Phishing sites pop up for IRS!

Well, this just came to light with The Spywareguide blog. I've seen some activity about Where's my refund lately and I thought I tell you how to make sure you're on the right site. If you're expecting a refund check the OFFICIAL SITE. The Official Site is http://www.irs.gov and nothing else. If you want to find out about some of the most common Phishing attempts check out the Phishing advice from the IRS.

[ad#ad2-right]The Spyware Guide blog talks about sites that looks to be IRS but are actually just phishing for information.  Some of the ones they talk about are:

gicrisis.org/data/refundtax/SearchTAXERR.php

irs-2009.com/refund/refunds.html

collectrefund-irs.com/refund/refunds.html

cimaonline.ca/application/Internal/Revenue/Service/pas.php?certegy_vm=trueportlet_change_1_actionOverrideFchaseonlineFchangeFprocessDetails_windowLabel_portlet_process_pageLabel_page_process

jklabs.cz/phpayv2/admin/import/.secure/www.irs.gov/get-refund/refunds.php?Where_is_my_refund&Get_Refund

Although this list will most likely change this is just starting for people who filed there income tax. Some things to Remember are:

You can generally access information about your refund 72 hours after IRS acknowledges receipt of your e-filed return, or three to four weeks after mailing a paper return

Via IRS.GOV

So if you've filed your Taxes it should be getting to you in 3 to 4 weeks although as you get closer to the March 15, 2009 Deadline it will take longer so you should consider filling early to prevent from having to wait to long for your return.  If you follow the rule that any email claiming  to be from IRS is not true and shouldn't click or install any software.  You should however tell the IRS as quickly possible about this attempt to get sensitive information.  If you want to protect your  system from virus or even think you have a virus, trojan, or Malware please check my Malware Resource for further information on removing it!!

.

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

In today's society, we've been to complacent with people with people clicking links for the social group. In one such article on Channel Web, a nice little blog, says this:

[ad#ad2-right]


The worm was discovered by IT security provider Kaspersky Lab, which said the threat, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, is targeting Facebook users by creating spam messages and sending them to the infected user's friends via the site.

"Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites," said Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. "So, the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high."

[Via Channel Web]

This seems to be a problem people thinking that a link someone sends them is a real good link but actually is a link to a video site. According to this article the links people are sending are actually a fake video link, telling you have to download some update to flash player, by downloading this program. The user gets involved with the virus and the fun begins. So how can you prevent this from happening, two ways one is a very good group of software to make sure you have the latest and greatest video codecs. That too can be something they'll say you need and if you've already installed this list of codecs then you know they'll not telling the truth and you can quickly get away from the site laughing.

[ad#ad2-left]What's this program name, it is call the K-lite Mega Codec pack. In this Pack you will be able to play almost everything without having to go download another program. This is done by people who want you to have all the latest codecs installed so you don't have to go by a program you'll only going to use once a month.

Once you've done that, you'll no longer have to worry for the most part about codecs. There will be times when you might have to visit that site and update them but that will be far less.

The other thing you must remember is if it says you must update your player. That should be a sign that there is something. I'll always go to the site and check for example Adobe. If it says I need to update my flash I'll manually type it into my browser. This way you will know you have the latest updates, if you need to update the flash player by all means go to here and update.

If you got the virus I'd check out my Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware page and that should show you will you need to get rid of the Virus. This virus is very easy to get rid of, just download any one of the anti-virus software and install it. Don't forget to update the virus database while your at it. That should fix the problem pretty fast. Remember the only way to prevent from getting the virus is YOU.

Comfirmed: DHL to Lays off 10,000 workers!!

[ad#ad2-left-1][COMFIRMED]

According to The Press-Enterprise has announced all 18 U.S. Hubs will close and that means 10,000 workers will be out of a job.  They will keep 3,000 for international business.   I wanted to tell everyone about this as soon as I found out.

There is a rumor that DHL might layoff some of it's employees. About 8,000 Jobs will be announced to tomorrow when they release the earnings report. Now I know very little about this parent company but they have 475,100 employees and that would mean 1.6% of the people would be laid off!!

According to Business Week there Volume have been going down this year.

(CNN) -- A southern Ohio community is bracing for possible layoffs as DHL Express -- the largest employer in the area -- planned to announce its quarterly earnings report and restructuring details. [Via CNN]

[ad#ad2-right]

From what I can tell this will affect the Eastern part of the US. I've done a little digging for everyone to see just why they would want to layoff so many people. They have to reduce there spending because there Volume isn't as it should. This will also effect delivery of packages, and might end up slowing the delivery of Christmas packages.  So pack those presents early and ship them off early, to make sure they get delivered before Christmas!!  To see other layoffs this year just click this LINK.  It will show you all of the layoffs that have/are/or might happen in the near future.

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

Having seen the economy this week, I've come to the conclusion that it is time to redo all the important essentials and get all my ducks in the order as they say.   I've been thinking of how best to be ready in case the dreaded day comes when my employer no longer needs my assistance and what could I do to be prepared.

[ad]

• Get Someone to Critique your Resume -- This is the most important step because this is the first place employers look when they want to hire someone.  So how do you get it critiqued?   Here are some good links to help you start off with:  Careerbuilder Critique, Mind of Root Peer Critique(Last until Oct 30, 2008).


• Have your Resume Ready to upload to Resume sites --  You should always register at all the important resume sites just in case.  The Sites that I recommend are : Monster, Career Builder,  Hot jobs, Dice, US jobs, Best Jobs USA, Computer Jobs, and Nation Job.


• Use your website as a place to put your Resume -- Have your resume available in case some contacts you and tells you they know someone who is looking to hire people.  Have this resume hidden and only give it out to people you know.   This is also known as networking.
  


• Network as much as possible --  There are sites out there that have made it easier to network.  Sites like linkedin.com, this site is great because of the 6 degrees of possibility as I call it.  You know someone, they know someone, and then you will both know the same one!!   This also will greatly increase your chance of an employer finding you.


• For those who want to be Self employed --  I wanted to say that most people who want to be self employed know just how hard it is to begin with.  So I've got some interesting links to help start you on your way.   First link is Technibble.com Computer Business Kit,  This has Maintenance Sales Letter, Work Order, Marketing Analysis and Payment Overdue Letter. It is also a good idea to have an MP3 Advertisement that you can give to podcast and throw them the link to it.  You will need to market yourself to the public in ways that no one has thought of.   You will on an occasion have to spend money in order to get money, it's always been that way but it seems to work.

These are some great tips that will greatly improve your chances of landing that job or becoming even more chance of you making money.   If you have any tips or want to suggest ways to improve upon these tips please email me.   If you like what you see discuss it on the blog or click on my ads to help offset the cost of this blog.

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.