By now you know that, yours truly, “The Princess of Positive,” has a unique (deranged) perspective on life. I see things differently than Jane Shmo, and to tell you the truth, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Let’s face it, there are always few bad pinto beans in every bag of dried legumes. You just pick out the broken and yucky ones and go ahead and cook the rest (a little garlic and onion and yum). Does this mean you hate all the beans because of a few bad ones? No, well that is unless you really hate beans or have terrible flatulence problems. Where the heck is Greta going with this most peculiar analogy? Glad you asked…pull up your keyboard and read on….

As an internet geek, my information is soooooooo out there. My vocabulary boasts words that most my friends my age are clueless about: spammers, trolls, content scrapers, spambots, phishing, Bad Behaviour, Askimet, Nigerian scammers, UK Lottery …yadayadayada. One could easily find out how many rolls of toilet paper my family uses per week, if they really wanted. I also live for internet shopping and Paypal is my friend (or enemy depending how you look at things….right hubby?) and I don’t fall for those “please verify your Paypal account now or it will be terminated” phishing scams. Though those phishers do a good job making their stuff look so legit that it could almost fool the most savvy of victims.

As I spent another day feeling like something Chulo the Stupor Dog dug out of the garbage can, I saw tons of stuff on the boob (don’t get all in a tizzy because I used the word BOOB again Times-Picayune) tube about internet dangers. Hubby and I decided it was worth the $99 a year per person to sign up for Lifelock. You’ve seen the ads on TV – the guy with his social security number pasted on the side of a tank or bus. While geeks like me try to make an honest paycheck (not sure that what I make constitutes a paycheck, but I am honest), there are scumbags out there trying to rip you and me off!

While I like to think that the world is basically good with a few cruddy pinto beans, it can’t hurt to protect ourselves from the few evil ones that lurk in a dark room and use their energy for evil instead of good. Every day we read about our stellar Louisiana politicians and their little scams surfacing in the headlines. I certainly don’t want to read about anyone getting unknowingly ripped off by phishers, spammers or identity theft scum…go protect yourself now…will ya?

More info here, here and here.

*stuck for shopping ideas – click here as I update frequently*