Hat tip to Bruce Wagner for the image, visit his blog to read more
I am furious with Comcast.
I have many reasons, but this post will deal with their new policy of “redirecting” your searches.
Comcast has decided to redirect your searches if you type in something wrong or land on a not found page.
This is completely different then Google, Bing, MSN, or Yahoo Search,
which will show you a list of choices that may be close to what you were looking for or correcting your spelling.
Comcast actually hijacks your results and takes you straight to whatever site their little hijacking redirect DNS set up finds.
Which is how I ended up on a very ugly full blown PORN website.
Today I was working on a clients website and mistyped his name in,
it is a business site, and suddenly this horrible really ugly porn site takes over my browser!
I was shocked and totally angry when I realized Comcast was yet again redirecting my searches!
( I had opted out last week when they force launched this so called service on everyone.)
They sent out a notice telling customers they were “adding” this new service,
which is not a service at all, it is them taking over your search results!
I opted out that same day, but I have had problems with my
Comcast Internet Service now 18 days out of 30 in the last 5 weeks,
so every a phone tech tries to “reset me” guess what, I have to go and opt out again!!
“In the latest blow to DNS neutrality, Comcast is starting to redirect users to an ad-laden holding page when
they try to connect to nonexistent domains. I have just received an email from them to that effect, tried it, and lo and behold, indeed there is the ugly DNS hijack page
I have an 11 year old who practically lives on the computer. Him and I sit right next to each other while he is on it, but at his Dad’s house he takes a laptop into his room and goes on it. His Dad has Comcast and is not tech savvy at all. There is no way his Dad would even know to opt out of this DNS search hijacking scheme from Comcast.
Thanks Comcast for now making sure my 11 year and other kids accidentally find PORN sites when they are doing their homework or other activities online.
I called Comcast to tell them what happened and see what they have to say, but of course no one that works there has any idea what I am talking about. They passed me to 4 departments and everyone was clueless. The CS rep was asking me where I got the email from and how I heard of this and each one of them did not even listen to what I was trying to say and they told me it was just spam, for goodness sake get a clue.
Nice job Comcast, your own company does not even know what you did. Unbelievable, the 5th person and final person I ended up talking to said she was a Supervisor of the Internet dept and her name is Lana, number 30805, (little hint, always ask for their name and number, they all have a number.)
She told me I was being spammed, she has absolutely no idea what I was talking about, she talked to me like I was 3 years old and told me that they don’t have DNS redirecting and I was just getting spam and where did I get that email anyway!
Even when I gave them the opt-out Comcast url address, https://dns-opt-out.comcast.net/ she said it was not them!
Yipes. She then told me no one could help me, period, end of story. I said, there is not one person at Comcast who can help me? She said no, and then she said what is your account number, and it was nasty. I said goodbye on that note, who knows what they could do to mess me up further. My service is already a mess.
Wow, more great customer service by Comcast.
I speak at local schools about internet safety and keeping our kids safe online is such a problem, and now Comcast has completely compounded the problem in a huge way. Parents BEWARE of this DNS Redirect Service, (I choke on those words)
Please be sure to opt out of this so called “service”. This is not a “service” at all. The reason companies do this is so they can control where you are going and send you to their own ad pages and other sites, (yipes like PORN SITES). It is always all about money, not service, this entire section of Comcast has no where you can complain or contact anyone, and of course you have all seen how successful I was trying to talk to anyone who works in the Customer Service dept for Comcast.
Here are my step by step directions for making sure that you don’t let Comcast hijack your search results.
2. Find and write down your MAC address off your router somewhere so if Comcast resets you at any point you have it handy to opt out yet again.
Also if they ever change your modem , you will need to do this again.
Your MAC address is on the back of your modem ( not the wireless router if you have one) and looks like this:
Opt of Comcast Hijacking your DNS results!
3. Fill in the form
And please feel free to copy and paste this post anywhere you want.
I am sending letters to all the local papers so people who do not use the Internet like I do, will understand and be alerted to what Comcast is doing.
BYW- UPDATE- All day I kept getting hijacked and I kept trying to “opt out” again, and it kept telling me I already was, but I was not.
I discovered, (on my own of course because who am I going to call now?, No one even has the slightest idea what I am talking about at Comcast.) that I had to use a different email to opt out , since they changed my modem when they could not think of what else to do last week. If you get a new modem, you will have to redo the opt out. Also they 5 weeks and counting and Comcast still has not figured out why my entire neighbor keeps losing the Internet. Way to go Comcast!
