Keynote Speakers – Be Warned

Many people desire to become a professional keynote speaker and nothing is more exciting than receiving an invitation to speak…especially if it is overseas.  Below I paste an email I received today which is a complete SCAM and I am posting it to warn anyone who receives such an email to be very careful.

On reading the email it is quite obvious that the writer struggles with English and also the email addresses are very suspect.

The email I received was from: stjohnchurch@imail.com NOTE: I have removed the hyperlinks

Here is the rest of it.  Another dreadful person trying to rip off other people:

St John Anglican Church,
Address: 39 Eccleston Square,
London, SW1V 1BX,
E-mail: Stjohnanglicanchurch@imail.com
E-mail: Helpdesk@Achurchnearyou.com
Website: http://www.achurchnearyou. com/
Telephone: + 44 704 205 6151
Telephone: + 44 795 276 3257

Dear Deb Carr,

My Name is Rev Don Xavier  from the St John Anglican Church we are writing to Invite you to be our guest speaker at the up Coming St John Anglican Church 2013 Anniversary which is taking place here In UK England, We are writing to invite and confirm your booking to be our Guest Speaker at up Coming St John Anglican Church 2013 Anniversary. Other Ministers Of God are coming from Different part of the World.

Expected audience: 500 people Duration of speech per speaker: 1 Hour
Host: Rev Don Xavier
Topic: EDUCATION BUSINESS HEALTH INSPIRATION
DATE:  20th Till 23th Match 2013

The purpose of these conference is to re-brand the heart,mind,body and soul of Christians who have gone astray and are diverting their whole attention into mundane affairs and ensuring that it is possible for Christians, whether new or of long standing, to deepen their spiritual lives and gain eternal life. Also bringing a heart of deep compassion and a strong commitment to the fullness of life that is found only in the redemptive love of Christ, we are Sorry about our late invitation it is due to the fact that our Speaker had back out because of her sudden illness.

We came across your profile on http://coyotekeynotes.com.au/ we also listen to you on Radio and we say it’s up to standard and we will be very glad to have such an outstanding personality in our mist for these overwhelming gathering. With your Multi  talented speech more lives will come close to GOD. Arrangement to welcome you here will be discussed as soon as you honor our invitation. If you have any more publicity material, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are taking care of your traveling and Hotel Accommodation expenses including your Speaker fees you are bless as you honor this invitation it is a pleasure writing you.

Hope to hear from you Asap.

In His Services,
Rev Don Xavier
St John Anglican Church.
Debbie’s Comments: Yeah Right Rev Baby! – Go earn some money with some honesty.

I miss good old-fashioned manners

What ever happened to good old-fashioned manners? Is it really that difficult for people to stop and consider others?  Today I’m heading back home from the Sydney’s CBD to up the coast.  So far, I’ve nearly been knocked over by some guy who was racing up the stairs to get a train and I was at the top. We were heading for a Deb tumbling down the stairs for sure, so with my superwoman powers I managed to avoid the collision.

Then I get on my train, and the back carriage is supposedly a ‘silent carriage’ so people like me who wish to work or read can do so without listening to other people’s phone conversations, loud music personal conversations.  Yes, great idea Cityrail but no one monitors it! This particular quiet carriage has a mob of teenagers playing loud music and swearing, another group of people talking in some foreign language so I don’t even get to eavesdrop and someone else slurping their drink…GROSS!!!!

I could say something but last time I opened my mouth on a late train I got abused by a guy, then another guy came to my rescue and they ended up in a punch-up, joined by other guys and I had to call 000!

Yes, once upon a time people had manners.

