Saturday, April 25, 2009

A Community of Hope

Cancer Victims Fighting Back on Popular Website

Jacksonville, Florida - An online support community has been created for families and friends that have been directly or indirectly affected by cancer. Laughatcancer.com, which was developed by the not-for-profit entity Laugh at Cancer Organization, Inc. (LACO), is a safe and rapidly expanding forum where people can share stories of triumph, offer remembrances of loved ones lost or openly discuss their daily struggle with the disease.

“I started out by creating a local chapter here in Jacksonville nearly four years ago, but I was unable to find a place to hold our meetings on a regular basis,” said Founder and President Crystal Kauffman, who is also waging a relentless battle with the disease. "In addition, many of the members were disabled and unable to attend the meetings. After partnering with Ning.com in Feb. 2008, I created the Laugh at Cancer (LAC) Support Community online."

According to Kauffman, the online community has grown significantly since it was launched, and its members, ranging from children and teens to the elderly, hail from many different parts of the world. Kauffman and Ning.com eventually teamed up to create the LAC Youth Support Community and the Pet Cancer Support Community to help cancer victims with specific needs. “Once someone is diagnosed with cancer, they are often filled with anxiety, fear and uncertainty about the future. Our mission is to help each member focus on living beyond cancer’s reach,” stated Kauffman.

In order to expand outreach efforts, Kauffman would like members of the medical and corporate community to list her organization in their databases for patients, families and employees. “I would like to extend an invitation to partner with these entities so that the best resources, for all types of cancers, can be provided to every LACO member. Our goal is to raise awareness and plant seeds of hope. Therefore, we encourage people to join us in our effort to help make a difference,” Kauffman concluded.

For more details about the Laugh at Cancer Organization’s support community call (904) 908-0995. You can also email or visit the following:

info@laughatcancer.com
http://laughatcancer.com
http://support.laughtatcancer.com

Photo 1 - Crystal Kauffman, LACO Founder and President
Photo 2 - LACO logo

Photo/logo copyright held by Laugh at Cancer Organization, Inc.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Congress Must Investigate Dating Sites

Global Scam Could Be Funding Terrorists or Sex-Slave Trade!

Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have held numerous hearings over the years to discuss what poses the greatest threat to national security. Officials from both the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) have testified that nuclear, chemical and biological weapons should be given top priority when assessing the threat. However, The G-Man believes there is one more "weapon" that the C.I.A., F.B.I., Congress and the Senate need to include as a topic of discussion during these hearings because they may pose a serious threat to national and global security: Internet dating sites!


I came to this conclusion after investigating an email I received from a dating site called "2Busy2Date.com." As hard as this may be for some of you to believe, I became a member for the sole purpose of gathering information for another article I was working on involving people in their 50's and 60's re-entering the dating scene. Most of the other sites I looked at charged a fee. This one was absolutely free, so I said what the hell. At any rate, the email was from a 25-year old black woman named "Cindy", who listed herself as a resident of New York City. Having just turned 46, I informed her that I was old enough to be her father and could only offer her friendship. She included her email address, cindy4one007@yahoo.com, and requested that I contact her to chat. I sent an email through her Yahoo address to say hello. The following is the actual letter I received 24 hours later.


"Good day to you, and how are you doing at the moment? I hope that you are fine indeed. As far me, I am cool and came over here from Kampala, Uganda, except for the mess which ups and downs of the earth has put me into. I have just read your email back, and I like your person in general. I would like to be with you in the nearest future, if God permits. Like I told you earlier, my name is Miss Cindy Mbaye from Kenya, in East Africa. I am currently residing here in refugee camp in Kampala as a result of the death of my parents. My late father, Dr. Colonel Patrick Mbaye, during my family's good-old days, was a well-known coffee farmer and vibrant politician before the rebels attacked our house one morning and killed my mother and father. It is only me that is alive now, and I manage to make my way to the nearby country, Uganda, where I am living now as a refugee through the help of the United Nations. My dear, if it will please your majesty, I would like to know more about you, such as your likes and dislikes and what your are doing presently. I will tell you more about myself in the next email. I am sending you here as an attachment with this email, my picture for you to see and know better, though I am not that photogenic. I hope you wouldn't mind? Hope to hear from you soon. Have a nice day! Yours in mind, Cindy."


Now, as you folks know, The G-Man is nobody's fool. This letter completely reeked of bullshit, and my initial reaction was to simply hit the delete button. Something told me not to, and I decided to follow up. I punched the father's name into the Google search box just to see what would come up. It came as no surprise to find several websites listing the alleged doctor's name and warnings of a major scam. What did come as a total surprise was what I found on one website, which was extremely disturbing, to say the least. This particular website not only warned of the scam, it posted the photos other women, with many different names, that were apparently from all over the world! Excerpts from emails sent by these "women", in English, African and Russian, just to name a few, were also posted. Many of the sites also displayed comments from men who were actually corresponding with the women for extended periods, and they noted the communication ended after they refused to send the women money to come to the United States to visit, live with or marry them. In an example of one of the more elaborate scams that was perpetrated, a bogus copy of the allegedly murdered father's/mother's death certificate was sent to unsuspecting victims to gain sympathy and trust.



An alleged copy of the slain parent's death certificate that was sent to unsuspecting victims.


It didn't take me long to realize that for every guy smart enough to steer clear of this setup, there is probably another who fell prey and relinquished his life savings in pursuit of what he believed to be true love or someone that really cared. If you don't think someone is capable of being that dumb, naive or gullible, don't forget that a large percentage of Americans voted to give George W. Bush a second term. There are millions of desperate and lovelorn people out there, especially men, and I'm willing to bet they'll never come forward and admit to being scammed because of anger and embarrassment. Globally speaking, there is no way of knowing just how many have been scammed or how much money has been or is being taken in on a daily basis. This is scary, but here's an even more frightening scenario. Given that this appears to be happening all over the world, it is more than possible that the money being obtained could be used to fund terrorists groups, human trafficking, the sex-slave trade or nuclear arsenals!

Human trafficking is a consideration because of the women being showcased in these photos. Who are they? Are they among the millions of women reported missing from all over the world? Are they being held against their will by the people or organization behind the scam and forced to take the photos? If they are common citizens, do they know their photos are circulating on the Internet and being used for criminal purposes? This is a serious global problem, but in order to reassure and protect Americans, the national media and federal authorities need to launch an official investigation. In addition, The Congress and Senate need to conduct hearings with top-level executives from the leading Internet dating websites in the country to find out what safeguards are in place to protect their customers and how these criminals might be stopped.


Some person or organization has set this up too intricately for me to believe it's just a small, backroom operation run by three guys in dark glasses and leather jackets. Someone has managed to infiltrate security systems of popular dating websites and create profiles with the intention of stealing private information, finances and identities. If they bypassed the security safeguards of the site I was registered with, it's pretty likely that eHarmony, Match.com and others are just as vulnerable and will be targeted at some point. For all we know, they already have and just aren't saying anything about it.



Note: The photos displayed in this article were all obtained during email correspondence with the alleged love interests. The mysterious woman known as "Cindy" is pictured in the first photo. The true identity of these women, how the photos were obtained and whether or not they know their photos have been posted on the Internet is a complete mystery.