Who’s Awesome?
Abe and I were talking about you the other day and came to a conclusion…
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Mail this postDon’t Be Phishbait!
Phishing Scams
No, you did not really win the European lottery.
No, you have not been chosen to be an import/export representative for an Asian ceramics company.
No, you should not click on that link to verify your ebay, paypal or bank account information.
And chances are pretty good that somebody you have never heard of did not leave you seven million dollars in his will.
These are all examples of fraudulent e-mail known as phishing, and it’s becoming increasingly sophisticated and cunning. “Phishers” attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on “fishing”; the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting. One of the most important things to consider regarding Phishing is that the extent of its success is mainly dependent on the people who actually receive the email. Clearly, the human factor is the only vulnerability that is virtually unpatchable, and no security product, service or update can protect people from their own choices. You can contribute significantly to your own security by just following certain guidelines and performing simple, logical practices, such as these suggested by TrendMicro:
Practice prudence when receiving email messages that ask for account credentials. Remember, Phishing emails are designed to upset, confuse, or excite recipients, to entice them to react immediately.
2. Ensure that any Web site visited is secure when submitting sensitive information such as credit card numbers. One indication that a Web address is secure is if it starts with https:// rather than http://. Another indication is a padlock icon at the bottom of the screen, which when clicked, displays a security certificate.
3. Do not click any link inside an email that is suspected to be spoofed. Instead, go directly to the legitimate company’s site by directly typing in the legitimate company URL in the address bar of the browser, then log on from there. One can also call the company directly. Previously targeted companies have disclosed contact information for Phishing-related incidents.
4. Avoid opening any file attachments of suspected phishing email messages as they might execute a malware program that can steal personal information.
Most email systems employ several different methods to combat SPAM and phishing, and their filters are updated on a regular basis, but a few unwanted emails will inevitably get through. If it were easy to stop, it would be stopped already. If you do receive a phishing email, you can report it to the organizations listed below, or add it to your junk senders list. Then delete it! NEVER REPLY TO IT!!!
Report suspected Phishing attacks to any of the following Web sites and email addresses:
Internet Crime Complaint Center
(a joint project of the FBI and the National Collar Crime Center): http://www.ic3.gov
Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft Web site: http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft
Federal Trade Commission’s email address: uce@ftc.gov Anti-Phishing Working Group: reportphishing@antiphishing.org
As always, if you need more information, contact me.
Don’t get taken hook, line and sinker!
_________________________________________
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The Robots are Calling
Starting Sept 1 (that’s today!), the Federal Trade Commission banned most prerecorded, or robot, telemarketing calls to "consumers". From this day those calls are supposed to be permissable only if the robot has written authority from you.
"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.
You can report illegal robots making calls to you online at ftc.gov or by calling 1-877-382-4357. Penalties can be up to $16,000 per call, the FTC said.
This sounds like a really fantastic deal and you would think that it would put an end to electronic recordings interrupting your dinner. The FTC’s headline of "New Rule Prohibiting Unwanted ‘Robocalls’ To Take Effect on September 1" sounds very official and definitive. The articles goes on to say that in order for a telemarketer’s machine to call you, the telemarketer needs written approval from you consenting to the call.
However, the ban does not apply to calls which are:
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purely ‘informational’.
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from a debt collector.
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from a politician.
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from a bank.
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from a phone service provider.
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from a charitable organization.
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‘certain’ healthcare messages.
Do you recieve any telemarketer calls which can’t be classified in some manner listed above?
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google conquest authority
My first exposure to internet marketing was in 2002. I attended a seminar on how to get your website to rank well in the search engines. Although I pretty much understood everything that they were presenting at the seminar, there really wasn’t any focus on making money on the internet.
The information I received was geared strictly towards getting your site ranked; I took that information to get the site of my employer to rank well. What I didn’t realize was that I was taking all that information that I had learned to make the boss richer, and all I got was a little more work piled on my desk because I knew how to do a little SEO.
Since that time I have put together a handful of websites of my own, all purely informational; no sales pitch, no products.
Last November my wife’s circle of friends ran across a course on internet marketing and search engine optimization being offered by someone name Alex Goad. I reviewed the sales page and wasn’t really impressed. Another get-rich scheme didn’t reallyappeal to me. Then I watched the video on putting together web sites and posts.
If you’ve ever built a web site, you know how much work goes into it. Even a simple site can take a lot of hard work.
If you’ve ever tried to rank using some SEO tactics, you know how hard it can be to figure out what code goes where and how much of what keywords go into which part of the website. It can be pretty mind-boggling.
Watching the Google Conquest video had me standing there with my mouth hanging open. You can put a site together in just a few minutes. (after a few months of doing this, I can put a site together in about 10 minutes, and have it ranked on page 1 within a few days!)
Alex Goad has taken all the work out of putting a site together AND all the guess work out of what is necessary to get a site to rank on Google. (by the way, ranking on Yahoo is pretty much a given with this system) He as even taken the wonder out of making money with your website.
I won’t go into the details here, you can head on over to the conquest authority site and read about what the program has to offer as well as my completely killer bonus package. You can also go straight to Alex’s page and check out all the action there (but you’ll miss out on the best bonus package ever!)
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