Just registered to this board when I saw this post. I just woke up this morning and realized that at some point during the night, I heard a steam message notification sound. Then I saw a message from someone I hadn't talked to since I don't know when. The first thing that popped into my mind was, "Amway? Zamzuu?" But then I saw that Intel was celebrating 43 years and wanted to give me a free game!
Now, I'm a logical, rational skeptic. I was
born a skeptic. I have my beliefs, I go to church, but I don't subscribe to other people's interpretations so easily or hold so closely to my own beliefs that I would dismiss anyone else's beliefs, ideals, or claims as something of a lesser value or validity. I can't prove what I believe, and I can't claim that I know it's accurate or real. That's the whole idea behind it, recognizing that your own ideas should be subject to the same scrutiny as anything else in the world. In the same sense, I'm a skeptic about everything else in life, from the anti-vaxxx campaigns to claims of alien life found on a recently acquired chunk of meteorite. This has saved me in a lot of respects. If I hadn't been a skeptic when I was a teen, my parents might have actually tricked me into thinking I liked Maxwell House coffee. Mind you, I didn't. They thought I didn't know what I was talking about, and one Christmas up north, they made a pot of maxwell house at my uncle's house. They bought it at some Giant foodstore and told me it was folgers. Alarms went off in my head when I noticed my mom getting annoyed after my refusing coffee for the third day in a row. I just didn't want coffee. Had my own stash of Monster Russian. Then, the following day, I went out to the car to get something and found a receipt for Maxwell House. Long story short, I had my fun with that knowledge afterwards. I still love them, even if they did try to shake my allegiance to Folgers.
Oh, but of course, my skepticism has saved me from much worse stuff than that. Zicam comes to mind. But today, it almost didn't. As I said before, I just woke up, I still had one foot stuck in the door of unconsciousness, and I knew Steam was notorious for is mind-blowing sales. I should know. I once made off with 25 - 30 IGN-Score>8/10 games for under 100 bucks during one of their Christmas sales. But, a free game? Intel? Gifting? Golly. I clicked the link, saw a muted video, and realized that it was on the steam website... or was it? I noticed things here and there that didn't add up: a scrolling title bar, the lack of the "steampowered" suffix in the address, and the fact that the price for the DLC was listed in pounds (£). Still, that's not what stopped me from logging in. It was the fact that Intel was celebrating 43 years. Aside from the fact that Intel was founded on
July 18, 1968, and not in March, there was also the absurdity that comes with the idea that any corporation would pull a stunt like buying games for every steam user on such an odd-numbered anniversary. If it was 50 years, I might have let down my guard... a little, anyway. But, this nagging conclusion prompted me to search the web to find out just what the heck is going on, and that's how I ended up here.
I am happy to say that scams have yet to work on me, and thanks to you and the wonderful power of skepticism, they missed another chance today. On that note, I would also suggest that some of you go out to the bookstore and pick up "The Art of Deception" by Steven Mitnick. He's a former criminal black-hat who turned his life around and now has his own network security business. The idea is that the biggest exploit in networks, computers, accounts, and just all-around security isn't some program function or unlocked gate, it's people, the human mind and the strength of emotions. It's very intelligent and covers Nigerian scams, Paypal scams (or is it Paypol? PaypaI?), Stock Market chatroom scams, and even scams that reach you through something other than the internet. With all the misinformation in this world today, and it's ability to dilute truth and reality to 30c with just a few clicks of the mouse button, we have a responsibility to inform others who are at risk of getting sucked into it.
I gotta go to work. Thanks again. Remain skeptical. Test all things. And, if something is too good to be true, Google it.