Checks in the mail scam

Recently I have noticed that I had been reciving mail.( you know the mail that comes in the mail box) stating that the check is written out to me. If you get one of these offers look at the back of the check. The check will tell you that after a month or so a fee will be taken from your account for cashing the check.

Most people dont fall for these type of checks but elderly have become victims of these checks sent to their homes.

So becareful with check cashing scams.

Watch your credit card when you go to the store

Two days ago a lady paid with her atm card for a pizza. The cashier handed her a card that looked identical to the card she had. Two days later she looks online at her bank account to see charges made with her card.

So what happened? The cashier switched the card with an identical card. The lady paying didnt look to see if the card she had was hers.

Word to the wise? Pay attention when you get your card back.

The latest on gift card scams

Thinking of giving your love one a gift card? Think again. Lately scammers have been writing down the code(on the back of the cards) of the deactivated gift cards that you see at local walmarts or at stores. What the scammer does is go online and use the code to purchase items. They will keep punching in the code until they are able to buy something.

By that time when the card has been given he or she may not automatically go to walmart or the store they purchased while the theaves are online using the codes to buy products.

So how to protect yourself? Look at the back of the card and make sure that the scratch off is not erased.

Next alternative is giving them money so have a safe Christmas and happy shopping

Spybot software

Looking to get ride of that spyware without paying a large amount of money?

Try Spybot search and destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

But dont take my word for it. You can go to download.com and look at the reviews.

Also do a search on spybot search and destroy

Phishing

If your new to this term your not alone. Phishing is an email posing as to be from a real company using a false url. Normally seen with ebay, pay pal, citibank ect.

The usual scam is the email claims that your account will be suspended if you dont update your information.

What the phisher does is collect your user name and password to gain access to your credit card and personal information.


Prevention: Open another browser and go to the original website to see if you did recieve an update to your account.

Walmart gift cards - scam

A few weeks ago on the local news a report was made that people in the California area had been experiencing their walmart gift cards at the register marked at zero. It seems that customers who purchased the gift card have been having their balances stolen before they even make their purchase.

I did read from another source is that many of these walmart cards have a code on the back and thats how they are able to retreve the funds. I'm not sure exactly how its done but beware.

The purpose of this post is to warn you to keep your reciept even when you give this gift card as a gift. If not you will be out 100s of dollars and a very sad kid wanting to buy the latest game.

This is where I found the walmart card scam

Spam

Spam a come common term now associated with emails sent to your email without your permission. A simple tip when you see a message that looks like spam. Do not open the spam message for it will relay a message back to the original sender that you have opened the email.Which in return is a response. Once a spammer knows that you will open a spam letter he or she will then sell your email to other spammers.

Opt out option does not work. Plain and simple you will get more spam just by clicking on the message.

Direct Matches

If your on myspace you probably have seen the many post from people who spam the forums with Direct Matches. Although this blog is not to say that Direct Matches doesnt work but I would like to give you a little insite on how it works.

What Direct Matches representatives do is get you to sign up as a member. The trial membership is free but once the membership is up then there is a charge to continue using the service. Direct Matches is basically a myspace website with a charge.

My ownly problem with this type of business is that the represenatives really spam online forums trying to get prospects aboard in a muli-level marketing plan.

I feel that the site does not offer much other then what you can get free from other social networking sites. If you want an opportunity to make money Direct Matches is not the ticket.
Save your money for something that does work.

E-books scams

I've long looked at these online books that promise the so called secrets but beware. I you could say was a sucker for these online books promising the world and purchased I did. Did I recieve the ebook? Yes I did, but the information was very basic and only offer me to purchase more ebooks from the same publisher.

Unlike your barnes and nobles or your half price book store, you are not able to view some of the content that is provide in these books. If you plan to purchase some of these ebooks make sure that the website has free articles and then make your best assessment weather or not the information in these books could be useful.

Some tips when deciding:

1) Look for what are called white papers. White papers are free articles offered by the author.
2) Try not get into the promises of riches over night.
3) Work from home opportunities are only good if they do not have a charge to them. So beware if you have to pay to work. Isnt that really the point of getting a job? For you to earn money then to give it away?
4) When subscribing to these online free news letters I would suggest having an alternative address. Even though most of these sites should abide by the spam laws, you may get 1 that will slip to the cracks so dont use your primary account.

5) Do a search on the author and see what others have said about his or her writings on the topic.

Onlines stores

Looking for a product that you can't find anywhere locally? When you google an online store here a few things to look for when making a decision to make a purchase from a new online store vendor.

1) Does the company have an address or a phone number to contact the company?

2) Do they have a return policy if the product is defected?

3) Find out what their privacy poilcy is? Some stores, forums ect. may sell their names and address to other vendors who are looking to get prospects. So make sure your information is not sold. Most online stores, companies should have a prvacy statement.

4) Find out what type of payment options they offer. I prefer using my paypal account to secure my transaction. It also allows you to know that this company has done business online.

5) If it is your first time purchasing from a new vendor dont make a purchase that will break your wallet. The last thing you want is to buy something from an online store and the store doesnt deliver? You guessed it. I normally will purchase something small and see how their services is before making a bigger purchase.

6) Ask friends if they have purchased from online stores and which ones. This will give you a preview of what their services are.

7) Look on ebay if your reluctant to purchase products from a vender online. Why you would purchase from someone online on ebay? They have a feedback history that you can look into to see what their customer service is like.

8) If you purchase from ebay look at the shipping cost. Just because the item says 1.00 sometimes merchants at 14 dollars to make a small profit. But if it is still a good deal by all means bit or buy now.

yahoo messager

This one I learned from a friend. She told me that when she was online a guy she once chatted with told her to check this site via chat by clicking on the link. The link would take her to what looked like a yahoo page. Little did she know that when she placed her user name and password she would be taken to a user and password collection. Long story short she got her email account compromised.

Dont save any passwords in your email box. If for some reason someone gets into your account they wont be able to do much damage other then you wont be able to access it.

Resturant scam

You may want to think twice when you go to a resturant. Most people feel that in order for someone to get your credit card number is by doing some computer hacking wizardry but you may want to think twice when handing over your credit card. You may have a dishonest waiter who will write your credit card information plus your verfication number and later use it for his or her gain. This is why I use cash unless I know that I will be doing the transaction myself.

Ebay Phishing

Got ebay? Chances are someone else wants to have your account. Phishing is the latest scam that has hit the internet and plans to stay around. If your are not familiar with phishing it is an attempt to send an email posing as an official ebay email asking you to update your information.

What does email does is when a user clicks the url that is provided by the scam it will redirect the user to a site that looks like an ebay store front only to collect data from that site.

Prevention:

If you ever get an email for updates for your ebay account, close the browser window and reopen another browser window. Type in the ebay's url which is ebay.com and then login.
Ebay will give you their updates in your account. Another sign that the email is not from ebay is that they sometimes refer you to as dear member or dear sir.

Free software recommendations

Check these free software for your computer. They are free so check them out.
You can find them under http://www.download.com and do a search for:

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
zone alarm

These I have used but the others listed on the bottom link have others to look at.


http://www.download.com/PC-Starter-Kit/2001-12350_4-0.html?tag=dir

Social engineering

Lately hackers have found a new non high tech way to access senstive information. It is called social engineering. This is when a hacker poses to be someone from a certain company to access certain paswords to gain access to senstive information. Be aware when that all the technology firewalls, spam blockers, virus protection can only do so much but the end user is the first line of defense.

Scams to avoid

This is my journal on what scams I have found online to avoid.