Once again on this blog I’m going to reveal a REAL example of a phishing email. These emails try to steal your money! To be exact they try to steal your credit card information or your paypal account login information, etc.

The example below is especially useful for anyone who owns a domain name. I have many and this email almost fooled me.

So by carefully reading this blog post… you’ll learn how phishing emails can look like. This is just ONE example.

Subject of Email: Re: Attn: SEOBOOKLETS.com Expiration Soon

This subject line I had to open immediately, because seobooklets.com is my domain, and I DON’T wish that it expires.

Email Body:

Domain Expiration Notice

Domain: SEOBOOKLETS.COM

Bill To:		Invoice #	1304557832
		Invoice Date	May 4, 2011
Malta, NA		Terms	Net 14
1308 – US		Due Date	May 19, 2011
+356.21464879		P.O. #
PAY NOW 128 SECURE

Domain Name	Registration	Price	Term
SEOBOOKLETS.COM	May 4, 2011 – May 4, 2012	$75.00	1 Year

Dear ,

This solicitation is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration for SEOBOOKLETS.COM. We are a submission service and search engine ranking company.

Failure to complete your search engine registration by May 19, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web).

Your registration includes search engine submission for SEOBOOKLETS.COM for 1 year. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by May 19, 2011. This notice is not an invoice. It is a courtesy reminder to register SEOBOOKLETS.COM for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web.

This Offer for SEOBOOKLETS.COM will expire on May 19, 2011. Act Now!

For Domain Name:

SEOBOOKLETS.COM

PAY NOW 128 SECURE

optoutnow

The blue words were actually links but of course I did not include the links – because the links are THE most dangerous — clicking any link would infected my computer with some spyware or virus.

The most important question: How do I know this is phishing email?

In the first glance I did not realize at all this is phishing until I noticed the price, $75.00. For a domain you only pay around $10 a year.

That raised red flags so I checked the links next, here’s how I did it. Usually this technique alone instantly tells me if an email is real or phishing. Because phishing emails have something very special in the links — and here’s what that’s all about.

If you place the mouse (without clicking!!) on top of a link, you will see in the status bar the actual website you will be sent to if you click on the link.

So when I placed my mouse over the big PayNow 128 Secure link my status bar revealed the website I will be sent to.

Here’s a screenshot:

The website where I renew my domains is namecheap.com yet I will be sent to a different domain as you can see, domainregren.com so this instantly told me this is a phishing email.

So what’s the big take from this?

Read carefully the email if it relates to money: asking for money, paypal, amazon, ebay and so forth. Does email make sense, check carefully, if I didn’t it would have fooled me? Think before clicking links!!

Use the technique I showed you about checking links. This will INSTANTLY tell you if the email is real or phishing. Practice the technique, open a real email that has a link, put your mouse over the link and you’ll see the url in the status bar.

Note: Some of the links for example seobooklets.com link to seobooklets.com which means are 100% Real — this is done to trick you so you Really have to check All links.

Hope this helps you!

Example Of A Phishing Email

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Related Articles:

How To Report Fraud Spam

This Spam Is Written Very Well It Almost Fooled Me!

Example Of A Phishing Email

First off by listing us as rogue and then de listing us means there are a bunch of students running the website, inexperienced. Yet the popularity of the website has grown a lot, indeed. We know why NoAdware was listed, and if they did true research they would have known the truth. But this is NOT the place to explain all that…

NoAdware has always remained loyal to its customers, never tried to enter into disputes over wrong accusations, but hey whenever you are so popular – with 45 million downloads by people in over 100 countries — you’re going to find someone who let’s say it as it is: Hate’s You/Doesn’t Care Less.

This is the big news. Although we’re only waiting for the next Internet “Guru” and  ”wanna be” to hear what he/she has to say.

Of course our focus and aim is still to keep on providing support to customers, as well as updating the spyware database. Currently NoAdware protects against over 9000 different spyware. The software is updated around 3-4 times a week.

The damage done to NoAdware by Spyware Warrior is huge, since un intelligent people, without giving thoughts to what they say — spread on forums and so forth their ground breaking news that NoAdware is rogue.

