The Illustrated Primer

Only the Racially Pure Need Apply

January 11, 2010 at 11:49 pm (Bill of Rights, Camp Siegfried, Education, Fritz Julius Kuhn, German American Bund, History, Nazi, Steuben Society of America, The Steuben News, camp hindenburg, camp nordland)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

The American Führer Fritz Kuhn - Jacob Apelbaum On February 20, 1939, over 20,000 American supporters of the Nazi party packed Madison Square Garden in New York City. They anxiously awaited the appearance of Fritz Julius Kuhn, the newly anointed führer of the German-American Bund. The event took place two days before George Washington’s birthday and a 30-foot-portrait of the first president (who was described by Kuhn as the first fascist) hung behind the podium along with Nazi flags and swastikas.

Kuhn entered the arena together with thousands of uniformed Nazi guards. During the rally he and his fiery fellow orators held back no punches, calling President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Franklin Rosenfeld,” and referring to his New Deal as a "Jew Deal."

Being a creature of the night, Kuhn loved drinking, nightclubs, and the company of women (among them “The Georgia Peach,” the former Miss America, Florence Camp, Frau Hedwig Munx, and others). Just like many petty dictators, he was pompous, dishonest, idiotic, and didn’t understand his own limitations.

Once during a testimony before the Dies Committee, he was asked by Congressman Starnes if the reason why 23 of 71 Bund units concentrated in and around New York City was because the aircraft and naval manufacturing facilities were handy for sabotage. He replied: "That’s the same thing Lipshitz said. You know who Lipshitz is? That’s Walter Winchell [referring to Winston Churchill]. Lipshitz is his real name." No one was amused.

Shortly after his rock concert-like appearance in Madison Square Garden, New York city’s mayor, La Guardia, who was fed up with the constant anti-Semitic and anti-American agitation, started an Al Capone-style financial investigation of the Bund’s taxes.

When asked about his relationship to Florence Camp during his trial, Kuhn denied that he had asked her to marry him and noted that Mrs. Camp was too much of a lady to accept a proposal after just a few days’ acquaintance. Herman McCarthy (the prosecutor) whipped out a Kuhn letter and read it aloud:

"Florence : I am terrible in love with you. I beg you to become my beloved wife. I will always be true to you. . . ."

In another letter to Florence he said that he loved her with his “whole soul and body and was about to have [his] teeth fixed.”

In the course of the trial, it was established that Kuhn had pilfered $14,548 from his organization ($717.02 of it having been spent on moving expenses for Mrs. Camp). Kuhn was swiftly convicted on charges of embezzlement, grand larceny, and forgery and was first sent to Sing Sing Prison. After the war, he was deported to Germany, where he managed to get into trouble again.

In 1949 when he again stood trial in front of a Munich court this time on charges of escaping from jail and being a major Nazi organizer, he claimed that the Bund was strictly "an American patriotic organization," that he had used the swastika only because it was "an old American Indian design," and that he had patterned the Bund’s uniforms after the US National Guard, not the SS. As for his 1944 meeting with Hitler he said:

"It was purely a social call. If I went to England today, I would naturally like to call on King George."

When the US. entered the war, whatever was left of the German-American Bund organization quickly disintegrated, however, that didn’t spell the end of Nazi activity in America. Another high profile organization waiting in the wings was the Steuben Society. In comparison to the Bund which was composed of common National Socialist riff raff, the Steuben Society represented the cream of the crop to the US Nazi aristocracy.

Although Steuben Society members avoided public Nazi displays such as hailing Hitler, the differences between the two organizations were only skin deep. When it came to hard core issues such Nazi ideology, they were indistinguishable.

While visiting the reception room of the Steuben Society in New York, John Roy Carlson observed:

“One could find a large American flag standing in one corner. On the walls were pictures of Von Steuben, Washington, and Lincoln, The Pledge to the Flag and the Bill of Rights hung framed between them. There was also no lack of red-white-and-blue. Patriotism oozed from every crevice in the room.”

True to its nature, the Society published “The Steuben News" a newspaper for Patriotic Americans which described itself as:

. . . a patriotic, civic and educational political society endeavoring to awaken in the hearts and minds of American citizens of German extraction the necessity for taking a more active part and interest in the political affairs of our great country.

Its program demanded "strict discipline" on the part of its members, and rejected "persons who are shifters and trimmers, or who are known to possess no race pride." The Steuben Society strongly emphasized Racial (Aryan) consciousness and political objectives.

In his 1943 investigative book Under Cover, Carlson wrote:

“…The Steuben News reprinted articles from the pro-Fascist Italian daily, Il Progress Halo-Americana. It recommended books by the notorious Ausland Institute and ran many articles by Nazi agents. The Steuben News praised as "extraordinary and valuable" the book Scarlet Fingers published by Flanders Hall, the propaganda mill financed by Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck. The Steuben News followed the accepted party line of pro-Nazi isolationists. It headlined the speeches of Lindbergh. It championed the late senator Ernest Lundeen-some of whose speeches were written by Nazi agent George Sylvester Viereck-and on one occasion devoted eleven columns to one of his defeatist speeches.

It reprinted from Social Justice and The Herald, American Fascist weekly. It ran large advertisements for the America First Committee, reprinted its bulletins and urged its members to support it financially. The Steuben Society fought desperately all measures to arm those European Democracies which resisted Hitler’s brutality. And it also quoted liberally from the New York Enquirer, published by William Griffin, who was later shown to have associated with Viereck.”

Now, you’re probably thinking: “This is a fascinating piece of history, but what’s the relevance of all of this 1939 Nazi stuff to our current 21st century jet-set life style?” Well, wonder no more.

This past Sunday morning on our way out of our local diner, I caught sight of the newspaper stand in the entrance vestibule. I usually don’t read printed media, but the name of the paper and the motto “A Newspaper for Americans” caught my attention. Curious about how the Steuben Society’s defines “American,” I picked up my free copy and read on.

At the top of the cover page on each side of the title “The Steuben News” were the mission statements: (1) United for Common Interests and Common Needs” and (2) DUTY, JUSTICE, TOERANCE, CHARITY.

I flipped through and read some of the articles. There was an announcement of a presidential proclamation regarding the German-American Day, a story about the treaty between German settlers of Texas and the native Comanche Indians. My first impression was that it all seemed rather banal. Then I got the last page. Under the calendar of events, I ran into some terminologies like “event sponsored by Unit #998” and “contact Brother Erick or Sister Hildegard.” That seemed a bit cryptic and militant. At the bottom of the page I saw the membership form which prompted an unexpected double-take.

The membership form, unlike any other application I have ever seen, had questions about the nationality of the applicant’s father and mother, political affiliation, and—most surprising of all—about naturalization. For some reason, the Steuben Society (acting in the capacity of a quasi-government organization?) will only issue membership cards after careful evaluation of the applicant’s naturalization certificate, which includes scrutiny of the certificate number and place of origin. (I’m kind of curious to know who at the INS helps them validate these applications.)

From what I can tell, this membership application has remained consistent over the years. After conducting a quick search on-line for similar historical documents, I found one for the Silver Shirts, and as you can see from the contents, not much has changed in terms of drilling down to pedigree and other über eugenics.

When, I checked out the Steuben Society’s website for the name and location of the chapter nearest me, I discovered that they are all named after some distinguished German American figure. I was hoping to find a chapter honoring the likes of von Stauffenberg but alas, no such luck.

