The Info Treasure Trove

“Phishing,” the latest craze among online evil-doers, has nothing to do with sitting at the end of a dock on a sunny afternoon dangling a worm to entice hungry catfish.

But, if you take their bait, this new breed of online con artist will hook you, reel you in, and take you for every dollar you have… or worse.

“Phishing” describes a combination of techniques used by cyber crooks to bait people into giving up sensitive personal data such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth and more.

Their techniques work so well that, according to FraudWatchInternational.com, “phishing” rates as the fastest growing scam on the Internet.

Here’s the basic pattern for a “phishing” scam…

You receive a very official email that appears to originate from a legitimate source, such as a bank, eBay, PayPal, a major retailer, or some other well known entity.

In the email it tells you that something bad is about to happen unless you act quickly.

Typically it tells you that your account is about to get closed, that someone appears to have stolen your identity, or even that someone opened a fraudulent account using your name.

In order to help straighten everything out, you need to click a link in the email and provide some basic account information so they can verify your identity and then give you additional details so you can help get everything cleared up.

Once you give up your information… it’s all over but the crying!

After getting your information, these cyber-bandits can empty your bank accounts, deplete your PayPal accounts, run up your credit card balances, open new credit accounts, assume your identity and much worse.

An especially disturbing new variation of this scam specifically targets online business owners and affiliate marketers.

In this con, the scammer’s email informs you that they’ve just sent $1,219.43 (or a similar big but believable amount) in affiliate commissions to you via PayPal.

They need you to log into your PayPal account to verify receipt of the money and then email them back to confirm you got it.

Since you’re so excited at the possibility of an unexpected pay day, you click the link to go to PayPal, log in, and BANG! They have your PayPal login information and can empty your account.

This new “phishing” style scam works extremely well for 2 basic reasons.

First, by exploiting your sense of urgency created by fear or greed, crooks get you to click the link and give them your information without thinking.

Second, the scammers use a variety of cloaking and spoofing techniques to make their emails and websites appear totally legitimate, making it extremely hard to spot a fake website, especially when they’ve first whipped you into an emotional frenzy.

The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself relatively easily against this type of cyber-crime with basic software and common sense.

Most of these scams get delivered to you via Spam (unsolicited email), so a good spam blocker will cut down on many of them even making it to your inbox.

If you receive an email that looks legitimate and you want to respond, Stop - Wait - Think!

Verify all phone numbers with a physical phone book or online phone directory like www.Verizon.com or www.ATT.com/directory/ before calling.

Look for spelling and grammatical errors that make it look like someone who doesn’t speak English or your native language very well wrote it.

Never click the link provided in the email, but go directly to the website by typing in the main address of the site yourself (example: www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com).

Forward the email to the main email address of the website (example: support@paypal.com) or call the customer service number on the main website you typed in yourself and ask if it is in fact legitimate.

Above all remember this:

Your bank, credit card company, PayPal, eBay and anyone else you deal with online already knows your account number, username, password or any other account specific information.

They don’t need to email you for ANY reason to ask you to confirm your information — so NEVER respond to email requests for your account or personal details.

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

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If you are looking for safer online shopping you may want to consider a virtual credit card. It takes away a lot of the risk of personal information and credit card numbers falling into the hands of thieves.

A virtual credit card offers you the option of shopping online with a disposable credit card number that are single-use credit card numbers, which expire within one or two months.

The security benefit of using a virtual credit card for online shopping is your normal bank account is not affected if an online scam artist happens to get your account number.

There’s no value to hackers because you use a different, random card number every time you shop online. A virtual credit card number is only good on the Web site where you made your purchase.

With identity theft and email phising scams rising at an alarming level it’s a good way to keep your sensitive information private. Even if a scammer does somehow acquire your virtual credit card number, the disposable credit card number expires quickly so it’s not an ideal target for them.

The major credit card companies all offer prepaid virtual credit cards and the amount is limited to how much you apply to the card. You are protected just like a regular credit card if they are lost or stolen.

MasterCard calls them MasterCard gift cards and Visa calls them virtual Visa gift cards. You can use them anywhere MasterCard and Visa are accepted.

There are some instances when paying with a virtual credit card won’t work. You can’t pick up theater tickets; confirm airline, hotel or rental car reservations with a virtual credit card. These credit card numbers don’t exist off the Web so they don’t work for these things.