See the current list of rogue anti spyware software on Spyware Warrior site. I’m in no way saying their current list is truthful, of course if they made mistakes in the past, they could do it again.

Karl Smith

I’ve won one last year, would you like to know my thoughts on it? Well, there’s more good than bad of course. There are many types of flip cameras, the one I have is around $109.99. It’s Flip Ultra.

Actually the only “bad” thing is that you can only keep it on for around an hour, then you have to recharge batteries. That’s very frustrating to me, and it limits you in many different ways. However there are other Flip versions which can withstand up to two hours, yet they cost almost $200.

But apart from that, there’s many nice to say:

* Easy to carry it around, fits in your pocket.

* It can connect it to computer, it comes with a software, so you can move videos on your computer very easily.

* You can use it to take pictures, first take a video then use the software to take “snapshots” of the video, that’s how I created my picture I have on this blog (see top right)  :) I did edited the picture even more of course using other tools to make the background blue.

Other features: It comes with a nice pocket you can insert it in it, but I think you can’t use this camera to go on vacation… because within an hour you have to recharge, I don’t know about you but in one hour how much can you take? Not to mention you need where to recharge.

On the Flip website at: http://www.theflip.com you can also design your own flip, means select it’s colours, etc. They also have other Flip Cameras such as the Flip Mino which seems very similar to Flip Ultra.

There’s not much more to say, it’s very easy to use, press Red button to record, of course it records sound too, and it’s very good as well as video quality is very good.

But like I said, one “problem”, you can only use it for 1 hour before you have to recharge the batteries (it takes 2 pencil batteries). There’s an indicator too that tells you the level of your battery so you know when it needs to be recharged. But I personally find this frustrating because 1 hour is extremely little.

You can’t recharge with computer, because it uses batteries.

I got it for FREE like I said, because I won a contest so I can’t really tell if it’s worth the money because I did not pay for it

MP3 players don’t use batteries, so if the Flip Camera worked like an MP3 player where you simple recharge it on your computer (without the need for batteries) will be much better.

An accident shows that Flip can withstand a certain degree of “pain” When I was extremely happy with it, I used to carry it around, everywhere… even in the bathroom. Once I forgot it in a cold day outside, the room after 20 minutes became full of steam. The flip therefore become wet, yet it kept working fine from that day onwards too.

Unfortunately I dropped it on the floor quite a few times too, it withstand that type of pain (although I’m not recommending doing that of course).

All in all it’s good to get it for free lol Would I purchase it if I didn’t own one? The answer is YES! For my needs it’s perfect.

Flip Camera Review

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Related Articles:

Beginner’s Guides To Camcorders – Video Tutorials

Google Sidebar Review

Flip Camera Review

Let me put this straight: All anti spyware or anti virus software produce false alerts. In fact some software like Avast have a build in feature called: Report False Alarm.

No software is 100% perfect. That’s the reason sometimes when you install a genuine software or program your anti spyware or anti virus software might warn you it has a spyware or virus.

Sometimes it happens and it’s quite boring especially if you’re sure the thing is genuine and contains no spyware or virus.

My recommendation: If that happens I suggest you ask someone to be 100% certain, because prevention is better than cure.

Don’t blame your anti spyware or anti virus software, although it’s their fault, their mistake. There ARE ways to prevent your anti spyware or anti virus software from displaying these alerts.

You have to look at the help files if you don’t know how to do this or ask the product support.

For instance NoAdware™ has the Ingore List feature. Let’s say a program is being identified as spyware and maybe NoAdware™ is not allowing you to use this program. Just add it to the Ignore List and NoAdware™ will not bother you anymore. After a scan right click on any item and simple select:Ignore this item.

However like I previously said: make 100% sure the item is clean from anything like spyware.

When sh** like this happens, it’s boring that’s why great customer service will be “God Sent” at times like those.

On this note I would like to mention something very similar to these false spyware alerts. Yet this is completely different.