I am not sure what to make of all this. I hold German culture, ingenuity, work ethics, and organization in the highest esteem. I’m an avid admirer of Handel’s music and Nietzsche’s, Kant’s, Goethe’s, and Leibniz’s writings. My family originated from Germany and in my travels there I have found most German people to be kind, polite, friendly, and exceedingly intelligent.

On one hand, it’s laughable that anyone would be willing to complete an application detailing his mother’s nationality or his naturalization number in order to join a civic organization. On the other hand it’s really disturbing that in 2010—the age of the internet—a nationwide fraternity that draws its philosophy from one of humankind’s darkest moments, continues to operate in the mainstream with apparently unrestricted access to leading politicians and public figures.

If you are considering joining an organization such as this, take a breather and dedicate some time to learning the German language, literature, philosophy, and music instead. You will discover that the richness of Germanic culture has a lot to do with individuality and little with purity of blood.

Et si omnes ego non

Drinking on the Job and Other Vices

January 1, 2010 at 6:00 pm (Compensation, Engineering, Management, SDLC, Software Development, Svengali, Team Building, firewater, glass beads, soft perks, startup)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

Working in an early stage startup can be a blast. For me, it is a most rewarding personal and professional experience. There is minimal bureaucracy to get in the way and you have the opportunity to build the product of your dreams.

True, at times a few dark clouds (like the possibility of not making payroll) may gather on the horizon, but with some ingenuity you can handle it. If you are preparing to ship version 1 of your product, the pre-launch phase or the final sprint can be an ultimate adrenaline\caffeine rush, and the chronic lack of sleep will just enhance the experience.

Working in this environment may not be for everyone. The rapid pace of change, the seemingly never ending To-Do list, and the constant improvisational nature of the work often frustrate individuals who are used to more structured development environments. Financial stability can be another turn-off. Most early stage startups operate on a shoe string budget using seed\angel money that has to be stretched to the limit in order to build a viable proof of concept. Once in place, the funding and development cycles are repeated in the hopes of surviving long enough to attain commercial viability. These repeating cycles, if not executed properly, can become a tiresome soap opera.

To use an equestrian metaphor to illustrate, the development effort in a large organization is somewhat similar to English-style show jumping competitions. A smartly dressed rider moves elegantly between the stations (projects), always maintaining aristocratic poise and composure (an eye on features, schedule, and budget). The same event in a startup looks more like a rodeo, where the inexperienced rider jumps on the back of a wild mustang with neither saddle nor reins and spends the duration of the ride screaming and holding on for dear life (dwindling budget and product immaturity) while the horse (the competition) simultaneously kicks, bites and tries to throw him off. Net-net, a tour of duty in a startup can resemble the life of a Caribbean buccaneer. The risks are plentiful but the rewards of a buyout or an IPO can be glorious.

In addition to operational differences, startups also tend to have a more casual and festive corporate culture. To help recruit and retain talent it is not uncommon to offer employees various soft perks like no dress code, the freedom to play interior decorator, and access to amenities such as the latest video games, quality coffee, soft drinks, snacks, and toys like Kindles. Some companies, in an attempt to even further sweeten the sub-industry monetary compensation will go as far as to abstain from creating work policies regarding vacation, work hours, and employee conduct.

If you are on the management team of a startup, it is tempting to convince yourself that you can make up for low base pay and a high stress work environment with theme park playfulness (a approach not dissimilar from paying for prime real estate with firewater and glass beads). But in reality, trying to convince highly intelligent people that the privilege of working in a glorified techno-utopian commune is an adequate substitute for monetary compensation amounts to little more than reenacting Svengali’s operatic hypnotism. It may work for a while, but sooner than later the effects wear off, leaving you with consequences like high attrition rates, poor ,and chronically missed deadlines.

In one of my engagements, I had the opportunity to work with a late stage startup. The company desperately needed to mature and commercialize its product and swing to profitability. This had to be done rapidly in order to secure bridge funding. When I first took over the technology and engineering organization, I discovered that the team had an almost 50% turnover rate and that my two predecessors had left on very disagreeable terms. Initially, I was surprised that the subject of almost every staff meeting revolved around compensation, but that matter quickly came into focus. The developers were disgruntled because, in addition to being significantly underpaid, they hadn’t received their promised bonuses (which accounted for almost 40% of their salary) yet they were still being asked to work 70 hour weeks. It was evident that all the soft perks they were getting didn’t succeed in dulling their memory of the promise.

The CEO refused to budge on the question of base salary and missed bonuses and argued instead that work conditions (flex hours, telecommuting, and free alcohol) were more than sufficient compensation. On the eve of our “Mother-of-all-Sprints,” (a hellish 320 hour coding month), some team members started exhibiting disturbing behavior that included sending inflammatory emails to the entire company (see Flame Mail excerpt below), rowdy conduct in staff meetings, and calling in sick.

Gentlemen,

As part of the "Mother of all Sprints", we have been asked to go above and beyond our normal dedication. We have been asked to make major sacrifices in our personal schedules. We have been asked to work harder with longer hours. We have been asked to cancel existing plans we may have put in place with our families. We have effectively been asked to put our lives on hold until the end of June. And we have been asked to do this without any advance warning.

Furthermore, many of us disagree with the exact product direction.

We disagree on the functionality necessary for the company to go forward.

We disagree on what the bottlenecks and limits with the current process are.

We disagree on the feature focus of current efforts.

We disagree with the release date.

No one asked the development team what they felt was important to accomplish in the short term.

No one asked the development team what features they felt were necessary.

No one asked the development team what they felt they could realistically accomplish.

No one asked the development team when the release should occur.

So I have to ask myself, what is my personal motivation for doing this? What do I get out of it?

We know that the functionality we’re working on in June will have no impact on the bridge funding necessary to continue past July 15th. We have no guarantee we will ever receive bonus payments. We have no guarantee that bonuses will be distributed fairly, if they are ever paid out.

We have no real equity in the company. We have no guarantee of employment past July 15th. The only proposed motivation right now is a Kindle, with a lot of strings attached to the receipt of said Kindle. That’s cool and all…

but I don’t believe the bank accepts Kindles in lieu of mortgage or credit card payments. I don’t think the hospital will accept Kindles as payment for my mother’s surgeries. Northwest Airlines definitely won’t reschedule my flight to New York for a Kindle. And our hotel in New York also does not accept Kindles as a form of payment.

Again, I have to ask myself, what is my Motivation?

Flame Mail

Of course, it didn’t help that the company offered its employees a steady supply of beer and hard liquor, and even had gone as far as openly encouraging everyone to drink on the job (at the ever so popular “Tequila Fridays”). HR wouldn’t implement any conduct policies because they feared that doing so would dilute the startup experience. Not surprisingly, some employees in turn responded by drinking just a bit to much, staying home sick, and reducing their productivity.

Workspace structure and policies are as mandatory as social contracts are and are designed to protect us from abuse and anarchy. Hobbes observed that life under the rule of the mob is "nasty, brutish, and short." Similarly, life in a startup modeling its governance to resemble the “Lord of the Flies” is wretched and hardly short enough.

