USA Today 2nd Amendment Poll
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Iggie
Well-Known Fanatic
I thought this was ruled on by the supreme court.
foghorn918
Consistently Inconsistent
I spoke!
shootingbuff
Well-Known Fanatic
97% yes
2 % no - they don't have an education, or they have an agenda to push
1 % are confused and don't know
2 % no - they don't have an education, or they have an agenda to push
1 % are confused and don't know
andrsnsm
Well-Known Fanatic
dennishoddy
Moderator
I've been getting this in emails for several years.
I'm posting this for your observation only. I cannot confirm that this is a legal poll, but take this information and make of it what you will.
I've gotten an email which purports to link to the USA Today poll on support for the Second Amendment. Since I knew that this was a pre-Heller poll taken back in 2007, I began to sense something might be wrong.
Someone is probably collecting/trapping the IPs of those favorable to the Second Amendment. It COULD be a beneficial organization, but it also could be a nefarious one. I suspect the latter.
Here's my evidence:
First, the link location, and do NOT paste this link, just remember it. Break out a medieval quill pen and parchment if you have one, and ink it down.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm
Now, go to a real USA Today site and look for polls; you'll find that there is no way to access any. The paper (at least the online edition) doesn't have a web page devoted to a daily poll. There IS something called a USA Today/Gallup poll. Here's the latest one of those which I can find using Google and Ask.com, and it's a month old:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-12-12/2012-election-swing-states-poll/51844930/1
OK, compare the two URLs I have on this post so far.
The URLs are NOT similar in any way.
Now, search on "usa today quick question polls". There is nothing on that search page to indicate that USA Today ever ran a "quick question" poll after the 2007 firearms poll, and I suspect the reason for that is because the huge response from gun owners (and anti-gunners) thrashed their host so badly they quit doing it.
Now, I'm not a real geek. I have ZERO technical training in this area of Internet technology (and I slept in my own bed last night, and didn't get close to a Holiday Inn Express, heh). That disclaimer aside, I suspect that this latest "re-issuance" of the "USA Today" poll is a fake.
Some evidence of the fake.
All the previous REAL USA-Today polls come up as a full page when you visit their site, but this one does not, it comes up at about a one-sixth page or less, tucked into the top left of a large, otherwise blank page. Also, it is unusual for ANY poll to be presented just as a simple "yes-no-no opinion" box. Any outfit with a reputation to uphold, like USA Today has, would have some other writings and explanations on the page, and probably some links to take you back to a page with more of their content (and some ads, which pay the bills). Survey Monkey is the standard for polls you don't want to pay for but need to post nowadays, and their poll page will always link to back to their website.
I firmly conclude that this is not an actual re-issuance of the 2007 USA Today poll, but is a fake, and that leaves the Big Question: whose fake is it? Also another important question: when you visit a page, any page, you leave a trail to that page. Who is mining the data from these trails to that page? Are they friend or foe?
Unless you know the answers to the above paragraph's questions, don't punch the "send" button on this ersatz "poll".
Now, if some REAL geek wants to set me straight, and offers the science to refute my suspicion here, I will gladly publish that information, with or without retribution at the request of that author, whatever is desired.
Until then, take warning and don't fall for this phishing attempt.
I'm posting this for your observation only. I cannot confirm that this is a legal poll, but take this information and make of it what you will.
I've gotten an email which purports to link to the USA Today poll on support for the Second Amendment. Since I knew that this was a pre-Heller poll taken back in 2007, I began to sense something might be wrong.
Someone is probably collecting/trapping the IPs of those favorable to the Second Amendment. It COULD be a beneficial organization, but it also could be a nefarious one. I suspect the latter.
Here's my evidence:
First, the link location, and do NOT paste this link, just remember it. Break out a medieval quill pen and parchment if you have one, and ink it down.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm
Now, go to a real USA Today site and look for polls; you'll find that there is no way to access any. The paper (at least the online edition) doesn't have a web page devoted to a daily poll. There IS something called a USA Today/Gallup poll. Here's the latest one of those which I can find using Google and Ask.com, and it's a month old:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2011-12-12/2012-election-swing-states-poll/51844930/1
OK, compare the two URLs I have on this post so far.
The URLs are NOT similar in any way.
Now, search on "usa today quick question polls". There is nothing on that search page to indicate that USA Today ever ran a "quick question" poll after the 2007 firearms poll, and I suspect the reason for that is because the huge response from gun owners (and anti-gunners) thrashed their host so badly they quit doing it.
Now, I'm not a real geek. I have ZERO technical training in this area of Internet technology (and I slept in my own bed last night, and didn't get close to a Holiday Inn Express, heh). That disclaimer aside, I suspect that this latest "re-issuance" of the "USA Today" poll is a fake.
Some evidence of the fake.