I challenge anyone who reads this post to smile at 5 strangers today!  Here’s mine 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Linkedin has a fair share of scammers and fake profiles too

How is this for a Linked in Message! Are these people serious? Do I look that stupid that I would fall for this Bull*&*T?  This is the message:

•  Larry Willeam has sent you an OpenLink message: Here is the profile: www.linkedin.com/pub/larry-willeam/60/668/a9
Hi
I am going through profile when i saw your profile i wish to know you. My name is Larry and i am from Minnesota. I have had trust issues which made me stay away from everyone including my friends for the passed 4years. I am done with the trust thing and wants to start life all over again, I am willing and ready to trust 100% with my heart, I need a very decent, faithful and mature woman to trust my heart with, someone that will trust and love me as much as I love and trust her. I am not after physical beauty but am after the beauty of the heart. I was impressed when I search and got to your profile. I would love to know you. I am not always here on this site so i will be glad if you can write me on my private email. larrywilleam35@yahoo.com

regards
Larry..
Obviously this scammer can’t speak proper English, even the LinkedIn Profile is ridiculous! It’s such a sad world that we live in with people trying to take advantage of others.  As one of my male Facebook friends said to me when I posted this on FB “Looks genuine to me……..  Lucky you …Pack your bags 🙂 lol“…

Still chuckling at that one!

It’s enough to make my blood boil!

Every morning I wake up and my habit is to look at the news on my smart phone. I have to break this habit because lately it’s been making  my blood boil with the stories of our Government, not only the blatant waste of taxpayers money but also the name calling and antics that go on in Parliament, and this involves both sides!

Today was no exception and it was enough for me to jump on to my laptop and write this post. I figure a good rant might make me feel better.

Photo source: Daily Telegraph

Now before anyone jumps on me for this, I have so many gay friends I think people mistake me for being gay! So I’m all for gay rights but this is taking things to the extreme:

Government waste of money #1

Headline: Being straight no longer normal, students taught

Cost to taxpayer: The $250,000 pilot program was initiated by the Labor government but Mr Piccoli has overseen its implementation in terms three and four this year at six high schools in Sydney and six in the Hunter. Read full article

Government waste of money #2

Headline: Political heat in fake family kitchen

Cost to taxpayer:  THE federal government’s advertising agency spent $100,000 to build three fully furnished fake kitchens complete with new stoves, fridges and appliances to act as backdrops for its carbon tax ads.   Read full article and  that’s just a fraction of what the actual campaign cost.

Government waste of money #3

Headline: Seventeen lawyers assigned to defend Peter Slipper

Cost to Taxpayer: It also emerged that Julian Burnside QC was paid $4800 a day to  represent the Commonwealth with the huge team devoted to defending the  case partly explaining how the Commonwealth legal bill topped $700,000  in a case settled last month for just $50,000. The mind just boggles! Read full article

Not long ago I was in Canberra at the Hyatt Hotel and I witnessed at least 15 Government Limos waiting around for hours whilst some pow wow was happening inside. The cost must have been huge and I question why can’t the Politicians catch taxis like the rest of us?

Meanwhile whilst money is wasted: Wounded troops warning as health cuts hit Aussie soldiers ABOUT 80,000 military personnel will receive lower standards of care, delays in treatment and won’t be able to choose their preferred doctor under sweeping changes to defence health care.   Read full story here

I’ve often wondered what it would be like if taxpayers were to nominate where their money goes: So just for fun here is a poll tell me where you would nominate your tax goes to:  You can vote for more than one.

If you are on LinkedIn and you don’t read this post…..you are an idiot!

Image via CrunchBase

Please note: I realise the title of this blog could be a little offensive, however I really want people to read it so they don’t become the victim of online crime and it’s simply to grab attention. If anyone is an idiot it’s me for writing it…but it seems to be working so I’m leaving it.

Please note another scam masquerading as coming from  LinkedIn: Be very very careful if you receive an email that looks like it came from LinkedIn advising you that you have messages in your inbox:  Here is one I received today and note my comments below. FYI I have taken all the hyperlinks out so people do not click on by mistake.

This is the email I received……….

LinkedIn Reminder [D4BA0DCFA@networkingwithattraction.com]

LinkedIn

REMINDERS

Invitation reminders:

From Ezequiel Page (Insurance Manager at Wolseley)

PENDING MESSAGES

There are a total of 8 message(-s) awaiting your response. Go to InBox now.

This message was sent to enquiries  (at) voxrecruitment.com  This is an occasional email to help you get the most out of LinkedIn.
Adjust your message settings.

