Beware of Email Scams that appear to be from your Email Provider

This morning, my wife got an email that looked legitimate enough and looked like it was from our Email Provider. This is the first time we had gotten one of these types pretending to be from our ISP. Usually, we get a phishing email from something that is pretending to be from a financial website. Since we are both “up” on this sort of thing, we immediately suspected it to be bogus and I called our provider to verify the email. Sure enough, the email was indeed bogus. Our provider never sent the email.

One really big point to keep in mind: Legitimate organizations will NEVER send an email to you asking for personal and sensitive information. If you suspect a bogus email, contact the organization that it was supposedly sent from to verify.

Here is an example of the Fraudulent email we got this morning, (the email provider name was removed):
————————–Example of Fraudulent Email—————————
From: “SUPPORT@YOUREMAILPROVIDER.NET”
Date: 2008/08/27 Wed AM 07:16:53 CDT
Subject: WebNews Email Account Update

THE “YOUREMAILPROVIDER” MAIL SERVICE WEBSITE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT WE
HAVE SOME PROBLEMS ABOUT EACH CUSTOMER ACCOUNT EMAIL. DUE TO ERROR CODE
334409. WE DISCOVERD THAT IN FEW DAYS FROM NOW EACH CUSTOMER WILL NOT BE
ABLE TO ACCESS HIS OR HER EMAIL ACCOUNT.

IN THAT REGARD,YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD
FOR A NEW ACCOUNT UPDATE.

YOU ARE ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY SEND US THE REQUIRED INFORMATION SO AS TO
ENABLE US IMMEDIATELY UPDATE YOUR ACCOUNT.YOU ARE TO SEND US THIS
INFORMATION VIA EMAIL TO
account_update@sify.com

Note:You have to understand that the reason why we are not sending this
message from our own private account.This is due to some technical problem
we are having right now.
Thanks for your understanding.

BELOW THE INFORMATION RQRUIRED FOR ACCOUT UPDATE

1)Full Email Address:
2)password:
3)country:
4)date of birth:
5)First name/Last name:

YOUREMAILPROVIDER Privacy Statement | Copyright 2008 YOUREMAILPROVIDER . All Rights Reserved.

—————————————End of Example—————————–
NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THESE TYPES OF EMAILS!

Click this link for more information: Fraud and Scam Alerts – Phishing

See also: More on Phishing

Hacking, what it means to a New PC User – Part 2

In conjunction with an article from Internet Help for PC User’s blog, A very simple way to describe a hacker, this is someone who brakes into your PC via the Internet. With the amount of PC / Internet security available for FREE, there is no reason why someone can’t have their PC protected against a wide range of security issues. One site that I frequently use which is Download.com where you can find a wide range of software to assist you with PC / Internet Security. I have a wide range of services running on my PC every day. Everything from the system’s Firewall, Anti Virus software through Spyware software. All this software was FREE.

Hacker as defined by Wikipedia

Just a note

I think that there are a lot of you who really need to read my spam policy! See the Pages section for the link. Have a nice day!

Hacking, what it means to a New PC User

I started research in to the world of Hacking and have already posted an article in the Internet Help for PC User’s blog called Hacking – Part 1. Along with this research, I am going to elaborate on what New users need to be concerned about. It really doesn’t matter what experience level you are, this subject can effect any PC user with an Internet connection.

Stay blogged for the series on this subject. More to come.

Parental controls for your PC

As parents, we are continually concerned about what our kids are doing while surfing the internet.
I am a Foster parent and I have the same concerns as other parents. I have discovered what I feel is the perfect solution to this concern. Check out K9 Web Protection on the Internet. This is what I use. I know that when the kids are on, they are not on where they are not suppose to be. This is a free service for home PC users. There may be other upgrades available. I haven’t checked that out since the version I am using is just fine for our needs.
I do highly recommend this website. When in use, if the kids or you attempt to access a restricted site, a message will appear instead of the website. You need to enter a password in order to view the website.
I want to point out that I have been looking for something like this for quite a while and I finally found something that is definitely worth it.

