Sunday, June 28, 2009

Whose Email Address is This? - Find Out Fast!

Is someone is harassing you, but you don`t know who it is, and that got you thinking: Whose email address is this? Or maybe you have simply received an email from an unknown person. Then it is time for you to start tracking the owner of the email address using small steps. Which steps? This article will show you.

1. Ask around. I know it sounds dumb, but there is no harm in that. Maybe other people have also gotten abusive emails. This is a very simple step but can also be very effective at the same time. Asking the right person who you think might knows the owner of the email address can get results quickly.

2. Look closely to the entire email address.

username@business.com
username@university.com

Business and university email addresses have a special domain which can give a name of the company or university, which can lead you to your contact.

3. Search Google. That is always a popular step to finding email address owner. You just might get lucky simply by Googling the email address. The owner might have posted on a forum or may have had their information published on a web page.

4. Search directories. There are free email address directories, but they are not reliable and often are limited. I recommend trying Switchboard, WhoWhere and Yahoo's people finder. But the chances are that you wont get the information you need.

5. Luckily, not all is lost. There are various companies that specialize in tracking down the information you want. Simply enter the email address and you will get a complete background check of that person in a matter of minutes. Fee? Yes, there is a one time fee, but for this type of service, it is more than a reasonable price.

If you really want to know the answer every time you ask yourself: Whose email address is this? Then you should see this blog http://locateapersonbyaddress.blogspot.com/ and get a hold of the best online investigating companies.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Chain Letter Scam - What We All Need to Know About It

The chain letter scam has been around for quite some time now. It is one of the variations of the famous mail scam that contains spam. In fact, it might not be too far off the mark to say that the chain letter scam is among one of the earliest scams around. Unlike other mail scams that started due to the popularity of the Internet, this scam has been around before the Internet became as famous as it is now.

This scam originally was used by con man who would trick innocent people, by using real letters and mails. They would send it in the bulk to different addresses. This scam was very famous back then, but due to the cost of sending the letters, it could sometimes prove to be an unprofitable scam to those con man. But with the introduction of the Internet, everything suddenly changed.

Because sending an email is free, it eliminated the cost that required when sending real letters and mails. This makes it one of the earliest scams in the Internet today. So what is the chain letter scam? It is simple. You are provided a list of names and addresses. What you need to do is send a small amount of money to the address of the person, whose name is on the very top of the list. After doing so, remove that persons name from the list, and include yours in the bottom. After that, just send them out to as many people as you possibly can.

This is how they entice people to join. Let's say that you sent $20 to the person whose name is on top of the list. After that, your name is entered at the bottom, let's say with another ten peoples name to go. You send this mail to five other people. From there, they pay for the person whose name is on top and remove it from the list. That means that your name is at number nine. Those five people that you sent the mail to, then send it to five other people. And the process continues until your name is at the top. And when it reaches your turn, with the people sending money under you increasing, you will make $195,312,500!

They will use various other methods to calculate, and try to entice you with how much you could potentially earn. Well, I am not sure about you, but I think that earning an insane amount from a simple method like that sounds exactly like a scam. And that is what it is, another mail scam. It might appear in the form of spam to most of us who are more seasoned users of the Internet. But to many of the new users, it might seem like an opportunity to them. There are a few of them that are so well disguised, that we can't tell them apart from the spam versions of mail scam.

Although they might use different methods and calculations to entice you, the basics of the chain letter scam is still trying to get you to send money to other people. Please do not take part in such activities. This activity is deemed illegal and could land you in trouble.

Kevin Lopez is a freelancer who has extensive experience in a wide field of professions. The author has over six years of research experience in the Internet Business and Marketing. To learn more about the chain letter scam and other scams as well, please read these articles. There are plenty of information on other scams that are happening around the Internet today.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Email Scams Disguised As an Official Email From Your Bank

Email scams are every growing, and increasing almost as quickly as financial institutions are able to deal with them. One of the ways email scams are tricking vulnerable users who may not be aware of the nefarious users out there simply phishing (pretending to be from an official site inorder to steal login details) for their details is to pretend to be an official email from their bank.

