I Don't Like Farming

Actually I DO like farming.  It's like-farming I don't like.

Here is an excellent example:

Where to begin?

 

This Facebook page, created on Friday, is called "Ford Focus 4x4" - that's not even a recognised phrase in the world of Ford.

 

Then they actually name A CHILD who has allegedly fraudulently won the car in a competition.

 

Then they claim it is a brand new Ford Focus when it is on a '68 plate - the '69s have been out for two months now much to my amusement.  And we had the '19s in between.  Turns out it was first registered on October 30th last year.  It really is an ST-Line X though!

 

They've changed the deadline time too - it said 1pm when I saw it this morning.

 

The annoying thing is that this has had 43000 comments and 52000 shares - plus 22000 "reactions".  Only 350 of those reactions are the Ha-Ha reaction for those who have seen through it - which means that there are a hell of a lot of people out there who have been fooled.

 

And looking at the comments, they really have been fooled.  Including those who are trying to fool the foolers - "Winning this would really help us as we don't have a reliable car to get my disabled daughter's wheelchair in."

 

I have reported this post to Facebook.  It would be nice to think that this would be taken down but I'm not holding my breath.  Facebook are too busy at the moment selling misleading political ads.

Slide Rules

I read something someone posted on Facebook this morning.

That's not unusual - I often do that.

It asked me to share it to 15 other people.

Also unfortunately not unusual - I've posted about that sort of thing before.  It irritates me and makes me immediately suspicious of whatever it is that they want me to share - which in this case was a plausible warning about using cruise-control in the wet causing aqua-planing.

In this case it was an unnamed woman who had wrecked her car - of course there was no link to an actual story of it actually happening.

 

The article argued that a slipping wheel would cause cruise-control to think the car wasn't going as fast as it should be so it would accelerate to compensate.

 

Yes, I can see that - I'm still not sharing a Facebook article that tells me to share it though - there's still something fishy going on.

 

It's like those Posts that tell you to Copy-and-Paste their text onto your own Timeline - DON'T SHARE!  I eventually found out what that was about -  it has two benefits for the Scammer:

• It's harder for Facebook to delete 20000 copies of an article rather than one article with all its shares.
• It allows the Scammer to include an easily Google-Searchable phrase in order to identify 20000 gullible people.

Anyway, I did a bit of digging on this rainy aquaplaney thing.  I found this most excellent piece by Joe Kenwright on www.motoring.com.au which not only describes where cruise-control came from and how it works but also why you shouldn't use it in the wet and also why the Post I read this morning is complete and utter nonsense.

 

So, if you want to make wet motorways a safer place - share my article far and wide.

Click Here for Free Money

There's a stretch of road in South Manchester that runs parallel to the rail tracks between Brooklands Station & Sale Station.

I once raced a tram up it.

And won.

If I'd received this email shortly afterwards I might have been worried...

...for a fraction of a second.

You don't get speeding tickets via email.

Plus, who's ever heard of a 25mph speed limit in the UK?

I'm quite intrigued by how these scammers are targetting their victims though - do they have a list of email addresses for the Sale area?  Or do they just send them out randomly knowing that someone will click on the link so that they can prove that they were actually in Dundee at the time of the alleged offence?

I learned about this one because I follow the brilliant Hoax-Slayer Website via Facebook.

Specifically, here is their take on this scam.

Now, talking of Facebook scams...

• Nobody is giving away a new Range-Rover, Christmas Hamper or R.V. - look up like-farming on Hoax-Slayer.
• No Muslim shop assistant has ever refused to serve anyone in uniform - these are lies made up by right-wing morons such as Britains First.
• 95% of people won't fail to name a band with an "A" in their name - unless the listeners to Radio W-SNOT in Boston are particularly thick.
• You are not a genius if you can answer 9 out of 10 questions.
• Clicking on a particular link won't make your jaw drop.

If any Facebook article tells me to share it - I never do.

By the way, if you've asked me to post something to my time-line for an hour - I did that, it's just you didn't happen to be logged in during that hour. And we all know which people will do that - they are the ones with true hearts / are true friends / really care etc.etc.

So next time, you read something unbelievable on Facebook, don't believe it - check it out! 

Unless it's Nigerian money-laundering.  Those are real.