I’m talking about Fake Spyware Software. I won’t go into detail here, but just say they’re software you download from the Internet that are basically spyware (the opposite of what you think they are). So yes, download a reputable program if you want to be SAFE. Most fake spyware are (how can it be otherwise?) free.

So there you have it. Customer service is truly an important feature of any anti spyware or anti virus product you download. Most free spyware software don’t provide good customer service. The most they provide is a forum where other “experts” (members of any age, background and knowledge… omg) try to help you. I think that’s customer s**ks service not customer service.

Real customer service is when you have a Certified IT Professional helping you one on one, with step by step instructions and solve your problem as easy as pie.

So careful!

False Spyware Alerts

Spyware are much more dangerous than viruses, here’s why:

A spyware spies on you, these take screenshot of your computer (without you having a clue), and basically can know anything you do on your computer. If you buy online the spyware can know the credit card number you entered, or if you login to facebook or anywhere else they can know the password you typed!

So as you can see that’s the most dangerous thing that can happen.

A virus does not spy, it destroys. Therefore if you have a virus it can damage a part of your computer, and if that part happens to be critical for the computer to function properly you may need to re install windows and such other complicated procedures… depending on the amount and type of damage the virus creates.

So both are bad, but luckily there are TWO easy solutions and you can practically rest assured you won’t get any spyware or viruses. Or at least if you do you will be able to remove it, or it might happen once in a lifetime.

1) You need an antivirus and an anti spyware software. Now you have to pay attention here. I recommend you follow the recommendations of someone who is an expert in spyware and viruses when selecting what product to use.

In fact, from my experience and knowledge I can recommend the follow:

NoAdware as an anti spyware software. Visit website of NoAdware.

Avast Internet Security as an antivirus software. Visit Website of Avast.

These software I mentioned won’t conflict with one another. What does that mean Clark? Well I explain: Some software conflict and this means that they won’t work properly or your computer becomes very slow! For instance, if you have two or more different types of anti spyware software they may conflict and won’t work! Some software like Norton conflicts with practically any other software, so you can’t have any other software if you use Norton.

So these recommendations are tested, all 3 can work on the same computer and won’t conflict with one another.

But more importantly these software are really good at protecting your computer. Avast have just updated their software, now it’s safer then ever to purchase online with their new technology called the SafeZone browser. This is a browser that unlike your normal browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, etc) is basically secured and no spyware can watch, even if your computer has a spyware!

Another problem people face is that their anti virus or anti spyware software identified a program, or file as a virus or spyware although you know it isn’t. This happens sometimes, and it’s just a mistake the software does. If you downloaded for instance Yahoo Messenger, your anti virus may identify it as a virus, these “mistakes” can happen, no software is perfect

So what about trojans, adware, malware, parasites, etc?

These are called other bad objects. The two main bad objects are called Spyware and Virus, yet there are other types of bad objects but these are so to speak less important and a spyware or a virus software does protect against these other bad objects as well!

2) The second solution is to NEVER visit porn related websites! That’s right. Most of these sites have some kind of spyware or virus. There may be some who don’t but since the majority of these sites do have spyware or viruses then the risk with these websites is very high.

So there you have it, TWO solutions.

Is that all?

No! The other nasty place you can get a virus is guess where? Inside your email. That’s right. Once again the solution is simple to avoid getting a virus from within emails you read. Here it is:

If the email contains any links NEVER click on them (unless you know for absolute certainty that the sender is someone you know for example a friend, a genuine newsletter, etc).

If the email contains attachments NEVER open them (unless you know for absolute certainty that the sender is someone you know for example a friend, a genuine newsletter, etc).

If you don’t know what’s an attachment these are usually images/videos/ or anything else attached to an email. The image may contain a virus, although to you it may look like an image (the virus is something you can’t see).

So with emails be careful, open emails only you know who’s the sender!

This post should really help you!

Difference Between Spyware and Virus!

This post is a reminder of the most important guidelines you should follow. I highly recommend you read this post carefully and completely then apply (follow/do) what you’ll discover.