First of all the scammer has to obtain the email address of the potential victim, there are various ways scammers obtain these, at the end of it, the potential victim may have responded to an email advert or their email address has been passed from another scammer that this is a potential victim, or they simply just harvested email addresses; whether bought or scraped the end game is mass emailing all potential victims for the few that may fall for it.

Of course if you do not bank with the bank stated in the email you would know something was not right, however if you do bank with said bank, you may be a little alarmed, to find the title of the email along the lines of "Warning your login details have been compromised. ...login to said site to recover them", the site in question may look like the official site of the bank complete with bank logo, even in the email, however the give away is if you were to right click on the link on the email you would see it redirects not to the official site of the bank, but to the scammer's phishing site, where they hope you would be naive enough to fill in your account details, for them to save and utilise at their convenience. A sample email is below:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're committed to protecting you when you bank with us. Our industry-standard levels of security ensure that you can always access your Lloyds TSB accounts online with confidence.

To ensure you are always protected, we are introducing a new programme of security initiatives called BankSecureTM. Over the next few months, you'll see a number of initiatives that we'll put in place to make sure you stay secure and to help you protect your Internet Banking information. We're here to help you stay safe while banking online. For more information and advice on security log on below.

LINK REMOVED

Thank you for banking with us.

Mr D Stevens is a reviewer at Email scams

Why You Should Try Anonymous Web Surfing

In this world of spywares and antivirus you are never safe when you open your doors for surfing. Even though you have the latest antivirus program, there is no guarantee that the system information from your computer is not transferred to the net. All the information that you give to the net is watched closely by the hackers to know more about you and if they work step by step then they will be able to gather all the information about you one day.

If you are really worried about this problem then there is a reason to rejoice. This is the kind of net surfing known as the anonymous web surfing. Generally when you input any information it goes to the host server of the sites and the hackers are experts in intercepting this before it reaches the servers.

When you opt for the anonymous web surfing, it closes all the options of sending any personal or system information like the IP addresses to the servers. Anonymous Web Surfing could be made possible with the help of proxy servers. This could be a bit expensive but it will create an effective anonymous surfing platform.

This kind of surfing will be quite necessary as you can always prey to giving out your financial secrets like passwords and account numbers. Today the internet banking and all are so popular and anonymous web surfing can help you have a secure online experience. This is an active shield against hackers and other malicious software programs.

Moreover all the shopping sites have programs to track your shopping habits and you are always exposed to the dangerous worlds of spywares when you download something from the net. A little extra precaution in the form of anonymous surfing could be a great measure to institute safety to your computer and financial assets.

For more information about anonymous web surfing and how you can stay safe online, visit http://anonymouswebsurfing.org/

Thursday, June 18, 2009

What Was The Biggest Internet Scam In Recent History?

Interested In Making Money On The Internet, Full Or Part Time, Easy Proven And Succesful Methods, http://www.keys2prosperity.net/

Are you interested in hearing about the biggest internet scam in recent history? NO! Would you be interested if you discovered that it is possibly you that was scammed several months ago and did not even know it? In fact, if you were scammed back then you probably have had money removed from your bank account every month AND you may not even know you are losing your money. Now you are interested!

This foundation for this breech of internet security started a couple of years ago as a gift from your caring politicians and bureaucrats in the form of bank funds electronic transfer legislation. Simple stated, if you owe anyone money they (whoever) can 'electronically' withdraw it from your account without your permission if they have a contract in place.

A few weeks back a neighbor lady came to me venting her disapproval because some unknown and unnamed internet company had cleaned out her banking account. She was going to complain, bring legal suit and if she could find a real person she was going to do really mean things. It took 5 minutes and three questions to find out she was into a legal binding electronic contract she knew nothing about.

