How The Horse almost got scam/spammed yesterday.

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I got an email yesterday from an entity called "Alignable." It claimed that an old friend of mine wanted to help me establish business contacts. But my friend was a fellow professor at a small college in Iowa 30 years ago. I taught psychology. He taught musical composition. We mostly drank beer and discussed music. "Business" was not a part of what we discussed. He and I have been in touch occasionally since we both left that college, but I don't have his current contact information. We last spoke perhaps eight years ago. The site looked legit, and I almost signed up. But then, my glass of wine whispered to me: "Google (my friends name) and Google Alignable when you're drinking coffee, not wine." This morning, I had breakfast and coffee. I Googled my friend's name first. He is still composing and recording music. He seems to be doing OK. But I could not find his email or phone number. I fault him for that. I then Googled Alignable. This is what I found: Alignable, The Worst Spam Bot Social Platform Of All Mankind. The idea of a social platform for local businesses is great. Unfortunately Alignable prays upon unsuspecting people to launch their platform. Alignable is marketed as a new social network site for local businesses. I was invited by an employee of a local business to the platform. They had my email in their database from 4 years ago when we reserved something in their store. I don't believe this individual intentionally invited me. I believe while registering they chose the option to allow Alignable access to their email contacts. Alignable's bot found our business url in their database. The Alignable bot is the most ingenious spam bot of all time. It drills into your contacts and emails other business owners as the identity of the individual who registered. I wanted to know more about this creature. I registered directly through the site versus the email invite from this individual. Once you sign up, it unleashes relentless invites to make you engage with it. I'm seeing invites in our spam folder by businesses unrelated to our market, including out of state businesses. Do not, by any means sign up or allow anyone you know to register with Alignable. Alignable is taking in new unsuspecting victims daily. I highly suggest using the more trusted LinkedIn platform instead, until somebody else offers a safer alternative to Alignable for local businesses. --- Sigh. Scam/spam artists are getting more nuanced. The take-home message? Listen to your glass of wine when it whispers to you. Wait until morning before signing up for anything that seems even vaguely suspicious.