Stumbling Toward Enlightenment

By Christina DesMarais, Techlicious

Facebook now has a billion users, with more than half of those people signing on every month. Unfortunately, crooks and scammers are also part of the social network’s population—they figure at least a certain percentage of users will fall for their shenanigans.

According to Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at the security firm Sophos, the number of Facebook scams in play seems to be holding steady. And while Facebook is trying to tackle the problem, the scammers don’t give up easily when they can profit off unsuspecting people.

How do you spot a Facebook scam? Be wary of unlikely promises, Wisniewski says.

“No one is giving away an iPad to every person who fills out a survey and you aren’t likely the specially chosen winner of the Nokia, Microsoft or Coca-Cola lottery, because there isn’t one,” he says. “The best practice is to avoid clicking links on Facebook at all. It is generally safe to click links from trusted pages of companies, bands and groups you like, but avoid clicking links from your friends’ walls and chat messages.”

Here are popular Facebook scams you should watch out for.

Change your Facebook profile color
This “color changer v1.3” is actually a survey scam application, and you definitely don’t want to give it access to your Facebook account. It promises to let you change your Facebook profile color to something other than blue. If you click on the link, it asks you to “like” the app before it even does anything for you, and if you click on “continue” you’ll land at an app permission page. If you authorize the app to access your Facebook account it will send spam messages to all your friends. Not only that, if you actually click to install the app, it won’t give it to you until you fill out a survey.

Free gift card or voucher
If somebody on Facebook tells you Costco, McDonald’s, Starbucks or any other company is giving away vouchers or gift cards if only you invite your friends to the offer or click on a link—don’t believe it. If you do, you’ll end up spamming all your contacts with bogus messages about the fake offer, be asked to participate in surveys or prodded to complete “reward offers” in which you may be asked for personal information. If you supply your name, address, phone number or other things to these dishonest marketers, they can sell your data to others as well as harass you via non-Facebook media.

Support a wounded soldier
Sophos recently reported that a popular post making its way through Facebook that purports to support wounded soldiers is, in fact, a hoax. The text of the post is a variation of the following:

When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take ONE CARD and SEND it to this address: A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20307-5001. If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these soldiers could get to bring up their spirits! Feel free to repost. This is a wonderful thing to do !!

While idea seems like a good one, any cards sent in this manner will never reach an American soldier. According to hoax-busting site Snopes.com, the U.S. Mail will not deliver any letters or packages addressed to “Any soldier” or “Any wounded soldier” at Walter Reed, especially since Walter Reed closed its doors in 2011.

If you really want to send holiday mail to an unnamed service member, use the legitimate address found here.

Enticing videos or photos
This one can come through a Facebook post or email message. Either way, if someone invites you to check out a photo or video of something you just won’t believe — know that there’s most likely something nefarious waiting for you on the other side the link.

For instance, people who click on a link titled “Look what this girl wore at the beach in front of thousands of people!” will actually end up at what looks like a video feed, but if you click on it you’ll get a message saying you need to update your YouTube player. People who choose to install it actually are downloading malware to their computers. At the same time, hidden code will cause a Facebook “like” to appear on your Timeline, which will only encourage your friends who see it to also click on the bad video or photo lure.

A variation on this scam sends what looks like a Facebook notification to your email account, telling you that one of your friends tagged you in a new photo. If you’re curious and click on the attached ZIP file you will effectively unleash malware that will give hackers the keys to your Windows computer.

See who’s viewing your profile
This one claims to be able to tell you who is looking at your Facebook information, or as the scammers put it, “spying at your profile.” If you click on the link, you first have to “like” the app, which, again, only encourages your friends to click on the same bad link. From there, you’ll be asked to give the app permission to access your Facebook account. If you do so, not only will everyone on your friend list get a spam message from you, you’ll also be prompted to take various surveys — all without ever receiving information about who’s been spying on you.

Here’s what Facebook itself says about this popular scam:
Facebook does not provide a functionality that enables you to track who is viewing your timeline, or parts of your timeline, such as your photos. Third party applications also cannot provide this functionality. Applications that claim to give you this ability will be removed from Facebook for violating policy. You can report applications that provide untrustworthy experiences.

Copyright and privacy rights protection hoax
Recently there’s been a meme floating around Facebook that tells users that posting a particular legal notice to their Facebook wall allows them to retain the copyright of any content they post on the site as well as protect their rights to privacy. About this hoax Facebook says:
There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users’ information or the content they post to the site. This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been.

