truesee's Blog

 

 

Police kicked down the door of a North Toronto apartment last month after a caller warned them about a "possible murder" taking place inside. 

But all they found was a guy wearing noise-cancelling headphones who had the misfortune to be working from home that day. 

"I didn't hear them knocking or banging on the door saying: ‘Please open up,'" said software consultant Jason Myles, describing the incident to CTVNews.ca in a recent telephone interview. 

"The first thing I heard was when they attempted to kick down the door." 

The headphones drowned out the initial commotion and by the time Myles heard the kicks, it was too late for the door. 

When Myles came face to face with the law, he put his hands up and found "a number of police officers pointing their weapons in my general direction." 

He was handcuffed and police quickly searched his apartment, which is located in the Yonge and Lawrence area. 

But there was no body to be found and the only victim was Myles, who was the unfortunate target of a prank phonecall to police. 

"Immediately they knew that nobody was murdered in the apartment or about to be murdered, so they picked me up off the ground, uncuffed me, then we spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out why they were in my apartment and why they came to this address," said Myles. 

They determined that someone had contacted 911 from a landline number that Myles had cancelled about two weeks before police arrived at his apartment looking for a murder that didn't occur. 

Myles believes he was a victim of something called "swatting," a prank in which a caller reports a fake emergency with the intent of getting police to mobilize a SWAT team. 

In this case, it wasn't a SWAT team that arrived at Myles' door, but uniformed officers, as well as firefighters and paramedics who also responded to the scene. 

"They were expecting a lot of violence and therefore probably needed their assistance," said Myles, who noted that the caller told police that at least one victim was involved.

An emerging trend in Canada? 

Myles read an article about a similar case that happened in British Columbia last month, and as far as he can tell, it appears that this was the exact same type of prank. 

In the case targeting his Toronto apartment, it appears the prankster "spoofed" the number on the call that went into police, likely through a computer or voice-over-Internet protocol setup, which has been used in dozens of other incidents in the United States. 

"Somebody spoofed that number calling 911, somehow, and what they told police on the 911 call was that they had just killed their mother and were about to kill their sister," said Myles. 

"And since they spoofed that number, the number was still registered to my name and address, so that's where they came." 

But he has no idea why his number was selected for use in the apparent swatting prank. 

"I don't know if the number was targeted because it was recently cancelled, or whether they just targeted a number at random, or whether they had inside information as to what numbers were currently or recently in use," said Myles. 

"I have no clue as to why they picked that number." 

Police subsequently apologized for what had happened and made arrangements to pay for the damage to the door.

Toronto police Const. Tony Vella said that while the July 14 call was determined to be a hoax, he said that all such emergency calls have to be treated seriously.

"As soon as a call is made to police, they will always send a police car to investigate," Vella told CTVNews.ca in a recent telephone interview. 

For his part, Myles has "no issues" with the way police handled the situation and was impressed by their bravery. 

"They came through that door expecting a very serious situation and they came through that door anyway," Myles said. 

"So I have nothing but respect for the police and for how they acted and what they did."

LOUISE CHU Associated Press

4:52 a.m. CDT, August 6, 2011

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Las Vegas man accused of sending more than 27 million spam messages to Facebook users faces federal fraud and computer tampering charges that could send him to prison for more than 40 years, according to a grand jury indictment.

Sanford Wallace, the self-proclaimed "Spam King," pleaded not guilty during an initial court appearance Thursday after being indicted July 6 on six counts of electronic mail fraud, three counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and two counts of criminal contempt.

The indictment filed in San Jose federal court said Wallace compromised about 500,000 Facebook accounts between November 2008 and March 2009 by sending massive amounts of spam through the company's servers on three separate occasions.

Wallace would collect Facebook user account information by sending "phishing" messages that tricked users of the social networking site into providing their passwords, the indictment said.

He would then use that information to log into their accounts and post spam messages on their friends' Facebook walls, the indictment said. Those who clicked on the link, thinking it came from their friend, were redirected to websites that paid Wallace for the Internet traffic.

In 2009, Palo Alto-based Facebook sued Wallace under federal anti-spam laws known as CAN-SPAM, prompting a judge to issue a temporary restraining order banning him from using the website. The indictment alleges he violated that order within a month, prompting the criminal contempt charges.

The judge in the lawsuit ultimately issued a default judgment against Wallace for $711 million, one of the largest-ever anti-spam awards, and referred him for possible criminal prosecution.

The indictment came after a two-year investigation of Wallace by the FBI, prosecutors said.