Unfortunately, no one has the exact formula for balancing discipline with productivity. But I have found the following rules of thumb to be an affective guide:

It may be contrary to your anti-establishment philosophy, but it is in your best interest to create and maintain an orderly work place. Unfortunately, the only way to achieve this is by formalizing rules for all employees and enforcing policies like performance reviews, bonus payments, vacation and sick time without favoritism or exceptions.
Provide formal policies regarding company usage of licensed software. It may be true that software yearns to be free, but unless it is properly licensed it should be kept off of company computers. This may sound picayune, but using counterfeit or cracked software is a huge legal issue.
Regardless of how hip and progressive it may seem, do not permit alcoholic beverages or drug use on company premises. Every garden has its snake and this one will bite you big time. It’s only a question of time before one of your employees under the influence of something he consumed at work will become a legal liability.
Do not tolerate violent or abusive behavior (such as regular use of foul language or extensive absenteeism) from any employee, including leads and management.
Offer your team competitive financial compensation. If you can’t afford to pay market wages, be honest and upfront about your limitations. Don’t try to renegotiate salaries down by arguing that industry wages are inflated.
Be creative about company spirit and culture. Offer your team as many soft perks as you can, but remember, perks are not a substitute for wages.
Don’t exaggerate or misrepresent bonus target amounts, stock option availability, or plans for employee profit sharing. Be forthcoming about the financial state of the company and its stability. My golden rule is “promise only what you can deliver” and in a timely manner “deliver what you’ve promised.”

Maintaining transparency and a fair work environment are two of the most important pre-requisites for a smoothly operating startup. Once these are in place, you will discover that you are well underway towards achieving your development goals as well.

Good luck.

4 Comments

Let There Be Light

December 15, 2009 at 4:29 pm (Auto de fé, Bill of Rights, Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, Menorah, Moldova, Theodor Adorno)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

For the majority of westerners, religious persecution is a strange and foreign concept. Most of us view political and religious fanaticism such as pogroms or the Auto de fé as a distant memory of a dark and uncultured era now long gone. Of course, there are always a few regrettable exceptions to this. But to me, incidents like Neo Nazis marching on Pennsylvania Avenue just further highlight the beauty of the first amendment. If you feel strongly about something, get a permit, pack your soap box and have a go at it. By all means.

This week as I was surfing on-line, I stumbled upon this news clip. Apparently, the Jewish community in Moldova had setup a Menorah to celebrate Hanukkah (after having been given a permit to do so). This didn’t go down well with Moldova’s eparchy of the Russian Orthodox church. So under the charismatic leadership of Father Anatoly Chirbik (and a hammer wielding priest), the local community staged a get-together and in a very orderly manner, proceeded to crash the celebration. It’s all on tape: the honor guard, the banners with the miraculous icons, the sprinkling of holy water, the burning of incense, and even a live accompaniment by a chorus of Gregorian chanters.

When I first watched the clip, I thought that it was just another Borat promotional, but after listening to Father Chirbik’s speech (excerpt below), I realized that it was actually the real thing.

“We are an Orthodox country. Stephen the Great and Holy defended our country from all kinds of Jews, and now they come and put their menorah here. This is anarchy.”

My initial confusion was understandable as Borat’s explanation of the origin of his brother’s madness were not dissimilar in substance and style from the one made by Father Chirbik:

Bilo [Borat’s brother] had "a demon", so we chiseled a hole the size of kestrel egg in his head and put a dry fish inside to eat the demon. This worked for a while, but then "the demon” took his revenge and made Bilo retarded.

Even more perplexing than the speech, were the participants. The expressions on their faces ranged from gratefulness for having been chosen to join the wrecking crew to religious piety and patriotic zeal. By all accounts, this was a family event; complete with well dressed moms, dads, grandparents and young kids in tow. It was by no means your stereotypical lynch mob wielding torches and pitch forks.

But looks can be deceiving. Just because someone was born in the 20th century and dresses appropriately doesn’t automatically elevate him to the rank of a modern human being. Theodor Adorno once stated: “’[The] Enlightenment has always aimed at liberating men from fear...” Alas, it seems that large segments of the world’s population are still firmly planted in the midst of the savage Byzantine era, and if the Moldova incident is any indication, they are not in a great rush to get out of there soon.

The Age of Enlightenment and the political reforms that it spawned (like the Bill of Rights) have repeatedly demonstrated that church and state do not mix well and are best enjoyed separately. For US immigrants the likes of Irving Berlin, who experienced religious prosecution first hand, the freedom of religion has always been a sign of a divine blessing.

“God bless America”

2 Comments

Windows Live Credit Card Phishing

December 10, 2009 at 5:30 am (Credit card scam, Fraud, Phishing, Risk Management, Security, Shyster, Trust, Windows Live, confidence artist, credit card fraud, deception, deceptive, exposed, snake oil)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

I recently received an email claiming to be from Microsoft Live. The email stated that due to some processing issues, they could not authorize my credit card and so I would need to login to their website to update my credit card information by clicking on their link.

Over the years, I have seen a number of these types of messages, but this was the first one targeting me personally. After skimming through it, I realized that it was a blatant phishing attempt, nevertheless, I still marveled at the ingenuity of the scammers.

Billing and Account Management

Dear Windows Live Hotmail member,
During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, our billing department was unable to authorize your current payment method information.

This might be due to either of the following reasons:

A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address, credit card)

Submitting invalid information during the initial Sign Up or upgrade process.

An inability to accurately verify your selected payment method information due to an internal error within our processors.
Please use the following link to update your payment method information :

http://billing.microsoft.com/logon.srf?action=SignIn&reason=auth&type=auto&uid=187&acct=49472101102

The above link may have been blocked for your privacy. To activate the link please look for the Show content link that is usually located on top of this message.

NOTE! If your account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to use your Windows Live Hotmail account will become restricted.

Thank you for using Windows Live Hotmail!
Please do not reply to this e-mail, as this is an unmonitored alias.

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

For the uninitiated, phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is a fraudulent attempt to acquire sensitive information from a user. Such information can be: credit cards, user IDs, passwords, and/or account information. It is often accomplished via email or phone.

Anatomy of a Phish

Phishing falls into the category of exploits known as “social engineering”. Even though they are mostly low tech, (requiring neither sophisticated technology nor advanced programming), they tend to be very successful because most people tend instinctively to do what they are told and will not challenge the authority and authenticity of what seems to be an official correspondence.

In a typical phishing scenario, the perpetrators (usually located offshore) send a simple email—claiming to be from the customer service department of a recognizable organization (like a bank, on-line service, etc.)—the email will inform you of some problem with your account. You are then instructed to provide details of your bank, email, or credit card account in order to correct this problem.

Even though, phishing exploits can have many variations, they can be grouped into the following are five usage scenarios:

Forged identities — In this exploit, the attacker creates an email address that is related to a reputable organization like “Windows Live Customer Support”. Even though on the surface, their email address looks legitimate (as in: billing@windowslive.com), it is not. If you’re not paying attention, it can be easy to mistake a message like this for a genuine customer support request.
Compromised accounts — In this exploit, the attacker uses a compromised user account to send an email to everyone in the address book for that account. An email you receive from a known account dramatically increases the credibility of that message, and therefore the likelihood of a successful phishing attack.
Direct phone calls — In this exploit, the scammer may contact you directly by phone, telling you that they work for some financial institution (may offer to lower your interest rates) or the fraud investigation departments. They will inform you that your account has been breached and will directly ask you for your account details in order to verify it.
Bogus websites — In this exploit, the attacker will send you a link to what seems to be a functional website. The site will include official-looking logos, language, or other identifying information taken directly from a legitimate websites. The address of the site will show resembles the name of a reputable company but with some spelling variations. For example, the name"microsoft.live.com" could appear instead as: “micorsoft.live.com”
Social Network Harvesting — In this exploit, a communication from a scammer will ask you for personal information. You may mistake it for an email from a friend wanting to reconnect. The email will include convincing details about your personal life which ware recovered from social networks such as Linkedin, Facebook, etc.