LinkedIn values your privacy. At no time has LinkedIn made your email address available to any other LinkedIn user without your permission.

2012, LinkedIn Corporation.

Note:

I was stupid enough to click the link but realised immediately, when I saw the URL loading, that it was a scam: I quickly unplugged my internet connection before the page fully loaded and ran a Malware scan.

• The email address: LinkedIn Reminder [D4BA0DCFA@networkingwithattraction.com]
• I have 5 email accounts so I didn’t notice at first which one it was addressed to which was this one: xxxx at…voxrecruitment.com.au note it was not my personal email address linked to my LinkedIn account

What got my attention was this:

From Ezequiel Page (Insurance Manager at Wolseley) I thought it actually was an invite from someone at a Blue Chip Company who wanted to hire me or book one of my speakers…DOH!!!!! I’ve taken the hyperlink out of the name Ezequiel Page ….seriously though, what a twit I am to think someone called Ezequiel Page is real.

Unfortunately, the world is full of losers who try to hurt other people.  I guess greed and jealously is the cause, but one thing for sure….their Karma will come. I will not stop blogging about these awful criminals and will continue to try to prevent people from getting hurt by exposing their crimes on this blog.

Internet Predators

If there is one thing that makes my blood boil it is the scum on this earth that try and take advantage of other people or try to con them into handing over money.  That’s why I voice my opinion and don’t worry about the Trolls or other predators that post their insignificant comments.

Recently on Facebook I received a friend request from a guy in the U.S.  Very handsome, worked as an officer in the Army, photos of him in his uniform and with his child and oh did I mention…he recently lost his wife and was looking for that special woman?  About 7 photos of this gorgeous man, including him in full uniform in action in Afghanistan.  I immediately sniffed a rat, because he had subscribed to other friends and they were all women. I experimented by allowing his friend request, and I placed a bet with myself that within 12 hours I would receive a private message from him and his grammar would be really bad, and obviously will come from a non-English speaking background! Of course I was right. So the truth is some poor guy’s identity has been stolen and what is even scarier, the identity of his child has also been stolen.  Of course I have ceased him as a friend and reported him to Facebook – not that I would expect Facebook to care or do anything about it.

What actually prompted me to have this little rant is 10 minutes ago I received two emails from Woolworths wanting me to CLICK HERE to win a $50 voucher by completing a survey. Now if I was some little old lady who was new to the internet or someone who maybe isn’t as suspicious I am, then I could have clicked the link and we all know what would have followed with that one.

So anyone receiving an email from Woolworths with or without any branding – the first thing to do is never ever CLICK HERE in an email and check the from email address.  In this case it was: Woolworths Supermarkets [afroditaescort@hotmail.co.uk] and Woolworths Supermarkets [louiseannewong@yahoo.co.uk] both UK email addresses and I’m in Australia….and here are what the dumbnuts wrote in the email:

You   have been selected to access the Woolworths 2 Step Survey and win a 50$ gift   certificate.

Please   click   here and complete the form to receive your reward. Thank you.

This is an automated message.   Please do not reply. Message Id: 0019268154-wmrtsrv.

Give me a break!

Beware of fake SMS messages claiming you have won an Ipad!

Today I received a spam text message on my Android from www.gotfreebies.org (which doesn’t exist) claiming that I have been selected to win from a list of prizes from Iphone to Ipad. It looked genuine and very professional but I’m no sucker so I certainly went to investigate further. It appears that the sms was really from a company called http://au.prizeking.com and if I had put my mobile number in to claim my prize I would have been charged over $4.50 for them to send me SMS with their promotions PLUS I had to opt out by sending STOP to the number 19717777 or I would continue to get these unwanted SMS at a ridiculous cost.

I did a little more research and found this Android forum also makes mention of this SCAM. http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/562927-mobrewards-popup.html (Scroll down to the 27th June entry) The people who create these scams make me ill. Sending sms to con people into signing up for such a rip-off should be a priority for our government to stop this sort of blatant robbery. All I can say this has infuriated me so much I’ll be making some enquiries to our Government on why companies can get away with this and also to my telephone provider, Telstra on why they allow it to happen.

