Partners In Crime is managing the Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller virtual tour with a month long series of reviews. You’ll get the straight skinny on the book and reader reactions. PLUS! If you sign up, you’ll have an opportunity to win a $25 Amazon gift card. Sign up now! https://bit.ly/3K4NKtu You’ll see where Rita will gets reviewed and you have a chance to participate.
Diane Banti of Lake Wales, FL! Our December Quiz winner of the $25 Amazon gift card. You can be our next winner.
Sign up on our site and answer this month’s crime fiction quiz question. Once you sign up, you are eligible every month your name remains on the list. Get on the list and give yourself a shot. https://valeriewebster.com/do-you-know
Thanks to The New York Times for publishing legitimate local and national organizations collecting funds and other donations for those hard hit by the recent mid-west tornadoes. Be generous – and be grateful.
Local
Brother’s Brother Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based organization that provides disaster relief, is accepting donations so it can donate to food banks in Arkansas and Kentucky. It is also sending items to victims and emergency crews in affected areas.
Taylor County Bank in Campbellsville, Ky., is accepting donations by mail to its fund for tornado victims. Its mailing address is P.O. Box 200 Campbellsville, Ky., 42719.
The Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, created by Gov. Andy Beshear, is collecting donations for victims in the western portion of the state.
National
AmeriCares, a health-focused relief and development organization, has sent an emergency response team to Kentucky and has offered assistance to health care facilities in several states. The organization is accepting donations to help fund these efforts.
CARE, an organization that works with impoverished communities, is collecting money to provide food, cash and clean water to the tornado victims.
Convoy of Hope, an organization that feeds the hungry, is asking for donations to help the survivors across the affected states.
A Feeding America location in Kentucky is raising funds to help provide people with “ready-to-eat bags of food.”
Global Empowerment Mission, a disaster-relief organization, has partnered with local groups and is raising money to help its team on the ground in Kentucky.
GoFundMe has created a centralized hub with verified fund-raisers to help those affected by the tornadoes. It will be updated with new fund-raisers as they are verified.
International Medical Corps, an organization that provides emergency medical services, is raising funds to give people shelter and essential items.
The Red Cross has opened shelters and is asking people to make appointments to give blood. Both its national arm and its local chapter in Western Kentucky are collecting donations.
The Salvation Army is soliciting donations to help tornado victims in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Team Rubicon, a disaster-relief organization, is raising money to help its team of military veterans and volunteers clear roads in Western Kentucky.
The United Way of Kentucky is asking for donations to provide support services for families in the state who were affected by the tornadoes.
Great Gifts for Readers on Your Holiday List
We enjoy hearing the gossip about the rich and infamous. This book tells it all about the authors we loved – stuff we never learned in English class.
From the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild. Start your day with some of the greatest opening gambits ever penned.
From the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild. The Guild offers you those fab literary finishes as well.
Writer, author, poet or if you just love writing, slip on this t-shirt to feel proud and be cool.
Book lovers may swear they’d rather read from a book rather than a screen. Even those folks have to admit traveling is more convenient with this six-inch, high-res, waterproof Kindle reader.
This plush book holder makes a thoughtful gift for friends, family and colleagues. It’s great for Kindle, iPad, tablets, ebook readers and it can even double as a travel pillow.
Let’s start with a definition of phishing. It is the practice of tricking Internet users, through the use of deceptive email messages, phone calls or websites, into revealing personal or confidential information which can then be used to perpetuate identity theft, access sensitive data and/or steal financial assets from the victim.
Email messages employ “spoofing.” A hacker sends emails that appear to originate from trustworthy sources. They may appear to be sent from legitimate companies, from friends, family members or coworkers.
Hackers also spoof websites. They accomplish this via a technique called URL “cloaking” or “masking” Through the use of specialized scripts of computer code, hackers can cover up a legitimate URL with one that is associated with a trusted website.
The most common phishing scams involve bank or credit card notifications, unsolicited tech support notifications, “receipts” of high-priced items that you supposedly purchased, cut off of a service you use such as email or Amazon or even black mail attempts threatening to “out” your viewing of pornographic sites.
Common features to be aware of in email phishing:
Spotting the suspects:
Here are a few good ways to explore without getting snagged by the “phisher”:
Extricating yourself from the clutches of internet thieves can be costly in more than one way. Identity theft can take years of legal work to resolve. Be aware of the many ways internet bad guys try to steal from you.
Valerie Webster and Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller in the spotlight via Author of the Day interview.