What to do if you get suckered
If, for some reason, you fall for one if these scams, make sure to remove any references to it from your profile and delete any bad app that has attached itself to your Facebook account. Do that by going to the small arrow on the top right of your screen, then Account Settings > Apps. Also, check whether you may have unknowingly “Liked” bogus sites or pages by going to your Timeline and clicking your “Likes” icon at the top of the page. Any Likes you don’t recognize? Unlike them.

For more information about the various ways you can get scammed on Facebook, visit the social network’s scam page.

by Michelle Corteggiano

Social bios are big news these days! In fact, consistently, the second most visited page on my blog is my “About me” page.

The bottom line is this; people love to “peek behind the curtain” without you knowing so they can get to know who you are. A good bio is key to attracting the right kind of people to you and your brand. So how do you do it? How do you conquer the big bad blank white page and turn it into something so intriguing that people are knocking down your door to get to know you?

8 Easy Steps:

1. Jot down your interests, hobbies, activities, philosophies you live by, favorite quotes, quirky personality traits, accomplishments, awards etc. on a notepad.
2. From those choose 3 – 4 of your most attractive personal traits. Choose the ones that other people often use to describe you.
3. Choose 3-4 business traits that you feel best describe your professional persona.
4. At this point, begin writing and don’t let the paper scare you. Remember who knows you better than you? Start the draft by conversing about yourself as you would to someone sitting across the coffee table from you. By doing this, your bio will flow very smoothly and the person reading it will feel like you are talking specifically to them.Let your personality shine through and don’t be scared to add some humor. Be fun, be remarkable, be social and most of all “Be As You Are”!
   Side note: I chose to make a very distinct separation between personal and business in my bio. I was finding it difficult to merge the two without it sounding weird and this did the trick.
5. Now that your rough draft is done it’s time to go back and “fluff” it. What I mean by this is… Take a run through the professional areas and check for keywords. Keywords are words that people may type into a search looking for what you have to offer. Use keywords related to your industry often but, make sure they flow smoothly and don’t look like they were thrown in there just to be there.
6. Now, ask a couple of friends to proof read it to you and give you feedback. What you want to accomplish here is twofold. First, you want them to feel like they hear your voice when they are reading it and second, there is a good chance that they will offer suggestions on something you should add. That 3rd party perspective will help you put the icing on the cake to make it the best bio you could have.
7. Spell check!
8. Copy and paste to all of your social sites – use the same bio for all sites except Twitter.

Now, your bio doesn’t have to be too long but, it does need to be long enough to get the point across. When they are done reading it, they need to feel like they have a really good idea of who you are.

But wait…what about the short 160-character bio you’re allowed on Twitter?

Here’s a great formula: 3 personal things, 3 business things and possibly a quote. Sounds way too hard to get into 160 characters right? Check this out:

“Speaker, Author, Social Media Strategist – Mobile & Social Media Marketing Online Branding – Boats Sunsets Beaches Maui Flip Flops and Travel are my Passions!!”

Presto! Mission accomplished in 160 or less and it’s chucked full of keywords that I would want people to find me for…BRAVO!!

Always remember…your bio is a continual work in progress, you will be adding and tweaking as you grow and evolve.

Feel free to check out my bio!
Michelle Corteggiano Facebook

To discover more about marketing your business using free social media sites visit www.FirstClassMLMSocialMedia.com and see the system Michelle put together specifically for Network Marketers who want to use the internet to network with prospects from home!

By Jennifer Saranow-Schultz

In a recent New York Times magazine article, “Cyberspace When You’re Dead,” the writer Rob Walker mentioned three Web sites that help ensure consumers still have a say in what happens to their online presences after they die.

In general, the sites allow consumers to specify what should happen to their nonfinancial digital assets (think online accounts like Facebook and computer files) once they die. Users typically make a list of their digital assets, often including user names and passwords, what they want to happen to each asset and name beneficiaries who should receive that information.

So why use such sites rather than just give your passwords to your executor and outline in your will what should happen with the various accounts? First, you wouldn’t necessarily want sensitive information like passwords in a public will. Also, the sites argue that updating information, and accessing it using their services, is much easier than updating a will.

Here’s a roundup of some of the key features of these sites, from price to password security.

Entrustet.com

Price and How it Works: With the site’s free plan, users can create a list of all the digital assets they have (computer files and online accounts, with the option of including user names and passwords). Then, they can specify what information should be transferred and to whom (and which should be deleted by someone they’ve nominated for the job). For $30 annually, Entrustet will do the deleting for you.