In general, the objective of phishing is to recover your webmail credentials since the resale value of a legitimate web mail account on the black market can be as high as $2-$3—twice the amount they could get for a stolen credit card number. So for a phisher, breaching several dozens accounts a day can be a lucrative business, making $100K-$500K for the life of the scam.

In the case of my phishing email, when I followed the link in it, I was taken to a credit card entry form (Image 1). As I expected, the form looked genuine, it had all the right corporate trimmings: a Microsoft logo, copyright notice, and even a link to a help page (which ironically offered the following advice “You should keep this number secret, protect it, and never write it on your card.”)

Image 1: Phishing Credit Card Entry Form

As with most phishing sites, I was expecting to find some bogus or misspelled Microsoft URL, but instead I was surprised to see that the web address of the webpage actually belonged to a company called Human & Technology H&T (Image 2), clearly, htech21.com doesn’t even sound like Microsoft.

I’ve checked the parent URL out and It turns out, that this company was at one point a legitimate Korean hardware manufacturer, than, two years ago, their CEO was arrested and the company became the target of one of the biggest class-action lawsuits in history.

So what is the connection between htech21.com and this phishing expedition? It appears that the perpetrators of this scam decided to cut some costs and instead of purchasing and hosting their own domain, they chose to break into the H&T corporate web site and place their credit card collection pages on it. At one point, our scammers discovered that Human & Technology has gone out of business (this could also have been an inside job) and safely assumed that this orphaned website (which has not been updated for 3 years) is no longer being maintained or monitored, and as such, was a perfect staging platform for a phishing operation.

It is also interesting to note, that the site’s help file focused on ATMs (Automated Teller Machines), strongly suggests that at least some of the phishing website contents have also been used in other scams.

Image 2: Phishing Host Website

It is hard to recognize legitimate customer service communications from phishing expeditions. This is difficulty if further compounded by the fact that for many, using services such as Amazon, EBay, and e-banking has now become a a way of life. For most users, the potential inconvenience of being looked out of their favorite on-line services outweighs the risk of disclosing their account information. Unfortiunalty, the on-line services are not helping this situation either because most are either impossible to reach by phone or their offshore support centers are largely useless.

So how does one survive in the hostile world of email exploits? The following are my top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of email:

Do Not open emails that have a wrong or incorrect spelling of your name. Phishers often harvest email addresses in balk and may not have your full name. Because of this, they will try to guess your name from your email address.
Do Not open emails that are not addressed to your name. Phishers will almost never personalize correspondences; they will refer to you as “Dear Customer” or “Dear Valued Customer” because they send balk solicitations to millions of email addresses.
Do Not respond to any account management email requests that come from your bank. If your bank needs to reach you, they will send you an official letter or leave you a voice mail with a valid callback telephone number.
Do Not open unsolicited emails. Nothing in life is free, this includes the invitation to view naked celebrities and the Prozac and Viagra offers in your inbox.
Do Not use email links to go to any financial websites. Type in the URL yourself and save it as a bookmark.
Do verify the website URL you are about to log into, check the spelling carefully before you provide your login details on any web page. Pay close attention to domain name following the “http://” section of the address. Many phishers will Intentionally create very long names to obfuscate the fake URL.
Do log in to your on-line accounts regularly and look for unrecognized transactions. Do the same with your monthly credit card statements.
Do Not send your account details via email to anyone. email traffic is unencrypted, so anyone on route can intercept the message.
Do check that the Internet connection you are using is secure. Look for HTTPS in the address field of your browser. You may also want to click on the padlock to view the actual server certificate. This will help you verify that it was issued by a reputable authority and assigned to the company managing the website in question.
Do make sure that you have an updated anti-virus software and that your firewall is turned on.

3 Comments

Mortgage Refinancing Shysters II

November 2, 2009 at 3:50 am (Banking, Finance, Fraud, Mortgage, Refinancing, Risk Management, Shyster, confidence artist, deception, exposed, hypnosis, marketing, snake oil, whitewashing)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

You are Getting Sleepier

In Mortgage Refinancing Shysters, Part I I described a suspicious refinancing solicitation letters I got from the Intercontinental Capital Group (ICG). After writing about it, I got some interesting feedback. One cryptic comment came from what appeared to be a former ICG employee who wrote:“I agree with your assessment on ICG and know this for a fact…” Now my curiosity was piqued. What was it that this individual knew?

I performed another search on the term “Intercontinental Capital Group and Fraud” but this time, the search returned many more postings about unscrupulous dealings. There were many negative comments regarding ICG, but I noticed that among them were also a few positive ones.

The details of the pro-ICG comments were interesting. They gave the impression that they came from bona fide customers. On the one hand, the language seemed to be unbiased acknowledging some bad online press while on the other hand the writers claimed that they were very satisfied with the quality of service they received from ICG and that the company was entirely above board. One example read:

…I previously cancelled an appraisal appointment that I had scheduled with this company because I read something online that got me nervous especially being a single mom that just got back to work after being injured. I checked out these links and feel a lot better. I am going to give them a call and hopefully the rates are still low because I really would like to get rid of this adjustable rate mortgage and lower my monthly payments.
by educatedconsumer August 6, 2009 5:13

Then last week, I myself received such a comment on my blog from a user who identified himself as “Joseph.” He wrote:

I received one of their letters and refinanced with them. They did a fine job and got me a good rate. I agree that maybe it wasn’t the best way of soliciting business, but it’s a tough market. Either way, they did the job they promised to do.
by Joseph October 28, 2009 13:33

Now, I don’t know about most people, but I certainly don’t spend my free time posting positive comments on blogs trying to sway other readers to believe that allegations of fraudulent or contentious services are unfounded.

I suspected that Joseph had some vested interest in ICG. From the crux of the comment left by him, it seemed that he was so moved by his mortgage refinancing experience that he became overwhelmed with the desire to spread the good news about ICG to the rest of the world.

When I examined the comment source, I noticed that the e-mail associated with it was jennifermargulis@gmail.com. Now it is possible that Jennifer, following the romantic style of George Sand, was using the pseudonym “Joseph”. But on the other hand it was also possible that Joseph was Jennifer’s darker side, I have heard of stranger things before. So I decided to slip into my feminine persona and contact Jennifer via e-mail and ask for some mortgage refinancing advice.

Hi,

I am looking into refinancing my home mortgage and would like to get more information about your services and rates.

Can you please provide more information about your offerings?

Best regards,

Brittney Darcey

It didn’t take vary long before I received the following ICG e-mail response from Jennifer:

Hi Brittney,

Intercontinental Capital Group can probably give you a good rate and fast service. Their website is:

http://www.intercontinentalcapitalgroup.com

You should contact Brad Allen over there, he can give you the information you’re looking for. His phone number is 212.485.9655. His direct e-mail is ballen@icghome.com.

I hope they are able to help you!

Best,

Jennifer Margulis

The Internet search confirmed my suspicions that Joseph and Jennifer Margulis were indeed one and the same (see image below). It also turns out that Jennifer was in fact an ICG marketing employee on a company mission to remove the rotten apples from the barrel. Apparently, she found my posting about her notorious company and decided to sprinkle some fluffy propaganda comments. To make them look more credible, her comments were disguised as coming from little Joseph, your all-American, happy and satisfied mortgage customer.

