Melbourne Australia Formula 1 practice

Surprise - look who is heading the tables today!

Practice 2 (Friday Afternoon)

Pos		No		Driver		Team		Time/Retired		Gap		Laps
1		16		Nico Rosberg		Williams-Toyota		1:26.053				36
2		23		Rubens Barrichello		Brawn-Mercedes		1:26.157		0.104		38
3		9		Jarno Trulli		Toyota		1:26.350		0.297		42
4		14		Mark Webber		RBR-Renault		1:26.370		0.317		30
5		22		Jenson Button		Brawn-Mercedes		1:26.374		0.321		38
6		10		Timo Glock		Toyota		1:26.443		0.390		42
7		17		Kazuki Nakajima		Williams-Toyota		1:26.560		0.507		33
8		15		Sebastian Vettel		RBR-Renault		1:26.740		0.687		19
9		20		Adrian Sutil		Force India-Mercedes		1:27.040		0.987		29
10		3		Felipe Massa		Ferrari		1:27.064		1.011		35
11		4		Kimi Räikkönen		Ferrari		1:27.204		1.151		32
12		7		Fernando Alonso		Renault		1:27.232		1.179		28
13		21		Giancarlo Fisichella		Force India-Mercedes		1:27.282		1.229		32
14		6		Nick Heidfeld		BMW Sauber		1:27.317		1.264		34
15		5		Robert Kubica		BMW Sauber		1:27.398		1.345		36
16		11		Sebastien Bourdais		STR-Ferrari		1:27.479		1.426		36
17		2		Heikki Kovalainen		McLaren-Mercedes		1:27.802		1.749		35
18		1		Lewis Hamilton		McLaren-Mercedes		1:27.813		1.760		31
19		8		Nelsinho Piquet		Renault		1:27.828		1.775		35
20		12		Sebastien Buemi		STR-Ferrari		1:28.076		2.023		33

Practice 1 (Friday Morning)

Pos		No		Driver		Team		Time/Retired		Gap		Laps
1		16		Nico Rosberg		Williams-Toyota		1:26.687				19
2		17		Kazuki Nakajima		Williams-Toyota		1:26.736		0.049		21
3		4		Kimi Räikkönen		Ferrari		1:26.750		0.063		24
4		23		Rubens Barrichello		Brawn-Mercedes		1:27.226		0.539		21
5		2		Heikki Kovalainen		McLaren-Mercedes		1:27.453		0.766		15
6		22		Jenson Button		Brawn-Mercedes		1:27.467		0.780		12
7		3		Felipe Massa		Ferrari		1:27.642		0.955		24
8		10		Timo Glock		Toyota		1:27.710		1.023		24
9		20		Adrian Sutil		Force India-Mercedes		1:27.993		1.306		20
10		7		Fernando Alonso		Renault		1:28.123		1.436		16
11		6		Nick Heidfeld		BMW Sauber		1:28.137		1.450		20
12		9		Jarno Trulli		Toyota		1:28.142		1.455		21
13		5		Robert Kubica		BMW Sauber		1:28.511		1.824		22
14		21		Giancarlo Fisichella		Force India-Mercedes		1:28.603		1.916		16
15		12		Sebastien Buemi		STR-Ferrari		1:28.785		2.098		27
16		1		Lewis Hamilton		McLaren-Mercedes		1:29.042		2.355		18
17		14		Mark Webber		RBR-Renault		1:29.081		2.394		7
18		8		Nelsinho Piquet		Renault		1:29.461		2.774		25
19		11		Sebastien Bourdais		STR-Ferrari		1:29.499		2.812		21
20		15		Sebastian Vettel		RBR-Renault		1:32.784		6.097		4

Pre race comment - no commet - a bit controversial!

A date has been set for the FIA International Court of Appeal hearing over the diffusers on the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams cars. It will take place in Paris on April 14 in the week prior to round three of the championship, the Chinese Grand Prix.

Stewards passed the cars of all three teams in Melbourne on Thursday, prompting protests from rivals, who believe their diffusers may be illegal. Those protests were rejected, a decision that was subsequently appealed by Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Renault.

This means that these 3 teams could loose any points scored this weekend and the next GP if Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault are successful with their appeal

What is your opinion? Why not leave a comment about it?

How is the online retail trade doing in this recession?

Avon
Bare Necessities
Figleaves
Fragrance.net
Lane BryantCatalog (Arizona mail order)
Shopthebunny

Pension funds to sue RBS for losses & who is looking after the retail insvestors who were mislead in the £12bn rights issue

Pension funds to sue RBS for losses & who is looking after the retail insvestors who were mislead in the £12bn rights issue

that Sir Fred Goodwin put his name to Mr Brown?

