On Vox: Security Alert!

Our security department wants to set us at ease:

We have recently received information concerning spam e-mails threatening to assassinate the recipient unless the individual pays several thousand dollars to the sender of the e-mail.  The e-mail purports to be from a hit man who states he has a contract to kill the recipient - however, the recipient can "buy off" the killer at a price.

The e-mail was spammed across the internet, the recipient must understand they are not individually targeted and their life is not at risk.

The spammed threat mail reads with lines similar to:

• someone you call a friend wants you dead by all means
• this person came to us... provided us with necessary information
• My boys track you down but I told them not to kill you yet
• Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life

Please note, providing any personal information in response to an unsolicited e-mail can compromise your identity and open you to identity theft.  While unwanted e-mails should be treated as spam and deleted, or shared with A-CERT for action - if you receive e-mail that threatens you in any way immediately inform Corp Security at security@corp.com or telephone 1-877-CORPSEC.

Feeling better already.

Originally posted on wildernesscat.vox.com

On Vox: Stock Market Wonder.

(not mine)

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. The man then announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. But they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere! Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Originally posted on wildernesscat.vox.com