I have been working online since 1999. I got started by doing public speaking on how to not get “scammed” online.
I have a special loathing for online scammers.
Online anyone can say they are an “expert”, they can make all kinds of claims of what they have done, and what they earn, and how do you know the difference?
I am going to give you a few tips and tools you can use to find out if the person you are considering hiring to help you is for real.
Recently I have had several clients who paid for SEO services from so called “experts” and they got burned.
If they had just done a little checking first, this would not have happened.
The first thing to check with any SEO expert or anyone promising you high traffic and instant profits, is to check their websites page ranking.
If they are a ZERO, then you just saved yourself from being scammed. If the site is a zero-3 and they say they are an expert, they obviously are not.
Here is a page rank checker you can bookmark and use. http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
Next find out what other websites they run.
Here you will often discover much interesting information about your potential scammer.
Things like fake testimonials and the same faces and same lies on all their scammy sites.
To find this information out,
All you need to do is go to Yahoo search and enter this:
linkdomain:abc.com -site:abc.com
of course changing the abc.com to whatever persons website you are researching.
This will show you all the domains associated with that persons business and IP, and you will also pull up any comments they left on blogs using that IP, and it really gives you a overview of the person you are considering investing your money with. They may have some things on a different IP, but you will still learn a huge amount about the person by doing this.
Be sure to start clicking on websites that you see listed, and you will soon spot the fakes and the scammers as you will start to see the same sales pitch and the same fake testimonials on various websites. You may see the same website design used over and over for various sites.
As you do this be sure to check the page ranking for some of the sites the so called SEO or Web Expert has worked on, and you will see if they can deliver the goods for you. Especially check out their own domain and page ranking that they have given you as their main business website. Also check their traffic, if it is a ZERO, you know they are scamming.
Don’t forget to Google their name! I suggest when you Google you add the words ,scam, rip off , fake, fraud after their name, why?, because anyone who has complained about them online will pop up for you in the results.
This itself can be a real eye opener.
I learned this the hard way after I bought a scooter online,(X-Treme Scooters) I checked out reviews, I checked out the manufacturer, and I thought I did due diligence, then when the scooter fell apart in the box and the company refused to refund me, I did a new search using the words “scam, fake, rip off and fraud” with the scooter name and there were hundreds of people who got ripped of just like me! I learned my lesson.
Look for the negative words first when checking something out online.
I actually helped other people not get ripped off by writing about this long and horrible scooter story ( it turned into a 4 month battle with the company.)
I wrote about it on eBay guides and a few other places online. Finally my credit card refunded me under the fraud category for this purchase.
Lesson learned.
Taking 30 minutes to do some checking can save you lots of heartache and the loss of your money down the road.
Finally I suggest you download a great tool I use called SEO toolbar. It has all the things built in I have mentioned above and you can just click the various things like page rank, traffic and whois and the yahoo link domain and see it all there.
You can download this tool here http://tools.seobook.com/seo-toolbar/
Also SEOBOOK is a great blog, packed with very helpful information.
Don’t forget to ask for “proof” from the experts.
Honest people have honest testimonials with people you can actually contact, not made up people or friends that you will see on all thier scammy websites over and over.
Honest people have real websites with real numbers and proof that you can check out for yourself.
These days everyone and their brother has decided to become an “Internet” expert, either Seo or Social Media or something else. Buyer beware, don’t get scammed and taken in by the rip off artists and frauds.
I hope I have stopped some of you from getting burned online.
Well my, my the oldest scam in the book has moved itself to the personals. I was able to experience this firsthand. I recently put my profile up on Yahoo Personals and I had a few people who contacted me. One person sent me his email and I emailed him at r.hall@yahoo.com ( if any of you want to send nasty emails to this scammer, feel free.) I was very suspicious when the profile of this so called guy named “Randy Hall” was suddenly removed from Yahoo. He said he had a daughter and was widowed.
I got an email back later that seemed a bit weird, especially when the guy did not talk about anything in his profile and
was calling me “dear”. That is weird, my hackles were up and I was highly suspicious.
Note to all women, that is so Nigerian scammer lingo. In all their scammy emails (you won the lotto, bank fake email in dire need, I am a solicitor…etc..) they talk like some British Baron from the 19th Century!
I sent him a curt and very short reply back asking for more details like where he lived and what did he do for a living and why did he take his profile down in only 2 days, and OMG, check out the phony idiotic email that came back.