Questions 1: Did you buy and download (very key) any information from the internet. Usually a CD or something similar. Answer-YES.
Question 2: Did you knowingly enter into a binding contract with these people. Answer: ABSOLUTELY NOT!! Real answer-Yes
Question 3: Did you read all the fine print including the "Terms and Services". Answer: NO, BUT I KNOW THERE WAS NO CONTRACT OF ANY SORT. Real answer-NO I did not read the fine print.

After displaying the website it took the whole of about 15-20 milliseconds to see the scam. I had to explain it three times before the dear lady could see it. Then the next question: "What can I do? I have tried to stop it." The result was she had to close out here bank account to kill the credit card.

Here is how it works. Either through email or PPC or some other way you end up on a webpage that, for example, guarantees to make you $187,594.26 in 30 minutes while working at home 10 minutes a day. Maybe this is slightly exaggerated but you get the picture. They usually have a CD that will give you all the information you need to carry off this money making project. Normally this CD would cost $99 but if you act within the next 2 hours, being the good guy you are you get it for free.

Now this is great deal. What is not to like? Wait there is one more thing. It only fair that since the CD is free that you should pay the shipping and handling. I think that is only fair don't you. Stop and read the above paragraph carefully again. What is wrong with this scenario? Where is the big red flapping flag!

DA!? This is the internet remember. The keywords are digital, electronic, and downloadable. If the information is electronically downloadable why send it by snail mail? What does this transaction yield to the creditor website? Your credit card information! Why is that a worry, the shipping cost is so small; only $7-8.

Now Question 2 comes into focus. Somewhere on the website there is a free trial offer (usually 15-30 days) that comes with a 'on line resident expert' attached. If the CD doesn't contain all the information you need the expert is on call to answer your questions. He/she might not speak English or have any relevant knowledge or experience on the subject but you get the free service for 15-30 days notwithstanding.

Here comes the neat part. Look at question 3 again. Did you read the fine print included in the terms and conditions? Of course not, no one reads that stuff. I bet you do from now on. Somewhere in the fine print it will say something like. 'You can unsubscribe from the normal service of the expert within the trial period (15-30 days) and there will be no penalty. However, if you do not unsubscribe we will take the normal amount (usually $20-40) out of your credit card account monthly." But, you say, that does not a contract make. You are absolutely correct. Except!

It is the little check box down where you enter you credit card information for the handling and shipping to get your 'free' CD that causes all the problems. "Buy checking this box you agree to all the terms and conditions" of the website – meaning the month to month withdrawal of your funds if you do not unsubscribe during the free trail period. That constitutes a legal contract under the electronic signature legislation. You have just agreed to send that company a monthly payment for services for the rest of you life or until you stop it.

Hold on, it only gets better. How many people do you know that really check their credit card statements in detail every month? Apparently not enough. A $30 withdrawal might stay hidden in your 4+ page credit card statement for months. Then when you do find it try to get it stopped. I tracked down an internet company doing this very thing; it took about three days of intense research. I sent an email to the highest officer we could find demanding to stop, stating we had no contract. I got back an email with the following answer; "Oh yes you do.' He was correct.

The moral of this story is simple. You must prevent this scam before it begins. In writing or generating legal documents of any kind, especially electronically, there is one absolute generic rule. "READ THE MAIL, UNDERSTAND THE MAIL and ANSWER THE MAIL"

In other words if you are reading and understanding every word on a website, conduct your business with confidence. If not my recommendation is "DO NOT ELECTRONCIALLY SIGN ANY THING, IT MAY CONTAIN A HIDDEN CONTRACT". Read the fine print. Make sure you know exactly what you are electronically signing. Answer ever detail with personal knowledge as to what it means; even if you have to read the terms and conditions a dozen times. Reject them if there are any questions.

Internet security is a serious matter that can only be controlled through knowledge by those people using the internet. Do not rely on a piece of software or a firewall entirely. Internet scams are perpetrated by very intelligent people that can think and work around most internet security devices.

