eBay Users: What You Need to Know About Phishing Scams

Are you an eBay user? Whether you use eBay to do your online shopping or if you use eBay to generate extra income for yourself, as an eBay seller, there is something that you need to be aware of. As an eBay user, whether you are a seller or a buyer, you need to be on the lookout for phishing scams. Phishing scams are rapidly increasing in popularity and many are using eBay as a front. To protect your identity, as well as you finances, you need to be on the lookout for them.

If you are relatively new to eBay or online shopping in general, you may not know exactly what phishing scams are. Do you? If not, you should know that phishing scams are actually complex online scams. A shady individual or a scammer makes a fake website that is similar to eBay or at least a fake eBay sign in page. You are then sent an email that appears as if it was from eBay. The only thing is that it wasn’t. The goal of a phishing scam is to get you to visit the fake page and enter in your eBay sign in information, including your eBay screen name and your eBay password. Once a scammer has your information, they get access to you personal information stored on eBay, as well as free use of your eBay account.

One of the reasons why phishing scams are so easy to fall victim to is because they give you the impression that is something is wrong with you eBay account or that you did something wrong yourself. For instance, many phishing scams contain a message asking why you didn’t pay for an item that you ordered or outline the fact that your eBay account has been suspended. The goal is to get you so worried that you will automatically click on the link to get the problem solved; however, as previously mentioned, the link takes you to a site that looks just like eBay, but it isn’t. There is where the trouble comes in.

If you get an eBay phishing scam email, you will want to do a little bit of detective work, before actually clicking on the link. In fact, you shouldn’t even click on the link. The first thing that you will want to do is look at your name, as most eBay phishing emails start with “Dear eBay Member,” or something along those lines. Real eBay messages will refer to you by your eBay screen name or even your real name. You can also roll your mouse over the link provided to you and see where it will actually take you. In most cases, you will find that you are being directed to another site, not eBay.com. All eBay messages should appear in your “My eBay,” message box. To see if eBay really sent you an email, you can log into your eBay account, from a brand new window that you open up, and check your messages, if you even have any at all.

If you do receive an eBay phishing scam email, you are advised to contact eBay or examine eBay’s help center. There you will find instructions on how to report the email or send a copy of it to eBay. Although your first thought may be to delete the eBay phishing scam email, you will actually want to follow eBay’s reporting instructions. You may know that you are being scammed, but other may not. Reporting an eBay phishing scam to eBay allows them to take care of the problem; thus likely reducing the number of eBay users who fall victim to similar scams.

Now that you know exactly what eBay phishing scams are, you are urged to be on the lookout for them. Keeping an open eye is your best line of defensive against eBay phishing scams or any phishing scams for that matter.

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Common eBay Scams to be on the Lookout For

Are you looking to start buying on eBay? If you have never used eBay before, you may not necessarily know that it is relatively easy to fall victim to an eBay scam. While eBay is considered a safe place to shop online, there are a number of eBay scams that you should be on the lookout for. Knowing what these scams are, before you start shopping on eBay, will help to reduce or completely eliminate your chances of becoming a victim.

Before we start to examine some of the most common eBay scams that you should be on the lookout for, it is important to mention why those scams exist. eBay is considered an online market place or an online auction website. Just about anyone with an internet connection and an eBay account can start eBay sale auctions. This is what makes it possible for scammers to trap innocent shoppers like you. While eBay does work to combat these scams and eliminate the individuals behind them, there are some people who slip through the cracks. That is why you will always want to be on the lookout for eBay scams.

Speaking of common scams to be on the lookout for, one of the most common scams involves selling a product that the seller actually doesn’t have. This type of scam is sometimes difficult to spot, but there are signs that you should look for. When posting an eBay auction, an eBay seller should have pictures of the item or items that they are selling or at least accurate descriptions. With some items, such as books, CDs, or movies, eBay sellers are given the option of using a stock photo; one that is provided by eBay. All other items should have a genuine photo, taken by the seller. If not, you may want to refrain from making the purchase, as it may mean that the seller isn’t even in possession of the item or items that they are trying to sell you.

In addition to selling items that they don’t even have available, another common eBay scam involves lying about the items that they do have. For instance, there are some eBay sellers, although a small number of them, who claim that they have an item, like a car radio, which is in brand new condition, but it isn’t always. It is not uncommon for some eBay seller to outright lie or strength the truth a little bit. Unless you have a watchful eye, you may not find out until it is too late. That is why it is advised that you not only purchase items from eBay that are accompanied by pictures, but that you also examine those pictures. You will want to try and see if something really does look new or if it is in “like new,” condition.

Another common eBay scam that you will want to look for involves those who want your personal information. This type of scam is implemented in two different ways. First, there are a small number of sellers who tell you that they need your credit card information, but they shouldn’t. Whether you pay by PayPal, personal check, or money order, you shouldn’t give out any personal information to any eBay sellers, even if you are buying an item from them. If you are not using PayPal, just send a check or money order to the address given to you, nothing else needs to be done.

The second eBay scam that involves trying to get your personal information is phishing. Phishing scams are increasing in popularity, making it easier to fall victim to one. With phishing scams, a scammer sends out an email that looks like it is from eBay. The email is often accompanied with a message stating that something is wrong with your account and that you need to click on the attached link, sign in and fix it. This is a scam. What they are trying to do is get your eBay account information. Once that has been done, they may have access to stored personal account numbers, as well as the ability to use your eBay account to make fraudulent purchases.