American investors also have a class action against the bank

Bear market rally...or serious reversal?

Sometimes overlooked - the concert ticket scam

Here are some sites the experts say you should avoid:

• cliffrichardtour.com
• vfestival2009.net
• tinaturnerworldtour.com
• downloadfestival2009.com
• worldticketshop.com
• theonlineticketshop.com
• double8tickets.com

Before purchasing, you can contact the credit card company you have bought the tickets with (or are thinking of using) and ask them if they have previously had to pay out a refund for the company in question.

In the UK - You should be looking for a UK registered office, a UK registered company, a UK phone number, a VAT registration number. Look for things you can verify.

Your e-mail is being dealt with

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr Frank Nweke, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of
Fedex,Ibrahim Sule,Larry Christopher, Puppy Scammers are impostors claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation. During our Investigation, we noticed that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

Therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by cordinating your payment in total USD$10.5million in an ATM CARD which you can use to withdraw money from any ATM MACHINE CENTER anywhere in the world with a maximum of $10000 United States Dollars daily. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in an ATM CARD.

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect the American Citizens. All I want you to do is to contact the ATM CARD CENTER via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $200.00 only and note that your Approval Slip which contains details of the agent who will process your transaction.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Phone contact : +234 070 8660 9244
NAME: Sr. Agatha Swanta
EMAIL: sr.agathaswanta@sify.com

Do contact Sr. Agatha Swanta, of the ATM CARD CENTRE with your details:

FULL NAME:

HOME ADDRESS:

TELL:

CELL:

CURRENT OCCUPATION:

BANK NAME:

So your files would be updated after which he will send the payment informations which you'll use in making payment of $200 via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram Transfer for the procurement of your Approval Slip after which the delivery of your ATM CARD will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay. Please if you know you cannot be able to afford the $200 for the delivery of your ATM card via FedEx then do not bother to contact Sr. Agatha Swanta, as we are at the begenning of the year and he should be busy with office duties.

You are advice to get back to this office after you have contacted the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTER and we do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and i do hope to read from you soon.

FBI Director Robert S.Mueller III.

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possesion of your ATM CARD, you are hereby adviced only to be in contact with Sr. Agatha Swanta, of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

Report a SCAMMER - also report human trafficking

example - 13 Pimps arrested for human trafficking (Europe should have a common phone number for victims to call for help)

Suspicious e-Mail/Phishing

Phishing (as in “fishing for information” and “hooking” victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information that can be used to steal the victims’ identity. Current scams include phony e-mails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure the victims into the scam by telling them that they are due a tax refund.
You Can Help Shut Down Phishing Schemes (the irs one)
The good news is that you can help shut down these schemes and prevent others from being victimized. If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, you can relay that e-mail to a new IRS mailbox, phishing@irs.gov. Follow instructions in the link below for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure that it retains critical elements found in the original e-mail. The IRS can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you send to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites. Unfortunately, due to the expected volume, the IRS will not be able to acknowledge receipt or respond to you.
phishing@irs.gov
• Instructions for submitting phishing e-mails to IRS
• IR-2006-49, IRS Establishes e-Mail Box for Taxpayers to Report Phony e-Mails

for more information - http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=155682,00.html
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You should report scams to:

*** Your local police station. They may also advice you what to do and where to report further.

*** FBI. They have a special Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
http://www.ic3.gov/

*** Nigerian scams you can also report to a special organization created in Nigeria to fight 419 and other financial cybercrime, EFCC: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
http://www.efccnigeria.org

*** Russian scams you can (and should!) report to the following 2 places:

1) FSB, aka FSS (Federal Security Service). This organization is similar to FBI in Russia.
http://www.fsb.ru/contact/contact.html
Please note, this website is in Russian. You can use online translator, for example http://freetranslation.paralink.com/ to translate the page (recommended). The e-mail you can use is fsb@fsb.ru.

2) Another place to report Russian scammers is MVD of Russia, aka MOI (Ministry of the Interior of Russia). This is like the headquarters of Russian Police:
http://eng.mvdrf.ru/
Send your message through "Public Reception" center. They have a special so-called department "K" dedicated to fight cybercrime.

