Cyptic e-mails

A large part of the first impressions you create on others come from posture, expression, eye-contact and gestures. Studies indicate that 55% of communication happens through body language, 38% through tone (paralanguage), while just 7% happens through words. Being in a profession where I need to communicate through e-mails with people from different walks of life, professions, ages and gender, I have come to believe that e-mails too exude body language and a major part of the message can be comprehended through the sender’s choice of font, font size, punctuation marks, spacing etc. It is interesting to read between the lines and understand the sender’s mood and emotions. Short forms used in the e-mails like u, v, 2, 4, wanna, luv, ur indicate that the sender is a carefree and casual person and is not very serious about the message or, in short, at this moment you are not taken very seriously by the sender. A mail festooned with gestures like smiles, frowns, etc reflects the emotive mood of the sender — jovial or gloomy.
On the other hand, a mail complete with all the punctuation marks and appropriate spacing between words and paragraphs not only emanate the professional attitude of the sender but also indicates that he or she is ‘to the point’. It also conveys that the sender is a kind of person who values the relationship. A simple, unambiguous and brief mail with clear queries points towards the sincerity and no nonsense nature.

A mail addressed to you by your first name specifies intimacy and conveys that the sender is keen on building a rapport with you whereas a mail beginning with the message or a simple ‘hi’ connotes that you are one amongst many and don’t have a special place in the sender’s heart. Some of the mails are quite challenging and one needs to go over it a few times to understand things left unsaid. This is particularly true of a mail written fully in upper cases (caps). It may mean one of the two things — either the sender is yelling at you for something or the Caps Lock key was left on by mistake!

Chained……

By Kavya Shankre Gowda
Let me warn you. You have no choice but to finish reading this write up now or else bad luck will befall on you in the next few days. It happened about a month ago. A reader paused to attend to personal necessities after reading the first paragraph of one of my previous article and forgot to return. Before he could blink, Mike Tyson appeared from no where and bit his ears.
However, if you read this column every month and e-mail your friends about it, you will be showered with nothing but good luck.
Okay, okay, I'll stop.
Did you believe me when I said you must read this article or you will invite bad luck in your life in the coming days?. Are you one of those internet freaks who believe and forward every chain letter that you receive? Chain letters that annoy but still you fall for it.
What are chain letters? Anything that says "If you do not forward this e-mail then bad luck will prevail forever and if you forward this to 5 people then something( Like your boss will not assign you any task) good will happen within 5 minutes" or something along that line is considered a chain letter. Not just that but anything that gets forwarded to so many people even if there are no promises of good luck, like virus alerts or asking help for a cancer patient is considered a chain letter!
The most common form of chain letter nowadays are friendship stories, wishes and poems that urge you to pass them to everyone in your address book. Most of them promise a favorable but mostly impossible outcome if you pass it on to enough people.
There are more, like for every person you forward the message to; Microsoft will send you $500 or so. If you believe this then you badly need to brush up your math. Have you ever wondered that handing out $500 each to an ever-expanding number of people would bankrupt even Bill Gates? Or how on earth would he get your bank account number to fill it up?
I got an "Angel Wish" chain letter from a friend last week but instead of telling me to forward it; she asked if I could write about the stupidity of it. And that’s what made me write this article.
What's the big deal about these chain letters then? Is this really a problem? One website explains: "There are two main problems, which affect any type of chain letter. The first is quite simple; the sheer volume of mail generated by a successful chain letter clogs up mail servers and connections, slowing down the whole Internet. The second problem is even more annoying. Did you ever wonder where the scum who keep offering you credit cards and related spam got your email address? They buy addresses in bulk from "marketing" companies (you've probably been offered some of these as well.) Where do the "marketing" companies get addresses? Absolutely anywhere. Take a look at a chain letter. Isn't it great how the names and, often, email addresses of everyone it's been sent to are listed on it? I've counted over 200 email addresses visible on one chain letter. A simple program can strip all of these from the message, ready to be sold to someone who will then send you ten messages a day offering you a free life insurance quote. Whoever sent the chain letter to you has already, quite unintentionally, exposed you to this risk. Please don't expose anyone else. A related tip: When forwarding jokes (which are not chain letters, because they benefit everyone that receives them and not just some geek) clear out all the email addresses on it before forwarding. This both makes life hard for spammers and reduces the size of the message, so it sends faster."
There is a solution to this chain-letter plague. Delete them. If a poem touched and inspired you deeply, you may save it, print it, pin it on your wall, but please do not forward it to others.
Finally, every rule has an exception. If you ask your pals to read this article, I won't mind. In fact, I'm encouraging you to do it and all the good things that you've been experiencing will continue to happen to you.
For example, the sun will still rise in the east tomorrow.

