When it comes to internet security, we think of many things. Most people on the street think of fire walls and virus checkers and very little further. They think of the possibility of their websites being hacked, and their servers being wiped. However, do they ever think of their reputation? Do they think of the possibility of the run on cost of their name being tarnished so that business is turned away? Read on, we can help. Enigin. That’s our case for today.
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At some point, no matter how careful we are with our items, we will loose our wallet and or purse. The lucky ones of us will only loose the wallet, the more unlucky will have them stolen. Why is it worse to have them stolen? If you loose it the chances are that the people who find it will largely ignore it. (after taking the cash of course!). The people who steal you wallet though have the intention of trying Read the rest of this entry »

A very common Internet scam is a camouflage is the one where you are told about your account being checked. The biggest key to this has to do more so with saying Dear Insert Name Member and telling you about your account. Keep in mind however that it is very common and can really fool anyone easily by its appearance. For the scammers, it is like a comedy show and trying to find out who will be the biggest sucker Read the rest of this entry »

The internet is an amazing resource. It allows you to quickly learn about almost anything, to find poetry and read stories both new and ancient, it even now brings both radio, television and films to you at the click of a left mouse button. However, it is important to remember that criminals use the internet too, and there are many people out there who are not genuine, and are trying to steal your identity, or even simpler, take your money from you. There are ways you can protect yourself, and ways that you can spot fraudulent websites. This article could end up being very long, so rather than cover everything, I am going to ignore email fraud, virus infection & identity theft. Using this website on roller banners as an example, I’m going to focus on ‘fake’ websites that are just trying to directly take your hard earned money away from you. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many forms of internet fraud out there. Essentially what everyone wants at the end of the day is your money straight and simple. They will use any technique they think will work, honour aside. Some of the worse ones were the ones sent to the older generation who had been through the war, walking about finds that have been held for soldiers and all they need to release it is some initial expense on admin. These ones were the ones that frustrated me the most because the people they targeted couldn’t afford to lose the money. They were old, retired men and women who had served their time for this country only to be then screwed over by someone they will never meet.

The frauds that make me smile are the really poor ones that either are really implausible, or are trying to drive traffic to a site in order to sell something. We’ve all I think by now received offers to buy cheap Viagra, or have been offered weight loss surgery loan at no interest. If you’re interested, I can recommend this site if you are looking for acne scars personally. Now, if you have just clicked on either of those two links, beware, for you are probably the type of person that these emails are targeting (don’t worry if you did, they point to a safe legitimate website).
This article is specifically about an email going around that appears to be from paypall. It’s show in your inbox as from “paypal admin” and it claims that unless you log on ‘click here’ and verify your account it will shut down ceasing all ebay trading within the next 3 days. This sounds and appears legitimate, and it even gives you motivation, if you are trading on ebay you wouldn’t want your account suspended. However, when you click on the link it takes you to a website called something similar to paypal, but is not paypal.

I do not know how many people fell for this, but it was a well thought out well written scam, that had me double taking to check it was legitimate or not. If anything like this comes to you, the one piece of advice I can give you is always call or contact the supplier directly so you know whom you are giving your information to. If your bank calls you for details, if you call them back on their general number you can be sure you are speaking to the bank. The same with the internet. If a site wants your details, go independently to the website, do not click on the link as that could take you anywhere.

How safe is your idenity?

Identity theft is on the increase, as fraudsters target unsuspecting individuals in the hopes of obtaining financially crippling information from them.

But what steps can you take to be safer?

1) Protect your PIN.

When withdrawing money from an ATM, or when purchasing goods using your debit, or credit card, always make sure no one is hovering over your shoulder watching what you type.

2) Invest in a shredder.

Make sure it’s a cross-cut type shredder as well. We all receive junk mail from credit card companies, and our first instinct is to throw them in the bin. Don’t do this. When throwing anything away, first make sure you shred ANYTHING with your personal details.

3) Password protection.

Make sure any telephone or online accounts are password protected. Never use your mother’s maiden name - use a random word, and include random numbers as well. Try to memorise passwords, instead of writing them down.

4) Unused credit cards.

Cancel any credit cards you have not used in the past 6 months, as these are easily targeted by fraudsters.

5) Cold callers.

Never disclose personal information to individuals or companies that contact you at home, or at work. These people could be anyone. If they claim to be your bank, or building society, insist on calling them back, and do so on the correct number you have for them.

6) Clean your wallet!

Remove anything from your wallet that you would not want there if it gets lost or stolen: PIN numbers, passwords, extra credit cards etc.

These are just a few tips to help you try and keep one step ahead of the con-artists.

Well, that’s all for now guys. Meanwhile, in other news, Clare has looked into the business of horse liability and Phil is pondering the benefits of microdermabrasion.

We are moving on a to a new platform and this site is up temporarily, whilst the other design is finished off. We would like to apologies for the downtime we are experience.  We Predict that we will have everything up and running again by the end of February 2008.