ICG may be right about how tough the mortgage refinancing market is. But regardless, deceptive solicitation letters, whitewashing negative feedback, and impersonating legitimate users in order to lure customers have no place in any business, even less so in financial organizations which, above all, should uphold integrity and honesty.

Caveat Emptor

1 Comment

The Financial Advisor

October 1, 2009 at 4:29 am (Banking, Finance, Fraud, Risk Management, Security)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

Your Trusted Advisor

You can’t miss him. He’s the guy with the freshly pressed $500 suit, designer silk tie, and imported Italian shoes. His stylish attire is elegantly complemented by an expensive fountain pen, a standard issue Rolex, the latest cell phone, and a brand new luxury car. His physiognomy is unmistakable, styled hair, white teeth, and a nice tan; a modern day Cary Grant.

He’s a natural, standing out at every social gathering—in the fitness club, on the golf course, at church and synagogue. He is jovial and funny, the toast of the party, a real screamer. Always the first to introduce himself, reaching across the room with a friendly and firm handshake.

He loves sports and works out regularly. Which one is his favorite? Well, he loves them all. If you let him, he’ll talk to you for hours about the Super Bowl, the NBA, or the US Open.

If sports are not your thing, that’s ok, he’ll talk politics. But don’t get him started! He has an opinion on all matters domestic and foreign, and he’s not afraid to share them with you. He has strong convictions about capitalism, socialism, the government , the environment…you name it.

After just 10 minutes talking with him, you think “Wow, is this guy connected to the hilt!” He just got back from Washington D.C (important meetings with policy makers and various other movers and shakers). And then, there is his story about the White House—and check this out: a wallet sized group photo with the local congressman\senator\governor. And did I mention that he’s on texting terms with several high profile celebrities?

He’s not a loner; he frequently travels with the wolf pack. The lovely spouse is always nearby, ready to lend a hand. She will strategically join the conversation and make a joke or a teasing observation on his account (“Oh, my husband! He is such a Neanderthal. Ha, ha, ha!”), while your own wife whispers in your ear to check out his adorable son: “He’s only 7! Doesn’t he look mature in his tailored suit!” The kid, as if suddenly activated by some mysterious homing device, makes a B-line towards you for a handshake. “That’s my dad. He’s a financial advisor!” he says proudly.

By the time you’re done shaking hands with the kid, you realize that he’s dad has moved on. You watch him mingling with other guests working the room like a cowboy in a rodeo, quickly branding the fattened calves for follow up. Than he’s back, telling you a joke (about a CEO who signs a contract with the devil). Next comes the debriefing. What do you do? Who do you work for? Where is your office? Before you can say “Pocahontas”, he’s punching your e-mail and cell number into his Smartphone.

A few days later, as you are getting ready to grab a bite to eat, your cell phone rings. “Hey, how’s it going?” says the friendly voice “Who is this?” you answer confused. “It’s the CEO and the devil guy from last week,” he continues without skipping a beat. “Hey, I happened to be in your neighborhood and I’ve got something for you. Do you wanna do lunch? It’s on me.” “Sure,” you reply, wondering what he can possibly have for you.

During lunch, he goes over more of the same routine. You discover that he either knows some C executives in your company or knows someone else who does and he hints that he can pull some strings for you. After lunch as you are preparing to leave, he springs a few expensive tickets for some sporting event and tells you that he and his significant other would love to have you and your significant other over in their private booth to watch the game. “Come on, its going to be fun!” A few days later when you come home from work, you discover a few boxes of toys and a bunch of CDs and DVDs on your dining room table. “What’s this, Honey?” you inquire. “Mr. CEO/devil’s wife just dropped them off. She said that their kids just love them and she thought ours would too!”

This goes on for several months, with lunches, family get togethers, tickets to see the Broadway show and offers to use his timeshare in Disneyland for free. You eventually let down you guard; clearly these are such nice people.

Then one lunch, your newfound buddy, with an intense look on his face, tells you about this amazing 3-month, double digit return investment opportunity. (But you have to act immediately!) “How much are we looking at?” you inquire. “Oh, not much,” he says, “just 100K.” You politely decline, telling him that you don’t have that kind of money to invest. He says, “can you borrow it from someone?” Sensing a high pressure sales tactic, you say that you don’t feel comfortable borrowing money from people. Your dining companion loosens up and assumes his collegial persona again and says “Hey, that’s not a problem, I’ll keep my eyes open for other opportunities for you, but I don’t know if they’ll be as good as this one.”

Then the conversation turns to your company and he starts debrefing you about acquisition plans, mergers, strategy, etc. His questions seem strangely reminiscent. Oh yeah, you just recently went over them in the corporate anti-trust and insider information certification course. Now you realize that he’s actually fishing for insider information.

In a moment of complete mental lucidity, you suddenly get it. This guy is a professional shyster and he’s been playing you like a violin. Now would probably be a good time to end lunch and this relationship. But its not as easy as that. By now, he has woven himself into your social fabric. Severing the relationship now would cause you and your family mental anguish and would probably require some form of unfortunate confrontation. And what about mutual friends; what do you say to them?

And then there is the doubt issue. Even though now you know he’s dishonest and deceitful, shouldn’t you give him a break? After all, he’s just a another guy with a family and a mortgage trying to make a living, isn’t he? So, what do you do?

The moral of the story is that this is all a scam. Don’t let your emotions get the better part of you. These individuals (and their accomplices) are cold blooded opportunists. They could care less about you, your family, or your financial well being. Their interest in you is purely financial and short term. As far as what you perceived to be generosity (the free tickets, lunch, gifts, etc.), they’re just a device to make you feel indebted and emotionally dependent.

Unfortunately, as many have discovered, few of us are immune from this type of relationship and manipulation. If you think that being scammed financially only applies to the ship of fools, check out the Who’s Who on Bernie’s list.

The majority of independent financial advisors\planners operate as one man shows and are not dissimilar to the elixir and snake oil salesmen of the Old West. To compensate for the lack of substance (i.e. breadth and depth of financial knowledge and operational know how), they rent an office at a respectable address, contract with financial service processor like Investors Capital, and purchase an off-the-shelf website that comes pre-loaded with content and functionality like whitepapers, newsletters, and financial calculators. The rest, is pure social engineering.

Despite the aura of legitimacy the financial advisor\planners industry is trying to assume (through certification and NASD regulation), the fact is that it is riddled with dishonest, unscrupulous confidence artists. If you need financial or investment advice, go with a large non-contractor or commission based company like Fidelity. They won’t be able to guarantee double digit returns, but they won’t lose your investment overnight either. If you are new to investing, do yourself a big favor and carefully read the information on the FINRA site. You can also use some of their tools to check out your prospective broker buddy.

Good financial advice is hard to come by. Since most of us are not savvy enough to distinguish between the legitimate advisors and the Madoff wannabes, you should stay away from all independent financial advisors\planners, regardless of how smartly they dress or successful they appear. This especially applies to the ones you know through your social circles.

If you do happen to use an independent financial advisor\planner, you may want to scrub him against the following list of the 7 deadly sins of financial conduct. If he fits one or more of these descriptions, it’s probably time for you (and your investments) to move on.