"We will continue to pursue and support both civil and criminal consequences for spammers or others who attempt to harm Facebook or the people who use our service," Chris Sonderby, Facebook's lead security and investigations counsel, said in a statement.

Wallace was released after posting $100,000 bond Thursday, and he's due back in court on Aug. 22.

"Mr. Wallace looks forward to defending himself," his lawyer, K.C. Maxwell, said Friday, declining further comment.

Wallace, 43, earned the monikers "Spam King" and "Spamford" as head of a company named Cyber Promotions that sent as many as 30 million junk e-mails per day in the 1990s.

In May 2008, social networking site MySpace won a $230 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members when a Los Angeles federal judge ruled against Wallace and his partner, Walter Rines, in another case brought under the same anti-spam laws cited in the Facebook lawsuit.

In 2006, Wallace was fined $4 million after the Federal Trade Commission accused him of running an operation that infected computers with software that caused flurries of pop-up ads, known as spyware.

If convicted on all counts in the latest criminal case, Wallace could faces more than 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

 

Many brilliant people have some communication weak spots. Unfortunately, the reality is that written communication is a big part of business, and how you write reflects on you. Poor spelling and grammar can destroy a professional image in an instant.

Even if your job doesn't require much business writing, you'll still have emails to send and notes to write. And if you're looking for a job, your cover letters and resumes will likely mean the difference between getting the interview or not.

Bad grammar and spelling make a bad impression. Don't let yourself lose an opportunity over a simple spelling or grammar mistake.

Here are seven simple grammatical errors that I see consistently in emails, cover letters and resumes.

Tip: Make yourself a little card cheat sheet and keep it in your wallet for easy reference.

You're / Your

The apostrophe means it's a contraction of two words; "you're" is the short version of "you are" (the "a" is dropped), so if your sentence makes sense if you say "you are," then you're good to use you're. "Your" means it belongs to you, it's yours.

• You're = if you mean "you are" then use the apostrophe
• Your = belonging to you

 You're going to love your new job!

It's / Its

This one is confusing, because generally, in addition to being used in contractions, an apostrophe indicates ownership, as in "Dad's new car." But, "it's" is actually the short version of "it is" or "it has." "Its" with no apostrophe means belonging to it.

• It's = it is
• Its = belonging to it

It's important to remember to bring your telephone and its extra battery.

They're / Their / There

"They're" is a contraction of "they are." "Their" means belonging to them. "There" refers to a place (notice that the word "here" is part of it, which is also a place – so if it says here and there, it's a place). There = a place

• They're = they are
• Their = belonging to them

They're going to miss their teachers when they leave there.

Loose / Lose

These spellings really don't make much sense, so you just have to remember them. "Loose" is the opposite of tight, and rhymes with goose. "Lose" is the opposite of win, and rhymes with booze. (To show how unpredictable English is, compare another pair of words, "choose" and "chose," which are spelled the same except the initial sound, but pronounced differently.  No wonder so many people get it wrong!)

• Loose = it it's not tight, it's loosey goosey
• Lose= "don't lose the hose for the rose" is a way to remember the same spelling but a different pronunciation

I never thought I could lose so much weight; now my pants are all loose!

Lead / Led

Another common but glaring error. "Lead" means you're doing it in the present, and rhymes with deed. "Led" is the past tense of lead, and rhymes with sled. So you can "lead" your current organization, but you "led" the people in your previous job.

• Lead = present tense, rhymes with deed
• Led = past tense, rhymes with sled

My goal is to lead this team to success, just as I led my past teams into winning award after award.

A lot / Alot / Allot

First the bad news: there is no such word as "alot." "A lot" refers to quantity, and "allot" means to distribute or parcel out.

There is a lot of confusion about this one, so I'm going to allot ten minutes to review these rules of grammar.

Between you and I

This one is widely misused, even by TV news anchors who should know better.

In English, we use a different pronoun depending on whether it's the subject or the object of the sentence: I/me, she/her, he/him, they/them. This becomes second nature for us and we rarely make mistake with the glaring excepion of when we have to choose between "you and I" or "you and me."

Grammar Girl does a far better job of explaining this than I, but suffice to say that "between you and I" is never correct, and although it is becoming more common, it's kind of like saying "him did a great job." It is glaringly incorrect.

The easy rule of thumb is to replace the "you and I" or "you and me" with either "we" or "us" and you'll quickly see which form is right. If "us" works, then use "you and me" and if "we" works, then use "you and I."

Between you and me (us), here are the secrets to how you and I (we) can learn to write better.

Master these common errors and you'll remove some of the mistakes and red flags that make you look like you have no idea how to speak.