All the previous REAL USA-Today polls come up as a full page when you visit their site, but this one does not, it comes up at about a one-sixth page or less, tucked into the top left of a large, otherwise blank page. Also, it is unusual for ANY poll to be presented just as a simple "yes-no-no opinion" box. Any outfit with a reputation to uphold, like USA Today has, would have some other writings and explanations on the page, and probably some links to take you back to a page with more of their content (and some ads, which pay the bills). Survey Monkey is the standard for polls you don't want to pay for but need to post nowadays, and their poll page will always link to back to their website.
I firmly conclude that this is not an actual re-issuance of the 2007 USA Today poll, but is a fake, and that leaves the Big Question: whose fake is it? Also another important question: when you visit a page, any page, you leave a trail to that page. Who is mining the data from these trails to that page? Are they friend or foe?
Unless you know the answers to the above paragraph's questions, don't punch the "send" button on this ersatz "poll".
Now, if some REAL geek wants to set me straight, and offers the science to refute my suspicion here, I will gladly publish that information, with or without retribution at the request of that author, whatever is desired.
Until then, take warning and don't fall for this phishing attempt.
ummm
Active Fanatic
Hey dennis
I'm in the software world now, so I'll try to explain how both of your poll links are, in fact, very similar.
Link #1:
Link #2:
The highlighted portion is called the domain, and that's where the url goes. Whoever owns usatoday.com is getting your traffic. The stuff after the domain is just information that goes to the computer at that domain, to help it decide what content to give you. Note how this differs from the following:
The above link is the actual url you would be sent to if you went to Google, searched for Sears, and chose the first result. In it, you can see two domains, Google.com and sears.com. This is one way to recognize certain "fake" urls. Now obviously Google is not phishing -- they just alter the sears.com url to first go through their computers so they can log information about your computer and the search, then they send you off to sears. However, a bad guy could easily not send you to sears, and instead send you to a bad place.
There are many, many other ways to structure phishing attempts, most of which are far more sophisticated, I'm just trying to show how the domain in a url indicates the destination of the url.
Therefore, you can conclude that both urls are going to usatoday.com, and not anywhere else. My best guess is that the old 2A survey (the 1/6th size piece you were mentioning)
1) Is a fragment of the original survey page, forgotten about years ago, and the system administrators just don't know about it / don't want to bother taking it down - or -
2) The fragment actually generates a sufficient number of visits (I've seen it mistakenly posted as new 4 times already this year on various forums!) that the system administrators have decided to allow it to remain up, since the extra traffic helps their numbers look better than they really are!
In any event, you can rest assured that your traffic to either one of those links is actually going to usatoday.com, and not some 3rd party (unless you have a serious trojan / virus issue, which is another matter).
I'm in the software world now, so I'll try to explain how both of your poll links are, in fact, very similar.
Link #1:
Link #2:
The highlighted portion is called the domain, and that's where the url goes. Whoever owns usatoday.com is getting your traffic. The stuff after the domain is just information that goes to the computer at that domain, to help it decide what content to give you. Note how this differs from the following:
The above link is the actual url you would be sent to if you went to Google, searched for Sears, and chose the first result. In it, you can see two domains, Google.com and sears.com. This is one way to recognize certain "fake" urls. Now obviously Google is not phishing -- they just alter the sears.com url to first go through their computers so they can log information about your computer and the search, then they send you off to sears. However, a bad guy could easily not send you to sears, and instead send you to a bad place.
There are many, many other ways to structure phishing attempts, most of which are far more sophisticated, I'm just trying to show how the domain in a url indicates the destination of the url.
Therefore, you can conclude that both urls are going to usatoday.com, and not anywhere else. My best guess is that the old 2A survey (the 1/6th size piece you were mentioning)
1) Is a fragment of the original survey page, forgotten about years ago, and the system administrators just don't know about it / don't want to bother taking it down - or -
2) The fragment actually generates a sufficient number of visits (I've seen it mistakenly posted as new 4 times already this year on various forums!) that the system administrators have decided to allow it to remain up, since the extra traffic helps their numbers look better than they really are!
In any event, you can rest assured that your traffic to either one of those links is actually going to usatoday.com, and not some 3rd party (unless you have a serious trojan / virus issue, which is another matter).
dennishoddy
Moderator
What I posted was gleaned from a google search. I'm not computer savy enough to recognize the validity of the URL, but like you, have seen it come around so many times that I figured something was up.
Our IT folks showed us some phishing examples of emails from a bank that had a link in it that re-directed the person to another site if you clicked on it. An obvious misspelling was the only clue that it was a fake.
We appreciate the information you provided.
Our IT folks showed us some phishing examples of emails from a bank that had a link in it that re-directed the person to another site if you clicked on it. An obvious misspelling was the only clue that it was a fake.
We appreciate the information you provided.