Promising you any return on your investment (especially ones in the double digit range)
Telling you about sudden investment opportunities that require prompt action
Soliciting you for insider information and references for other potential investors
Paying you in cash or using proxy accounts (like personal checks from a spouse)
Exhibiting dishonesty of any type (i.e. asking you to attend financial sales meetings masked as social events or having previous SEC or NASD complaints
Showing willingness to spend money on you for no apparent reason (including free lunches, gifts for the kids, etc.)
Having a history of contentious job loss with larger financial institutions and lawsuits or litigation involving trading irregularities

Caveat Emptor

5 Comments

It’s Good Enough for Me

September 18, 2009 at 5:35 am (Engineering, Management, Quality, SDLC, Software Development, Team Building)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

Fighting the Best Defending the Good

I commute frequently, so I tend to have some down time at the airport while sitting at the gate and waiting for my ship to come in. I usually use this window to catch up on my technical reading, but recently I decided to take a break and venture in to one of the book stores in the concourse. After skimming the offerings, I discovered a bookshelf filled with titles of the “How I Became the Best In ___, and How You Too Can By Simply Following My Easy Three-Step Program” genre. These books, mind you, are not cheep paper backs. I was looking at thick hardbacks, generously illustrated and accordingly priced. Apparently, the “How to Become the Best” series industry is booming.

This got me thinking: statistically speaking, the best of any kind takes up only a tiny outlier of the bell curve. So why the hype? Clearly, if this industry is thriving there are enough literate people out there who were willing to buy into the idea that being the “best” is worth their time and money.

Then a few weeks ago, I found myself confronted with this concept again. I was having lunch with a colleague and he raised the argument that the only way to win in today’s lean software economy is to develop the “best” features and functionality. He expressed his strong conviction by recounting his recent experience at a trendy “how to become the best” seminar. “I am a new man,” he said, “This event has changed my entire outlook on product development”. “How’s that?” I asked, curious. He leaned forward, squinted, and in a lower and somewhat more mysterious voice, he summarized his newly acquired philosophy. He said that according to the presenters, Trump, Robbins, and Kiyosaki, success hinges on one’s ability to tap into one’s inner best. Either you’re Napoleon or you’re out of the game.

At this point, I was done with my burrito and so I seized the opportunity to respond in kind with a rival French maxim. I quoted Voltaire: “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” (The Best is the Enemy of the Good). Wellington, I pointed out, was by no means the best, but he certainly outlasted Napoleon in the game.

My companion was startled and said he didn’t understand what I meant. I offered an explanation: “It’s not that I am a proponent of mediocrity; to the contrary,” I said, “I pride myself on my attention to quality. I have absolutely no problem with the concept of pursuing excellence. What prevents me from realizing perfection are mundane details such as looming deadlines, shrinking budgets, and a chronic shortage of resources.”

Of course it’s easy to invoke demagoguery and claim that it’s either “best” or “bust”. Many development managers adapt this mistaken philosophy, assuming that it has a positive motivational value. The average corporate culture doesn’t help dispel this myth either, by creating unattainable criteria for personal performance and compensation plans. Regardless of how fond of the cliché’ you may be, unfortunately preaching the best when it comes to delivering software under time, quality, and budgetary constraints is one thing, actually being able to deliver on such promises is quite another. If we learn anything from human endeavors, it is that “good enough” is more than acceptable. As far as I know, most of us don’t drive the best car on the market, live in the best built house, or exclusively buy the best clothes or appliances. Compromise is the order of the day.

My favorite story that illustrates this concept is the World War II race to develop the radar. Both British and German teams were aware of the tremendous operational and strategic advantage this new technology could offer. The German development team had the more advanced science and superior technology. Their radar was more accurate, had a longer range, and provided fewer false-positives. The German team—true to their cultural heritage—was striving to develop the best apparatus possible. The British team was smaller, less experienced, and had inferior technology. But from the outset, it adopted the motto: “Second Best Tomorrow”. This philosophy eventually allowed them to release an inferior but working radar earlier than the Germans thus winning the race and ultimately tipping the balance of power.

Cheap (often free) and simple software free of stringent SLAs is popping up everywhere. Most of us now get our breaking news from Google and personal blogs, case in point. We make free, long-distance calls on Skype (and don’t mind the low QoS), watch video on tiny iPods screens rather than high definition TVs, and more and more of us are using low-power cell phones that are just good enough to meet our surfing and emailing needs. For many leading companies, the distinction between good enough “beta” versions and commercially “best” products has blurred beyond recognition. (Gmail has finally come out of beta after more than 5 years.)

To be successful in commercial software development, one must fight the urge to gold plate by adding late stage functionality. One must also learn how to be firm regarding ad nauseum pressure for application re-writes, all in the name of making it the best.

Contrary to what the motivational posters profess, when it comes to shipping on-time, the pursuit of perfection can become your worst enemy. The same also applies to excessive QA and testing. In the end, even the most comprehensive white, gray or black box tests can only provide a projection of how your application will perform. The ultimate usefulness gauge are the real users. The earlier you release your product into the wild, the faster you’ll discover if it adequately fills a need.

As I have discovered on many occasions, building a good enough product and releasing it early enough is good enough for most customers—which is good enough for me.

1 Comment

Political Science 101

August 10, 2009 at 7:28 pm (Education, Engineering, Management, Quality, science)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

The Arrest of Science

Having kids in elementary school comes with several important parental commitments. Ranking high among these is the participation in the yearly science project. The main objective is to expose kids to the fundamentals of the scientific method. Following the principal of "learning by doing," children, with the assistance of their parents, are required to conduct and showcase a yearly science experiment.

In our school district, exhibition day is a long-awaited, festive event with hundreds of projects being showcased at the school’s gymnasium. It is a great opportunity for families to mingle and view each other’s work. To spice things up a bit, at the end of the event, a panel of teachers selects the top three projects for each grade. The 1^st place winners are then entitled to enter their project into the yearly regional competition that takes place at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a much coveted honor.

Although it is a great concept in theory, for some, the yearly science project can become a dreaded event, often testing a family’s procrastination capacity to the limits. On the weekend prior to the project’s due date, it is not unusual to find many agitated parents with kids in tow still scouring craft stores for project display boards and other supplies. In our family, however, we’ve come to view this assignment as an important pedagogical opportunity worthy of careful planning and execution.

I am fan of Richard Feynman, and have enjoyed reading Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! This book in addition to being an excellent primer for the budding technology hacker, inspired me to instill in my kids the importance of not falling victim to the "Cargo Cult" syndrome, and being honest and original in one’s approach to scientific discovery.

As it turns out, this has been a winning strategy for us. Since we started conducting science projects 4 years ago, we’ve been fortunate to have won several first place awards. Some of our past projects included experiments on bottleneck formation, sound propagation through vacuum, and algorithms and mathematics used by a spider to construct a web.

This year, during a routine morning school drop off, our 4th grader, Sheva, noticed that a traffic bottleneck formed regularly at one of the entrances to her school. After discussing her observations during dinner she proposed to dedicate her project to deciphering it.

Over a period of several days, we examined the traffic patterns, (volume, arrival and departure times, vehicle speed, etc.), but it seemed that there was no single significant cause to which we could attribute the formation of the bottleneck. We were stumped and unsure as to how to proceed. It was during one of the site visits that my daughter noticed a hawk hovering over the area. She commented that it would have been great if we could observe the traffic from above. Well, I thought, we may not be able to fly over the site like a hawk, (it is a residential area so a fly-over in an Ultralight would be out of the question), but we could certainly build an airborne observatory to do it for us.