I started laughing when I read it and immediately knew my instincts were correct-SCAMMER!- I will post his scam email here so hopefully when other 13 year olds or disgusting old crooks sitting in a room in Nigeria try to pull this crap on another person , they will know they are being set up by one of the oldest scams in the book.
Read the letter and I will then explain to you how the old Nigeria scam works.
Hi Linda
Wow, what a letter! I wasn’t sure if I’d hear from you. I’m so glad I did. First, thank you for the compliments. I really appreciate all the nice things you said and the fact that you’re still willing to give me a try.It’s really hard to find a person that is interested in a possible long term relationship and not just a one night stand. I am looking for a best friend and partner. I don’t hang out in bars or date just anyone. I never thought I’d try online dating but here I am. ..Linda , I already let you know that you’re a truly genuine and open person…I am very open, honest and caring….My late Mom was from Kansas and My dad was from, West Africa cos he was brought up from Nigeria … they both meet in Rome , ITALY , where i grow up and they instilled many wonderful values in me.My Late mom raised me to be fighter and always come out on top and that is what i plan on doing.I would be 39 years by Jan 28th . My Dear Linda , am still having Difficult with my laptop for me to send more Pictures of me to you , hope this wont stop us from talking here and carrying the conversation to High level ..I am also a happy, outgoing person..I love to laugh and spend time with friends..Can you tell me how your day went?? what do you normally do at your Leisure time ??? .my favorite activities are basically anything to do with being outdoors..camping is one of my favorite things to do and also trying my hand at new things and I want you to know more about me ..first of all,I have now lost my mother and only have my father. my Late mother and father were married for 43 years and I think that is truly wonderful thing and I want to let you Know that i relocate from Elsmore ,Kansas to Powell St, San Francisco anytime from now which I let you know that i just got a 1story 10 home yesterday .I want this also very much..although my life is full of love , there is the most important element of life that is missing from mine..my life companion.this person must be sincere, honest, understanding and family oriented.I also want someone that is always serious all the time…that is able to just “have fun” and balance this with responsibility..someone that is adventurous,loves the outdoors and laughing…I want someone that can appreciate quality in life but also the most simplistic things in life., but I want to share my life with someone..I do not date a lot because I do not enjoy going out with so many different people….when I do go out on a date it is only because I am quite attracted to that person (in all aspects…not just physically), I think it is of extreme importance to be on the same levels with someone you are to share your life with.i.e intellect, sense of humor and also similar goals in life.these things all add up to admiration, loyalty and friendship..I would like to find this so that I may begin the second journey of my life in which i let you know i my profile so please ask me whatever you would like…I think you are someone that is seeking the same as I and so I would love to pursue this friendship with you to see what happens…only if, at the very least, we would both have gained a great love.of course, hopefully more…;-)..Linda , Let’s I forget , I wanna let you Know That I would be Living the state for Now cos i heard a Called from The Dr that’s in charge of My dad sickness from The Hospital there In Nigeria That My dad is not really good that he want to see me ..I was so shock when I heard That My dad is not good and Been The Only child of My dad i think i need to see Him cos he’s the one left for me now ..To cut this short ,I am On My way to Nigeria Probably In the next 8 – 12hrs cos I have book my plane . so don’t hesitate to mail me and I will reply you back …..But Most especially i will soon be back to state soon I look forward to hearing from you again soon..Please feel free to say anything and I would Like to know know thing about you like :
What are you doing for Living ??
What do you seek for in a relationship?
What sort of relationship you seek for?
What are the basic qualities you seek for in a man?
What interests you to me ?
What do you do for fun?
Do you like public intimacy?
How long have you been single?
What’s being single like?
How do you treat your man?
Why do you need a man?
Can you love this me even though you continue talking to me ???
What is love to you?Would you hit your man for any reasons?
Got to go now and Hope to read from you soon
Randy
YUCK!!! Here are the people who are talking to you.
Nigerian Romeo Boiler Room Rip Off Scam
There are tons of “tells” in this email.
Bad grammar and spelling are usually the first giveaway in all scammer emails.
For instance the scammers often misspell stupid words. A good example of this is the fake bank alerts email I recently got that had in the subject line this, ” your accuont will be locked.”
I delete about at least 10 fake Paypal, eBay and bank alerts a day. A popular one recently has been “buyer dispute” from eBay, since I have not used eBay in about 3 years that was an obvious one for me to catch.
Here is the Nigerian Scam in a nutshell. It is called 419 or Advanced Fee Fraud.
I have included some information about some other common online scams for your protection.
