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Security Essentials from Microsoft is a great anti-virus and anti-most-everything-else program. It detects and removes most Windows viruses, trojan horse programs, root kit viruses, and most other malware.
NOTE: Malware is an abbreviation for "malevolent software." Malware has many varieties, but all have the same purpose: to do damage to your computer and then (usually) ask you for money to fix it. This is a high tech version of kidnapping. It is illegal, but most malware creators never get caught.
I wrote about the free Security Essentials from Microsoft in the October 1, 2009 newsletter. It is free and does a good job. However, a new malevolent product is floating around with a similar name: Security Essentials 2010. Note the "2010" tacked onto the end of the name. The product from Microsoft has no date; it is simply called Security Essentials. The bad program written by unknown scam artists adds the date on the end: Security Essentials 2010.
As most U.S. genealogists already know, the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a census every ten years. The 2010 census will be conducted by mail over the next few weeks. However, be cautious when you receive an envelope that is marked, "Do Not Destroy, Official Document" and also states "2010 Congressional District Census," the letter uses a capital "C," the same as the Census Bureau.
It wasn't sent by the Census Bureau, and it isn't official. It is a solicitation for you to send money to a political party.
Scam Characteristics: Beginning March of this year the U.S. Census Bureau's will send out a short questionnaire to every household in the U.S. and Puerto Rico in an effort to collect important demographic data. As a citizen, you are required by law to respond to the 10 short questions. From April to July, those that haven't completed their census will receive a visit at their home address from a census taker.
I have written before about privacy concerns with social networking services such as FaceBook, Twitter, Google Buzz, and others. Now a group by the name of Forthehack has launched a website called Please Rob Me that hunts out tweets from people who are also using location-based services to tell the world that they're out of town, and then directs the world to go rob their house.
Forthehack publishes a listing all the empty homes that are available to be robbed by publishing a live feed of those Foursquare players who automatically post location updates to Twitter.
This is a quick "heads up" notice of a new scam email message that is floating around. For years, scammers have tried to get you to click on a link and reveal your banking user name and password. However, the latest such messages have added a new wrinkle.
It all starts when a user receives a 'notice' to their email account. The message then claims that there has been a request issued by the bank for the user to reset their password. That is the same as millions of other scam messages that have been sent over the years.
Next comes the new hook line: "If you didn't request that your password be reset, please follow the instructions below to cancel your request."
File this one under "urban legends." For years, people have sent me stories they found on the Internet, claiming that the ancestor of some politician was a horse thief and a train robber. In years past, the claim was for ancestors of Al Gore or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or Stephane Dion (the former leader of Canada's Liberal Party) or Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska (who was convicted a while ago on seven felony counts of violation of ethics laws) or others. I must have received dozens of the these messages since I started publishing this newsletter 14 years ago, and I received one more today. The latest story making the rounds claims that Congressman Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Sometimes a picture accompanies the email message.
There is only one problem: the stories are fictitious. In fact, I'd bet money that Congressman Harry Reid never had a great-great uncle named Remus. Admittedly, I haven't researched that myself, but I'd consider it strange if Harry Reid, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton all had uncles named Remus and if all of these uncles with the same first name had been hanged.
Ah, the life of a Scottish baron is for me. And it is so easy to become a Baron. All you need is money!
According to a web site that claims to sell Scottish titles:
Scottish barons, depending upon their inclination, often take an active part in the affairs of their barony. One baron has recently helped towards the restoration of the village hall and War Memorial. Another baron has recently endowed an annual prize for the best student at the local agricultural college.
There is no typical profile of the modern baron. Many barons have purchased their baronies to cement their family ties with Scotland. Others because of their keen interest in Scottish history and some because they wanted to treat themselves to something unique.
This has nothing to do with genealogy. However, it is an important topic and one that I think should be widely distributed to computer users everywhere. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone that you think will benefit.
Have you seen those ads for various "work from home" offers? Many of them show a smiling man or woman leaning up against a luxury automobile, often parked in front of a mansion. Other, similar ads show people relaxing on a yacht while others simply show pictures of stacks of twenty dollar bills. The insinuation is that you can also have money, automobiles, mansions, and yachts if you sign up for this "deal." One problem, almost all of these offers are scams, designed to get your money.
Perhaps the most insidious are the ads promising that you can make a lot of money by posting information on Google. One problem: it doesn't work that way.
A false email claiming to be sent by the Social Security Administration is currently being circulated. The letter begins with "Dear Social Security Number And Card owner." It goes on to inform the reader that someone is illegally using their Social Security number and directs the victim to a phony website designed to look like the Social Security Administration's website.
Once on the website, the victim is asked to verify their identity by providing a Social Security number and financial information such as a credit card number, expiration date, and PIN number.
The "alert" is bogus and has one purpose: to steal your Social Security Number. Don't fall for this one.
