Friday, March 26, 2010

iNvestigations

The internet is full of scams and hoaxes. But so is the real world. Sometimes tools on the internet can easily reveal something that isn't what it claims to be.

This morning a friend of mine sent me a press release announcing that the company where he works had just merged with another company we'd never heard of. I searched the name of the new company and came up with their website. It looks bogus to me. What do stock photos of skyscrapers have to do with them? The address says they're in California but I recognize one of those buildings from Atlanta. Are they implying they have investments in these places or offices or what?

So I put their address in Google Maps and got the street view. It's a one story UPS Store. I believe they rent mailboxes with suite numbers in the address instead of calling it a box, just for the purpose of making businesses sound more legitimate than they really are.

I hope the CEO of the company where my friend works did the same 1 minute exercise I did and confirmed the legitimacy of this corporation before he signed a contract with them.

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