Please never send any money to strangers, never login to any place through an email, always find the real bank online or login to eBay or Paypal at their own websites.
Most companies now accept these fake emails by forwarding them to “spoof@—–” ebay, paypal, Citibank, whatever place you supposedly got the fake email from. This helps them keep track of them too.
Be careful out there. The internet is literally open to the entire world and there are many evil people waiting to prey on you and this latest personal scam is a new low of these disgusting crooks!
1. Nigerian Letter Scam
This is probably one of the best known online scams but it still manages to get people to part with their hard earned money. Invariably you receive an e-mail, usually written in capital letters and starts out like this:
“DEAR SIR/MADAM: I REPRESENT THE RECENTLY DEPOSED MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE FOR NIGERIA, WHO HAS EMBEZZLED 30 MILLION DOLLARS FROM HIS STARVING COUNTRYMEN AND NOW NEEDS TO GET IT OUT OF THE COUNTRY…”
The letter says the scammers are seeking an accomplice who will transfer the funds into their account for a cut of the total–usually around 30 percent. You will be asked to travel overseas to meet with the scammers and complete the necessary paperwork. But before the transaction can be finalized, you must pay thousands of dollars in “taxes,” “attorney costs,” “bribes,” or other advance fees.
However, there is no minister or money other than the money you paid in advance. Victims who travel overseas may find themselves physically threatened and not allowed to leave until they cough up the cash. This online scam is also referred as Nigerian 419 Letter, where the 419 stands for the section of Nigeria’s penal code that this online scam violates.
2. Lottery Scams
In this online scam you will receive an email informing you that you have won a lottery or that the XYZ lottery company went into a draw for the distribution of unclaimed money and your email address was selected. You will be asked to make a payment, often in cash, for the money to be released and sent to you. Unfortunately, there is no money and you never hear from the XYZ company again.
Remember, if you have not purchased a lottery ticket it is unlikely that you could have won anything specially if you need to pay to claim it. Lottery companies and agencies do not work that way.
3. Online Auctions
Unfortunately, as online auctions sites have increased in popularity so have the online scams associated with auction sites. Here the scammers place fictitious products for sale and once the auction is over, the highest bidder pays for the product which he/she never receives it. These online scammers are extremely difficult to trace. However, most auction sites have a strict rule and once a scammer is identified, they can no longer use the site.
Another form of this online scam is seek out potential buyers through auction sites. The scammers then send them an email informing them that they can offer them the product the buyer is trying to buy on the auction site for less money. If you fall prey to this online scam, you can say bye to your money and you will never see the product.
4. Online Investments
This is one of the most high risk, high return and popular scheme on the internet. Most of these are scam where you’ll have the operator running away with you investment before you knew it.
A lot of these schemes are also what is commonly known as “Ponzi scheme” where early investors are paid high returns to entice more funds to flow in. Basically, in this scheme investors are paid using the funds that it is attracting until such time it collapse under its out flow of funds. The victims are usually the later investors.
Click on “Ponzi scheme” for more info. One of the example of such scheme that is still operating is the Swiss Cash Fund (1948). Following are some related links:
One can still make some good returns in online investments as long as the pay out is not unbelievably high. Usually, a return of between 5% – 7% is a good measurement that it may be a legitimate concern.
The GOLDEN RULE to follow when hunting for opportunity on the internet is to be vigilent and always do your research and due diligence checks to ensure that the opportunity is a sustainable entity. If you are one of those high risk takers — do it with your extra, never, NEVER borrow to take a risk!
UPDATE 11-11-09
Since I wrote this article, so many people have contacted me about this problem.
Many people have fallen prey to these tactics.
This is not just on Yahoo Personals or Match.com or Catholic and Christian Dating Websites, this is happening on all kinds of personal dating ad websites everywhere.
Just read the comments and you can see how large this is.
Please remember, NEVER send money to someone you meet online, never.
This is one of the worst things you can fall for.
These people do not have phone numbers, you can never speak with them, and if you do, make sure you get a call back number, because they may hire someone to call you. This scam takes in MILLIONS of dollars every year.
This scam runs in so many forms it is hard to believe.
Tell your friends and please let the sites you have been betrayed on know what is happening.
Someone needs to guard the gates a bit more carefully. This is a tragic scam that hurts millions of people each year.
UPDATE 12-2-09
Many of you would like to have these bogus photos posted. Please right click and save the images to your desktop and then email them to me also if any of you would like to forward me these fake emails and letters I will post them on this blog. Many of you found me through the fake letter I posted, so lets help other people and bust these scumbags!
