Politics: Kerry in Colorado:
“Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly,” Kerry told the fund-raiser. “How does this sound? Vice President Hunter Thompson.”
Travel: Great posting on culture shock and ‘going native’ at Yankee Fog.
Hacks: Dan Kaminsky’s LayerOne presentation hits Slashdot. Definitely one of the highlights of that conference.
Spam: confession for two: a spammer spills it all. Interesting — especially since the spammer winds up earning less than he would have working for Starbucks.
It’s also worth noting this posting from Gary Smith on the sa-users list, in which Gary filled out a spam form with some not-entirely-valid info — with hilarious results!
So I did talk to some of these lenders. Apparently they buy leads from www.lendergateway.com . One guy that I talked to was irritated because it costs him $100 per lead they sell him and it’s supposed to only be sold to him. He apologized quite a bit and was nice enough to give me the information on who sold him the names. The number he game me goes to voicemail which I’m going to try later. A couple other people told me what I can do with myself and one lady kept saying that she couldn’t give me information on who provided her with my information.
The stupid thing is each time I talk to them I tell them I’m on a cell and that I need their name and number and I’ll call them right back. They give it to me… So when they hang up I start calling again and again. I’ve been irritating the hell out of them…
Anyways, that’s the fun storing of what happens when these forms are filled out.
$100 per spurious ‘lead’ would make a serious dent, if enough spurious leads showed up… ;)