Suicides attributed to Catholic Priest Abuse

In an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald recently states “AT LEAST five people killed themselves after allegedly being sexually abused by paedophile priest Ronald Pickering between 1960 and 1980, new research says.”  The deaths in Melbourne, uncovered by lawyer Judy Courtin, add to the 40 suicides by victims of clergy paedophiles documented in a police report.

My brother took his life after suffering sexual abuse from a priest who happened to be a close family friend of ours. For years my brother Gary suffered deep depression and a feeling of not belonging, not being good enough and a range of other self destructing thinking

I have fond memories of Gary being a happy, gorgeous little boy then suddenly, without reason he turned from a A Grade student to a D grade. He became aggressive, naughty, his eyesight deteriorated and he developed a very bad lower back problem.  Gary was a talented young man with outstanding artistic skills, he used to be able to draw a Walt Disney cartoon of Donald Duck and no one would know it was drawn by a 9 year old boy, he was THAT talented. One day, my father went up to the back shed of our property to find Gary.  Gary was up there alone and he had drawn a picture of himself crying which he called it “The Happy Boy”.  The unfortunate part of this story is in those days, no one questioned or even thought that a priest could molest a young child and as a result my brother held on to his pain until the age of 34 when he finally decided he could not continue in this life. It wasn’t until my brother was in his late twenties that he confided in me of his trauma.  I will  never forget the day he told me, and from then on I became his rock in life, helping him as best I could deal with his demons.

The more I read about justice happening to these animals that took advantage of their power to destroy the lives of so many, the happier I am. I look forward to the day when the Catholic Church pay heavy compensations to the victims of such abuse. Too late for my brother of course, and the Church, despite our demands of investigation were not willing to take any responsibility even though the priest in question was asked to leave the clergy due to his inappropriate behaviour.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/suicides-linked-to-clergys-sex-abuse-20120413-1wzcy.html#ixzz1s5cjTmP2

Related articles

• Well, Cardinal Pell? (noplaceforsheep.com)

Welcome to the Uncouth Generation

Stand aside Baby Boomers, X Generation and of the Y Gens. Let me introduce you to the new Generation which I call the “Uncouth” Generation.  You know  the ones – those delightful people who invade other people’s space, have no manners, usually their most common word in a sentence is “F*&(“  and, they are totally oblivious to other people’s comfort?  I call them the UC’s and this is how I’ll refer to them from now.  Yesterday I endured three experiences of this generation, starting with the train trip home.

A group of four UC’s boarded the train. For the next 20 minutes we poor passengers were subjected to listening to the mandatory “F” word from all  four. Was I tempted to say something?  Yes of course, but one look at them I decided best shut up or I’d most likely end up the victim of some violent teenage group bashing.  They took over the whole vestibule area of the train, sharing their stories about their toilet habits, other bodily functions and…well actually I can’t keep writing anymore of what their conversation was about because it makes me cringe.

Now, before I continue I would like to point out that the “UC” Generation are not really a generation. They can be any age. So let me tell about scenario number two of the UC’s on the same trip. After the first lot of UC’s alighted another group got on. Funnily enough they, too, stayed in the vestibule area. This lot were more polite than the first UC’s because they didn’t swear. Actually they were a young family of four. Four amazingly inconsiderate and self absorbed UC’s. No parental control over two very loud and annoying children and to make it even worse, the parents were equally as loud and inconsiderate. Us poor commuters had to put up with two kids running amok, the parents thinking their two kids are so adorable that surely everyone else on the train wanted to partake in the family frolicking……WRONG!

Third UC experience was after the train trip and now I’m heading towards the shopping centre. I heard a commotion and a lot of swearing and looked over to see two young ladies estimated age 13!  It appeared they were drinking wine and one of them was having a bitchfest on the phone to (I assume) another girl. The very loud conversation went something like this…. “You are not acting like my ‘f’ing friend, if you were my ‘f’ing friend (f this and f that) and it continued.

