Jobs & Blogs
I had an interview today at a bookstore. It went well (actually, it felt more like socializing than interviewing - was it just her, or have I just been doing really badly all these years?) and whenever the background check comes through (the webform to fill out for that was also easier than I was expecting, but then, a bookstore BG Check != US Clearance App, so maybe I'm being silly) then I should get a call for an interview with the GM. I'd put in for management or sales clerk, and the manager told me they don't actually have any openings for management right now - corporate just likes to keep those posted on the job site. Apparently they promote from within, for the most part. Works for me. I have plenty of experience in customer service and add-on sales, and it's a bookstore...! Why haven't I tried this before? Oh, I know - because before I wouldn't have had the will to avoid buying out the place every time I set foot in the doors :P See, extended underemployment has taught me something!
So, when I finally got my email up - for some reason I had to reboot everything from the modem to the computer - I had some other messages next to the background check link. It seems one of the applications I emailed a while back has finally garnered response - three responses, from three different email addresses, two of them within an hour of each other, telling me to log into three different websites and provide information. Evidently, scammers don't keep track of how many times they email each mark. Interestingly, the first one specifies that I log in with Facebook.
Yyyyyyeahhhhh. So here's the question: do I go after their whois and complain? They're probably using a domain privacy service, which would likely cancel them for this, and once before I complained to a host/registrar about a fake job email (which was completely out of the blue, that time) and they emailed back to tell me that apparently it had been set up on a stolen card, so it was shut down now. Most of the Craigslist posts these days are fake jobs, which is seriously frustrating, but since the majority of these spammers are re-routing hopefuls to their affiliate links rather than trying to get their personal data, there's no easy/obvious way to stop them. I hate to say it, but maybe Craigslist needs to implement a posting fee on the jobs section here, like they did with the big cities.
Also, speaking of FB, what a nag it's turning out to be. It used to be that occasionally I'd get a message that someone sent me a private message, or a "hey, you haven't logged on in a while, we miss you!" Lately it's more like every few days: "Chrystalline, you have notifications pending." It's annoying, but I don't want to turn off notifications altogether. JournalFen has a more effective approach. They send me notices when I get comments, so when the spammers hit my journal, I have to log in to delete them. LJ lets me screen all anonymous and suspicious comments, which means I can leave it for a while, and on FB, the spam is almost always from my friends, trying to get me to play a game. (Look, you're my friends and family, and I love you, but quit it with the games, will you? The only apps I have on FB are the ones I a. can't remove, b. use for job-hunting, or c. use for political stuff. I'm not into webgames, sorry to disappoint.) Anyway, yeah, FB is turning into that kid that pesters you for attention every five minutes: "Hey, look at me. Didja know I could do this? Hey, I'm over here. Hey, hey, didja see this? Hey!" :: whap! :: Shut up, Navi.
You know, I don't really understand spammers. First of all, the majority of blog platforms have implemented NoFollow into their comment link display, assuming you get past the screening and spam filtering, so spamming a blog with links gets you ZERO search engine boost. Second, they seem to go after older, less-traveled blogs, which means there are fewer people to see it. You put time into posting stuff here and there, and all you manage to do is annoy the one or two people who maintain each blog - why do it? Makes no sense.
Oh and BTW, for some reason I've been having trouble getting my WP blog to restore properly, so I've switched hosts to try again. I'm not intending to go back to WP, just copy/paste over here (since LJ seems to be where everyone prefers to comment anyway) but I'd rather have it formatted properly via WP than have to manually go through the entire SQL file and reformat it. For some reason, it says it's imported the SQL and the main page looks fine, but when I click on any of the links, I get a 404 Page Not Found. Grrrr. Might be a while.
So, when I finally got my email up - for some reason I had to reboot everything from the modem to the computer - I had some other messages next to the background check link. It seems one of the applications I emailed a while back has finally garnered response - three responses, from three different email addresses, two of them within an hour of each other, telling me to log into three different websites and provide information. Evidently, scammers don't keep track of how many times they email each mark. Interestingly, the first one specifies that I log in with Facebook.
Yyyyyyeahhhhh. So here's the question: do I go after their whois and complain? They're probably using a domain privacy service, which would likely cancel them for this, and once before I complained to a host/registrar about a fake job email (which was completely out of the blue, that time) and they emailed back to tell me that apparently it had been set up on a stolen card, so it was shut down now. Most of the Craigslist posts these days are fake jobs, which is seriously frustrating, but since the majority of these spammers are re-routing hopefuls to their affiliate links rather than trying to get their personal data, there's no easy/obvious way to stop them. I hate to say it, but maybe Craigslist needs to implement a posting fee on the jobs section here, like they did with the big cities.
Also, speaking of FB, what a nag it's turning out to be. It used to be that occasionally I'd get a message that someone sent me a private message, or a "hey, you haven't logged on in a while, we miss you!" Lately it's more like every few days: "Chrystalline, you have notifications pending." It's annoying, but I don't want to turn off notifications altogether. JournalFen has a more effective approach. They send me notices when I get comments, so when the spammers hit my journal, I have to log in to delete them. LJ lets me screen all anonymous and suspicious comments, which means I can leave it for a while, and on FB, the spam is almost always from my friends, trying to get me to play a game. (Look, you're my friends and family, and I love you, but quit it with the games, will you? The only apps I have on FB are the ones I a. can't remove, b. use for job-hunting, or c. use for political stuff. I'm not into webgames, sorry to disappoint.) Anyway, yeah, FB is turning into that kid that pesters you for attention every five minutes: "Hey, look at me. Didja know I could do this? Hey, I'm over here. Hey, hey, didja see this? Hey!" :: whap! :: Shut up, Navi.
You know, I don't really understand spammers. First of all, the majority of blog platforms have implemented NoFollow into their comment link display, assuming you get past the screening and spam filtering, so spamming a blog with links gets you ZERO search engine boost. Second, they seem to go after older, less-traveled blogs, which means there are fewer people to see it. You put time into posting stuff here and there, and all you manage to do is annoy the one or two people who maintain each blog - why do it? Makes no sense.
Oh and BTW, for some reason I've been having trouble getting my WP blog to restore properly, so I've switched hosts to try again. I'm not intending to go back to WP, just copy/paste over here (since LJ seems to be where everyone prefers to comment anyway) but I'd rather have it formatted properly via WP than have to manually go through the entire SQL file and reformat it. For some reason, it says it's imported the SQL and the main page looks fine, but when I click on any of the links, I get a 404 Page Not Found. Grrrr. Might be a while.