November 2009

When Protectors Become Victim’s | Lakewood, Washington Massacre

by Mike Vallez on November 29, 2009

As a police officer working for the City of Tampa, Florida I went to a funeral for two detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers who were shot and killed in the line of duty story.
But, these were not the only Police Officers that were killed in my 7 1/2 year career working for the Tampa P.D.. No matter what you think about Police, when a Police Officer is killed in the line of duty, it is a great loss to the entire police department, city, and of course the family of the officer.

Today 4 Lakewood, Washington Police Officers were ruthlessly gunned down, while they unwittingly prepared for their day story. This story is evolving by the minute and the suspect or suspects have not yet been captured. However, take a step back and think about the 4 murdered Police Officer’s family’s. Four families have been forever changed by a psychopathic killer or killers bent on hurting specifically Police Officers. Deep down this kind of murder sends shockwaves through a community. If the Police are not safe then our communities are not safe and anarchy reigns. Fortunately, in times of crisis communities actually bond together and become very strong persevering through the horror that occurred today at approximately 8:00am PST at Forza Coffee Shop in Lakewood, Washington. Not only do communities bond together, but law enforcement comes together and works relentlessly not matter what jurisdiction they are from to solve the crimes of their brethren.

Losing one Police Officer is horrible, but today the Lakewood Police Department lost approximately 4% of their sworn (commissioned) law enforcement personnel. Unfortunately, this city will not be the same for sometime. Hopefully the person or persons responsible for this crime will be brought to justice before this article posts. Please take time after reading this article to take a moment to think, pray, or spiritually do whatever you do in remembrance of these Police Officers and their family’s. If you would like to help with a donation please send your donation to: LPIG Benevolent Fund at PO Box 99579 Lakewood, WA 98499. Please take the time and consider the Police Officers that patrol your community and thank them for their service if you get a chance Thank You.

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Phishing, Don’t Become A Victim!

by Mike Vallez on November 24, 2009

About two months ago I was minding my own business blogging when I received an email from PayPal, or at least I thought it was from PayPal. The email looked completely authentic down to the crappy little copyright information at the bottom of the email. The email was what appeared to be an official communication from PayPal that my account had been charged over $400.00. My heart was racing because I did not pay anyone $400. I immediately called PayPal, to plead my case and they told me nothing was wrong, no charges had been made to my account and not to worry about this. They told me to email this to my internet hosting company. Kind of silly since the email looked official and from PayPal. Someone attempted to get information from me by “Phishing” or “spoofing.”

But what in the world do these terms mean, they sound more like words from a children’s book or game. Phishing is when someone tries to get critical information from you through a bogus pop-up or fraudulent email. They will indicate in either form of communication that you need to provide your account information, pin code, etc or some dire consequences will occur. Spoofing, similarly is when someone sets up a false website to mimic an official website or a false email with the same intent. Again, in spoofing the goal is to get the victim to provide critical account information or personal information to be used to commit financial crimes against the victim.

I am on Twitter everyday, throughout the day and I am sad to say, but I do not usually use my “Direct Message” function anymore due to the incessant phishing attempts. Typically, there is a very short teaser “Direct Message” that will try to lure you into their trap. I just don’t even respond to DM’s anymore because of this. Just today I saw a message from a woman who had her Twitter account hacked through a successful “Phishing” attempt through her DM. In this case the scumbags only hacked into her account and caused an inconvenience for the victim. But, mark my words the people trying to get your information through “Phishing” and “Spoofing” are trying to get data for identity theft, credit card fraud, etc. They are relentless and they will not give up, so if you feel the hair on your neck go up when you are about to click a link in an email, then don’t delete the email. If the email is that important you will get a phone call from your bank, credit card company, etc to get the correct information.

Here are some tips to avoid becoming a victim of “Phishing” and “Spoofing”, take caution and be careful. Over the next few years there will most likely be a huge spike in traditional known fraud such as these methods as well as new out of the box fraud ideas. Why? Because there are more and more people joining social networks and providing email addresses and personal information. Unfortunately criminals are opportunistic and this gives them information to work with in their criminal endeavors.

By the way, I have since received about 6 false PayPal emails each instructs me to do the same thing, provide them with key account information. The most important thing to remember about this article is no bank, credit card company, etc will ask you to provide critical information such as passwords or pin numbers, bottom line. Be vigilant, be careful.

