I almost fell for it…
By DanB | June 21, 2007
It’s scary how easy is to be snared in an email “phishing” attempt. I have told you how to avoid phishing attempts several times in the past. Now get this - I almost fell for one of these scams just last week.
The particular email that arrived in my inbox claimed to be from PayPal. The subject was “Restore Your Account Access.” Normally I just delete these and go on. This time was different. My PayPal account had been restricted. I was eagerly waiting on a reply from PayPal that access had been restored.
When I saw the email I almost clicked the link. Almost. It is easy to see how people fall for these phishing attempts. What caught my eye and kept me from clicking?
First I took my own advice and just logged directly into my PayPal account. The account was still restricted and there was no new information to be seen.
Second was the very handy “Display Mail User Agent” Extension inside Mozilla Thunderbird. I use Thunderbird for my email and have several extensions installed. This particular extension does one thing - it shows an icon telling you which Mail User Agent (MUA) or email client was used to create the email. In this case it said the email was created in Microsoft Outlook.
None of my official email from PayPal has been written in Outlook. That should have been my first clue. Here is a picture of the false PayPal email along with icon from “Display Mail User Agent”:
This experience brought to mind a local news story from last year. It seems a lady had her eBay account hacked. She was adamant that she never shared her account details with anyone. Then she showed how she only clicks on links in emails from eBay. Obviously she was caught in a phishing scam and didn’t realize it.
What happened with my PayPal account? They restored access the very next day.
You can read a previous article on phishing and how to avoid getting taken here:
http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2007/01/10/safer-email-tips/
Be careful out there.
~ Dan
–
© 2007 Dan Butler
Dan Butler is the Editor-in-Chief of TNPCNewsletter.com and the
author of the amazing new book that shows you how to save your
identity, get your email read, and put more time into the things
you really enjoy…
Popularity: 69%
Topics: privacy/security, TNPC News, Email | 14 Comments »
Gee, I wish I had thought of that.
By Al Gordon | June 5, 2007
For most of us, electronics are like the weather: we complain a
lot but don’t do anything about it. So periodically you come
across products that solve those complaints and make you wish
you had done more than just gripe. This is the first in an
occasional series of items I have found that intrigue me in that
way.
Top of my list: SimulScribe (simulscribe.com). It is a $10-per-
month voicemail service that you can use to replace your
cellphone, office, or home voice mailboxes - or any combination
of them. That alone is valuable, giving users a needed central
collection point for messages. But the key innovation in
SimulScribe is that it uses speech recognition technology to
transcribe your voicemail and then sends it along to you as an
email that contains both the transcript and an audio file.
Transcriptions aren’t perfect - bad connections and certain
voices fool it - but they are usually good enough to give you
the gist of the message and let you assess its urgency. When in
doubt, you play the audio.
This is a huge time-saver: no wasted calls to check on empty
mailboxes; you get the messages as they come in. It is a plus
for smartphone users, as you can discretely check your voicemail
on screen without making a call. I personally find it helpful
since I pay little attention to my cell while I am using my
office phone and vice versa. My guess is that sooner or later,
all voice mailboxes will work this way.
Check out the SimulScribe service here:
© 2007 Al Gordon.
In addition to his computer interests, Al Gordon is a political
and media consultant in the Boston area.
Popularity: 55%
Topics: Communication, Productivity, Email | No Comments »
3 Tips to Streamline Your Voicemail
By DanB | June 4, 2007
TNPC Newsletter
by Dan Butler
04 June, 2007
Thank you for reading TNPC - I really appreciate it. This week
three easy tips to streamline your voicemail.
You can read this issue and previous issues at the blog:
http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/category/newsletters/tnpc/
If you have a comment on this article please leave it at the blog.
~ Dan
3 Tips to Streamline Your Voicemail
by Dan Butler
Voicemail. It is all around us. Use these three easy tips to
spend less time jumping through voicemail hoops. Some simple
changes to the way you use your voicemail can bring big time
savings and increase your information flow.
Popularity: 79%
Topics: Communication, TNPC News, Productivity | 4 Comments »
Laptops Causing Health Problems
By DanB | May 30, 2007
Many uses of computers can cause problems. I recall using a bad chair while writing a book. I could barely move during that time. Now I use a nice expensive chair and it makes a lot of difference.
Had the same experience with a computer mouse years ago. Started noticing changes in my hand so I switched to a Logitech Trackman Marble and the hand changes ceased.
Article in the Daily Mail about laptops causing back problems in users. Here is a quote:
Millions of others are at risk of “irretrievable damage” to their spines, necks and shoulders because of poor posture when using laptops, it was claimed.
The main specific problem mentioned in the above article is bending and straining to look down at your laptop monitor. The same problem exists on desktop systems. Make sure you monitor is high enough that you don’t bend your neck to see your screen.
I am tall and have to raise the monitor quite a bit. My preferred method has always been a stack of phone books. Cheap, easy to locate, and you can easily scoot the monitor around on the desk should you need to.
