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I recently started a job in a corporate office.  I personally was very excited because it is my first “real adult” job in my life.  I love getting dressed every morning in sharp business professional attire and walking down the halls with my briefcase on the way to my very own cubicle.  If you couldn’t tell already, it definitely makes me feel a little self-important and extremely fancy.
However, one of the drawbacks about working in the corporate world is that I no longer have the ability to take my time getting ready in the morning.  I used to be able to dilly-dally and read the paper or watch the news while starting my day. This includes being able to surf the internet a little bit and brew a few cups of coffee before heading out the  door.  Now that I have a morning commute to worry about, as well as avoiding rush-hour traffic along that commute, I just don’t have the time to do any of that stuff.  I have to be up, ready, and out the door– fast.
That’s why the Keurig coffee maker was such a smart purchase for me.   I used to have to choose between brewing several cups of coffee at a time, or watching the pot to see when exactly enough had been made to fill my mug.  Additionally, I could never seem to get it right because my mug holds more than one cup.  It seemed like with my old coffee maker I was always making too much or not enough. I felt like the Goldilocks of coffee drinkers.
With my Keurig and the individualized cheap K cups, I no longer have to worry about that silly stuff.  I pour in exactly the amount of water I need, and exactly the amount of coffee I want comes out.  Not to mention it is totally delicious and takes less than a minute to brew.  When I’m rushing out the door and on the way to work, one minute can make all the difference on whether I am five minutes early to the office or ten minutes late.  Thanks to Keurig I don’t have to be stressed out about punctuality, because I know I’ll be on time every time.  The fact that the Keurig coffee cheers me up and gets me ready to tackle my day is just an added bonus.
Finally, I have been able to make a solid impression with my bosses at work because I got them to be the newest converts to the Keurig way.  In the office break room there used to be an old, poor quality, industrial sized coffee maker that spit out tepid brown water.  Once I brought in my thermos full of Keurig and had my neighbors down the hall drooling from how good my beverage smelled, the office manager purchased a Keurig of our own.  I may be known as the “coworker who is responsible for the awesome coffee maker” at work now, but hey, I’ll take it.

I’m sure everyone has heard of the famous Nigerian scam by now.  If you haven’t, here’s a brief summary.  You get an email from “royalty” in Nigeria, claiming that you are an heir to a fortune of someone who has just recently passed away.  It’s quite a substantial sum and you’re very lucky to have been named as the recipient of this fortune!  There are only a couple of things that you must do in order to get this money transferred to your accounts in your home country, where you will then be free to spend it lavishly on whatever your heart desires.  You simply have to pay a small fee to get it transferred out of Nigeria and into your accounts. Sounds simple, right?

Secure your personal details online to avoid being a scam victim.

It is simple – a simple scam.  They promise fortunes of over $100,000 dollars so when you’re asked to pay the “paltry” sum of $2000 to get the money, it seems like a complete bargain and you’re more than happy to pony up the money, because you’re licking your chops thinking about all of the jetskis you’ll be able to ride with your hundred grand in cold hard cash.

Like I said, most of you are probably intimately familiar with this scam as it has been around almost as long as the internet itself.  It was very effective in the past, but now it has been lambasted so heavily even in the mainstream media that even the most simpleminded internet user out there won’t fall for it.  That doesn’t mean that there is nothing to fear on the internet though.  Online scams are the biggest way that consumers are getting defrauded every single day of every year as we more further and further into the information age.  Transactions are happening on the internet more and more these days, and that opens up the door for faceless theft.

I think the reason we see scams online so much more often is because those who are perpetrating these crimes are highly intellectual and a bit sociopathic.  They wouldn’t have the self confidence to pull off a scam in the real world, so they turn to their area of expertise to funnel money into their banks accounts while not having to speak to another human being at all.  It is the worst kind of depravity and governments across the world are all actively involved in fighting it on a daily basis.

Don’t let governments be the only ones fighting against online scams though. You as an internet user need to be acutely aware that these scams are out there, and you need to protect yourself from as many of them as possible just by using smart and sound judgment while you browse the internet.  This means installing pop up blockers and using antivirus and anti spyware programs as much as you can to make sure that you’re not being attacked or scammed in any way.