But if you are using the disposable credit card numbers for buying products online the security benefits are well worth it. If you are looking for safer online shopping consider a virtual credit card.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal software, computer firewalls and valuable tips. For regularly updated articles about adware, spyware and protection from identity theft go to http://spyware-information.com/articles_1.html

If you were born before 1960, you may remember a strange phenomenon that was once used by some people to shortcut the process of catching fish. Instead of using a fishing pole and waiting patiently for a fish to swim by and take the bait, they would take a boat out into the lake with several sticks of dynamite in hand.

A quick setup and a toss of one of those sticks of dynamite into the lake resulted in an underwater explosion - either killing or stunning all of the fish in the general area of the explosion. Once dead or stunned, the fish floated to the surface and the so-called fishermen could scoop them up with a net and fill their boat with the catch of the day.

Now outlawed and much more difficult to buy the tackle required, fishing with dynamite is pretty much a thing of the past.

In the past few years a new type of activity has been commonly referred to as Phishing. This does not involve water but involves using bait to catch unsuspecting victims. Once caught, victims give the Phisher their personal information.

This type of scam started online with the phony bank emails asking people to update their information. It then spread to the phony email pretending to be from from that big auction site or the payment processing company they now own. Next was the fraudulent email from the African business people asking for help to transfer millions of dollars from their deceased relatives accounts. Then there was the one in which a poor rich individual was dying and they wanted an honest person to take their millions and distribute it to charities. And lastly in this series has been the business partner needed scam where the foreign company needs an “agent” to help them in this country.

Most of these rip-off scams were geared to trying to get your personal sensitive information to be used to empty your bank account or to commit identity fraud.

Now there is a brand new assault that is targeted at the unemployed and what a good target they can be. Why are the unemployed a good target? Most people who experience unemployment suffer from elevated anxiety about their future. This anxiety increases over time, the longer the period of unemployment continues.

Today with the miracle of the internet, we can search for employment online via massive job sites. You know the big ones, you have seen the commercials and possibly you have even uploaded your resume to them.

The scammers have seen the commercials too. Now they have begun to use these sites disguised as employers offering really good paying, interesting sounding jobs. One of the recent ones was related to a talent agency. Here is how the process goes.

You get an email from the prospective employer telling you that they have seen your resume on the job site and they would like you to fill out their online application and send a resume. In some cases, this is the only step, if they ask for things like your SSN in the application. They might really have it worked out and take it further. They may only ask for basic information and have you upload your resume. Then they build on the game - they make you wait. About a week or so later you get the congratulatory email saying that you have been selected from applicants, and to go online and fill out the agreement, after which you have to fill out the insurance forms, or the W2 form so you can begin your training.

Alarms are going off and red lights flashing!

As a person who has been unemployed for three or more months, wouldn’t you love an offer making $75-100 thousand dollars a year?

I guarantee that some people are giving all of their information. In investigating one of these scams, I found that one online scammer had built over 50 different web sites under 50 different company names. Each time they got the boot from the online job site, they just started a new bogus company.

In fact some sources for my research said that some of the information stolen was not used for identity theft, but sold to other scammers and spammers for their use.

So now, everyone is officially a target, if you have money, no money, if you are an adult or a child, if you are living and breathing and even dead, your personal information can and may be stolen. If or when it is will you have been the one who gave the information away in desperation of getting good employment? My guess is if you are reading this article, you won’t.

Remember these points:

1. When it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. A good paying job usually requires a face to face interview.
3. Even a criminal can buy a secure web site.

4. Online job sites do not screen employers.

Use caution online, it’s a high speed jungle out there and now, they’re Phishing with dynamite!

Jeff Glaze is the Editor of http://www.AtlantaEvent.com, founder of http://www.privacy-first.com e-mail certification program and the author of several e-books. His company, Mostcool Media Inc.( Mostcoolmedia.com ), specializes in marketing planning, coaching, business networking training, web and media development. His e-book “The Six Xtremes Of Power Business Networking” is available here: http://www.atlantaevent.com/ebook.htm Jeff Glaze is available to speak to your group and can be contacted at 678.508.5975

Copyright © 2006 by MostCool Media Inc.

Whether we like it or not, we are all living in the Information Age. We have nothing left but adapt to rapidly developing information technology, no matter who we are and what we do for living.

The Internet, in particular, means for us boundless opportunities in life and business - but also lots of dangers unheard of just a decade ago. We should be aware of these dangers if we want to use the huge potential of the Internet and to avoid the hazards it brings us.

