Newsletter - December, 2008

 

Dealing with Hoaxes and Phishing Email

If you have a PayPal or Ebay account (and even if you don't) you will most likely receive a few phishing emails a week.  I deal with them by sending them to either

spoof@paypal.com or spoof@ebay.com.  They make an attempt to go after these crooks and will email you back and let you know if it is a legitimate email or a phishing email.  I have not received one yet that was legitimate.  NEVER EVER CLICK ON A LINK IN AN EMAIL TO UPDATE ACCOUNT INFORMATION!  Go to your account from your browser and log in.  If you need to do anything, there will be a message there.  If you log in via an email link you will have given the phishers what they want - your username and password!

 

Check out the validity of any hoax at www.snopes.com.  This is a great website that is basically an encyclopedia of urban legends and hoaxes.  It will let you know if it is real, fake or can't be verified.  It's fun just to cruise around in here and find out how many things we thought of as true, really aren't.

 

When contacted about an account needing to be "verified" (or any other topic used by phishers), it is a sensible precaution to contact the company from which the e-mail apparently originates to check that the e-mail is legitimate. Alternatively, the address that the individual knows is the company's genuine website can be typed into the address bar of the browser, rather than trusting any hyperlinks in the suspected phishing message.

 

If in doubt about an email you receive, call the company you received it from or call me!

About Email Hoaxes and Phishing

Internet hoaxes and chain letters are e-mail messages written with one purpose; to be sent to everyone you know. The messages they contain are usually untrue. A few of the sympathy messages do describe a real situation but that situation was resolved years ago so the message is not valid and has not been valid for many years. Hoax messages try to get you to pass them on to everyone you know using several different methods of social engineering. Most of the hoax messages play on your need to help other people. Who wouldn't want to warn their friends about some terrible virus that is destroying people's systems? Or, how could you not want to help this poor little girl who is about to die from cancer? It is hard to say no to these messages when you first see them, though after a few thousand have passed through your mail box you (hopefully) delete them without even looking.

Chain letters are lumped in with the hoax messages because they have the same purpose as the hoax messages but use a slightly different method of coercing you into passing them on to everyone you know. Chain letters, like their printed ancestors, generally offer luck or money if you send them on. They play on your fear of bad luck and the realization that it is almost trivial for you to send them on. The chain letters that deal in money play on people's greed and are illegal no matter what they say in the letter.

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites (Youtube, Facebook, Myspace), auction sites (eBay), online banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase), online payment processors (PayPal), or IT Administrators (Yahoo, ISPs, corporate) are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose URL and look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using SSL with strong cryptography for server authentication it is practically impossible to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies. Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

Happy Holidays!

This Month's Special!

I am pleased to announce that I recently purchased a new Search Engine Submission program that can be used to submit your website to the following major search engines:

 

MSN, Yahoo, Accoona
Subjex, Search Site
Scrub The Web, DMOZ
Google, WhatUSeek
Entireweb, Search Who
Walhello, National Directory
Exact Seek, Surf Gopher
SearchEngine, Web Squash
Splat, Aeiwi  & Info Tiger

 

The software I was previously using would submit to about 100 websites, but they weren't going directly to many of these major search engines.

 

I am offering a special price for Search Engine submission of just $40.00 per website.  This service is normally $80.00!  if your website hasn't been submitted over the past six months now is the time to take advantage of this.

 

Don't waste hundreds of dollars on "SEO Experts" who spam you with false claims of top rankings and then charge a monthly fee!  It just promotes more spam by acknowledging their email!

This offer is only good for the months of December and January so contact me soon -  even if I didn't create your website or you're not a client of mine.

 

Kolleen Powers

(916) 691-3085

kolleen@power-site.com

 

 

Have a Great and Prosperous New Year!