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The Police Blog 2.0 Podcast | 5 Reasons Police Should Be Using Twitter

by Mike Vallez on November 23, 2009

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 12:12 — 5.6MB)

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Beware! Email Scam’s Still Working!

by Mike Vallez on November 22, 2009

Not a day goes by that I don’t receive an email notifying me that I have one a lottery, sweepstakes, or that I have an opportunity to help a descendant of an important person who has been murdered. Most of these are all a form of the infamous “Nigerian Letter” or “419″ fraud email scams. I encourage you to be vigilant and take caution, because these criminals would not be sending these emails if they were not working. As I was researching information for this blog post I came across a very sad story of a young Chinese girl that committed suicide because she fell victim to one of these scams BBC Story
. This just goes to show you that there are actually people stillfalling for these scams everyday.

The “Nigerian Letter” ruse is primarily carried out through email, but can also come via facsimile or actual letters. More than likely most of you reading this will be contacted or have been contacted by the “Nigerian Letter” scammers through email. The policy you should stick to when you come across an email that appears to be “too good to be true” is to realize it is a scam. The main premise behind the “Nigerian Letter” scam is the promise of a windfall of money if you (the receiver) of the email first send money to the scammers. Most of you probably think that will never happen to me. Guess what it is happening to people just like the young Chinese girl who committed suicide after giving 6000 English pounds to scammers.

The “Nigerian Letter” scammers are not rocket scientists, but have a good thing going. These scammers have been around since 1588 where letters were written stating to be from a prisoner trapped in a Spanish castle (you know the rest). Why stop a good thing when it has been working for so long. This scam is not complex. It is very surprising that people trust a simple email from an unknown individual and soon are sending money to the same individuals. The reason “greed” and “greed” alone. The big promise is if I (the letter receiver) send a little money, I will somehow get a huge amount of money in return for doing absolutely nothing. Thing is the “Nigerian” scammers are the one’s getting rich.

Below are some tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of the “Nigerian Letter” or “419 Fraud” and authorities you can report these incidents to if solicited.

If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your local FBI office,
or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can also register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel.

If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible. Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
Guard your account information carefully.

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Gangs Use Social Media | Police Not So Much

by Mike Vallez on November 21, 2009

The Contra Costa Timeshad an interesting article about gangs using cell phones and social media to communicate. I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago Gangs Go Cyber which chronicled a similar problem, which is occurring in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is rather apparent that criminals, specifically organized criminals such as gangs are able to identify the value of social networking sites for their business model. Law enforcement on the other hand for the most part is not largely concerned with social media, which I think is a true mistake. There is too much value in using social media for law enforcement to turn a blind eye to participating in the conversation, because the gangs are.

According to the Contra Costa Times article gang members are able to reach possible recruits through social media. Before social media the gangs would have to find recruits in their local neighborhoods, counties, states, etc. The main way gangs obtained new recruits was through in person contact. Now they are using social media to expand not only their reach, but their potential pool of recruits. The gangs are using social media for hiring practices and marketing. Gangs are not only using social media for hiring practices, but for criminal activities.

Gangs are communicating from prison through text messaging, which in California is unable to be monitored. This is an irony that you would expect only in a 3 Stooges episode, but no pinch yourself this is real life. Gangs are getting illegal cell phones into prison, which in it self is not surprising. However, the fact that these sophisticated criminals can communicate through text messaging, social networks, pictures, etc, is extremely disturbing. Why isn’t law enforcement embracing social media and sending officers into the social networks undercover to at a minimum get intel. Gang members are not rocket scientist, yet they are beating the police in the realm of social media.

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Facebook | How Police Can Use As A Social Media Tool

by Mike Vallez on November 19, 2009

Facebook is an extremely powerful social media community that has become larger than I am sure many Facebook executives would admit they thought was possible. Facebook had over 2.5 billion visits last month (10/2009), which is quite stunning. There are millions of people visiting Facebook billions of times a month to communicate with each other, but what is mostly missing from Facebook? A strong law enforcement presence.

A Facebook Fan Page is extremely easy to set up and run on a daily basis. A key point to remember is you should never set up your business (law enforcement agency) as a personal account or group. Both are tied to a person and both are in violation of Facebook rules, which could cause the accounts to be disabled. Here is the 411 on how to set up a Facebook Fan Page the right way:

1) Establish a personal account- right now this is the only way to create a Fan Page, I suggest you make this a new account not belonging to anyone in particular with the sole purpose of being the placeholder for the Fan Page.