Warning: There are Websites You’d Better Not Visit

Phishing websites

Thanks to authors of numerous articles on this topic, “classic” phishing technique is relatively well known. This scam involves setting bogus websites and luring people to visit them, as a rule, by links in emails. Phishing website is disguised to look like a legitimate one — of a bank or a credit card company, and users are invited to provide their identifying information. Sites of this kind are used solely to steal users’ passwords, PIN numbers, SSNs and other confidential information.

At first phishing consisted only of a social engineering scam in which phishers spammed consumer e-mail accounts with letters ostensibly from banks. The more people got aware of the scam, the less spelling mistakes these messages contained, and the more these fraudulent websites resembled legitimate ones. Phishers are getting smarter. They eagerly learn; there is enough money involved here to turn criminals into earnest students.

Keyloggers and Trojans

Since about November 2004 there has been a lot of publications of a scheme which at first was seen as a new kind of phishing. This technique includes contaminating a PC with a Trojan horse program. The problem is that this Trojan contains a keylogger which lurks at the background until the user of the infected PC visits one of the specified websites. Then the keylogger comes to life to do what it was created for — to steal information.

It seems that this technique is actually a separate scam aimed at stealing personal information and such attacks are on the rise. Security vendor Symantec warns about commercialisation of malware — cybercriminals prefer cash to fun, so various kinds of information-stealing software are used more actively.

Fraudulent websites are on the rise

Websense Security Labs — a well-known authority in information security — noticed a dramatic rise in the number of fraudulent websites as far back as in the second half of 2004. These sites pose as ones for e-commerce; they encourage users to apply for a reward or purchase something, of course never delivering the product or paying money. The most popular areas for such fraud are online pharmacies, lottery scams, and loan / mortgage sites. Experts predict there will be more fake merchants in future and their scams will become more sophisticated.

A Hybrid Scam

In April Panda Software warned Internet users of a new particularly brazen scam aimed at stealing confidential information. The technique used here looks like a hybrid between phishing and a fraudulent website.

Panda Software identified several websites offering cheap airline tickets which in fact weren’t selling anything; the aim was to cheat users out of credit card details.

This scam is very simple; the thieves simply wait until some unsuspecting user who is searching for, say, airline ticket offers, finds their site offering dirt-cheap airline tickets. Really pleased with himself and looking forward to the trip, the user fills in the form, entering his credit card number, expiry date and verification value (CVV).

As soon as these details have been entered, an error page appears; it tells the user that the transaction has been unsuccessful, and offers instructions on how to pay for the ticket by postal money order. So the user may well be fooled twice. He loses his credit card details, putting them right into the hands of cyber-crooks, and then loses money, if decides to buy the ticket by money order.

Of course, these sites have already been disabled, but who knows whether (or better to say when) other ones will appear again, this time offering all kinds of products.

Malicious websites are especially dangerous. Cybercriminals create them exclusively to execute malicious code on the visitors’ computers. Sometimes hackers infect legitimate sites with malicious code.

Bad news for blog readers: blogs can be contaminated, too. Since January, Websense Security Labs has discovered hundreds of these “toxic” blogs set by hackers.

When unsuspecting users visit malicious sites, various nasty applications are downloaded and executed on their computers. Unfortunately, more and more often these applications contain keyloggers–software programs for intercepting data.

Keyloggers, as it is clear from the name of the program, log keystrokes –but that’s not all. They capture everything the user is doing — keystrokes, mouse clicks, files opened and closed, sites visited. A little more sophisticated programs of this kind also capture text from windows and make screenshots (record everything displayed on the screen) - so the information is captured even if the user doesn’t type anything, just opens the views the file.

In February and March 2005, Websense Security Labs researched and identified about 8-10 new keylogger variants and more than 100 malicious websites which are hosting these keyloggers EACH WEEK. From November of 2004 through December 2004 these figures were much smaller: 1-2 new keylogger variants and 10-15 new malicious websites per week. There is by all means a disturbing tendency–the number of brand-new keyloggers and malicious website is growing, and growing rapidly.

What a user can do to avoid these sites?

As for phishing, the best advice is not to click any links in any email, especially if it claims to be from a bank.

Opening an attachment of a spam message can also trigger the execution of malicious program, for example a keylogger or a keylogger-containing Trojan horse.

As for fraudulent websites, maybe buying goods only from trusted vendors will help — even if it is a bit more expensive.

As for malicious websites… “Malicious websites that host adult entertainment and shopping content can exploit Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to run code remotely without user interaction.”(a quote from the Websense’s report). What can a user do about it? Not much, but avoiding adult sites and buying only from known and trusted online stores will reduce the risk.

