Day: February 23, 2004

“Pop Princess” by Rachel Cohn

“Pop Princess” by Rachel Cohn

As soon as I saw it on the stands, I picked it up. I really love the way Rachel Cohn writes. I am shortly going to be the parent of a teenage girl and I figure I need all the advance warning I can get. Rachel Cohn seems to have really good insights and I just loved her first two books, Gingerbread and The Steps.

Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted

I told my daughter that she had to read the Harry Potter book before she could see the matching movie. So she turned the tables on me and said that I had to read Ella Enchanted. I’ll be curious to see the movie.

Beware of email scams

Beware of email scams

This is just a public service reminder to be aware of internet scams.

I’ve had a few cute scams come through in the last six months and just got another one.

I’ve been in the software industry for over sixteen years and my last gig involved some work with both security and the web, so I tend to notice these scams.

As there’s no guarantee that all of you have my background, there are a couple of pointers I’d like to share:

1) If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2) If you are ever asked to give out personal information, particularly bank or credit card information and you don’t see a secured link (the little lock in the bottom left corner of your web browser), suspect fraud.

3) Any email asking you to help someone in a third world country obtain “lost” money is a scam.

4) Check the actual web address you’re going to when following links (You’ll see that in the bottom left when you’re “Connecting to” or “Transferring data from”). Be suspicious if the address a series of numbers instead of a readable name — it might be simply poor coding but it’s also a sure sign of hasty (and sloppy) work which is the hallmark of many of these scammers.

5) Be wary of anything out of the ordinary.

6) Keep your anti-virus software up to date, constantly. There are a lot of hackers out there who love nothing more than to get your email address and the address book of your friends and then use your email address to attack them (someone soon will figure out a way to masquerade as you in attempt to steal money from your friends — count on it).

In the same vein, if you get email that seems “strange” from one of your normal email contacts, ask them about it — they may not know that they’ve been hacked (I’ve seen that).

7) If you feel you are the victim of fraud or malicious spamming, contact the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and let them know — it’s up to us to police the internet.