I have had it up to here with misleading press releases. I received a press release that read: “XYZ Wireless, one of the nation’s largest wireless broadband operators, has just launched service in  . . . ”

What do you conclude when you read the line “one of the nation’s largest wireless broadband operators”?

When I read that, I conclude that they have a large customer base. But since I have never heard of XYZ Wireless, I decided to ask them what they mean by “one of the largest”. It turns out they mean they cover an area of several thousand square miles, one of the largest areas of coverage for the kind of wireless service they offer.

Think about that for a minute. You could cover large swathes of the permafrost region and call yourself one of the largest wireless broadband operators in the world. But the people who write these breathless press releases know that if you say “one of the largest wireless operators in the world”, people will think you have one of the largest customer bases, which may not be true.

If they want to be accurate, they should write: “XYZ Wireless, a wireless broadband operator with one of the largest coverage areas in the nation . . .”

Unfortunately, the vast majority of press releases are written this way. Some are outright lies. They hope that the lazy press will simply copy their press releases. I don’t think I have to tell an adult who (I assume) is a native English speaker how to write a basic sentence in the English language.

So what is the problem with people who write these press releases? Do they need a remedial English writing course? Or are they (and their clients) just a bunch of liars?

Phishers are active on Google Calendar. I opened my Calendar today to find an entry purporting to be from Google Customer Care. It read:

“THIS Email is from Gmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Gmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Gmail accounts so we are shutting down some Gmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this email so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name,password,date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account. Due to the congestion in all Gmail users and removal of all unused Gmail Accounts, Gmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.”

I immediately knew this was a phishing attempt so I sent an email to Google to alert them of what’s happening. Then, I went to the Calendar settings and changed it. Here’s what you do so that you don’t receive these event “invitations”:

• Go to your Google Calendar and click on Settings (upper right hand corner)
• Click on the General Tab
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see a setting called Automatically add invitations to my calendar
• Click on “No, only display invitations to which I have replied”

I had this option on Yes and found out that this is how the phishers managed to put that message in my calendar.