Here’s the list of the most important guidelines:

1. Do not click on the links inside emails.

The worst type of viruses/spyware/adware, etc are the ones found inside emails most of the time. If you don’t know who sent you the email, do NOT trust the sender. To become really good at catching spam emails from real ones check these: To People Who Want To Use Email But Cannot Stop Spam, Scams and Phishing!

2. Download 2 software: An antivirus software and an anti adware and spyware software.

This is very important and there are many different “theories” and questions about this on the web. People don’t know what and how many software they need, etc. So here’s the answer: You need two software. Here’s my recommendations:

Antivirus software: Avast company have multiple antivirus software, you can download the free antivirus software, or the paid one (a small yearly fee). If you don’t buy online then you can get the free version, however if you buy online I suggest getting the paid version because it has more security. Here are the links:

Avast Free Version

Avast Internet Security (paid version)

Anti adware and spyware software: This is the other software you should have. I suggest NoAdware software, which you can download from my website.

If you do research about Internet Security software you’ll find out there are software which are both an anti spyware/adware and also antivirus software. There are many different types, although of course some of these may be good, I suggest you stick with my recommendations.

Special Note: I suggest you make a commitment for 2011 to learn all you can about Internet Security software. What’s important to learn for example is how to use the software; such as: when to scan, how to configure their features (you can read their help manual for this), what’s quarantine, what to do if you find an infected file, etc. Make a small commitment to learn.

3. Turn Firewall on and Automatic Updates on.

If you have Windows, you should have a Firewall. Go to your Control Panel and make sure it’s turned on. Also in the same location make sure Automatic Updates are turn on, and the setting set to Install Updates automatically.

Once again use the Internet to learn how to turn these two options on. You can also use your computer Help and Support center by clicking on Start and selecting Help and Support center. Then learn all you can about these options. There’s a wealth of good information already on your computer, use it.

4. Keep your computer Clean and Healthy.

That’s right, the more you use your computer and the more programs you download and install the more “clutter” gets in your computer. Files and folders in places on your computer you can’t see (such as the registry section); folders that your computer uses to operate, etc get kind of messed up and this can cause your computer to get slow or show other negative side effects.

Solution: Use Ccleaner to keep your computer clean and healthy. This is an absolutely FREE software.

Once again if you never do so make it a habit for 2011 to start reading the help manual of the software you download, so you know better how to use them.

I also suggest you make use of other software apart from that one, these other software are already on your computer (because they where installed already when you purchased the computer). These are: Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup. I suggest you use CCleaner and Disk Cleanup once every 1-2 months, and use Disk Defragmenter once every 2-3 months. Disk Defragmenter will tell you each time you open the software whether you need to use it or not.

Once again I shall remind you about learning because it has its benefits. Use the Help Section on your computer or use the Internet to learn what’s a Disk Disk Defragmenter tool, what it does and why it helps your computer. There are so many tutorials, and information. You can use Wikipedia to start learning. This is an online encyclopedia.

5. Make sure all programs/software you have are Updated!

This is very important and many people don’t know what it means or its benefits. All software and programs you use such as: messengers, your web browser (Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc), and any other program you have may require an update from time to time.

Make sure you update all the programs you have on your computer, or at least those you use. Most of the time the software, for example Live Messenger, will show a message saying: There’s a new Version available.

Most software have a Check for Update feature located in the Help menu of the software.

When the bad people create a virus that targets a software, for instance Live Messenger, the company behind the software in that case Microsoft will create a solution (an update) and therefore you should download this update, the new Live Messenger. Most of the time you won’t see any difference in the software itself.

Take for example Ccleaner, this software will show you a message when there’s an update you need to download.

So make sure you start taking notice of these messages, and more importantly that you have downloaded the latest update of the software or program.

Most of the software check to see if there’s an update available automatically and then show you a message to download the update. But not all do this automatically for you, so make sure you check.

6. Be careful when buying online.

If you buy online often you might get so used to it that you may not be very careful anymore. Remember the most common tips: Buy from trusted and well known websites whenever possible. If you want to buy books for instance check first at Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com rather than a less known website.

