Polygon, the Dancing Bear

Occasional notes on politics, history, technology, architecture,
and the life of a county clerk

2002:
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2003:
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April / May / June / July
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2004:
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April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2005:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2006:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2007:
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August / September / October
November / December

2008:
January / February / March
April / May

Current entries

Sunday, October 23, 2005, 1:48 pm

From the Clerk-Register. Two recent letters to my staff:

Tuesday, October 11:

The County spends $30,000/year on a filter to keep unwanted spam out of our email system, but it has slipped up a little. I personally have received several "phishing" scams in the last couple of weeks. Probably you have, too.

For those not familiar with the term, "phishing" refers to emails which pretend to be from your bank or from Ebay or PayPal. The corporate logos are all in place, and the message can look highly authentic.

The approach varies, but one way or another, the email tells you that there has been some kind of problem, and you need to "update" your personal information. Just "click here," it says, on a link which looks totally legitimate — as does the web site it takes you to. But it's a fake site controlled by the crooks! As soon as you enter your social security number, credit card, bank account, whatever, they'll use your identity for nefarious purposes, making purchases, withdrawing money from your bank, applying for loans, and so on.

When you have a phishing message staring you in the face, you know it came from somewhere — so why can't the crooks be caught and punished? The problem is that they are very good at covering their tracks. Very likely the message to you was sent through some innocent person's home or office Windows computer, made vulnerable by a computer virus and taken over remotely by the crooks. (If you're not running adequate security software, and keeping up with all the required security and virus updates, it could be YOUR machine which is silently pumping out thousands of spam/scam messages.)

Alternately, the originating mail server and the fake web site could be somewhere overseas, perhaps in Russia or Malaysia — even if the crooks themselves are Americans.

Another type of fraud email has been around so long, and seen so often, that it has become a bit of a joke: the letters from Nigeria asking for your help to transfer millions of dollars of ill-gotten loot to your bank account. The real goal, of course, is to get you to come up with money for various "expenses" required to get the big money out of Nigeria. Or, failing that, armed with account information you provide, they'll drain your bank account. Sometimes, they lure the victims to Nigeria and hold them for ransom. Sometimes, the writers claim to be from Sierra Leone or South Africa or Russia or Taiwan, but the style is instantly recognizable as the product of a group of Nigerian criminal gangs that have been nicknamed "the Lads from Lagos".

My personal email account has been public for years, and therefore gets lots of spam, including these Nigerian scam letters. Back in 2002, some of my friends had still never seen one, and were curious about them. So, I put up a web page cataloging a bunch of scam letters that I had collected (wallpapered with FRAUD in big green letters). I called it the Nigerian Fraud Email Gallery — and I included informational links as well as a bunch of examples.

After a while, the incoming flood of Nigerian mail became just too overwhelming. I had posted some 500, but had more than 40,000 more examples waiting. I gave up on cataloging them all, and mostly neglected the site, posting only a few more every now and then.

I'm sure the web page helped alert a few people to the fraud (some wrote to thank me). But now, suddenly, it's flooded with visitors.

Last Thursday, October 6, the 15th Annual IgNobel Prize ceremony was held at Harvard University. The IgNobels are a silly parody of the Nobel prizes, but the awards are presented by actual Nobel laureates under the auspices of a major university, and received some national media coverage.

This year's awards included the IgNobel Prize in Literature to:

The Internet entrepreneurs of Nigeria, for creating and then using e-mail to distribute a bold series of short stories, thus introducing millions of readers to a cast of rich characters — General Sani Abacha, Mrs. Mariam Sanni Abacha, Barrister Jon A Mbeki Esq., and others — each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entitled and which they would like to share with the kind person who assists them.

And on the official IgNobel web site, the link is to my low-tech little compilation of Nigerian fraud email.

I think whole world has now been saturated by these fraud letters. A naïve person might be taken in by the first one he ever got, but how likely is anyone to fall for the fifteenth or the eighty-third? There is one report that the scam is no longer making much money for the perpetrators. Perhaps enough people worldwide have learned to be cautious about the authenticity of stuff that arrives by email. I hope that my fraud gallery site will soon become just a historical curiosity.

As a general rule, if you receive a spam message of any kind at a County email address, forward it to SPAM@MAIL-FILTERS.COM so that our filters can be updated.

Validation of jail bond referendum petition signatures is ongoing, even on Columbus Day. Over 9,000 signatures have been typed in and checked against the Qualified Voter File, and 74% matched. We should be finished before the 35 day deadline we set. Many thanks to everyone who is helping with this important task.