Email me at scammerphotos @ askmepc.com
Spam is the scourge of the Internet! According to recent statistics, an incredible 75-80% of all email can be classified as Spam!
The dictionary defines Spam simply as “unsolicited email,” but it’s much worse than that.
It is a direct invasion into your privacy. Just like junk snail-mail, junk email takes up space in your mailbox , wastes your time and is a general nuisance.
How did they get my email address? How can I tell if this is a legitimate email? How do they know my name or my frineds name and use it in the subject line?
Well, the bad news is that once your email is posted anywhere public on the web, your address becomes fair game for all.
Spammers are exceptionally creative when it comes to getting information they know that people don’t want them to have.
The ingenious use of special programs and “harvesting robots” sniff out thousands of websites.
They collect any and all email addresses they find, including yours.
Unfortunately, this includes legitimate, often necessary lists, like any parent volunteer lists or school activities with contact information posted on a website.
Any sports team lists, any type of hobby forums or newsgroups where you allow your email to be public will place you at risk.
Even your job may post employee emails somewhere that is publicly accessible.
People who create Spam lists hunt for all these options and more.
They plan to exploit your email address as much as possible.
Spammers were cunning enough realize how valuable a list of legitimate email addresses are an asset simply waiting to be sold!
They stop at nothing to find every possible way to root out information.
A Spammer typically sells multiple lists of email addresses. Once your email address is on one list, it is often merged with others and resold repeatedly.
In the worst case, your email becomes virtually impossible to remove.
Often changing your email is your only recourse.
But until they begin receiving the dreaded Spam, most people have no clue that their addresses have been found, harvested and sold.
One rule used to be never opt out of any email you got, but since the can-spam act went into effect it would appear to have had some effect in this area.
I started actually using the opt out in much of the spam I receive and it seems to be reducing my spam by about 60%, so I’m not sure if this old rule still applies.
When You Sign Up For Anything, Read The Privacy Policy!
This is your best chance to legitimately opt-out of mailings.
Often when you sign up at a website on the Internet or enter contests, at the end of the sign up, there will be a box allowing you to “opt out” of further emails or selling your email address to “interested parties”
This is a legitimate way to keep down your Spam.
Unfortunately those cunning Spammers realize many people have no idea if they signed up , or where they have been, so they send fake “opt out, opt in” emails asking you to click the link to do either.
Once you reply to this email, the Spammer learns:
Your email is live and valid
You open and read Spam
You follow instructions…such as ‘click this to be removed’.
Dictionary Attack
How they use a mass attack to find you.
Another tactic of Spammers is the Dictionary Attack
Massive amounts of Spam are sent to random addresses from a targeted domain.
Automated software will generate every combination of a name, such as jjones@____, jjones1@___, jjones2@___ etc.
The hope is that some of it -even a small percentage- gets through to valid addresses.
Spammers wait to get a ‘bounced message,’ or ‘error message’ that says the email isn’t valid.
When that doesn’t happen guess what-your address has just been just been “confirmed live” and will be added to their email list, which they will sell for money.
Why doesn’t blocking this junk email with your email message settings stop this?
Because Spammers use fake names and fake return addresses, and they rarely use the same ones twice.
Prevent Spam!
Get multiple email addresses!
Paid providers allow you multiple addresses.
Get two, three or even four addresses.
(Some people don’t even know this is available from your provider.)
Have a ‘Spam’ address for anticipated Spam mail.
Whenever you are asked to provide an email, always give out your alternate “Spam” email address.
I have one for pure Spam, like contests, product advertising and samples, general information websites, like
Real estate or home improvement sites.
Then I have an email for my purchases on the web.
Then I have an email for business only.
Have one for friends.
If having multiple emails is not an option or provided for you, two large reputable companies offer free email addresses.
Check out yahoo mail or Google has gmail. Both free and very good.
Or you can do a search for “free email account” to find hundreds of other choices.
They’re offered free to get you and your wallet to their website and their advertisers.
Why Do I Need Different Email Accounts?
To keep your legitimate, live address from falling into the hands of unscrupulous Spammers.
As you find interesting Internet sites, appealing offers or contests you want to enter, don’t use your primary email address.
When your children sign up at websites like
Use a secondary account anytime you give your email address to anyone other then family and friends.
Limit your primary email to personal or business correspondence.
Use a second or third or fourth email address for any public forums or venues
Ask family and friends to not give out your email and to not or sign you up or refer you for anything online.