If you’re on the page where you enter your payment details (credit card information, etc) do it quickly, don’t go away from your computer to eat or something that instance. The faster you do it and close the page the better.

You should also consider getting a new credit card and loading it with few money, so you use this card for online purchases which you can associate it with a new account at your bank used solely for online purchases. That means it will act like pocket money.

7. Change passwords regularly.

Especially for websites like paypal.com or other websites where you input your more personal information.

Never store passwords on your computer. Refer to my earlier post about passwords: Generate Strong Password

These are not difficult guidelines, take action and Happy New Year

I think this is very important, even though I’m used to receiving spam email and identifying spam, sometimes some spam email are written so good that they can fool almost anyone.

So here’s the spam email I received, so if you get something like this pay close attention. I’m going to tell you why I absolutely know this is 100% a spam email.

=============

(myemail@gmail.com was actually my real email address)

Subject of Email:

myemail@gmail.com – - Short listed for a Reward

Body of Email:

Fabulous News! You have been short listed to receive a Reward – NUMERO UNO WATCH Worth Rs 2750 FREE!

This free watch has been reserved for you as a part of our special invitation program.

You had recently been recommended for Bag It Today membership by one of your friends.

Here is your invitation to join Bag It Today – An online boutique of your best loved brands available at upto 75% off.

Shortlisted Entry (User id) :
myemail@gmail.com
Your Reward: A Numero Uno Watch
worth Rs 2750 FREE

Your personal link to claim reward: www.bagittoday.com/reward/myemail@gmail.com
(Click to claim your winnings)

Just cover our gift delivery, promotion and handling charges of Rs 499.

This reward is being distributed to fortunate few and will be handed over on first come first serve basis.

SEE IF YOUR ONE OF THE LUCKY FEW…

=============

This email had also a Big button at the very bottom, saying: click to claim your winnings, here’s a screenshot of that:

So why this was going to fool me?

First of there’s my email address in the subject line and throughout the body of the email. Usually spam emails don’t include personal information such as your name, etc. They usually say: Hello Friend, or just Hello.

Second the email is composed in html, this means it’s not plain text there are tables and columns in the email, much like an email you get when you subscriber to a Newsletter. Most spam email are plain text so this is a bit uncommon. Here’s screenshot of the first part of the email; the part you see when you open the email.

Click here to see a bigger screeshot

I’m always interested to know why a spam email was going to fool me. You can learn from this, and become a better “spam catcher”.

The body of the email is promising me that I am going to receive a reward, a number uno watch. It did not say I WON like what most spam emails do. If it did probably I would have deleted the email within seconds.

The theme througout the email is about a REWARD. The title at the very top says:

Short listed for a Reward !!

What helped to fool me is also the FROM: line, which says Bag it Today that name seemed something REAL for me for some reason.

Than at the very top of the email, there’s the words:

If you are not able to view this email properly, please view it online by clicking here. To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add [todayshop@intoday.in] to your address book

If you receive a lot of email, many of the REAL emails contain those exact two lines… so that’s also why this email is written well and almost fooled me.

This spam email is unlike any other spam email I received. Plus of course it’s in my INBOX not in the SPAM folder, I don’t read anything in the spam folder.

So what did NOT fool me? What did I SEE that helped me realize indeed this is spam?

I was going to click on the link, which of course “should” have taken me to the website to claim my reward. But luckily I remember that I should NEVER click links inside emails unless I know 100% who the sender of the email is.

In this case I wasn’t 100% sure of course.

Viruses in Emails are either in Attachment or inside the links. This means to get the virus you have to either OPEN the attachment or CLICK on the link.

Usually links are masked. This means the REAL link can be this one for example:

http://www.garbagevirus-tes.com/jvirud.html

But you SEE in your email something like this:

http://www.gerwebsite.com/claim-reward.html

So how do you know the REAL link?

Just put your mouse over the link, (WITHOUT clicking on the link) and then look at the bottom of your web browser and you’ll see the REAL url.

Here’s screenshot:

Click here to see a bigger screenshot

So that’s the trick.

Always do this, and if the link at the bottom is different that means the link you SEE is MASKED, if you click it you’re going to get a virus.