A couple of weeks ago another UC’r got a mouthful from me when I was walking across the road with my brother’s, girlfriend who is Japanese. A UC on his skateboard whizzed past us, not realising she was with me, and starting yelling ‘chink chink chink”. What the? I managed to get an apology from that one when I gave him my response!

I have a message for all the “UC’s” out there. WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOU. Be quiet, be considerate and stop subjecting the rest of us to your boring conversations and ill manners!

Yes! Big Brother IS watching you – but he has a new name!

Don’t get me wrong this isn’t an anti Facebook rant, far from it, because I’m an avid user and love Facebook  for both personal and business use.  I do have my concerns though. For example, I noticed that every time I signed in the adverts on my page were all for ‘mature singles’ sites.  I get it, I’m the target market for mature single dating sites, however, my concern is that beneath one of the adverts was a message stating that “Friend (not revealing his real name for privacy purposes) has used Zoost”. I wondered if he actually knows that anyone who is getting this advert, who is a friend, can see he uses an online dating service? Nothing wrong with online dating of course, however, I would personally prefer that Facebook didn’t go blabbing to everyone about the links I look at or have been curious to snoop around to see what they are about.

Maybe Big Brother is really Facebook! OK that’s ridiculous but hey some doomsayers predict humans will be microchipped and those that refuse will be ostracised! What if, they got that wrong and if you refused to be on Facebook you were ostracised! Sorry my imagination going a bit astray (must be old age).

Getting back to my  ‘mature singles’ Facebook adverts.  I decided to conduct an experiment last night by changing my profile status relationship from ‘single’ to ‘in a relationship’ just to see if the adverts would stop. You guessed it they did immediately! Now I’m being sent adverts for how to get people to ‘like’ my page, games and sometimes none at all? Oh dear! I’ve turned into a nobody!

Finally, my experiment backfired slightly – I received some lovely messages from some of my FB friends congratulating me on my new relationship. Oops! Red Face! I’m actually still not in one!

The point of this blog? Simple – just be careful what you click because you just don’t know who’s spying on you.  As you can see, I really do love Facebook!

Debbie Carr is MD of Voxy Lady Women’s Speaker Bureau representing outstanding Women Speakers in Australia www.voxylady.com.au

How to scare your customers off for life!

Last week I decided to catch the XPT via NSW Countrylink train to my ill mother in the country.  Mum’s just had a stroke so she is seriously ill.  I thought by catching the train I could do some work for my business whilst relaxing rather than drive the distance.  We left on time, thank you Countrylink, and I settled down with notepad and pen to work on some business strategies.

We arrived at Hornsby Station, about 50 minutes from Central and there we stopped. We waited and waited and finally were told there was a problem with the train that the driver needed to fix.  Well over an hour later we finally started to go.  The trip I am taking is 5 hours and now we have added another 1.5 hours to my day.  OK, not much we can do about that, trains break down – could’ve been worse we might have crashed.

We were creeping along so my confidence in getting to my destination started to dwindle! With good reason, we were eventually told there was another issue with this train and we would again have to wait it out.  Hmmm not liking this very much I really wanted to get to my mother in hospital.  Finally, we start again and are told the train is unreliable so we would have to get off at Wyong and transfer to coaches.  AGGHHHHH!!!!!  By this time I have made a call to the complaints Department of Countrylink and demanded a refund!

In the pouring rain all passengers alight and scramble to find a coach. As I was heading to Wingham I presumed that they would take the Wingham/Taree passengers straight to their destination via the Freeway, the Maitland passengers to their destination etc to help make up for the lost time.  Wishful thinking on my part, that would be far too sensible.  Instead, I was subjected to the most hideous journey and had to take a tour of NSW countryside via Maitland, Dungog, Gloucester and finally Wingham.  Sure the scenery was gorgeous, however I knew the doors of the hospital closed at 8.30 and I needed to see my mum.

We arrived at my destination at 8.40 pm.  A total of 9 hours rather than 5! Yes, I missed seeing my sick mother and I have vowed to myself never to catch another XPT train in my life.  The previous week I had arrived from a flight from Hong Kong around the same amount of time!