This Thursday is Yom Kippur, and I will be out of the office. For those who asked: Yom Kippur is a solemn day which involves atonement and a 24 hour fast — no food or water. Chief deputies Jim, Derrick, and Karen can handle anything that comes up while I'm out.

Let's have a great week!

Monday, October 17:

Here's a couple of nice recent comments from customers of our Deeds and Vital Records offices:

The following was posted anonymously in the comments section of the local weblog Ann Arbor Is Overrated, in regard to researching the history of houses:

Your best bet is to go to the county deed office on Main and search it all the way back. There are some records available electronically but they go back only a few years. The folks there are freakishly helpful and patient, but they won't do the work for you. You'll need the address and possibly the parcel id (you can get that by doing a Property/Parcel Lookup). From there, you'll have to look through the giant deed books (called "libers") back to when the subject house isn't listed anymore. It's time consuming but kind of cool, in a geeky sort of way.

"Freakishly" helpful and patient — "cool in a geeky sort of way" — who could ask for higher praise? Apparently our office is NOT overrated!

A visitor from Illinois wrote to me as follows:

Dear Mr. Kestenbaum,

Last Thursday, Oct 6th, I ventured into the Vital Records department to gather genealogical information. I had not done such searches before, so I did not know exactly what to do or how to do it.

All of your staff in Vital records were extremely helpful and very happy to assist me. They made my time there not only productive but very enjoyable. Please commend them all for their knowledge and the service they provided.

After almost all day in Vital records, I had about two hours left downstairs searching through old deeds. Again, your staff excelled in their friendliness and service.

Please extend my thanks to each of them.

Kind regards,

Kudos to the staff in both divisions. Keep up the good work!

We now have two Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans working as temps in our Elections office, validating signatures on the jail bond issue referendum petitions. The work of typing in all the names to compare with the Qualified Voter File is nearly complete.

Next Saturday morning, October 22, at 9:00 am, the county Election Commission (myself, County Treasurer Catherine McClary, and Judge John Kirkendall) will convene a clarity hearing on the proposed language for the recall of three Pittsfield Township officials. We are to decide only whether or not the language is "clear", not whether it is true or false. Though it's unusual to hold a public meeting over the weekend, all three of us wanted to be there in person, and it wasn't possible to schedule it during the week. The meeting will be held in the lower level meeting room at 200 N. Main.

Previously, on August 11, the Election Commission approved (simply as being "clear") recall language against two Augusta Township officials.

Meanwhile, we and the local clerks expect to be ready for the upcoming election on November 8, 2005, which will involve the cities of Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Milan, and Saline, the village of Dexter, the Dexter library district (same territory as the Dexter school district), Northfield Township, and the South Lyon and Northville school districts.

Preparations are also underway for the Clerk-Register's annual holiday breakfast for the entire staff, in mid-December. More details will be announced soon.

Let's have a great week!

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

Comments:

Efe O., 12/1/2005: I hope you realise that refering to Advance fee fraud as Nigerian Scams is racial/tribal profilling.

This should please be stopped.

Thursday, October 6, 2005, 11:53 am

From the Clerk-Register. The latest installment, from Monday, October 3:

Last Monday, as expected, the Elections office received a filing of petition signatures in opposition to the proposed bond issue for jail expansion and court renovation at the Service Center. Under the law, 15,000 valid signatures would force a countywide vote on the bond issue; about 23,000 were filed. Validation of these petitions started immediately and is progressing. Many thanks to those of you who are helping with this task!

If the petitions are validated, the Board of Commissioners can either schedule an election, probably in February, or perhaps cancel the bond issue.

Preparations are also well underway for the November 8th election in the cities of Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Milan, and Saline, the village of Dexter, the Northville and South Lyon school districts, and the Dexter library district (same boundaries as the Dexter school district).

Congratulations again to the Deeds staff for their achievement in reducing the time from filing to recording of a deed from more than 60 days to just 7 days over the past few months. I am very proud of your dedication and teamwork!

Since a long lag time ties up mortgage money and raises costs for lenders and realtors, quick work in our office helps make home loans more available and housing more affordable in Washtenaw County.

Also last week, several of us, including Chief Deputies Karen Edman and Jim Dries, and Jury Clerk Yvonne Boyd, met with Judge Don Shelton, who is our Jury Judge, to finalize new ways of handling the jury list for circuit and district courts in Washtenaw County.

Since the law was changed in the 1980s, jurors are selected from the list of licensed drivers in the county. That creates some problems, because the driver's list is not managed and updated the same way that the voter list is. For example, the state apparently does not consider death a reason to cancel an individual's driver license. Therefore, those names are still included on the jury list they send us. That means we get unhappy calls from widows and widowers, asking why we're sending jury mail to someone who has been dead for years. Using the Social Security Death Index, we have removed more than 600 names of deceased individuals from the list; that will reduce the number of anguished phone calls, and save on postage and mailing costs for jury questionnaires.