Hackers also attract traffic to malicious websites by sending a link through spam or spim (the analog of spam for instant messaging (IM). So a good advice never follow links in spam is worth remembering once more.

Alexandra Gamanenko currently works at Raytown Corporation, LLC — an independent software developing company. The company’s R&D department created an innovative technology, which disables the very processes of information capturing — keylogging, screenshoting, etc. It makes the company’s anti-keylogging software truly unique: it doesn’t detect keyloggers or information-stealing Trojans one by one — they all simply can’t work.

Learn more — visit the company’s website
http://www.anti-keyloggers.com

The vast array of home security products available on the market today can be dizzying. Home security products can be wireless or hard wired, optional or required or simple or complex. Determining which home security products you need can be difficult enough and it becomes more complicated when you have to choose between the assortment of models that are available for each product. Wading through all of the available information can be overwhelming. For this reason choosing only the most basic home security products can greatly simplify the process. The control panel, keypad, access control sensors and an audible or visible alarm are some of the basic home security products that are used in just about every home security system.

The control panel is one of the most important home security products available. This is the heart of any security system. All of the wiring for the other home security products meets at the control panel and the entire system is tied together at this location. Without this valuable component, the security system would not function properly.

The keypad is another of many home security products that exists in just about every security system. The keypad is where the homeowner interacts with the system. The system can be activated and deactivated at this location. The keypad is also where the system displays messages for the homeowners. If there has been a breach of security while you were away or if one of your home security products is malfunctioning, the keypad will display these important messages for you. The other purpose that the keypad plays is to display the current status of the system.

Access control sensors are other home security products that are critical to the function of a home security system. These home security products are used to detect if a door or window is opened while the security system is activated. When these sensors are triggered an alarm will sound either immediately or on a delay. The reason that most security systems incorporate a delay is to enable the homeowner to deactivate the system upon returning to their home.

Finally, an audible alarm and strobe lights are other home security products that are commonly used. These home security products can be used separately or in conjunction with each other. The importance of these components is that they alert the homeowners as well as their neighbors to a possible intruder. In most cases a triggered alarm is enough to cause the burglar to vacate the property as quickly as possible.

Not all home security products are necessary. Many home security products such as motion detectors and security cameras are optional while home security products such as the control panel, keypad, access control sensors and audible or visual alarms are necessary for the system to function properly.

Robert H the author of this article, invites you to Find more informative articles on home security, and news on all the latest home security products at his his website here www.homesecurity.info-net-work.com

A vital part of any security scheme is backup. No matter how tight your security is, you always have the chance that a virus or hacker or even your 5 year old kid is going to slip through your defenses and damage your system and your vital data files. If you don’t back up your data regularly you will be out of luck. And anyone who has been there knows how horrible it is to realize that your computer is destroyed and there is no way to get the files back.

In order to back up your system, you will need a backup device. Some people use Zip or Jazz drives, others use tape drives, write able CD drives, or other removable cartridge systems. I know it sounds expensive, but compared with the cost of losing your valuable data forever, each of these is cheap.

I’ve found that the best all-around product for backup is Backup Exec. This product requires a tape drive, as do most other third-party backup solutions. Backup Exec is preferred because it can be made totally automatic and is one of the top-rated products industry-wide. If you want to back up to other media, though, you’ll do best to stick with the backup software that comes with the media.

An important fact that I’ve noticed about backup is that you have to make it a part of your normal routine. Even if you have automated backups set up and working perfectly, you must check them constantly. If you don’t you will find yourself without a backup when you need it most! My advice is to try restoring files from your backup occasionally when you don’t need it so you are ready and are sure you have good backups when you do need them.

Be careful when choosing backup mediums for longer range storage. There is nothing more frustrating then to need a backup, go to it and find that the file that you need cannot be retrieved because the media is corrupt! For critical data I usually make sure I have backups on several different media (perhaps tape and zip disk), and for the really important stuff I tend to rotate through half a dozen different medias. I mean, think about it, is the data for your entire company worth a few dollars for some hardware and media? Don’t risk all of your years of hard work trying to save a few dollars on media.

Backup Disaster - A True Story

Not having a good backup can be a disaster of epic proportions. In one instance I’ve seen the lack of a backup turn a situation which was uncomfortable into a complete disaster.

I knew a guy who was working on an older Macintosh computer. Our entire company switched to PCs except for him, because he didn’t have the time. The Macintosh was old and unbeknownst to anyone it had been outfitted with an old RAID drive (mirrored) from a manufacturer that no longer existed.

