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.
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.
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:
Too good to be true offers
Urgency, you must act now
Hyperlinks within an email – ways to get you to a fraudulent site to complete the theft
Attachments in an email – often contain viruses or ransomware to seize your machine
Unknown senders – maybe not the Nigerian prince but folks you don’t know with requests or offers
Spotting the suspects:
Misspellings and poor grammar
Poor graphic reproduction, i.e., fuzzy logos or other graphics
Address from incorrect domain – if Bank of America sends you an email, it certainly will not come from @gmail.com or other personal account.
Emails from people you don’t know asking you to look at embarrassing pics of a friend.
Pop-ups – don’t be quick on the click.
Here are a few good ways to explore without getting snagged by the “phisher”:
Hover your PC mouse over the email address to expose the real sender. If you’re using a mobile device (Android, Apple), investigate an email address by tapping on the address with your finger or stylus. You will see the actual sender’s address.
Keep your browser up to date
Maintain your firewalls
Using anti-phishing toolbars or apps
MOST OF ALL – THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK!
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.
Sisters in Crime is sponsoring NaNoWriMo this November. They will schedule write-ins and weekly Twitter sprints to help you get to 50K words. They will also make other resources and support available.
The #SinC50K will offer:
2 write-ins a day 6 days a week
Twitter sprints twice a week
A private Facebook group
A weekly check-in with other members
Join and SinC will send you more information as November 1 approaches! Even if you’re not a member, SinC allows for non-members to participate if you’ve created a Guest – Non-Member account and signed in
In Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller, Rita spends time wading through corporate records, social media and online sources in her quest to identify the killer of her reporter friend, Bobby Ellis.
Why is this such a slavish task when we believe the Federal Election Commission (FEC) requires periodic reports that disclose the total amount of all contributions they receive, and the identity, address, occupation, and employer of any person who contributes more than $200 during a calendar year?
Secret contributions and dark money took on new freedoms in 1976 with the Buckley v. Valeo, landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on campaign finance. The justices held that limits on election spending in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 were unconstitutional.
The Court ruled that expenditure limits contravened the First Amendment provision on freedom of speech because a restriction on spending for political communication necessarily reduces the quantity of expression. It limited disclosure provisions and limited the Federal Election Commission‘s power.
At the heart of this ruling and subsequent gaming of the system, is the shielding of donations via non-profits. These are the organizations given free rein: 501(c)(4) (“social welfare”), 501(c)(5) (unions) and 501(c)(6) (trade association) groups not to disclose donors. These groups receive unlimited donations from corporations, individuals and unions and not discloses to voters where the money came from.
Examples of 501(c)(4) are National Rifle Association, Planned Parenthood, Majority Forward, One Nation. 501(c)(5) examples are Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Examples of
Beyond the nondisclosure provision, Political Action Committees (PACs) frequently employ LLCs to disguise the identity of a donor or source of money spent on behalf of a political candidate.
LLCs are governed by state law but minimal information is necessary to file the required articles of incorporation. In states such as Delaware, New Mexico, Nevada and Wyoming, LLCs may be incorporated without reporting names of members or managers.
The lack of transparency helps disguise the source of millions of dollars in political spending. Shell LLC companies make major contributions to super PACs each election cycle, leaving voters in the dark while the recipient often knows the donor’s true identity. The influx of dark money jumped from around $5M in 2012 election to over $1B in the 2020 cycle.
So how can anyone like a Rita Mars get to the truth of backers/donors from these organizations when there is no comprehensive federal finance accountability legislation in place?There are some methods to put names to these mystery donors. Here is a list of tactics to track dark money expenditures:
Issue One, OpenSecrets, and PBS are all organizations that have conducted extensive research into dark money but they have only modest access to reveal the biggest spenders.
Valerie Webster and Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller in the spotlight via Author of the Day interview.
Make your next book club event an author event with a writer who’s lived the cases, developed the crime fighting technologies. Contact Valerie Webster today.
