Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn't believe what I saw:

As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity.   You shouldn't be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their "walls" – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

This deservese a little mind and a lot of understanding.   By the spammers hacking into facebook accounts they have the chance to scam or spam people with links to possibly have a virus or trojan installer.

[ad#ad2-right]For example This one blog talks about the Virus:

Symantec's Norton Antivirus software has flagged this as a "high risk" Infostealer.Gampass virus. More info on this particular Trojan vius is here. (Note: Symantec warns the risk level is "low," since it originated in 2006, but this new Facebook email is a new iteration of the same virus.)

You might be inclined to click on this link because it's from a friend, but they did not intentionally send it to you -- and yes, their Facebook photo is attached, too.

[Via Sync-blog]

Now I went searching through my friends list and also found this little bit of information.  As you can see this one is asking for people to use there account to scam people out of money.  They could use this to find out even more information of the Other partner and make you believe your talking to the real deal.   Saying they need money because they are stuck over seas or something like that.   I've seen this on other blogs where people have sent money to "friends" but are actually people who are the scammers.  Then if you send the money you are out of luck with your money and possibly your friends to.  I am sure there are more but this is prime examples of what you shouldn't do and why.

So what can you do to prevent Identity Theft and/or being scammed?

[ad#cricket-right-ez]

• Roboform Review — A Password Manager that will help protect your passwords from key loggers and other such phishing sites.    I strongly recommend it to to all who are security minded. (Never use the same password for all your accounts)


• Are you worried about your identity? -- This is good information in checking out sites that might be questionable.  You can find out what type of site it by using your brains.


• Old Phish Become New again -- This is blog post about twitter and what may happen if you did give out your password.   This is a good example of why you never should give out your password to third party websites.


• Twitter Spammers a getting more smarter -- This is also good example of what happens when you see become friends with someone who isn't real.   You could be the next to be spammed and/or impersonated.

If you follow some common steps you to could prevent from being the victim or getting your Identitiy stolen.   Some things to remember is Never tell anyone your Birthday the whole date like someone did on twitter a few days ago.  It's nice that they are growing older but that gives people that much more information to use to steal your money or your idenitiy.   Think before you give out any personal information like Age, Married, who your married to and anything that might be used to be able to access your account or your impersonate you.  Remember only you can prevent from being scammed or lossing your identity, you wouldn't want to have to pay for your mistakes.

The Next big Wave of Layoffs is Sony. (9,000 workers)

In a report from Engadget, there seems to be more Layoffs going on.   One such one is Sony.  Here is what Engadget said:

[ad#ad2-right]

The bad news from the Japanese consumer electronics industry continues. Sony just announced plans to cut about 8,000 global jobs from its beleaguered electronics business while making unspecified reductions to its seasonal and temporary workforce. The move, as Sony explains it, comes "in response to the sudden and rapid changes in the global economic environment." Ominously, it looks like Sony will also be raising prices in the countries where "Sony makes significant sales" (read: US and Europe) if we're reading this statement correctly:

[Via Engadget]

[ad#ad2-left]In Today's economy, you need to be prepared.  So I thought I bring back some old Favorites of mine and talk about them.  To see the other layoffs that I've talked about CLICK HERE.   If you wanted to know what you can do to be prepared here are some great resources for people who are worried about there jobs:

• 5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.


• Are you asking to be scammed? (Don't get scammed while finding a job)


• Google : Job Resources
  
  

If you have any others you would like to suggest please leave a comment and let everyone know.   These are hard economic times and we all could use the help.

Windows 7 will sport Direct X 10 Compliance!

The new feature is called WARP10, for “Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform,” and it’s essentially a DX10-compliant, software-only rasterizer that was written by Microsoft; it runs directly on the CPU. In a situation where a DX10 app needs to run but can’t find DX10-compliant hardware, it will run on WARP10, albeit very, very slowly. Ultimately, you can think of WARP10 as a “software DX10 GPU” that will exist as a fallback in Windows.

[via Arstechnica]

[ad#ad2-left-1]This will make Windows 7 work more smoothly with Windows XP and Vista games.   This looks to be like having more compatibility with the older games.   When Vista came out they were complaining about not being able to play games on Vista.   Vista has been really updated with being able to play games. People are starting to play games on a Vista machine.   This is also a step for Windows 7 to be one that Microsoft, being that they are trying to get the next O/s to look like an Angel probably.  What I expect is Microsoft will advertise about Windows 7 will be gamer friendly.   This is a move on Microsoft to get gamers on board with this release and to try to get people to forget about Vista.