If you are experiencing pain be sure to check out the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook we frequently recommend. Read our review of that book here.
Popularity: 42%
Topics: Life | No Comments »
Pegasus Email Client Being Flagged as a Trojan…
By DanB | May 18, 2007
Over the years I have highly recommended the Pegasus email client. I still do if you are an advanced user.
David Harris the creator of Pegasus sent this email that talks about Norton Antivirus flagging Pegasus as a Trojan. It is not. If you use Pegasus and Norton read this note carefully and protect yourself.
The Pegasus Mail web site is:
Since a signature update on May 15, Norton Antivirus has begun detecting the Pegasus Mail executable program, WINPM-32.EXE as a trojan horse called “Trojan.Dropper”. The first symptom most people will have of this problem is the deletion of WINPM-32.EXE during a system scan.
Firstly, we wish to stress that there is no trojan horse in Pegasus Mail: the Norton Antivirus program is producing a “false positive” - an incorrect analysis based on poor or erroneous signature information.
Secondly, you will not be able to recover from this problem without first amending your Norton Antivirus installation, since it will automatically delete any attempt to download or reinstall the Pegasus Mail program.
There is a comprehensive thread describing this problem and offering some short-term workarounds on our community web site, here:
http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/659.aspx
It is our belief that you will get very little technical assistance from Symantec on this issue, but we urge you to try anyway if you encounter this problem. We have instructed our lawyers to send urgent messages to Symantec in an attempt to get this resolved as quickly as possible, but once again, current experiences are not giving us much faith in their responsiveness or sense of moral responsibility.
IMPORTANT: if you suffer from this problem and attempt to reinstall Pegasus Mail (assuming you use one of the workarounds to prevent NAV from deleting it as you do so), you MUST use the “Upgrade” option in the installer in order to retain access to your existing settings and data.
– David Harris –
Popularity: 58%
Topics: privacy/security, Email | 2 Comments »
TNPC More on Security…
By DanB | May 18, 2007
TNPC Newsletter
by Dan Butler
17 May 2007
Last issue we talked about routers in general and default
passwords in particular. The advice to change your default
password carries over to everything you do. Bank accounts,
online accounts, email accounts, your ISP account and many more.
Always change the default password in any account. You should
also consider your PIN numbers as passwords and change those
defaults.
People have been asking me how secure credit and account
information is online. I still feel that online data is in
general more secure than offline data. Why? It is a numbers
game. How many people online know how to steal your data? A
bunch. How many people offline know how to steal your data? Many
many more.
The difference is volume. An online theft can contains thousands
of accounts at once.
The other major difference is how the stolen data is used.
When your card information is stolen offline it has a higher
chance of being used. Since you will not hear about the “major
security breach” it can be more difficult to figure out where
and when your data was stolen. Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 100%
Topics: privacy/security, Communication, TNPC News | 2 Comments »
Just How Widespread are Security Breaches?
By DanB | May 17, 2007
Here is some interesting data on what is happening to your private information. etiolated.org shows graphs and other statistical data on security breaches. You will find it interesting.
Popularity: 52%
Topics: privacy/security | No Comments »
Fingerprinted for Selling Your Music CD’s?
By DanB | May 8, 2007
Interesting article at ars technica on laws popping up around the U.S. concerning the sale of used music CD’s to Pawn shops and used music stores. It is really a bit depressing. I’m all for avoiding piracy of digital goods but at some point it just gets silly.
Read this article for yourself here
Popularity: 53%
Topics: Technology, privacy/security | 2 Comments »
TSA Loses Hard Drive…
By DanB | May 5, 2007
Story on how a portable hard drive with information on 100,000 people was gone missing at the TSA.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070505/D8OTUCJ80.html
How do these things keep happening? And why isn’t the first thing we here something like “Don’t worry. We keep that sort of data encrypted and the chances of an outsider are slim.” Why don’t we hear that? Rather the companies offer to pay for one of year of credit watch or credit protection.
If you have sensitive data on your hard drive do the right thing and keep it encrypted except for when you are actually using the data. It is the right thing to do.
Popularity: 52%
Topics: privacy/security | No Comments »
TNPC One crucial security tweak…
By DanB | May 3, 2007
TNPC Newsletter
by Dan Butler
02 May, 2007
Hello
We have entered the “interesting” weather time of year here in
Texas. Tornados, thunder storms, hail, high winds, and more. It
certainly keeps things interesting.
This issue an easy to implement security tip, a helpful website
indirectly related to your productivity, and a helpful Word for
Windows tweak, a book review.
Coming soon - a special teleseminar on Identity Theft. What
concerns and questions do you have for my special guest? Let me
know here:
Click here to share your question…
First go read and comment on the previous issue at the blog:
http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/category/newsletters/tnpc/
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Topics: Technology, TNPC News | 3 Comments »