Junk and spam e-mail and blog comments continue to stream in, but the automated resources filtering these out for me (and leaving me with some considerable residue to judge by hand) have altered. I’m now getting versions of the Nigerian prince scam, in languages the filters don’t know what to do with (German, Hungarian, Hebrew, Arabic). And then, in my Junk mailbox (where the filters put stuff they judge might be junk, but leave the final judgment to me) on the morning of 5/6, this fabrication:
(This is a photograph of the mailing, so you can’t link to the Google.org site on it)
There’s a lot of real stuff alluded to in this mailing: the Google address is correct; there is a Google.org charitable arm of Google; that’s a passable reproduction of the Google.org logo; Google.com does give awards (the Google Cloud Partner Awards); “Google Gives Back” was the title of one of Google’s charitable efforts (though the name doesn’t seem to be used any more); and Sundar Pichai is indeed the CEO of Google.com. Some details follow below. But all of this anyone could have looked up. In any case, it smells bad, and the current filters picked up on that, I’m not entirely sure how.
Why does it smell bad? (to a human recipient) Because it’s missing all the important specifics. Why me? (What did I do to get this award?) What do I get? (What, exactly, is in the grant?) Who accepts the grant? (Is it a grant to me personally, or to my institution with me as administrator?) How, and when, will it be conveyed to me? And on and on.
It’s all airy generalities. Why, the Publishers Clearing House — you might be a winner! — tells you more than this GGB does.
So you would be wise not to click on that link, which will take you not to the real google.org, but to some place darker.
Some real-world facts. In no particular order.
— on Sundar Pichai, from Wikipedia:
Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972 [in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India]), better known as Sundar Pichai, is an Indian American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.
— on Google.org, from Wikipedia:
Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually.
The organization is noted for several significant grants to nonprofits using technology and data in innovative ways to support racial justice, educational opportunity, crisis response after health epidemics and natural disasters, and issues affecting the San Francisco Bay Area community where it is headquartered. It also hosts regular challenges around the world to stimulate innovative uses of technologies to address local challenges.
— on Google Cloud Partner Awards, from Google.com:
When it comes to going above and beyond for customers, our partners are champions. We’re delighted to recognize standout performance across 15 categories, both globally and regionally.
The awards provide recognition and publicity.
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