This guy believed he was doing backups every day. Someone showed him how to do it and he followed those instructions to the letter, even to the point of ignoring the error that it produced each and every time it ran. That was actually in the instructions.

One day his hard disk started making strange sounds so he called us. We tried to boot it up but no go. We asked him if he was doing backups and he handed us his zip disks, which were blank! He had been faithfully doing backups for over two years, and not one of them worked.

We had to send the disk out to a disk repair shop, and they managed to recover about 20% of the data at a cost of over $6,000! It took the poor guy almost six months with two temps to get all of the data hand-typed back into the computer!

When it comes to a secure website and passwords it is all in your hands to create a password that a hacker simply cannot crack. However, this will require that you be creative and use everything at your fingertips to create the strongest password possible for a secure web site.

Tip #1 - Use All Spaces

No matter how many characters are available for your password you should be sure to use every one of them. The more characters available for your password and the more you use makes it that much harder to figure out the combination. Always make use of all characters available for a strong and secure password.

Tip #2 - Obscure not Obvious

Personal information such as names, birthdays, nicknames, pet’s names, social security numbers, and the like should never, ever, ever be used because these are way too obvious and too easy to crack. The more you avoid using things like this as your passwords, the more secure your login areas will be.

Tip #3 - Non-Alphabet

Never use just the alphabet to create your password. If you include numbers, hyphens, dashes, and other symbols or characters, you will have a more secure password which is increasingly harder to crack with every different symbol or number you add.

Tip #4 - Don’t Write Your Password

This tip you should already know, but once you have created your super secure password to protect your website, commit it to memory, never share it with anyone, and never, ever write it down. No matter how secure you think the location is, if you write the password down you are decreasing the security of your website.

Tip #5 - Case

Also, make sure you use upper case as well as lowercase in your password if the password is case sensitive. This will add even more variables to your password that will increase security.

Tip #6 - Create a Word

You do not have to use a word that already exists, you can actually create your own word with a mixture of numbers, cases, and symbols and before you know it you will have a secure password that nobody can crack!

Tip #7 - Multiple Passwords

As tempting as it might be to use only one password for all of your web sites logins you should never ever do this. To maintain security at all website logins you should create a special system for creating passwords on different sites and stick to that system. This way, you’ll always know the passwords but they will differ from site to site.

Tip #8 - Logout

Always logout! For some reason people think when they have finished their business they can just continue on about the Internet without logging out. This decreases your security level and if you are logged in anyone can access your account. Because of this you should always logout.

Tip #9 - Close the Browser

TO be even more sure that your password and personal information are protected you should always close your browser. This is the safest practice and one you should always engage in.

Tip #10 - Manage Your Passwords

If you have problems managing all of your passwords or remembering them, consider using a password manager. This will help you keep your login information safe and secure without having to remember all of the difficult passwords you created.

Another big pitfall of using free software that you may become a victim of all kinds of scams which Internet has become full of. There are tens, if not hundreds anti-spyware applications which destroy your PC security once you double-click on an executable file. They keep reporting of successful scans, deleted spyware, and online guards, while secretly doing evil things you may not be aware about. Even though children who realize they should keep their private information really private can reveal some bits of information to a predator who will then stick the facts together and find out what he needs.

Advanced Spy will help you to monitor and record all activities on your computer. Selected as the Editors’ Choice by the experts at most downloads archives, Advanced Spy record all e-mail’s sent and received, all AOL, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN chat conversations, all web sites visited, every application executed, all text and images sent to the clipboard, every keystroke pressed, every password typed, and more! It’s can can run in Total Stealth mode and send activity logs to your email and/or upload to ftp server. Data loggers, key loggers are just a few programs which harvest info from your computer. Winclear is the only program created specially to auto remove such spywares. Thus the spyware operators get lump sum amount from that legitimate ad websites. That is why every computer owner needs winclear.

Protect With Winclear :History Of Hte Internet
As employers and managers we need to track down the websites being accessed by our staff. In fact, we need to regularly monitor the e-mails and messages that our workers send to ensure that they are not spreading and selling our company trade secrets to competitors. Like parents, companies need to find a way to check the Internet and computer usage of their employees in the office. Winclear is the only software which is capable of removing keylogger programs. Cookies are used by websites and browsers to store basic information about your Internet use. Winclear has been the industry leader in fighting keyloggers for the last 8 years.

Winclear:
So how can we prevent this to get happen to us. That is the reason why you need Winclear installed onto your computer. The Internet is a source of myriad information that can help us make our grueling existence easier and happier. Protect your computer security by using Winclear! More about Winclear here: Winclear.