How the Site Knows You’ve Died: You can nominate a “digital executor” (say a friend, family member or lawyer) who alerts the site when you’ve passed away (and also handles the digital asset-deleting if you’ve opted for the free plan). The site requires a physical copy of a death certificate and will verify the death with a call to the local vital records office.

Storage of Passwords: According to the site’s co-founder, Nathan Lustig, passwords and user names are encrypted and stored offline. “Nobody, not even Entrustet employees, can view user names/passwords or account information until we’ve triple-verified a user death,” he said. According to the company’s Web site, it uses state-of-the-art security including “256-bit encryption, to keep your personal information secure; in fact, Entrustet provides greater security than many online banks.”

What if the Site Dies First? Mr. Lustig said the site had set aside money to run its servers for two years in case it went out of business. “In that case, we will e-mail all of our users to give them a chance to transfer their account information into a different service, or they can elect to delete their information from Entrustet,” he said.

Legacy Locker

Price and How it Works: With the site’s free offering, customers can specify what should happen to three of their digital assets and specify one beneficiary. Users also can pay $29.99 annually or a one-time fee of $299.99 to leave unlimited digital assets to an unlimited number of beneficiaries as well as store backups of important documents through the site. You can name one beneficiary for each asset.

How the Site Knows You’ve Died: The site needs to be informed of your death. A “report a passing” section on the site explains the reporting process, which requires the use of the deceased individual’s site ID number or frequently used e-mail address. Once a passing is reported, the site verifies the death with “two independent verifiers” specified by the account holder and then requires a certified copy of the death certificate.

Storage of Passwords: According to Jeremy Toeman, chief executive and founder of Legacy Locker Inc., “all customer data is extremely well protected through multiple levels of security and encryption systems, both internally developed and through third parties.”

What if the Site Dies First? While Mr. Toeman said the company was cash-flow positive and fully self-sustainable, he said that “if for some reason we’d need to terminate the business, we’d be sure to properly inform customers and give them any desired access to content prior to any final steps.”

DataInherit

Price and How it Works: The site offers a range of pricing options from a free service that will store up to 50 passwords and a limited amount of data for you (and allow you to specify one beneficiary) to a $17.50-a-month service with no limits on the number of passwords, more data storage and the ability to name up to 20 beneficiaries. Upon the customer’s death, each beneficiary would “receive by secure delivery a letter/message and access to a DataInherit safe with the relevant data” including information about what to do with the specific account.

How the Site Knows You’ve Died: While alive, the customer gives a document containing a unique code and detailed instructions to trusted people or leaves it in a will. The code must then be given to the service to activate the data inheritance (the customer is notified by e-mail that the inheritance has begun and can stop it if necessary or possible).

Storage of Passwords: DataInherit says it has no way of looking at the data since everything is “strongly encrypted.” Storage of all client data, it says, is in “a highly secure Swiss-based data center” that complies with the regulations of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission.

What if the Site Dies First? According to a company spokesman, while the company has a track record and solid financing, “should this really happen, the customers (would) just download their data and move on to a competitor service.”

What is your process for managing what should happen to your digital assets after your death?

By KEVIN J. O’BRIEN, NYTimes

BERLIN — The global debate over how access to the Internet should be determined and paid for has attracted free speech advocates, telephone network operators and big online businesses like Google and Facebook. This week, arguments over so-called network neutrality move to Brussels, where the European Commission and Parliament are holding a daylong meeting that is expected to draw speakers from industry, government and academia.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission attempted this year to bar operators — telecommunications and cable companies that offer connections to the Internet — from selectively managing the data flowing over their networks to assure that all customers got adequate service. The commission tried to prohibit their extracting payment from big traffic generators like Google, but the proposal is bogged down in legal challenges. In Europe, the debate is not as far along, but the outcome is equally clouded.

Important signals about the Continent’s approach may come Thursday from Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications, who is scheduled to speak at the meeting and must report to the Parliament on the status of net neutrality by the end of the year. In the absence of new regulation, Europe appears to be on track to give mobile network operators a relatively free hand in managing the data flowing over their networks. That could include the imposition of additional charges on rivals, like the voice-over-Internet service Skype.