(Just like they wouldn’t give out your telephone number.)
Otherwise, you will join the ranks of people wasting time opening Spam.
A quick word here on forwarding email to mass/bulk addresses:
Please don’t do it!
Constant forwarding clutters up peoples Inbox, and it is intrusive. Remember that Spammers siphon off addresses from “group” emails.
Beware of chain letters! Rumors, angel blessings, jokes, and please check out your facts before sending out again!
Break the cycle and check www.snopes.com first!!
Guess where else Spammers collect address? You got it- from all those relentless chain letters.
If any of these fall into a Spammers hand you can forget about avoiding bad luck, you just found it!
Instead of missing out on some great opportunity if you don’t forward a chain letter to ten of your friends, (thus giving out ten live addresses)
those annoying chain letters circulating the Internet could be cursing you with an Inboxstuffed with Spam!
Recently I had to create yet another email address for friends who insist on mass forwarding me and others every rumor.
Such as the one that said your cell phone number needs to go on the “do not call” list, (this is false) mass prayers, chain letters, (where I surely should be dead by now for all the ones I have deleted!) angel blessings , poems, jokes, cute photos of animals and children that come their way.
Check out common email ‘urban legends’ like this one first!!!
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Thousand Dollar Bill from Microsoft or anywhere else!
Status: False.
Origins: No, you’re not going to be receiving money, merchandise, or free trips from Bill Gates (or anyone else), no matter how many people you forward this message to.
Tracing all recipients of an e-mail message is not yet technically possible, and even if it were, Bill Gates certainly wouldn’t be testing software that performed such tracking by blindly sending messages out to the Internet with a promise of financial reward to the recipients.
First and foremost, e-mail tracking programs do not exist. That folks continue to fall for myriad varieties of these leg-pulls is in part attributable to netizens having caught so many references to these non-existent programs that the new hoax is able to continue building on an already partially-constructed platform of belief.
(As with every other technological issue, the statement “e-mail tracking programs do not exist” becomes less and less true every day. It is possible in some cases to determine who has read a particular mail message, but there is no method of doing so that will work with all the myriad of e-mail programs out there or keep track of who forwarded the message to whom.)
Once again, e-mail tracing programs do not exist. Any “get something free” come-on or “help a sick kid” appeal which specifies an invisible program is keeping track of who received an e-mail and who it was then sent to is a hoax. Any such note. No exceptions. Not even ones not yet listed on this page.
Likewise, missives which offer no explanation of how the e-mails are being tallied are also hoaxes. Unless you are e-mailing a copy to a central tabulating point every time something is forwarded on, nothing is being counted, traced, tracked, or any other verb that would result in you getting free cargo pants from the GAP or inspiring an unnamed millionaire to donate just a little bit more towards the care of an injured child.
With all that said, we can begin looking at the various forms this jape has so far taken. And it’s going to be a long, strange journey indeed.
The following message began circulating on the Internet around 21 November 1997: ( and I just got this from someone Dec 2007!)
Hello everybody,
My name is Bill Gates. I have just written up an e-mail tracing program that traces everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. I am experimenting with this and I need your help. Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 1000 people everyone on the list will receive $1000 at my expense. Enjoy.
Your friend,
Bill Gates
So please people , stop the madness!!
Check www.snopes.com before forwarding all these wacky crazy and mostly untrue emails!
Never add your name to mass group mailings.
Never send out a group mailing with all your friends’ emails listed in the CC: at the top.
Respect others right to privacy by not giving out their email in mass emails
If you find something worth passing on, something that good, email it to one person at a time using the BCC feature all email programs offer.
HOW TO USE BLIND CARBON COPY OR BCC
(directions for Microsoft Outlook)
To send an e-mail message
1. On the toolbar, click the Create Mail button.
2. In the To or Cc boxes, type the e-mail name of each recipient, separating names with a comma or a semicolon ( ; ).
To add e-mail names from the Address Book, click the book icon in the New Message window next to To, Cc, and Bcc, and then select names.
To use the BCC box, on the View Menu, select All Headers
3. In the Subject box, type a message title.
4. Type your message, and then click Send on the toolbar.
This will allow you to still send your mass emails, while respecting the right to privacy and protecting all your recipients email addresses.
All my suggestions will certainly help protect you and cut down on your Spam. Unfortunately, Spammers are often criminals, and they are getting more sophisticated at finding ways into your Inbox
If you are still inundated with Spam, change your email address. Start over fresh, armed with this new prevention.
