O Water Sport Electrolyte Enhanced Purified Drinking Water, Market Basket Natural Spring Water, and Cumby’s Spring Water.

How to  the brands stack up score wise and popularity in sales:

1. Pure Life Purified Water (Nestle), EWG grade = B
2. Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = C
3. Aquafina Purified Drinking Water (Pepsi), EWG grade = D
4. Dasani Purified Water (Coca-Cola), EWG grade = D
5. Deer Park Natural Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = D
6. Ice Mountain Natural Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = D
7. Ozarka Natural Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = D
8. Poland Spring Natural Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = D
9. Zephyrhills Natural Spring Water (Nestle), EWG grade = D
10. Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine Spring Water (CG Roxane), EWG grade =  F

Gee color me surprised.

Then of course there is Penn and Teller who pointed all this out years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPAjUvvnIc

The bottled water sham continues is a post from: The Inquisitr

There’s a report making the rounds on the web that started with a New York Times post about how cellphones are being used more for data than they are for actual voice phone calls.

According to the CITA, the wireless industry association, the amount of data in the form of emails, streaming video, music and other services in the United States increased by more than 50 percent over 2009. Not only that but the actual time spent in a phone conversation has dropped as well from 2.27 minutes in 2008 to 1.81 minutes in 2009.

“I have thousands of rollover minutes,” said Zach Frechette, 28, editor of Good magazine in Los Angeles, who explained that he dialed only when he needed to get in touch with someone instantly, and limited those calls to 30 seconds. “I downgraded to the lowest available minute plan, which I’m not even getting close to using.”

Mr. Frechette said part of the reason he rarely talked on his phone was that he had an iPhone, with its notoriously spotty phone reception in certain locales. But also, he said, most of his day was spent swapping short messages through services like Gmail, Facebook and Twitter. That way, he said, “you can respond when it’s convenient, rather than impose your schedule on someone else.”

Others say talking on the phone is intrusive and time-consuming, while others seem to have no patience for talking to just one person at a time. They prefer to spend their phone time moving seamlessly between several conversations, catching up on the latest news and updates by text and on Facebook with multiple friends, instead of just one or two.

“Even though in theory, it might take longer to send a text than pick up the phone, it seems less disruptive than a call,” said Jefferson Adams, a 44-year-old freelance writer living in San Francisco. By texting, he said, “you can multitask between two or three conversations at once.”

Source: New York Times

All of this the mobile providers love of course because the more data they get flowing the more money that can make and eventually the more the can increase their fees for service.

However this is a nothing more than a scam. The idea that we are paying to separate fees, one for voice and another for data, is nothing short of theft. What people are seemingly forgetting that both data and voice are exactly the same ones and zeros in the digital age. The moment your voice or data hits the pipe they are exactly the same.

The pipe doesn’t go – oh this is voice ones and zeros … oh and these are data ones and zeros. We have been convinced by the providers that these are two different things and as long as they can keep us all fooled they get to make money hand over fist because they are in effect charging us twice for a single service.

Talk about having your cake and eating to.

More data than talk and the scam continues is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sys-Con Media, the company behind a range of tech publications and events has been caught running a massive splog.

The site, Ulitzer launched March 27 and was pitched by the company as being designed to replace Wikipedia with “three dimensional live content offerings and dynamic topic structure.” What they don’t mention is that the “1 million original stories contributed by more than 6,000 authors” consist nearly entirely of content scraped in full from other sites without permission.

Aral Balkan exposed the scam when he saw his name appear on the site via a Google News alert. After going public about the issue, Sys-Con then defamed Balkan on the site, calling him a Turkish Fag and a homosexual son of a bitch. The Next Web has more details and screenshots here.

Besides possibly making the most absurd claims I’ve ever read about a new product (read here), there’s something else familiar about this site besides the stolen content that others haven’t picked up on yet: the design.

Compare and contrast: ZDNet vs Ulitzer

Sys-Con caught operating a massive splog is a post from: The Inquisitr

Louisiana’s attorney general office is monitoring more than a hundred domain names registered in the past day related to the storm, most containing words such as “charity” and “relief.” While some may be legit, many are feared to be fake fronts for crooks to steal kind-hearted people’s credit card and bank account information, then use it for their own selfish purposes. Some are even looking ahead with names related to Hanna, the next storm about to hit the U.S. coast. Several of the domains are results of squatters looking to churn out some cash from the storms and are already up for sale on eBay or Sedo.

Phishers have also started sending out e-mails to families along the Gulf Coast that ask for their bank information to “confirm” it in the storm’s wake. These same sorts of attacks all popped up in the days surrounding Hurricane Katrina three years ago.

If you’re interested in contacting a legit charity working to help families displaced by Hurricane Gustav, check out the list below. You can also find everything from live cameras and storm tracking tools to Web services devoted to helping find loved ones at our Online Storm Resource Center.

Legitimate Gustav Charities:

• American Red Cross
• Americares
• Baton Rouge Area Foundation
• Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans
• Direct Relief International
• Food for the Poor
• Mercy Corps
• North Shore Animal League
• Operation USA
• Salvation Army of Alabama-Louisiana-Mississippi
• Save the Children

UPDATE*** For the latest storm stream, see Hurricane Ike Live.

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net is a post from: The Inquisitr