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Dating Schemes and Marriage Fraud:

The most frequent reports of scams the Embassy and the Department of State receive relate to on-line dating and marriage services. Correspondents who quickly move to professions of romantic interest or discussion of intimate matters could very well be scammers. The anonymity of the Internet means that the U.S. citizen cannot be sure of the real name, age, marital status, nationality, or even gender of the correspondent. In many cases, the correspondent turns out to be a fictitious persona created only to lure the U.S. citizen into sending money.

Typically, once a connection is made, the correspondent asks the U.S. citizen to send money or credit card information for living expenses, travel expenses, or "visa costs." Sometimes, the correspondent notifies the American citizen that a close family member is ill and begins to request monetary assistance. In other instances, the scammer cites the need to pay for travel expenses and “necessary travel documents” or expresses the need for funds to settle a property or other legal dispute in order to leave Ukraine.

A request for funds almost always marks a fraudulent correspondent. American citizens who fall prey to these scams have reported suffering emotional damage as well as losing thousands of dollars. U.S. citizens are cautioned against sending any money to persons they have not actually met. If they do choose to send money, they can take several precautions.

*
They may refer to http://uscis.gov for authoritative information about the immigration process and the true costs involved. For example, U.S. law does not require Ukrainian visitors to have a certain amount of "pocket money" in either local currency or dollars. Any request for money on this account would likely identify a scammer.

*
They may arrange to prepay for a plane ticket directly with the carrier rather than wiring money for transportation to the traveler.

*
If the correspondent provides an image of a purported U.S. visa as proof of intention to travel, the American citizen may contact the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv at kievfpm@state.gov to ascertain the validity of the visa.

*
They should carefully check the address of the bank account to which money is to be wired. If a Ukrainian citizen asks for funds to be deposited in a bank outside of Ukraine, this is an indication of likely fraud.

Reference - http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_2503.html
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Police in the United Kingdom found organized criminal gangs from Russia, the former Soviet Union and the Balkans using the Internet to advertise women for sale to brothels in Western Europe and also to men as"internet brides."4 A study by Global Survival Network (GSN) found that most mail-order bride agencies in Russia have expanded their activities to include trafficking for prostitution.
read on here .......http://www.online-dating-rights.com/forum/index.php?topic=528.0
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Those behind the Lottery win scam - Suspects pay good money for mailing lists and they do target those lists that deal with the elderly.

Lotto frauds are becoming prevalent in the UK with promises of huge winnings arriving in the form of unsolicited e-mail or letters to UK residents. Invariably the communication will purport to come from an overseas lottery and claim that the recipient has been allocated winning numbers. The recipient will contact the organisers, whether directly through telephone, by post or e-mail and will be invited to send money in to assist in the administration for the release of the winnings.


How it works - These winnings do not exist. This is merely a scam and attempt to elicit money from unsuspecting victims. As the winnings on offer are substantial, so too can be the advance fees required to release the funds.
The real cruel part of this scam is that suspects will build up a rapport with victims through telephone contact in order to continue the flow of money.

UK Links

• National Identity Fraud Week
• Home Office - Identity Fraud
• Office of Fair Trading

Reference - http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/section/lotto_fraud.htm

New this year - If you are from Britain please forward details of the scam to  The National Fraud Authority (NFA) 
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The Job offer scam
In the market for a new job? The Internet has made it easier than ever to find one. It’s also made it easier for criminals to find you.
Think about it: what do you do when you apply for a job? You give out all kinds of personal information: your name, address, home and work telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, sometimes even your date of birth and social security number. Just what you’d want to know if you’re an identity thief or other criminal. 

And what if—heaven forbid—you do fall for one of these cons?

Do damage control immediately: first, close all bank and e-mail accounts linked to the fraud. Then, contact the three major credit bureaus to place fraud alerts on your credit files and to regularly monitor your credit reports for unusual activity. Then, help us clean up the ‘net by reporting the fraud to the job site where the scam was posted and by filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

For more anti-fraud advice, see our Common Frauds webpage and the LooksTooGoodToBeTrue.com website

Affiliate programs - cheap labor

Dear Mr Norris

My company is a share holder in IHG plc (IHG.L)

You have moved from BeFree and I have had to change links on 2,000 + pages when you moved to CJ. I am afraid I cannot do it again.

You really are treating affiliates like slaves. Television and the press complain that they are loosing advertising revenue to the internet and the reason that they are loosing it is that companies are obtaining free advertising on the internet via affiliate programs, thanks to slave labor provided by affiliates.

Have a nice day

John Nichols

----- Original Message -----
From: Norris, Peter (IHG)
To: Norris, Peter (IHG)
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 3:24 PM