2) Choose type of Fan Page-Website choice will allow you to put in the basic information about your Police Department which is a good choice since you are communicating on the web and you should have a website to promote.

3) Add Your Image- You will need a graphic to represent your brand or department, which most times you will already have again if you already have a web presence.

4) Publish-Once have your image uploaded, your content in place (website url, description of department, mission statement, etc) then you will publish your page. Once published you can begin to publish information on your wall (status box).

But, what do I want to publish to my Facebook Fan Page? Again, go back to the stunning statistic above, 2.5 billion visits in October 2009. You can communicate through posts to your wall a variety of important police information:

1) Crime prevention tips
2) Wanted person pictures
3) Videos from robberies or other crimes
4) Information about department/city activities
5) Community news relevant to the police departments mission
6) Missing persons
7) Blog posts if you have a blog, if you don’t start one

Another tip I suggest is to target followers geographically through the search function on Facebook to try to obtain followers (friends) in your community. Then once you have a decent following of local followers for your community follow their followers. This can be done very easy and the end game is to obtain as many local followers as you can to get your message out. With the large amount of people using Facebook I will almost guarantee that every law enforcement jurisdiction has plenty of Facebook users. I will say it again, police have an opportunity to communicate in “real time” with their citizens, which is a huge communication shift. If you have any questions on how to set up a Facebook Fan Page, contact me at mike@michaelvallez.com .

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5 Reasons Police Should Be Using Twitter!

by Mike Vallez on November 18, 2009

As many of you know there is this crazy mircoblog platform called Twitter, which mystifies many on how or why to use this communication platform. Simple answer is because millions of people are using Twitter and the numbers are increasing everyday. If you have not noticed there is a cultural communication change occurring and you don’t want to be the last one to “get it.” Police have a huge communication opportunity by getting involved in social media and Twitter is one of the first social media tools they should be using and here are 5 reasons why.

1) Twitter is FREE- There is no cost to establish a Twitter account and begin Tweeting other than the labor hours. A lot of people say well this will take away from other duties officers should be doing, I say “bullcrap.” When computers came out I am sure some “old timer” had the same argument, that using a computer is a “fad” and real police work is writing a report. Using Twitter as a communication tool probably has the same angst to many current “old timers” or at least people with no vision.

2) Communicate to your citizens- If you can meet your citizens on their level, where they are communicating then you are able to get your message out. Think about this. How do police usually communicate, other than bull horns at rowdy riot’s? Police either communicate in person, by television, or through the newspaper. There is reverse 911, but I have not received a call yet, still waiting. There is a distinct advantage to communicating to citizens on Twitter. Your message gets out and it’s real time. Let that last point sink in a little. How often do police communicate in real time other than when you get pulled over, almost never.

3) Easy To Use- At this point there are a whole bunch of YouTube videos, FREE webinars, and other Twitter “how to” resources available that there is almost no excuse not to figure out how to use Twitter. Yes you must be careful on how you communicate, but police Tweeting information on the web is no different from them talking to someone in person. Twitter is not rocket science and staying away from this social media tool because of lack of understanding is a “cop out” sorry for the pun.

4) Reach- Police should be following everyone and anyone. The nonsense that police have to be worried who they follow on Twitter is just that, non-sense. The more people the police can get their message out to the better, bottom line. Some may not agree, but this is common sense. I suggest police use Twello a directed Twitter search tool that can help police target followers based on geography, city name, etc. I am doing this with the USA Crusader because our target market is in Tampa, Florida. The more people police can get their message out to the more chance that message can go viral and reach even more people.

5) Makes the Police real people- By the police communicating with citizens on Twitter there occurs a peeling away of sorts of layers and years of non-communication. Most people never talk with a police officer except when they get pulled over as already mentioned. When police communicate, in back and forth communication they form bonds with whoever they are communicating with. They become more than a scary gun toting law officer. They are seen as more human and compassionate. There is a better understanding of who the police are and what they are trying to accomplish. They are able to get their message out, which after all is really what the point is.

Police have a a great FREE communication tool available to them in Twitter. This tool allows them to meet their citizens and others in a more personal two way communication platform, which is the bedrock of social media.