Remember what Smokey the Bear says; "Only you can prevent internet scams!" Well, if he didn't say it he should have.



Interested In Making Money On The Internet, Full Or Part Time, Easy Proven And Succesful Methods, http://www.keys2prosperity.net/

The Popular Work At Home Scams And How To Avoid Them

http://www.keys2prosperity.net/

"I've gotten so lazy that all that I want to do is work at home. I don't want to do any work at all but I still want to make money. I mean, I still have to pay the bills. I'm a fairly intelligent person. I should be able to find some way to stay at home and make money. What to do…

Let's see. Well, I've noticed this thing called the internet. Didn't I read somewhere that the internet is an untapped market? Isn't it the new frontier? Maybe I'll start looking around."

The above thoughts were mine a few years ago. I started looking around the internet for these work at home or telecommuting opportunities. One of the first things that I noticed is that these work at home opportunities seemed too good to be true. I was bombarded with such things as:

"$200 to $1000 per day. No experience necessary. Direct deposit to your bank."

"Medical billing at home. Start your medical billing career. Free info."

"Legitimate work at home opportunities. Start today. Accepting applications in your area."

Now I'm a suspicious person by nature. I can pretty much see through the (well you know.) I clicked on a number of these links presented to me to read up on these wondrous opportunities. The websites that these links took me to were brilliant. Great big letters telling me I can be making big money just by using their system, software, service, and more. I was told about the Johnson family's yacht and million dollar mansion. They got it just by working at home.

I think that you can see the trend here.

Yes there are some legitimate work at home jobs out there. You just need to be careful and not fall for the "Great Work at Home Scam." As the owner of a free job board I have come across all kinds of scams like the ones noted above.

Here are some of the things to look for to identify these scams:

There is no such thing as "typing at home" or "data entry at home" jobs
About 95% of the jobs that claim to be home typist or home data entry jobs are scams. The so called "employer" reels you in by posts on free job boards or forums. The post typically will mention a one time materials fee or instruction manual fee. After you pay this fee (if the instructions do arrive) you are instructed to copy and paste the same message in forums and free job boards but request the money be sent to you instead. It is a perpetual scam because many people feel like they want their money back and the only way to get it back is to try the system. It's not worth the time or the money. You'll be spending the majority of your day trying to find forums or job boards that will let you post these scams and the rest of your day avoiding angry emails.

What is the email address for the employer?

Is it myemail @ gmail.com or myemail324 @ yahoo.com? These work at home scam artists don't want give out their real email address so they use free email accounts given out by some of the major search engines. If they start getting nasty emails requesting their money back they simply get rid of one email address and get another one. An email address like myemail@mycompany.com where "mycompany" is a company that you may have heard of is probably a legitimate email.

Does the employer have a website?

Having a website doesn't give legitimacy to the employer. Having a website with a valid way to contact them, a frequently asked questions section, and a professional looking layout does help to boost confidence in their opportunity. Send an email to the email address listed on the contact page or via the contact form. Did you get a response in a timely manner? Did they answer your concerns? Does it sound fishy? If you have any apprehension at all you should steer clear.

Why does the employer need my money?

Doesn't this sound absurd? Well it really is. Employers should pay you money. This should trigger your spider sense from the beginning. Never give an employer money unless you are absolutely sure that it is for a legitimate cause. If you feel that it is for a valid reason, see if the employer will accept a check. When you write a check and mail it you have at least a couple of days to stop payment. If they don't accept a check; why? A simple rule of thumb is you should be making money not paying money.

I really, really want to work at home. What can I do?

As I stated before there are some legitimate work at home opportunities. These are typically freelance positions where you are hired as a contractor and where you use your existing skills such as drafting, programming, graphics design, sign making, knitting, etc. These are tangible skills that you can use to market yourself to employers that do hire contractors or off site employees. Search out these types of employers and you won't have to worry about getting caught up in the "great work at home scam."



http://www.keys2prosperity.net/