[ad#ad2-right]Having said that here’s some things that will be most likely be Advertised with Windows 7 when it comes out.     Microsoft will want it to be game friendly, User Account Control to be less obtrusive, and program compatibility.   These the main points to get people to start buying Microsoft’s products.  Microsoft should be worried because of Apples comments about how you should use an Anti-virus for Macintosh’s.  This is definitely worrying Microsoft.  It means Microsoft has an competitor that Hackers are trying to exploit.   I would be willing to guess that Microsoft is worried people are switching to Apple products.  These are just guesses but I am quite certain Microsoft is really worried.  What do you think, do you think it will happen?

Looks like a scam to me : Personal Shopping Assistant!

[ad#ad2-left]

Good afternoon!


We found your resume at _________________ and we would like to propose you a
position of Personal Shopping Assistant.

Imagine having an exciting job with incredible salary (up to $100,000/year) that
lets you use your creativity while being paid to shop. Welcome to the world of
personal shopping!

As we know shopping is the world's favorite leisure activity, but in our busy
society an increasing number of people need to hire someone to do their
shopping. Thus personal shoppers are more in demand than ever before.

There are absolutely NO START-UP FEES and NO FEES for being employed at this
position. As long as you live in the USA, and you have a credit card or any
other line of credit, have 1 or 2 free hours during the day – you are eligible
for this job!

[ad#ad2-right]This is what you will have to do in short:
• Purchase the requested goods using your credit card.
• Send us receipts.
• Wait for us to issue a credit to your credit card in the amount of purchase
plus shipping fee plus your commission which comprises 10%.
• Ship out the goods.
• You are finished, come back for a new list of goods.

If you are interested in Personal Shopping Assistant position please fill in the
form below and send it to: Open2usa.job.dep@gmail.com
Our manager will contact you within two working days.

------------------------------------------------FORM-------------------------------------
Full name ______________________
Residence country _____________________
Age _____________________
Contact phone ______________________
Availability time _______________________
------------------------------------------------FORM-------------------------------------

This letter confirms your resume has been duly processed and your skills
completely meet our requirements for Personal Shopping Assistant Vacancy.

Thank You,
John Walker

[ad#ad2-left-1]I wanted to bring this up because of two things that I saw first off that made this look like a scam. One is they want to "CREDIT" your credit card and two they use a GMAIL account. I am going to say this is looking more and more like a scam. If anyone else has any other ideas about this just leave your comment.  I don't see how this can be real.   I am thinking once they have your credit card information, they'll start using it.

A good free VPN Client -- OpenVPN & more

I've been doing some research on what might be good to use in case, I was away from my home network.  I was thinking how safe am I at Starbucks or other places that I might doing my web.  So I did a little looking around to see which one I liked and I came to the conclusions that only one I need right now is:

The nice thing about this was the simple installation of the software and how easy it was to set it up. This service is in beta but seems to be really well done with regards to the end users. When you install this software and want to connect it uses the OpenVPN software with there configurations. OpenVPN, is a open sourced SSL VPN solution and is free to use. The way this this free is of Ad Supported banners. Now it is cheaper than paying monthly for a VPN service. The ones I've found so far are these few:

• OpenVPN (FREE)(*advertisement)(Linux, and Windows)


• Always VPN (Prepay) (5 GB to 80 GB limit) (Linux, Mac and Windows)*Out of Beta
  


• Hotspot Shield (FREE) (*advertisement) (Windows) (3 gig Cap)
  


• WiTopia (40$/ Year) (Mac, Linux, and Windows)

[ad]There is of course others out that but these are just a few that I saw that looks like the cheapest there is.  Others I've seen cost 40 to 50 dollars a month.   If you have any other ones that are free or cheap let me know.  I don't think we need to pay a lot just to have security on an open network. I'm certain that they're more out there but will keep looking for more later on. I did my initial research and will come back and find more.

*Update Feb 8, 2009*

As of recent a friend emailed me saying telling me to check the site out again and I did.  Not sure when they went out of Beta because I've not been using Always VPN lately due to my Broadband Cricket Prepay Internet.  I just checked and yes they are charging here's the break down:

• 5GB - USD 8.50


• 10GB - USD 15.00


• 20GB - USD 26.00


• 40GB - USD 33.00


• 80GB - USD 47.00

So I must ask why they didn't just keep the 5 GB limit with the Advertising, I do not know but  I did want to let people know that it is no longer free and no longer in Beta.  I went from Always to OpenVPN which still works despite the fact they are using Always VPN back client.   It's open source so it will probably change to something else sooner or later.   If you see it changes let me know, I will update more when I find out more!!

Antivirus Professional 2008 uses Scare tactics

[ad#ad2-right-1]

We came across a rogue today called Antivirus Professional 2008 that uses GeoIP Lookup as part of its scare tactics. This site uses Flash and script to create the effect of an online scan, that then attempts to push an installer at the visitor. The NoScript extension for Mozilla Firefox is an excellent way to mitigate against this kind of garbage.