After considering options, we decided that a fixed winged propeller driven aircraft wouldn’t work because the wind gusts at the area can reach up to 40 mph. Another constraint was that we would need a sustained, 30-minute flight to capture the entire bottleneck sequence which would be prohibitive.

In the end, we decided to build a lighter than air aircraft (Image 1) and after an intense weekend of design and fabrication we had a functional observatory. It took several test runs to get the flight characteristics and image quality right, but by Monday we were ready to conduct our operational flight.

Image 1: ATOS (Airborne Traffic Observation System)

Flight Navigation and Imaging Specifications

4′ Chloroprene weather balloon with 1.7 lbs of lifting capacity
Riveted aluminum base cradle
Flight control and stabilization via 2 tethers
Canon FS100 Flash Memory (16 GB) camcorder with image stabilization
Wireless broadcast via an Amimon’s wireless modem, streaming HD 1080P/24 video at 120 Hz over an encrypted connection to a base station laptop

The first flight of ATOS was smooth, producing an excellent video feed. Back home after evaluating the images, Sheva almost instantly identified the source of the bottleneck.

It was apparent that the two-way traffic at the entrance to school was restricted to only smaller vehicles. As soon as the school buses arrived for their daily drop-off and pick-up, they forced all vehicles into a single file, which resulted in the immediate formation of a bottleneck.

Aerial View 1- Jacob Apelbaum Aerial View 2 - Jacob Apelbaum
This discovery was somewhat puzzling because, from the ground, the road (which is nearly 31′) seemed wide enough to comfortably support the passage of two side by side buses. So, on our next field trip we decided to measure the gate (Illustration 1) that blocks the entrance in question.

Armed with the gate’s measurements, we then consulted the traffic calming section in the NY highway design manual and quickly concluded that indeed the gate was at fault.

Illustration 1: Gate Dimensions

So science aside, installing a gate that blocked over 30% of a high traffic thoroughfare was clearly a bad idea, not to mention that it violated numerous design codes. The gate and the fences that are attached to each of its sides also posed a series safety hazard because drivers who were unaware of the obstruction might plow directly into the fence, while still others who miscalculated the gate’s clearance could potentially scrape the posts supporting the gate.

On the day of the science fair, I approached the school principal and inquired about the origin of the gate. I explained that it appears that someone had either made a design or installation error because the gate’s posts should have been placed on the sidewalk curbs, off the driveway. The rationale for this being that when the gate was completely open it would allow for unrestricted traffic. The principal told me that the decision to construct the gate preceded her time in office and it had been influenced by the homeowners just down the street who complained that the traffic had become a nuisance. To reduce the traffic in order to appease the homeowners, the school agreed to install the gate as built.

Not satisfied with this explanation, I proceeded to point out the hazards posed by the gate as it stands and began to enumerate various doomsday scenarios. The principal’s otherwise cheerful demeanor suddenly darkened and after a quick and nervous glance at her watch she said that it was unfortunate that our meeting had to end so abruptly, but that she had to run to an important conference.

On the way home, my daughter who had been standing by me during the entire conversation with the principal asked me if, now that we’ve provided a scientific explanation for the formation of the bottle neck, the school would fix the problem. I thought about it for few minutes and said, "Probably not." She asked “why?”, I said that unfortunately, sometimes in the short term, politics can trump scientific discovery. She was visibly disappointed and said that she worked so hard on this experiment and it all turned out to be a complete waste of our time. I told her that even though we didn’t win, we still conducted a great experiment and independently discovered and solved an interesting puzzle. And by way of analogy, I told her about the Galileo affair and how despite his mistreatment by the inquisition, in the end, his theories eventually won acceptance.

A few days after the science experiment, my wife, while waiting to pickup our daughter from school, struck up conversation with another parent who seemed to be somewhat annoyed. "Why the long face?" she asked. "Well," said our neighbor , "Just a few minutes ago while driving into the school parking lot, I was being polite and making extra room for the car approaching me, but I miscalculated the width of the opening and scraped the side of my van against the gate post." She had carved a deep gauge in right hand side of her van from wheel rim to wheel rim.

That evening during dinner, my wife recounted the story of the accident. My daughter at first thought that my wife was making the whole thing up, but after hearing that it was the mother of one of her classmates, she asked for permission to call her friend to verify the facts. When she got back to the dinner table, she had a look of disbelief on her face. “That’s exactly what we told the principle could happen!” she said. “We sure did,” I said.

She remained silent for few seconds and then I noticed a twinkle in her eyes.

6 Comments

The Vatican Loves Me, it Loves Me Not

July 6, 2009 at 12:57 am (Art, History, Management, science)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

Science Vs. Dogma

A few years ago, I read a series of articles about the Vatican’s plan to reconcile the Galileo affair. The decision to reach this important milestone was by no means a hasty one; it was concluded after the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (the church’s leading scientific minds) deliberated every aspect of the case for almost 13 years. To the average person, pondering a question for 13 years may seem a bit excessive, but when dealing with a 400 year old grudge, you can’t hurry love, you just have to wait. Net-net, I was delighted to witness the curtain descending on this, the final act of one of the saddest episodes in the history of science.

In a follow-up article I read that the Vatican was even prepared to go one step further. In a gesture that could only be described as brotherly love, they were planning to immortalize the father of modern science by erecting his statue near the apartment where, in 1633, he was incarcerated while awaiting his inquisition trial. This was getting better and better.

So, on a recent trip to Rome I decided to seize the opportunity and drop by the Vatican to pay my homage to Mr. Galilei. Not being familiar with the neighborhood, I consulted one of the Swiss guards for guidance. The soldier, in a somewhat disinterested voice, informed me that there was no statue of Galileo in the Vatican. Here, I thought to myself, was an opportunity to one-up my mercenary friend. "Haven’t you heard about the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the decision to erect the statue?" "Oohh, that?" he replied, "that project was canceled".

I have to admit that at first I suspected my guard friend was out of the loop, but after performing a quick internet search, I confirmed that indeed, the Holy See had decided that the funds originally allocated to the project were re-appropriated instead to an African educational program aimed at teaching about the interdependency of science and religion. Clearly the hand that gives can easily take away; but why? Why would the Vatican go through all the trouble of 13 years of meetings, making news announcements and publicly committing to erect a statue no less just to renege at the last moment?

Last week, as I was rummaging through some magazines I fell upon an article written by Father Jose Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory. In the article, Father Funes theorized that if aliens existed, they were absolved from redemption because, contrary to us sinful humans, they were already in "full friendship with the creator". After rubbing my eyes and rereading the article a few more times, (it read like something Father Ghido Saraduci might have written), the answer to the whole Galileo affair finally came into focus.

The explanation for the church’s apparent Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality disorder had nothing to do with Galileo being right or wrong or the validity of any specific theory. At the core of the issue were the Pandora box that Galileo unlocked and the resulting devastation the scientific reasoning unleashed on the church’s authority. Where before the scientific revolution, natural disasters, war, diseases, and poverty could easily be explained as by-products of sin and demonic forces, now these explanations were no longer believable.

The statement that theology and science share a common interest in questions such as the origin of the universe could be true, but there ends the commonality. Legitimate scientific discoveries are driven by strong individual curiosity and doubt. The church’s scientheological research is driven by orchestrated attempts to harmonize dogma. Where true scientific research is concerned with tangible results and the generation of derivative value such as useful technology, the Vatican’s scientific examination produces explanations to questionable theological concepts such as the redemption of aliens.