One more tip if you have Outlook.
How to block email.
Click on the spam email (don’t open it)
Next go up to your toolbar and click message, in the drop down box you will see a choice of
“block sender”. Click that and proceed. After this anyone with that email will go into your trash automatically.
Since spammer use fake email addresses, I am not sure how much it actually cuts down on spam-but I
will tell you this, it makes me feel better when I block them!
Be cautious when giving out your email address.
Email is a wonderful way to contact others and keep in touch. Be safe and enjoy!
In my house we have had a Nintendo Wii for one year now. It is my 10 year old’s favorite electronic item. I have enjoyed it too. Him and I play Wii Sport, Mario Brothers, and some other games he has. I have always been a gamer and I started with video games back in the Frogger, Pacman Era!
I have played video games competitively with all my kids since they were little. ( Sonic, Mario Brothers, Star Wars, Zelda etc.) I am going to buy Wii fit after Christmas with hopes of helping me break from being on the computer all day. We have been playing Animal Crossing together for about 2 years now. So when Animal Crossing City Folk with WiiSpeak came out, I knew we were going to buy it, even though I have my reservations.
Nintendo’s group voice chat peripheral, WiiSpeak, was released in November for $29.99 or in a bundle with Animal Crossing: City Folk for $69.99. The chat function for City Folk is immediately accessible for any players that have registered one another as friends. Animal Crossing fans will be able to interact through voice with a whole room full of people. Wii Speak acts as a large microphone that players set down on a surface with no worries of microphones or headphones. Every new Wii Speak peripheral includes a code for the download of the new Wii Speak Channel that release by the end of the year. People will have the ability to chat worldwide with any registered Wii system friend. While users chat, they will see a Mii representation of themselves on the TV screen. (if they pick the Mii instead of their Animal Crossing character.)
Parents will also have the option to set controls on the device through the Wii, limiting their children’s access to Wii Speak. (I have not seen this yet and I don’t think most parents even know close to what I do about these games) I did an online search for explict directions on how to use this feature and I have not found them.
My son thew away the small manual before I realized it and so I will need to try this and see how effective it actually is. From what I gather it only allows you to set when they can play and those type of controls. I tried to call Nintendo but they were closed. I will update this section tomorrow.
When we set up the Wii speak, I was worried. There is something creepy to me about my 10 year old being able to talk to anyone from around the world while playing the beloved game Animal Crossings new version City Folk. My worries are well founded. I have been speaking on Internet safety for kids for 8 years now at schools. I cover how to stay safe while social networking online, like myspace and facebook. Now there are just so many more that it is hard to keep up. My son is also active on YouTube and uploads videos of Animal Crossing City Folk and a few other random videos, but never anything with his name or face. This is one of the places he meets other Animal Crossing players. Most of them have several websites they use online too. Such as the official animal crossing website here (Animal Community). I have trained all my children to be very careful online especially.
Your child connects the Wii speak and the wireless connection takes them out to the Internet. At this point they need a friend code to add other players into their friends list. Once they get into one town, other people can come and they all start to exchange friend codes which allow everyone go and visit each other in their towns. The way this works is they open their gates, and allow up to 3 other players into their town, or they can go and visit other peoples town. The maxium amount of players allowed in one town is 4, which includes the owner. Any of the players who have the Will Speak can just sit there and talk to each other. So far in the last two weeks my son has only met one other person his age. Everyone else has averaged about 15-19 years old and oddly enough only one lady. ( Even though the T.V commercial shows women playing this.) He is pretty savvy kid safety wise and has already blocked a few questionable people. After the first day of sitting with him while he played this, I told him he can only use the Wii Speak when I am with him in the room. The potential for this to go bad for your child is HUGE! Those parents who not pay attention to what thier kids are doing, I beg you to please sit with your children or be nearby where you can hear the conversations. Right now as I am writing this , my son is talking to 3 other teenagers and one of them has a brother in the background watching T.V and yelling like a idiot. ( typical teenage stuff)
Since I have been with my son each time he plays this, I actually know who these kids are and how they behave online ( for now at least.) One aspect that is kinda cool is they are from all over the country and that is interesting to a point. My son texts this message to each person as they come into his town, “No swearing or foul language .” So far most of them seem to be honoring that. One teenager started swearing and my son asked him not to and the kid said “whatever” and my son told him I am only 10 and my Mom is with me, and then took the guy off his friend list. The guy came back later and said he was sorry and actually apologized to me through the speaker system.