To make this email EVEN more real there’s also the unsubscribe link. Almost all REAL newsletters or ezines you optin for contain this link. It’s a LAW that you have this link.

So this email contains this too, making it even more “real”:

If you do not want to receive any more newsletters, Click this link

So hope you find this useful.

Clark

You can see:

The subject is Hello

The body is Hello

Is this a friend who forgot to insert the body of the email?  How can you REALLY almost scientifically know if it’s from a friend or a spammer/ someone weird?

We can click on show Details link. In Gmail you do that to know more information about the sender, in other email programs you have to click some other link, but anyway it’s called something like more info, show detail – but don’t click any links inside the email itself! Very important!

Is this spam email?

Here’s what I saw once you do that:

Spam Email in Gmail

(you can click image to see it bigger and better).

We can see near the to column, there’s like 30 different email addresses include one which is mine. So this proven spammer has send this email to 30 other people. He’s definitely not a friend of mine who forgot to enter the body – he’s doing something weird which I really don’t CARE ABOUT.

So this trick will show you who this person send this message to.

Remember more importantly: Don’t reply at all!!! You never know what might happen.

Bye,

Clark Gates

The number one method to enjoy using your PC (stands for Personal Computer) better is to NOT treat it as your slave. Instead the computer and human should work together not separately. If you work together with your computer instead of ‘being the boss’ you’ll find out it’s easier to use.

Your computer is much like a new technology you just bought – if you buy a playstation you’ll probably want to read the manual to know how to use it. But how many people read the computer manual?

NO ONE! Why? Because it’s long and boring.

However the first thing to do if you have a question, issue or problem is to visit the Help Section on your computer. Click Start, then click on Help and Support.

You’ll be amazed how many tutorials, tips and that kind of thing exist that you can easily understand. There is some complicated stuff but there are many easy to understand tutorials as well.

Windows Vista the latest system has also Videos that help you understand how to use your computer! Here’s how to watch these videos:

Here’s step by step how to find these videos that’s on your computer (if you have Windows Vista)!

Open Control Panel by going to Start >> Control Panel

Click on System and Maintenance

Then click on Welcome Center

Then click on the small link that says: Show all 14 items

Then double click on Windows Vista demos.

Then a window opens with videos on how to use your computer. I recommend you watch these videos attentively because you’ll learn a lot. Learning how to use your computer has many advantages:

* You’ll enjoy using your computer more…

* You’ll be able to fix computer problems yourself

*You’ll know how to do things that your friends don’t know

And so much more, so make your computer a friend, treat him well. Anyway point is to stay calm when using your computer and work together with him. Computer gives you feedback and talks with you by showing you messages. Whenever you see a message read it carefully. That’s how you communicate with your computer. After a bit of time you get used to the messages and you’ll start feeling better and getting used to it.

Seriously here’s one video demo about windows vista that you’ll find on your computer by following the instructions I gave you above: http://wm.microsoft.com/ms/woh/started.wmv

So I hope you find this post useful and fun also since it’s helpful for you and your health in case you’re always getting angry or throwing objects to your PC when it does not obey you! I know because I used to do that and learned the lesson the hard way.

Some people report having their desktop icons with a red exclamation mark in them. Like this:

Here’s how to fix this issue.

This problem is usually created by a software on your computer that is used to backup your files. For example Mozy Software. So if you have Mozy Software or any other backup software, tool or utility go to the settings of that software. Let’s see for example the Mozy Software.

Open Mozy Configuration and go to the Options screen, then click on General and uncheck the option that says:

Show backup status icon on files and folders

Here’s a screenshot:

Click image to zoom in

Now if you have another backup software not Mozy just do the same thing, go to the settings or options of the particular software – and find out if there’s a similar option. You’ll see changes instantly, the icons get back to normal instantly.

From time to time on this blog I do post about issues people have and how to fix them. This is one of them. People will search everywhere to find the solutions to such problems, hopefully they’ll end up reading this post through a Google Search maybe.

Thank You

How To Fix Icon Red Exclamation Marks