Ms. Kroes, in public statements this year, has warned operators not to bar rival services from their mobile networks but has not indicated that she intends to push for tighter regulation that would limit the way operators can manage their data traffic. Jean-Jacques Sahel, the European director of regulatory affairs at Skype, said Ms. Kroes needed to make sure that the 27 E.U. national regulators — who must establish rules by May 1 defining “reasonable” traffic management practices — take an aggressive approach to ensure that operators do not discriminate against rivals.

In most European markets, Mr. Sahel said, operators are still charging an extra fee, usually €10 to €15 a month, or $14 to $21, for customers wishing to use voice-over-Internet services. “This is a form of economic discrimination,” Mr. Sahel said. “The question is: Where will this stop?” Ms. Kroes declined to comment through a spokesman, Jonathan Todd.

Network operators say that charging mobile consumers for rival services like Skype is widely accepted and that there has been no evidence of widespread censorship or discrimination that would warrant more regulation. A Sept. 30 report by the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, the European Union’s telecommunications advisory group, seemed to confirm the industry position, concluding that there was no new need for regulation at this point.

The group, which is made up of the bloc’s national telecommunications regulators, said operators in more than a dozen countries — Austria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, France, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Britain — had either blocked or throttled services like Skype or file-sharing Web sites. In general, using Skype allows callers to avoid paying the operators for local and long-distance calling; file-sharing sites put steep demands on mobile networks.

But most blocking stopped, the report said, after being reported to local media or regulators. “To date, the survey carried out by Berec shows that incidents remain few and most of them have been solved voluntarily,” the regulators concluded. “These findings imply that there is currently little reason to undertake any new regulatory measures.”

Pierre Louette, the secretary general for the French carriers division of France Télécom, said extra charges to mobile users wishing to use voice-over-Internet services like Skype were accepted by regulators. “These charges are considered standard industry practice,” Mr. Louette said during an interview. “We basically have to have the ability to generate revenue from our networks or we won’t be able to create the networks of the future.”

Another issue could present access issues, the regulators warned in their report — the shift away from flat-rate broadband packages to tiered service plans that tie greater speed and access to higher monthly fees. That transition is already under way. In Spain this year, Vodafone has been testing a series of tiered pricing packages. Richard Feasey, the regulatory policy director at Vodafone, said consumers had reacted positively.

“From what we have seen in the blogs, our customers in Spain appear to be totally comfortable with paying more for greater levels of service,” Mr. Feasey said, comparing graduated Internet service with an airline’s economy, business and first-class ticket prices.

With the debate in flux on both sides of the Atlantic, U.S. operators are weighing in in Europe. Mick Corkerry, the European executive director for AT&T, is scheduled to speak at the Brussels hearing Thursday [November 11, 2010]. AT&T is a sponsor of a Brussels policy group called the Center for European Policy Studies, which opposes new net neutrality rules on operators.

Andrea Renda, the center’s head of regulatory affairs and a professor of antitrust law at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, said more network management regulations would “open a Pandora’s Box of new rules that would inevitably spread to search, apps and cloud computing.” In the absence of new rules from Brussels, individual European countries will define their own versions of “reasonable” network traffic management, in most cases leaving great discretion to network operators, said Chris Marsden, a senior lecturer on Internet law at the University of Essex in Britain.

So far, only the French regulator, Arcep, has released a set of 10 principles it believes should guide operators’ behavior. In general, it recommended that Internet users be guaranteed the right to send and receive information of their choice and to use the applications and services they want, as long as they do not harm the network. Operators could suppress damaging Internet behavior, Arcep said, as long as the actions taken adhered to principles of relevance, proportionality, nondiscrimination, efficiency and transparency.

“But even Arcep is not proposing to go a step further and set deadlines for compliance and penalties,” Mr. Marsden said.

Even the French approach raises the potential for selective, arbitrary traffic management by network operators, said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a member of the European Parliament from Hanover, Germany, who will also be speaking at the event Thursday.

“The danger is there, because there are no rules on how the priorities should be set from the providers,” he said.

The outcome of the debate also has ramifications for Internet businesses like Google and Facebook, whose popular video-streaming services are generating much of the increased data load being handled by European mobile operators. In the United States, online businesses like Google sought to prohibit operators from charging online businesses to carry its services. On Sept. 9 in Paris, Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, met privately with a group of about a dozen mid- and top-level executives from several European mobile operators, who pressed him on whether Google was ready to help pay for the traffic it was creating.

“He was extremely complimentary to the operators who were there, but basically he ducked the question,” said one executive who attended the event. “The message seemed to be: you build the networks and we’ll make the profit.”