This is my advice to all parents with kids under high school age, pay attention to this system! There is no trace left of these conversations, if any type of predator or inappropriate person targets your child you can’t track it back online or through a phone bill.
As a person who is always warning about how to keep our children safe this sends a chill through me. As a game player , I find it really cool and fun. Some of the things player do in the town is play tag, serve each other food, trade items, give each other items, visit each others “houses” and show off crazy items and masks and all kinds of cool fun stuff. So where is the happy medium? This game has kept my son amused for long stretches of time and that can actually be a bad thing. I can see this affecting kids in the same way being online talking to other people has caused numerous problems for adults who would rather be online in an alternate reality, then dealing with their own life. I cannot emphasize how much I hope as a parent you will keep an eye on this. I feel the same way about YouTube. It is fun, I use it myself for training videos and work. But there is a dark side of ugly and scary videos that get posted and scary people with an agenda placing their kind of thinking out there for your child to watch. There is so much being thrown at our children right now and we need to stay aware and not ignore what they are doing. Since the Internet is my business, I am very aware of what is going on and my biggest concern are for that are playing unsupervised. We simply must pay attention to what exactly our kids are doing. Please teach your children to come to you when they are going to use WiiSpeak. I would not reccomend that you allow this game to be played in their bedrooms. Learn to play some of these games with them. It means the world to them and you may even find yourself having fun , I know I do. Safety online and in this new wireless world requires viglance from us as thier parents. It is our job to teach them how to stay safe.
I have used all three of these for over 6 years now and I keep reccommending them to people, why?
Why 3 programs? I have 4 computers running all the time at my house, and this has
allowed me to learn about all kinds of nasty spyware. When I ran only Spybot, a few things slipped by, then I added Ad-Aware and Spybot caught a few things that Ad-Aware missed, then I added Avast and now I never get infected. My main program that runs 24/7 is Avast. I love their little alarm that goes off if you
encounter something potentially dangerous, or your kids are on a site trying to download something unsafe.
As a parent this allows you to actually prevent it from happening.
I discovered the other two are great for scans and helping me see what is going on with my
system. Sometimes they find things that I did not even know where there.
It seems like since I got vigilant with Avast and have kept up with my monthly scans, life has
gone much smoother on the spyware front.
Those scums who create it and infect your computer range from prankster level to dangerous
criminals stealing your personal information.
If money is tight, just use the free versions of all three of these programs.
I have for years and they are still doing a great job!
(go to home page and you will see the FREE HOME EDITION)
Protect your entire home network with the competitively priced avast Professional Family Pack.Buy it here today! Click Here
Get Safe downloads online at Download.com
Avast Home Use Edition FREE version!
Avast will ask you to register after the demo period, but the home
version is always free. They send you a registration number once a year.
For the paid professional version. It only costs 39.95 and is by far the best program I have found.
Since I started using it over 4 years ago none of my 6 computers have gone down with spyware
problems. Before that I had tons of problems, since my kids are very active online and downloaded tons of music and free screensavers, ( very bad idea period.) We had spyware toolbars and some really nasty stuff that took me forever to remove!
They have a Mac Version too now, (not that Mac’s get many infections in this area)
A great resource for internet safety issues is WiredSafety.org
WiredSafety provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages. We handle cases of cyberabuse ranging from identity and credential theft, online fraud and cyberstalking, to hacking and malicious code attacks.
NetLingo.com – The Internet Dictionary with thousands of terms about the online world of business, technology & communication
Private online searching-
Privacy on the Net- I found a neat search tool that you can use as an alternative for your searches.
It is something we all need to be aware of and not bury our heads in the ground. Check out these guys if you want to stay a bit more anonymous while you do your stuff online.
Matt Cutts, a software engineer at Google since January 2000, used to work for the National Security Agency.
Keyhole, the satellite imaging company that Google acquired in October 2004, was funded by the CIA.
“We are moving to a Google that knows more about you.” – Google CEO Eric Schmidt, February 9, 2005 Since 2000, Google has recorded your search terms, the date-time of each search, the globally-unique ID in your cookie (it expires in 2038), and your IP address. This information is available to governments on request. If your favorite site features a Google search box, ask them to install their own local site search. They could also use our site search for webmasters, which shows the same results without the tracking.
Since 2000, Google has recorded your search terms, the date-time of each search, the globally-unique ID in your cookie (it expires in 2038), and your IP address. This information is available to governments on request. If your favorite site features a Google search box, ask them to install their own local site search. They could also use our 