What not to spare – Revisited

Sometimes it pays to review past information. In this case, I want to refer to the old posts on
“What not to spare”. I will provide the links to the rest of this series at the end of this post.
All PC users regardless of experience should be concerned with periodic backups of the hard drives.
You never know what you can encounter on a daily basis. You make changes to your computer on a daily basis with anything you do. You receive emails, create documents, visit websites, install programs, delete files, etc, the list can go on. All of these are changes to your PC. You really need to consider performing routine system maintenance on a regular basis. This can be a wide range of tasks, one of which should include a backup of data files or program files that you installed after you purchased your PC. It used to be that when you purchased your PC, you received backup disks with all of your programs on it. Now you have to create them from what is on the hard drive. Well, these are ok, but, anything new you add, you are responsible for.

What I recommend is that you pick a day/time frame to have your PC automatically back up your files. For that day, leave your PC up all day and night and have the backup run real early in the morning, so the procedure would be finished before you get up the next day. This is what I do.

Oh, yes, what about the System Restore feature that is on the PC? This feature is only as good as your hard drive. If your hard drive crashes, by by data and files. You need to have a backup of your files just in case something like this happens. I will tell you that It’s not a matter of will it happen, but when will it happen! Hard drives WILL NOT last forever.

See the following links for the rest of this series:

1. What not to spare – Part #1

2. What not to spare – Part #2

3. What not to spare – Part #3

4. What not to spare – Part #4

Solving problems on your PC

For New PC Users, there can be many challenges one can face when starting to use your very own new PC. Granted, if you used one quite a bit at work or school and just never had one of your own, that is an exception to some degree. But, in general, sometimes problems can be a challenge for some users. I was looking on the Internet for a website that can help PC users. What I did was that I did a google search on “Solving problems on your PC for beginners” and I got the following website: http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/pctips.php

There is quite a lot of good and reliable sources on the Internet for people who are new to using PC’s. You can also get books that provide the same help on solving problems. There are books like Windows for Dummies and stuff like that.

You can also find some useful information on Internet Help for PC users

Watch your Identity

As a PC user, you need to be careful with your Identity when placing transactions over the Internet. With Identity Theft and Phishing, PC users need to be careful when online. You can find a good amount of information on Phishing and security on Internet Help for PC Users blog. Never take things for granted!

Why is security so important for the Home PC User?

Home PC Users need to be concerned about security regardless of what their usage is. Whether it be for games, chatting, personal finance, or even starting a home based business. Home users can range from kids, teens, young and older adults and so fourth. Adults need to watch out for their kids and teens. Security has become so much more important since the addition of the Internet. Like Earth, the Internet is also a planet in which the same rules apply.

When kids play online with other kids, you have to assume that those they are playing with are themselves kids and not someone out there up to no good. Parents should set limits for their kids using the Internet. These limits can range from time spent, to purpose and with whom they are playing with. A good software to protect your PC and kids is K9 Web Protection. You can find this on http://www.download.com

Other harsh realities include Identity Theft, Malware, Viruses Hackers, the list goes on. Companies need to be concerned about the Home PC User as well. In fact, some have started to be concerned for the Home PC User and started offering Free versions of the Anti Virus, and Spyware products. This is an important and significant step. If Home Users can’t tackle security issues, then, this can have a bad impact on companies. Each connection to the Internet no matter what the origin is, is a potential victim.

This post is also on Internet Help for PC Users

Creating Backups and System Restore

If you have been an avid reader of this blog, you would know that I have mentioned from time to time the need to backup your files. In order to serve as a reminder or wake up call, I decided to write another article on this subject. Ok, “I have an XP or newer system and it has System Restore, why do I need to be concerned about backing up my files?” you ask! Well, for one thing, System Restore may do an excellent job in recovering your files, but, a backup it is not! Your System Restore is worthless, if your hard drive crashes and suddenly becomes useless! Then you need to get a new one or reformat the old one. Meanwhile, you have no backup files to restore from.

I am not putting System Restore down at all, in fact, System Restore recently saved my butt from a bad mistake that I made in deleting some files. It does have it’s strong points! It is just that System Restore is NOT a true backup system.

You have choices you can make in backing up your hard drive. Here are some options to consider (but not limited to):

1. Backup to tape or CD/DVD’S your entire hard drive(s).
2. Backup only files you create on a daily/weekly basis thus relying on the backup CDs you got when you purchased your PC
3. In addition to #2 above, include any programs you download from the internet in your backups. Otherwise, re-download and install.

These were just a few options to consider when putting together a backup scheme. I used to work for a Data Center and have experienced the harsh realities when files are not backed up. You can find some software in http://www.download.com to assist you in backing up your files.