Brown-Pennington-Atkins First In South Carolina: Rapid Notice Obituaries Using Twitter

Brown-Pennington-Atkins Funeral Home is the first in the industry to use the new emerging technology of Twitter to update obituaries.

Brown-Pennington-Atkins funeral home has reduced the need to visit their website www.bpafuneralhome.com to check for funeral and obituary information. Starting May 5, 2009, obituaries will be posted first to the funeral home’s twitter page: http://twitter.com/bpafuneralhome delivering funeral information directly to subscriber’s cell phones and eliminating the need to constantly visit our website for updates.

This will allow for family members travelling, service men and women abroad, and Hartsville natives residing away from our city to be in constant contact with our community and grieving friends and families.

We have prided our firm on being in touch with new technology and using it to better serve our families during a difficult time of need. We were the first in South Carolina to bring our families “Tribute Videos” to help celebrate the life of a loved one. We feel that our Twitter service will increase the community awareness regarding our funerals and better serve as a notice between newspaper print times.

“We refer to our new twitter service as Rapid Notice, and we feel that it will further enable our friends and families to keep up with local information regarding funerals, especially when they live in another part of the country, much less the world.” – Mel Pennington, Funeral Director

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or any one of the multitude of Twitter applications now available.

Rapid Notice is a free service of Brown-Pennington-Atkins funeral home. To subscribe to our service using twitter, follow http://twitter.com/bpafuneralhome

For additional information on Brown-Pennington-Atkins First In South Carolina: Rapid Notice Obituaries Using Twitter, contact Mel Pennington or visit http://twitter.com/bpafuneralhome

ABOUT BROWN-PENNINGTON-ATKINS FUNERAL HOME - Established in 1915, Brown-Pennington-Atkins is the oldest family owned business in Hartsville, South Carolina. For four generations we have provided dignified and exceptional life tribute celebrations, funerals, and cremations to the surrounding community.

Twitter Scams

The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs warns consumers to be vigilant of scams circulating on Twitter.

Historically, from the telegraph to e-mail, con artists have quickly adapted to advancements in communication technology. Thus, it comes as no surprise that they are now targeting social networking sites such as Twitter.

Twitter is a micro blogging tool that allows users to post, in 140 characters or less, what they are doing. Scammers are utilizing the site in the same way they use spam e-mail to try to entice users.

Easy Money
These scams have been around for years in various incarnations, such as work-at-home scams, pyramid schemes, and timeshare fraud. The bottom line is the same – you lose money. Scammers post promises that you can make thousands of dollars doing little or no work. A link is included in the post, directing you to a website that has more information on this “great opportunity.” This is never legitimate. No one is ever going to post on Twitter a legal way for you to make thousands of dollars.

Phishing
In most of these schemes a user posts a link to a website masquerading as a legitimate website. The spoofed site uses any information you enter to steal your identity, hack into financial accounts, and generally wreak havoc.

One scam, specific to Twitter, involves receiving a spoofed e-mail made to appear it is from Twitter. The e-mail usually claims you need to click on an accompanying link to see a “funny” post or “great site.” The link takes you to a site spoofing Twitter’s homepage. Once you login, the scammer has your user name and password, giving them access to your account and the ability to pose as you.

How to Protect Yourself
If you are uncomfortable with a follower, block them. To do so, simply click on their user name and then click the block user box under their picture. You can also protect against unwanted followers by making your posts private.

Be very wary of users who are following a large number of people, but are not being followed back by very many people. This is an indication the user is just looking for people to spam.

Never enter personal information into a website you reached by clicking on a link in a Twitter post. Instead, if you are going to enter personal information, open a new web browser and type in what you know to be the organization’s website address.

Someone you haven’t met is never going to post about a legal, legitimate “opportunity” to make thousands of dollars with little or no work involved.

This is not meant to discourage consumers from using Twitter. It’s one of the safe sites on the Internet, and the organization has taken a very proactive approach to stamping out scams and spam.
The Department has a presence on the site and can be reached by tweeting@scdca.

For more information, contact the Public Information Division at 803.734.4203, toll free in SC at 1.800.922.1594.