[Via F-secure]

It seems that there is a site out there, that seems to be trying to scare you into downloading there software. If you have any questions about this site please feel free to check out what I've found out:

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: 1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com
Domain Name: ANTIVIRUS-ONLINE-SCANNER.COM
Registrant:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Creation Date: 07-Jun-2008
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2009
Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.antivirus-online-scanner.com
ns1.antivirus-online-scanner.com
Administrative Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Technical Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Billing Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ru

Minskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732

[ad#ad2-right]Now as you can see this site is located in Russia, and if that's the case it is probably some virus itself to take control of your system to do what they want with it. So you best advice is if you think you have a virus then check out my recommendations these are all free to download and try. Unlike this site, they are legitimate and actually do what they promise.  If you want to email them you can but It don't think it will help.

*UPDATE on that Website*


According to F-secure that site is now Suspended.  Great job guys.  We are now fighting these people even better than I'd thought.

Left 4 Dead Sneak Peak!

[ad#ad2-left]Yes they finally released the demo. According to my sources and I'll quote:

Newell said: "We will be releasing demos for both the Xbox and for the PC. I don't know what the date is for release on that, though. I think it's going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it'll probably be Hospital but I'm not sure. That's a decision that Doug Lombardi is making."

[Via Videogamer]

If you want to see the game screen shots you and preview the pictures all you need to do is go HERE.  You can also start pre-purchasing Left 4 Dead on The PC and be ready to play when it comes out. Watch the Video from Steam for Left 4 Dead Intro In English. You can also Gift the Game for the Holidays, I would like one to get and try it out so if you want to give me the Gift just send it to me via my email address.  According to Steam, you will haveto pre-purchase Left 4 Dead and then the Demo will be available for you a week before hand!! so that is one good thing!!  So go buy it and enjoy!!!  Also you will need to install Steam to enjoy the demo.

Help stop those slow boot up!!

I was searching for a program to help boot up my system a lot quicker.   I came across this little program call Startup Delayer.  In a nutshell, it allows you to pick which programs to start up first and then lets you decide how many minutes between each program that is asking to load.

[ad]



[ad]

In the best way possible you can download this program and use it for yourself.   Although they seem to be having a little server problem right now.   Go download Startup Delayer, and decide for yourself.

Windows XP/ME/Vista and 2000 compatible

Largest Employer : University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is planning layoffs!!

Is this the beginning or the end of the recession?  After  seeing this today I wanted to talk about this development.  If they layoff a large number of people is this going to effect your chances of finding a job?  Here's what they had to say:

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has plans to reduce its 50,000 workforce by a small percentage. UPMC did not immediately release any specifics.

"As the economy deteriorates, we are proactively taking these steps to ensure that our growth in expenses is not outpacing our growth in revenues," a UPMC statement said.

[via WTAE.TV]

So now that they have said this, what's the percentages of the workforce are going to be laid off? I wanted to talk about how you could get ready for the imminent day of this. Here's some good links to consider:

• 5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.


• Are you asking to be scammed?

And here are some other companies who are planning layoffs or have laid off people:

• Mahalo Lay’s off around 10% of it’s workforce!!


• Merck Laid off 13% of it’s workforce

With all this that is going on in the world I thought it was something that needed to be said and let people know about these developments.

Western Kentucky Shooting.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (CBS) ― Western Kentucky University was on lockdown Wednesday after someone reported seeing people with weapons in a building on a satellite campus and police later received reports that shots had been fired on the main campus, more than a mile away.

[via Wcbstv.com]

[ad]

Having been one of the few to live in Kentucky,  I wanted to let people know about this little development. According to Transworld : Western Kentucky University: Shots Fired on School’s South Campus, Armed Gunmen Still Loose.

I would like to hear what all happened.  So please talk about this.  Please remember to pray to all the people involved and ask that we keep a calm hand in this!!

*UPDATE*

5 students taken into custody on Western Kentucky campus

• Story Highlights



• NEW: 5 students taken into custody for questioning; police end campus lockdown
  


• NEW: No shots fired, contrary to initial reports, university's vice president says
  


• NEW: Altercations originated at social event Saturday, continued Wednesday
  


• Authorities believe altercation began at South Campus Building and moved

[Via CNN]

Scam ALERT: NATIONWIDE MARKETING!!

*Update* Seems to be that they've went and changed to another name.  They are now using  Excel Marketing, and I plan on keeping people updated.   Read the comments to find out about what people have said!!!