Home Based Jobs, Get Rich Quick Schemes & Scams

Kiran Kumar, CEO, forexveda.com , a Foreign Exchange Trading company shares a very informative piece on Scams and how to avoid getting caught in the scam web

Congratulations: you have inherited $ 12 million. Let me hear from you URGENTLY by my private e-mail address: dr_dereklamber@yahoo.co.ukPHONE:+44-703-183-4622
How many times have you seen such e - mails in your inbox? Though we know that even a known person will not give Rs 1200 for no reason but in our heart we want to believe this stranger now dead in some far away country who of all the people in the world thought of leaving $ 12 million for you. Let's think hypothetically, even if this were true, will the person who is sending you this mail, choose to reveal such important information merely through an email. Won't he come and meet you personally and give this good news? Many of us sensible people just ignore this and laugh it off as a wishful thinking but still there are some who believe this and go all the way replying to the mail and enquiring details about it and ultimately falling into the trap. Before the better sense prevails to them and they realize that it was a fraud, much harm has already been done and instead of recipient of the email getting any money, he realizes that he has lost not only his peace of mind but also some money in the transit. Adding one more to the list of scams is internet scam. These scams originate in various forms but the objective of all the scams is to extract as much money from you. These scams clearly state that the transaction is absolutely clear and you need not pay anything but as you start communicating with them and getting into their trap, you end up paying a few thousand dollars as a courier charges or agent's fees. 'After all what's the harm in paying $10,000 as courier charges when you are getting $12 million', one may think. Many well educated people who are computer savvy and are well versed with evils of internet have succumbed to the pressures from internet. Perhaps the thought of getting rich in a jiffy is too strong that we lose our common sense and see no harm in trying. The modus operandi is same in all these scams. They never ask for money in the beginning. Once you start communicating with them, they say that they have sent money through an agent and you will have to pay the courier charges. People who believe, send the money for the courier. It may end there or they may start getting demand for more money for various reasons. "In one such incident, a client of mine showed he has 36 million dollars in his bank account in first caveman bank. It took me few minutes to find out there is no such bank" tells Kiran Kumar, CEO, Forexveda.comRecently CNN IBN reported about a girl in Delhi who stole a few lakhs from her company to pay those Nigerians who lured her in to an internet scam. She was later arrested by the police.Most of the Home based Jobs, get rich quick schemes and Internet scams fall under one category. If it was so easy to earn Rs 15,000 in a month by working for just two hours, all the organizations adhering to eight hour working shift will close down. Why only internet, newspapers are loaded with advertisements about getting rich quickly, work two hours a day and earn Rs 20,000 in a month. Internet is a place where you find thousands of get rich quick kind of schemes. People who don't understand the work from home concept still fall prey for these schemes.
Earning money through GoogleOne can advertise in Google as well as become a Google partner and let companies advertise in their websites. One has to have high traffic to the website/webpage and each click on the advertisement gets them a small money. Search engines are smarter than we think, before giving us money these search engines make sure that the clicks are genuine. This is again not the right way of earning money online and people end up paying money to middlemen who promise to teach them the tricks. If these clicks are fake, it is possible for them to track it down. The penalty can be cancellation of your account. Network Marketing
Network marketing is another way of earning money but selling is not everyone's cup of coffee. These are called MLM or in people's lingo 'chain schemes' 90% of the people who join these schemes lose money because they fail to sell these schemes to their friends.
Day Trading in Stock market
I was surprised when I read some investment advisors recommending day trading in stock market as a good work from home /home based business opportunity. In day trading mostly brokers make money through brokerages. Most of the day traders lose money in day trading. Online trading is one of the toughest professions and one must be very careful in investing in day trading. Do not trust people who only talk about profits, but not risks associated with the trading.
Mutual Funds and Unit Linked Insurance Products
Investments in Mutual funds and ULIPs are exposed to risk as the asset management companies invest your money in the stock market. Recently a well reputed insurance company collected crores of rupees from the market for their insurance scheme. Company did not offer high returns but their agents did. People invested money going on the verbal assurances from the insurance agents. The tip is to ask the agent to give their promises in writing before trusting them and investing their hard earned money. Be an Insurance agent is another way to earn money.
Most of the Insurance companies find it easier to sell their products by recruiting large number of insurance agents. They advertise like this " Be your own boss. Work 2 hours a day and earn more than Rs. 20,000 a month" People are lured into this profession by development managers with attractive commissions and renewal commissions. Insurance companies have appointed more than 20,000 insurance agents in Mysore alone. Those who join as insurance agents manage to sell few policies within their circles. Most of them drop out in the 2nd year as they exhaust all their contacts in the first year. These people don't even earn their renewal commissions. They cannot go to court to demand renewal commissions as they don't get anything in writing from these Insurance companies about renewal commissions. When you join as an Insurance agent, ask the company to give you the commission structure in writing. Some companies give the proposal letter in their letter head but commission structure will be on a plain white paper. This holds no good when you try to demand the renewal commissions.
It does not mean that anything mentioned on internet about earning money is fraud. Internet provides ample opportunities to make money but one should know how to make use of it. One must use common sense while getting in to these kind of schemes. Schemes try to get members by showing few examples of people who have made lot of money. In the days of online learning, learning about how internet can be used to your advantage is child's play. “People with good understanding of the internet can surely make lot of money but there is no get rich quick scheme in Internet. One has to really work hard to make money. People with just one or two hours of spare time a day shouldn't venture into online business expecting huge income” - says Kiran Kumar
Internet is not good or bad as far as earning money is concerned. It is up to you how you use it to your advantage or disadvantage.