In the past few weeks, I have received dozens of messages from many different people claiming that they "sent you photos on Tagged" or that they “sent you a private message on Tagged." Then these e-mail messages ask, "Want to see the photos?" or “Want to read the message?” I now receive four or five of these messages a day.
In most cases, I have never heard of these people, and I certainly couldn't care less about their pictures or their private messages. A quick search on Google produces the answers, however. It seems that Tagged is a questionable business that surreptitiously steals address books from people and sends e-mail messages to everyone in that address book. Someone apparently had my e-mail address in their address book when they visited Tagged.com, and my e-mail address was stolen and then used without the knowledge of the hapless victim.
"HCommerce: The Business of Hacking You," is as a documentary online video (sponsored by McAfee) in five segments posted every two weeks at www.stopHcommerce.com, which puts the focus on a family that lost $400,000 in a complex genealogy-related e-mail scam.
The Spears family of Portland, Oregon, lost about $400,000 when Janella Spears fell for the scam promising the lost fortune of a dead relative, J.B. Spears, in Africa. The documentary tells how Janella Spears, avidly interested in genealogy, was convinced the lost fortune of J.B. Spears was out there as the crime group going after her money even showed her a death certificate for him.
It feels like the Old West. Bandits are creating false trails to draw unsuspecting travelers into an ambush. No, this is not a John Wayne film at the local theater. It is a modern-day bandit, and the story is playing out in your computer.
PandaLabs said on Wednesday that "cyber-criminals" are setting up fake search engines all around the Internet. All of these engines direct any search you make to pages loaded up with malware. These modern bandits create false search engines to snare people looking for "swine flu" information, as well as any sort of celebrity gossip. You may see pop-up ads enticing you to use these "search engines." Once you go to these false search engines and click on any link, malware is downloaded to your computer. Much of the malware redirects you to porno sites.
Police are warning the public to be vigilant against the “Grandparent Scam,” also called the “Emergency Scam.” This scam has been around for years but seems to have become more popular in the past year or so.
The typical scenario for this fraud is a grandparent receives a phone call from a con-artist claiming to be one of his or her grandchildren. The caller says they are in some kind of trouble – usually a car accident, trying to return from a foreign country, or they need funds to pay bail – and need money immediately. The caller specifically asks the victim to not contact other relatives because the caller doesn't want to “get in trouble” with other family members. Wanting to help their grandchild, the victim sends money electronically, usually through a form of money transfer.
I found the following e-mail message in my "spam folder" today. First of all, I never heard of CommonWealth Bank and do not know where they are located. I am certain that I do not have an account there. Next, the message starts of with a greeting of "Dear customer" while I would have expected it to say "Dear Richard Eastman" or "Dear Mr. Eastman."
Finally, clicking on the link that is labeled "click here" took me to a web site that is NOT a part of Commonwealth Bank. It took me to a web address ending in ".ua" which means that the site is registered in the Ukraine although it might be physically located someplace else.
On October 17, I wrote an article about some "scareware" that I had encountered online. In short, I described a certain web site that lies to you in an attempt to sell you some worthless anti-virus software. The full article is still available at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/10/scam-an-online.html.
I was pleased to read today that the Federal Trade Commission got a court order to at least temporarily halt the "scareware" scheme.
This stuff should be outlawed. A certain web site lies to you in an attempt to sell you some worthless anti-virus software.
I recently visited a new web site I had not seen before. A pop-up window appeared and warned that my computer system might be infected with a virus. It asked if I wanted to perform a virus scan. I dislike pop-up ads and never buy anything from such obnoxious advertising methods. I clicked on "Cancel." The system seemingly ignored my cancel request and then appeared to launch a disk scan of my system. Three or four seconds later, the "disk scan" completed, and dire warnings appeared with lots of words in a bright red font. The pop-up was labeled as an "Online Windows security scanner," and it claimed that my computer was infected with viruses.
The Australian consumer watchdog is investigating 141 Australian websites suspected of scamming the public following an international sweep of the internet conducted by consumer protection agencies yesterday.
The suspicious sites include those providing genealogy/family history services, online DNA testing, lotteries, premium mobile services and arbitrage betting providers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.
Ninety-nine percent of the businesses that sell products and services to genealogists are legitimate companies that work hard at supplying the best products possible. This article will focus on the other 1%.
It seems that scam artists have been around forever in the world of genealogy. They existed centuries ago, and they exist today. I have written about a number of them in past newsletters, and you may encounter still more such scams if you use any modern Internet search engine.
As a convenience for newsletter readers, I am compiling a list of alleged genealogy scams. In short, this list will be updated as often as necessary and will contain the name and web site of each company that reportedly delivers less than what they advertise to the genealogy marketplace. Whenever possible, the listing will include a link to other web pages where the reader may find further details. These are the web sites and e-mail messages that generate the majority of messages that I receive from concerned newsletter readers.
Writing in the Ancestry.com blog, Mike Ward is warning other genealogists of fraudulent web sites posing as genealogy sites. These sites take your credit card information and provide little in return.
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