Hi all,

[ad] Just got this nice little letter from Nationwide Marketing.  This was sent snail mail, or Postal mail.   I came home today to find I got mail from 30 Centurian Drive/Markham, ON L3R 8B9 Canada.   I opened it up and find a check from Nationwide Marketing.   it's the old routine, they want you to cash the check send them $3,500 and you keep the rest.  The fake check that I know is faked, I call the bank in question.   It says you have to do a 2 hour evaluation training and get paid training for 200$ per Hour.   The fake check was for $3,990.00 and $3,500 was supposed to be sent through a Wal-mart Money Gram.   The so called position was Customer Service Evaluator (Rep ID#: KB0C0608).     I am supposed to call 1-905-598-1519 I received this assignment to validate the enclosed payment.Thank goodness I did a little searching and found out this was a scam.

A little more information about this so called fake check is:

Nationwide Marketing

PO BOX 91

Minneapolis, MN 55440

Keybank of UTAH in Price, UT

Check Date 10/06/2008 Vendor ID 6280748  31-0300/1243

Routing number is : 124303007   Bank: KEY BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Peter Goldman Is the So called Co-ordinator.

Along with the letter and check there was a Customer Satisfaction Evaluation Tool (CSET), I'm assuming this is a way for them to get the important information of the money gram.   We are supposed to fax that after the completion of the assignment.

I did posted this to get the word about this scam.  I encourage all of you leave comments about this and warn people of all the variety of this scam.  Thank goodness I did research or I could of been a victim too, thanks Google!!!

There was another form of this starting up and I wanted to let people know:

Well, guess what . . . I just got a "Customer Service Evaluator" letter, check and survey sheet in my mail! The post mark is from Canada, and the check is from The State Bank of Faribault, Minnesota and the survey company letterhead says that they are located in New York. The phone number I am supposed to call is 1-416-831-1673 to let them know that I have gotten the check. Then I keep $100 and wire the rest back using Money Gram.

I did a google search on the name of the company, and they have a scam alert on their site telling people that the letters that they are getting in the mail are NOT from them.

http://www.surveyclub.com/e/ScamAlert.aspx
They should really check WHO they are sending these letters and checks to before they drop them in the mail!

[From Shawn Mosch]

This came from the scam victims site and wanted to inform people of this scam too!

[gsom-optin]

Google Ups the Anti!!

As part of our effort to protect the accounts of AdSense publishers, we have mailed a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to the payment address entered in your account. This PIN must be entered on the PIN Information page before any payments can be issued to you. In the meantime, your account remains active, and you may continue to show ads and accrue earnings.

[ad]

Well that came unexpectedly, Google actually is trying to protect our accounts now from getting phished and or/taken over by some malicious person. This is called two factor verification**, Something you know and something you have.  You can also get verify through your Cell Phone.  Here is what they said in my Email:

Hi,

In an effort to protect the accounts of Google AdSense publishers,
we've starting using automated telephone number verification to
ensure that your information is accurate and up-to-date. As a result,
you should see a Required Action on your Payment History Page to
'Please verify your phone number' after you log in to your account.
To initiate this process, lick the 'Please verify your phone number'
link and follow the instructions.

Keep in mind that you have 6 months to enter the verification code.
If you have not entered your verification code within 4 months, we'll
start displaying Public Service Ads (PSAs) on your web pages. If you
have not entered your verification code within 6 months, your account
will be disabled and any unpaid earnings will be refunded to the
appropriate advertisers. You can learn more about our phone number
verification process at
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=32055.

For additional questions about getting paid, please visit
http://www.google.com/adsense/payments.
If you prefer a video presentation of this information, we encourage you to watch our Payment
demo (currently available in English only), located at http://www.google.com/adsensedemo4 .

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

[ad]

So here's my take, you don't have to verify both of them just one or the other. It is going to be rather difficult that people get paid. I don't think this will be a big problem for most people, but I am sure some are going to get annoyed having to enter their* pin every time they want to get paid.  So what do you think?  Is this a good upgrade or a bad upgrade you decide and leave your comments.  I want to hear them.

(*) Thanks to the Diggers to showing me I had a mistake.

(**)Someone ask why I capitalise the two in so I changed it!

(The Google Letter) That text is from my email no changes have been made except line breaks, so if there is an error it comes from Google.

Turn Your Webcam into a Motion-Sensing Security Camera with Yawcam

Windows only: Got a webcam bundled with your last computer but don't know what to do with it? Turn it into a motion-sensing security camera with freeware application Yawcam. All you need is a webcam to get started, but after spending a little time in the Yawcam settings you can set automatic FTP uploading, emailing, or just saving captured images to your hard drive. You can even set a schedule for when Yawcam is enabled to capture images so your security camera isn't constantly snapping pics while you're sitting in front of your computer. We've seen similar motion detecting software, but Yawcam looks like an excellent and simple alternative. I don't have a webcam on my Windows PC, so if you give it a try, let's hear how it worked for you in the comments. Yawcam is freeware, Windows only.

Yawcam [via SkatterTech]

Nice little program to find out who's at the puter but some cams let you know by having a light on when it is activated!!