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DailySplice Law Enforcement 2.0 Podcast | Introducing, Mike Vallez

by Mike Vallez on November 10, 2009


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Shhhhh…Do You Hear That?

by Mike Vallez on November 4, 2009

Apparently there are still a lot of corporations that are very disconnected from their employees. The most disconnected corporations are those whose employees are their number one resource to generate revenue yet they don’t listen to them. The end result is a canoe going up a creek with holes in it and no one has a paddle, I think we all have heard that expression before. But why is there such as disconnect? Complacency.

An environment exists where corporations are so fixated on generating revenue that they unwittingly overlook there finest resources, their people. They create great operational plans that in the board room make fiscal sense, but the human element is left out of most of their slick equations. I don’t have an MBA and frankly I don’t want one. I appreciate the folks who have worked hard to accomplish an MBA, but if we all had an MBA then no one would think like the employees the resources who generate revenue. Corporations that get it are communicating with their employees and actually listening to what the employees say. The “I get it” corporations are not complacent, they are fostering a sense of communication that exists in social media. A give and take communication environment that creates trust (see Chris Brogan) , which makes employees feel important, wanted, and happy.

As social media changes our culture people expect more honesty, trust, and respect in their communication with others. People are quick to cue in on less than honest communication or complacent communication that makes them feel unimportant. People are expecting honesty in the communication they receive from their employers. No, this is not where I play a few versus of Kum-bi-ya. The idea of an employer providing honesty in their communication with their employees is not science fiction. Take that a step further and show the employee that you are listening to them. That what they say is actually important and you will win that employee over. Jump up to the next level and implement an employee idea (only good ones) and you will score a huge morale victory with your employees.

Funny that people don’t want to feel like they have no say in the work place. People spend more time at work than they do at home, so it is only natural that they want to find value and importance from their employer while working. I don’t care how sucky or unimportant the job is you can still and listen to an employee. It just may so happen that the garbage man has an operational process improvement that will save money or the police officer on the beat has an “out of the box” idea to reduce crime. Maybe the employees that work at your corporation have the next great idea to help your company generate revenue from streams never considered. Maybe that sound corporations hear is their employees talking about these ideas, but because they are not listening there missing out.

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The US Army Is Up Keeping Up With Social Media

by Mike Vallez on November 2, 2009

Screen shot 2009-11-02 at 6.19.51 PM

The US army with approximately 1,050,000 active duty soldiers is keeping up with social media when a lot of others are still trying to figure out what a Tweet is. The Army’s brand for their social media efforts is appropriately called Army Live. Social media/new media’s use is only limited by one’s closed mind. In this case the folks at the US Army are paying attention to the communication change that is occurring through web 2.0 and they are responding.

The US Army has no less than 18 blogs on their blog roll and they are all related to the US Army. The blogs range from specific units, the reserves, Army medical (Tricare), Army ROTC, Army Corps of engineers, etc. I will guarantee you by this time next year they will have twice as many blogs or more. But the US Army is not only blogging they are active on no less than at least 8 major social media websites to include Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to name a few. The way the US Army is leveraging social media is very customer service based. They are reaching their members through social media because that is where a lot of their members are spending time.

The use of social media by the US Army is very smart on their part. They realize by offering social media as a communication tool (not the end all be all) that they are empowering their members. How are they empowering their members? By allowing them to blog and express their feelings, their worries, their questions in an open forum. A forum where others in the US Army may also have the same issues and can commiserate with or provide advice to the blogger. The US Army has developed specific rules and procedures for the blogging process, which clearly defines right and wrong behavior while participating in Army Live. One of the biggest takeaways the US Army’s social media efforts is increased morale by their members and as the credit card commercial goes, “that is priceless.” Some takeaways by US Army personnel: a feeling that someone is listening to them (better communication), they are better informed on pertinent army issues, and they are able to keep up with their families through a single expansive US Army social media network.

The US Army is a progressive government agency, especially since their main function is protection of the United States. One would think, the US Army may not want to have a very public image displayed through social media. I think they are being realistic, but cautious. Social media/new media communication is a cultural change, which frankly not even the US Army can stop. Since they cannot stop it they are using social media as a tool to help their communication efforts. I applaud the US Army for their social media implementation and I look forward to watching how they use social media in the future.

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