Newsletter ArchiveSUBJECT:Phishing - Real Life Relevance The Internet 800 Directory - http://www.inter800.com The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter This issue is for Friday, June 04, 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 01. Phishing 02. Real Life Relevance of Country Western Songs 03. Tip Of The Week --------------------------------------------------------------------- *01 Phishing Several months back I did an article warning about a "Phishing" scam that was making it's way around the Internet. It appears that these types of scams have become very successful, with estimates of 1.7 million people tricked into divulging personal information. What precisely is Phishing? Here is the definition from http://www.webopedia.com/ "(v.) Pronounced "fishing," the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information. For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user's account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay's site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the "phisher" counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately. Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on "fishing," the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting." -------------End Definition--------------- This type of scam is increasing because online criminals, including organized crime groups, are enjoying high success rates with a very small chance of being caught. You can avoid becoming a victim by following these simple steps: -Be wary of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information. -Don't use the links in any email asking for updates of personal financial information to get to the web page. -Always ensure that you're using a secure connection when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser. -Before responding to a suspicious e-mail, contact the company by phone or e-mail verifying the request for information. -Prior to providing financial information for online loan applications, investigate the lender. The talent these con artists display in crafting their e-mail is amazing. Be vigilant and don't become one of their fish. Chuck Arning at chuck@inter800.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Are you paying too much for your toll free calls? Visit http://www.saveontollfree.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- *02 Real Life Relevance of Country Western Songs Although my wife was born in Texas, she never really liked Country-Western songs until she was kind of force-fed them by my friends and me. Then she started realizing that their inherent attribute was that one could always figure out what the next words are going to be, so that one could sing along without ever having heard the song before. As simplistic as that may be, there are some other attributes to country western songs that I must point out because of the parallel to real life. One is that their predictability is not only universal, but also reflects our psychology. As an example, if one sings Willie's "Whiskey River Take My Mind", then it probably already has. Therefore the singing request is just redundant. Another aspect is that C&W (as it's known to us insiders) has titles and verbiage that we have all experienced, but rarely have the guts to say out loud. As a couple of examples, an honest-to-God couple of songs are entitled "I'd Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy". That should be rather obvious, but it did need to be clarified. The next one is a little more subtle, even complex, but it does represent the way I've felt sometimes. It's entitled "I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling". Also, the philosophy can be deep and comforting, such is in "If You're Leaving Me, Walk Out Backwards So I'll Think You're Coming In". Or the profound "If The Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Not Me Calling". 'Nuff said. Not everyone can be as eloquent as these fine songwriters, however, and it takes a knack to coin both a title and a hook-line, like "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me?" One of my prior Yankee acquaintances, who shall go as unnamed as his song did unpublished, just didn't quite accomplish the crossover. Hoping to capture some of the more educated Cowboy wantabes, he, very learnedly, penned the memorable verse: "He may be erudite and peripatetic, But - oh my God - don't he sound pathetic?" People are always asking me what is the relevant point to some of these ramblings. Well, if you've missed the point, then you just don't get it, which is the title and hook-line for my next song. Steven Jackson - saj@inter800.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Once every second someone searches the Internet 800 Directory looking for someone to supply them with goods or services. Will they find you or your competition? Call 800-299-1879! --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tip of the Week Hidden information in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint These programs use hidden "metadata" to help track changes and updates to the files. Some of the information is viewable by opening the file, then clicking on File, then on the Properties option. The metadata contains all of the changes that have been made by all of the parties involved with the document. Using tools that are freely available on the Internet, a recipient of a document could easily uncover these changes. In some business documents (contracts, memos, reports) this could be a real problem. Microsoft has made a tool available that will clean the hidden data from the file. You will find the tool at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=144e54ed-d43e-4 2ca-bc7b-5446d34e5360&displaylang=en After installation: Click on the File menu, then click 'Remove Hidden Data' This tool cannot be installed on Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition. If you have any tips or shortcuts that you think the readers of this Newsletter will find useful, send them to chuck@inter800.com Banners? Pay-per-click? Why not target your market with links or information placed in relevant content? The Internet 800 Directory Newsletter offers direct access to business people who are interested buyers. Advertising: Information on how to sponsor this publication: Call 800-299-1879 Thanks for taking the time to review our newsletter for this week. If you know of anyone that might benefit from receiving this newsletter, send them to (http://www.inter800.com/news800/ ) where they can subscribe. All Contents Copyright ©1995-2003 The Internet 800 Directory Subscribe To The Newsletter: |