For a scientific theory to flourish, everything must be open to examination; the observer must constantly reevaluate the universe and construct models that better fit his observations. This almost cannibalistic process results in the wholesale destruction of old theories (most serious scientists no longer advocate explanations that are based on theories such as the Ether or the Four elements). But for the church, this constant construction and deconstruction of ideas makes it impossible to maintain a consistent position on any subject. Being fully aware of the pending doom, they fought tooth and nail to preserve the status quo by enforcing models like the Ptolemaic system.

From the historical prospective, it is interesting to note that Galileo’s scientific revolution coincided with several critical events of the 30 Year War (like the Battle of Breitenfeld and the Treaty of Westphalia). The Vatican quickly realized that the opening floodgates of scientific reasoning coupled with significant changes in the European political map would pose major threats to its hegemony—a fear which became a reality with the birth of the sovereign nation-state and the rise of secular society. The Vatican realized that the Counter-Reformation did not work and that they did not have an effective antidote to halt the pandemic. The conclusion was to re-mobilize the Inquisition, the Jesuits, and a new edition of the Index of Forbidden Books (containing writing by such troublemakers as Giordano Bruno and Johannes Kepler).

Having a monopoly on truth and its interpretation goes a long way towards building one of the best selling brands in history. Being the oldest, largest, and most successful multinational corporation made the church perfectly adept at playing the public relations game and mastering of the art of simultaneously speaking from both sides of its mouth. Now, I know, some would argue that this is a cynical simplification of the church’s attitude toward science and that the Holy See would never utilize such tactics. If you are one of the skeptics, I invite you to read the following completely contradictory papal statements regarding Galileo:

Loves Me

Pope Pius XII, in his speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, described Galileo as being among the "most audacious heroes of research … not afraid of the stumbling blocks and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments".
Pope John Paul II admitted the Church had made a "tragic mistake” in rejecting Galileo’s views and offered Galileo a sincere apology.

Loves Me Not

Joseph Ratzinger, (at the time still yet to become Pope Benedict XVI), described the Galileo affair as "a symptomatic case that permits us to see how deep the self-doubt of the modern age of science and technology goes today." He then quoted Paul Feyerabend, saying “The Church at the time of Galileo kept much more closely to reason than did Galileo himself, and she took into consideration the ethical and social consequences of Galileo’s teaching too. Her verdict against Galileo was rational and just and the revision of this verdict can be justified only on the grounds of what is politically opportune.” Cardinal Ratzinger further commented about Galileo’s trial and concluded that it was "fair and reasonable".

I encourage you to reconcile these statements. If you do, please drop me a line and I will do my part to ensure that in the future, your statue too gets erected in the Vatican. Where specifically, you ask? Why, right next Galileo’s.

Peace.

Mortgage Refinancing Shysters I

June 3, 2009 at 4:42 am (Banking, Finance, Fraud, Industry, Mortgage, Refinancing, Risk Management, Security, Shyster, Trust, e-Commerce)
Tags: Jacob Apelbaum

So you’re Looking to Refinance?

It may be true that David Hannum was the first to observe that suckers arrived in the delivery room at the rate of one per minute (ironically, he himself turned out to be a colossal sucker), but it took the marketing genius of P.T. Barnum (the man behind such novelties as the bearded lady) to turn gullibility into fortune. The world has changed significantly since the days of Barnum’s traveling freak shows where access to a new audience required lengthy cross country trips. Today, the Internet provides a virtual big top circus ripe with new ways to reel in and deceive, complete with unlimited seating for millions of new victims.

Eberhart and Kennedy in their excellent treatise "Swarm Intelligence" suggest that deception is quite common in social populations and they point out that all of us regularly practice it to one degree or another. In support of their argument, they discuss the well documented El Farol algorithm frequently used by individuals to effectively compete in social communities in order to gain material or social advantage.

I recently I had occasion to consider this maxim and even try it on for size. A practical and logical individual, I am by no means naive, so I was surprised—even blindsighted!—to discover that a certain financial advisor that I know personally is in fact a grade A shyster. This got me to thinking about the varying shades of dishonesty and gullibility and the gray area that exists between telling "the truth and nothing but the truth" and outright lying especially as it pertains to financial solicitations.

You may have noticed that over the last year as the economy has spiraled out of control, the number of mail offers for mortgage refinancing has increased significantly. The banks—which in the past were the traditional providers of such services—are still hemorrhaging profusely from the blunt trauma inflicted on them by the collapse of subprime mortgages. (I certainly don’t get any more solicitations for HELOC.) In what is further proof of the principal of horror vacui, it seems that the legitimate banking mortgage industry has now given way to a new breed of entrepreneurial ventures. These con-corporations have smelled the blood in the water and are aggressively following Mr. Bigweld’s motto: "See a need, fill a need".

Realizing that many of these solicitations were probably rip-offs, I decided to test the waters to see if I could find out who was behind one of them. As it happens, I didn’t have to wait long before receiving another mortgage refinancing solicitation letter. This one was from the Intercontinental Capital Group (ICG) and instead of sending it directly to my circular bin, I opened and read.

On the surface, the language and content of the letters (see both versions below) was drastically different from the one I’m accustomed to receiving from my bank. Whereas previous solicitations were factual and down to business, these were laced with crafty and deceptive language.

Intercontinental Capital Group Solicitation Letter 1

Intercontinental Capital Group Solicitation Letter 2

After examining the details I found the following noteworthy features:

Disingenuous Claims of Previous Communication—In order to lower suspicions and fake familiarity, the letter claims to be a follow up on an already established relationship and ongoing communication.
Design to Deceive—The letter contains what on the surface appears to be a legitimate application number, a "second notice" tag, a recognizable equal housing lender logo and acronyms of well known public and federal organizations. In fact none of these details has any significance and are there simply to create the semblance of legitimacy.
Vague and Deliberately Confusing Language—The letter states that ICG is "unconditionally endorsed by the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development". When I called the toll free number I heard: "Thank you for calling the FHA application processing center". ICG is certainly not a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) application processing center as the FHA neither issues loans directly nor has an application processing center.
Skin Deep Corporate Internet Presence—On the surface the company web site appears to be fully functional, but when I tried to use some of its key functionality (login, change password, etc.) I quickly discovered that none of it worked.

Being deceitful in marketing is not news (see Mortgage Refinancing Shysters II for more details), so respecting that any marketing campaign will always necessarily be laced with a certain amount of dishonesty (Seth Godin thinks that All Marketer are Lairs), I was ready to let this one go. Just before doing so, it occurred to me to Google "ICG" and lo and behold…it turns out that this shadowy and mysterious organization not only stretched their marketing collateral, they actually had some serious run-ins with at least one state banking regulatory agency (failure to submit financial statements and comply).

It appears that the vacuum created by the retreating lending banks is being filled in by old style confidence and run of the mill Internet scam companies. Be mindful of this and remember that "there’s no such thing as free lunch". If the mortgage refinancing offer you received looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Caveat Emptor.

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The Illustrated Primer

Only the Racially Pure Need Apply

Drinking on the Job and Other Vices

Let There Be Light

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Mortgage Refinancing Shysters II

The Financial Advisor

It’s Good Enough for Me

Political Science 101

The Vatican Loves Me, it Loves Me Not

Mortgage Refinancing Shysters I

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