Also, the driver's list doesn't include any code for which court district the person lives in, so we have assigned that information based on their address. From now on, we will have four separate jury pools — one for each court — so that mailings of jury questionnaires can be precisely targeted to the territory and juror needs of the particular court. That will also reduce postage and mailing costs. Since everyone on the list will be assigned at random either to the circuit or district pool, there will no longer be any duplicates to purge — saving three weeks of tedious hand work.

Some scheduling notes. This morning, I will be attending the funeral in Chelsea of Herman Koenn — I sent a note about his passing last week. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts this evening and continues tomorrow, so I will not be in the office tomorrow.

My individual meetings with staff members will resume starting on Wednesday.

Let's have a great week!

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

Comments:

Dave Cahill, 10/8/2005: Larry, what method are you using the validate the petition signatures? Are you doing sampling, or are you checking each signature?

When will we know if there are enough valid signatures?

If there are enough, then would you guess that the Board of Commissioners will set the referendum, or will cancel the bond issue?

Thursday, October 6, 2005, 9:27 am

From the Clerk-Register. A couple of recent messages to my staff.

September 12:

On Saturday, there was startling news about our county in the Japanese media.

A report on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Japan Today noted the following:

But in a largely-deserted uptown neighborhood in Washtenaw county, where county sheriffs wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles were knocking on doors, officials said a forced evacuation was yet to begin.

No, it's not another place with the same name: we live in the only Washtenaw County on earth. Louisiana doesn't even have counties.

What obviously happened is that the Japanese reporter came across our Washtenaw County sheriff deputies, helping to protect New Orleans, and assumed the geography from the badges, equipment, and uniforms.

Despite Gov. Granholm's generous offer, it doesn't look like Michigan will be hosting 10,000 evacuees from the Gulf Coast. I suppose the hurricane survivors from Louisiana and Mississippi really don't need to be put through one of our winters. But it is still a point of pride that some of our people are providing needed help, and working so smoothly and efficiently with the other authorities on the scene that they were mistaken for locals.

Individual meetings with staff members continue. I will send notices to the people who I'd like to meet with this week. When the workload permits, please arrange a half-hour with your supervisor and my schedule (perhaps via Outlook) for a meeting in my office.

Let's have a great week!

September 19:

Twelve years ago, in July 1993, the Mississippi River valley was hit by devastating floods. Levees were overtopped or broken, and even some areas which had never flooded before were hard hit.

Almost three months later, in late September 1993, I flew into St. Louis, Missouri, for a conference, and from the plane, I was stunned to see that some neighborhoods in the St. Louis metro area were still under water. Dewatering and recovery from a flood situation can take a long time.

Just as we hear that some residents are returning to parts of the New Orleans area, Hurricane Katrina evacuees are arriving here in Washtenaw County. Let us be mindful that this crisis is far from over, especially for those who have lost everything in the disaster.

We in the Clerk-Register's office will be providing some tangible help for evacuees who need Louisiana birth certificates. Last Friday, just before 5pm, I received a call from Richard Wheat, manager of Vital Records for the State of Michigan. He asked us to assist Louisiana by accepting applications for birth certificates from evacuees in this area. The applications will be funneled through our state office to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the certificates will be issued and sent to us by the same route.

These applications can only be accepted in person — not by mail. Evacuees who were born in Louisiana can come to our vital records office to apply, or potentially, we could send a staff person to any shelters or gathering places for hurricane survivors in this area.

But the victims of Hurricane Katrina are not the only people who need our help. The United Way fund drive is now underway. It's a broad based community effort to raise funds to sustain a wide range of organizations and services. I realize the form is a bit confusing; if you need help with it (I did), ask Karen Edman or Jim Dries. Even one dollar per paycheck would be a very small sacrifice, and a big help to our community.

This Thursday afternoon, September 22, Chief Deputy Derrick Jackson and I will be "arrested" for the Muscular Dystrophy Association "lock-up". We each need to raise $1,000 for "bail" — all of which goes to support muscular dystrophy research and programs. If you can help with even a small donation, bring a check to the Elections/Admin office by Thursday noon.

And speaking of the Elections office, we are expecting to get the job of validating thousands of petition signatures in coming days: the referendum petitions on the jail and courts bond issue, and the Augusta Township recall. We may need to bring people in from other divisions of the Clerk-Register's office to help with this work.

Let's have a great week!

....Posted by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

2002:
May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December

2003:
January / February / March
April / May / June / July
August / September / October
November / December