Samuel Randolph, left, and Latena Fitzgerald stand accused of helping their twin 7-year-old girls attack a bully. (Photo: CBS 2)

 

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Police said it was no way to resolve a conflict.

A youth center worker and his wife, worried about bullying, face charges for helping their daughters fight back, CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reports.

Latena Fitzgerald denied any wrongdoing after a dispute at Peekskill’s Kiley Youth Center, where she took her 7-year-old twins, Aniya and Amiya, to confront a 10-year-old girl over alleged bullying.

“I did not even touch her! Only thing I said to her was to leave my kids alone,” she said.

Police said words got heated and then things turned physical.

“The 10-year-old alleges she was held by the mother of the other girls, and the parents allowed their two daughters to assault her while she was being held,” Peekskill Police Chief Gene Tumolo said.

Cops said Fitzgerald’s husband, Samuel Randolph, threw a chair that hit the 10-year-old in the back.

Randolph works at the youth center. The director said it was appropriate for cops to file charges.

“Any time children are involved with safety you have to protect them,” Jasper Cain said.

“It just sends such a terrible message when kids see parents behaving in this way,” Chief Tumolo added.

LINK TO VIDEO:

(credit: Handout/Suffolk County PD)

 

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – It may not have been a weapon of choice but rather one of convenience.

Suffolk County police say a Ronkonkoma man was arrested after trying to rob a 7-Eleven store in Central Islip Thursday night using a large tree branch.

Michael Zimmerman, 31, is accused of walking into the store around 11:30 p.m. and demanding money from the clerk.

After being denied, police said Zimmerman struck the clerk several times with the branch.

Police said Zimmerman took off on his motorcycle which was parked in the lot after the clerk fought him off but didn’t get very far.

An off-duty Nassau County police officer blocked the motorcycle after he saw Zimmerman being chased by the clerk and a small group of customers

The officer held Zimmerman until Suffolk County police arrived.

Zimmerman has been charged with robbery in the first degree.

By ELVIA MALAGON
THE LEDGER

Published: Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:41 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 11:41 p.m.

LAKELAND | A Polk State College student has been arrested after telling deputies she took part in making a false bomb threat in July so she could study for a test.

Facts

 

"It's a top priority because bomb threats to college campuses will not be tolerated."

Grady Judd
Polk County Sheriff

Alexxis C. Anthony, 19, from Lakeland, told deputies she and a friend, Theron K. Brown Jr., were involved in a July 28 bomb threat to the college because she wanted her class to be canceled, according to an arrest affidavit filed by a Polk County sheriff's detective.

Anthony, a student at the Lakeland campus, told deputies she was pressured to keep her grades up because of a ­college scholarship.

The Lakeland campus was evacuated and closed July 28 until law enforcement confirmed that there were no explosive devices.

It was one of three bomb threats made to Polk State in July. The first two threats resulted in the evacuations of four Polk State campuses.

So far, Anthony is the only person charged in connection with a bomb threat. She was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

But sheriff's officials said Thursday they expect more arrests will be made and additional charges filed as the investigation proceeds.

The arrest affidavit said the two other threats — on July 6 and July 20 — were made from the same cell phone.

The July 28 bomb threat was made to the Winter Haven campus, the report said. The caller told the school the bomb would go off at the Lakeland campus at 9:15 a.m. That day, the college was announcing its new branding and mascot.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Thursday night that Winter Haven police received cell phone records and were able to trace bomb threats to the college July 6 and July 20.

The agencies used the records of cell phone calls to find Judeane Curry, a student at the Lakeland campus. She is identified in the affidavit as Brown's girlfriend.

Curry initially denied knowing anything about the threats. Later, she told sheriff's detectives that Brown had called her on the morning of July 28 and told her that he wanted to make a bomb threat to get her and Anthony out of school, according to the affidavit.

Curry told detectives she dismissed the comment, but later heard over a school intercom that the campus was being evacuated.

The bomb threat on the morning of July 6 caused the college to shut down its Lakeland, Winter Haven, Lake Wales and Lakeland Airside Center locations until 1 p.m.

The bomb threat July 20 also caused the four locations to close.

Officials at Polk State estimated in July that the first two threats cost the college more than $130,000. The cost was attributed to the college having to cancel classes.

Judd said Winter Haven police and the Sheriff's Office will continue to investigate the bomb threats.

"It's a top priority because bomb threats to college campuses will not be tolerated," Judd said.

"Everyone involved can expect to be arrested."

Anthony faces a charge of falsely reporting a bomb threat. Her bail is set at $15,750.

 

LINK TO PHOTO: 

http://www.theledger.com/article/20110804/NEWS/110809721