The above mentioned eBay scams are just a few of the most common ones that you may run across. Although there are those on eBay who are trying to scam or take advantage of you, the chances of falling victim to a scam on eBay are actually quite low, as long as you proceed with caution.

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Blog Marketing and Scams

Blog marketing is something that has really peaked an interest in the online world. Many people across the interent are blogging, and have blogs. A blog is also known as a web log. But you will hear the term blog more often than the term web log. It basically is just an online journal that you can use and publish for the world to read. Whether you choose to write about personal things, or business. Maybe you want to use it to promote products or services. The way you use your blog is totally up to you. However, you should be aware of the scams that are out there, and what to avoid while you are trying to market your blog.

Blog marketing or really any kind of marketing has scams. Just like everything else you are going to come around. There is always someone that is wanting to scam someone else and take money from the ones that do not know better. So what can you do to protect yourself? The best way to protect yourself from blog marketing scams is to become familiar with them, and know what they are. While this can also be hard to do because the scams change as much as you change your clothes, just stay on top of them, and know what to be looking out for.

Many times when a blog marketing scam surfaces, you will find that someone is going to write about it. They are going to try and warn others before they can fall into it. So, just make sure that you read and know what you are getting into. Do your research when you are marketing your blog. Ask others if they have heard about something that you are interested in doing. Chances are, if you are wanting to pay for some marketing of your blog, that you will find someone else that has used every company out there. Get feedback from your fellow marketers for the best results. Ask them if they have recommendations, or know of places that are legitimate.

If you have been scammed, chances are there is not much that you can do other than get the word out about it. However, just remember, if you have paid someone through something like paypal that protects you, then you have a time limit to get your money back and freeze the scammers account. But, that does not always work. Most of the time the scammers are all ready aware of things like that, and they work fast to move to not be caught. If that is the case, you really can not do much else about it other than alert the proper authorities and count your losses.

While there are many that will scam you with blog marketing, there are also many that will not. There are just so many legitimate resources that you are going to find that you can use and trust. The best thing to do if you are new to the blog marketing world is to ask around and find out who is the best for the marketing that you are trying to do. Doing so will often keep you from falling into a scam, and throwing your hard earned money away.

Unfortunately, you are going to come across those that have no regrets what so ever about scamming others. The only thing that you can do is your research at times to make sure that you are using a service or person that you can trust. Ask for references, and make sure that you will be getting the best that you can afford. You will not regret it in the long run, and it will pay off to check someone or a service out before you go and invest your hard earned cash. Actually contact the services or person’s references to make sure that they are who they say, and that they can deliver what it is that you are looking for. It only takes time.

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Blog Marketing Scams: Being Aware

You are ready to get out of the corporate world; you are ready to make that much needed move. Working for someone else is not always what it is cracked up to be, and you need a major change. Working for yourself can be rewarding and something that you might even be good at. However, you need to know where to start.

Blog marketing is a wonderful to get started with working for yourself. There is no risk involved other than time, and it cost nothing to get started. This makes it something that almost anyone can do and start. However, you will need to be motivated in order to make it work, and also someone that does not need a boss breathing down their back to get things done and done on time.

With the internet being something that everyone in the world has access to, it is no wonder that everyone is starting a blog and making money with it. However, you have to be aware of the scams that are out there and the people that will take your money from you and give you nothing in return. These people are the ones that will tell you that you are getting a great deal, and just what you need, and will in return give you nothing for the money that you give them.

With all of the scams and scammers that are known of in the in internet marketing world, you have to watch your back when you are blog marketing as well. Knowing how to spot the scams will help you immensely, and let you get the most for your money and not be scammed.

Because the internet is constantly changing, you have to keep up with the changes, as well as the scams. Someone that has a website can simply change the URL and face of the site in a matter of hours, and be back on the scamming end of things again. Trying to take money from those that do not know better is what scammers do, and you want to avoid them if at all possible.

The best way to keep from getting caught into a blog marketing scam is to follow someone that has been there and done that. Anyone that is successful as a blog marketer can give you tips and mentor you along the way. Find someone that you trust that is willing to take your hand and lead the way. All you need is to be shown once and you will know the direction to take your other blogs if you plan to have more than one.

Blog marketing has scams in that market and field just like all of the others. Know who you are doing business with and what is involved. Ask for references and if in doubt, never do business with someone that just does not seem to have all of their ducks in a row. That is a great way to avoid getting scammed and losing your hard earned money to someone that has no conscious. Ask your blogging friends for recommendations and use the people as well as services that they trust.

You can protect your self from blog marketing scams if you know how. Research everything that you can about any company, or new service that you are interested in. Doing might prevent you from giving your heard earned money away to someone that is up to no good. You are going to find that when questioned, most scammers are quite defensive, so take that into consideration as well. You can avoid blog marketing scams if you research and check out anyone that you are thinking of giving a try before you use them. You will be glad that you did in the long run, and it will end up saving you time and money from back tracking and fixing their scamming mistakes.

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Watch Out for eBay Automobile and Computer Scams.

There aren't that many scammers on eBay - but the ones there are tend to be greedy. This means that they will always try to pull their scams on high-value items like cars and computers, so that they can make a lot of money quickly. Since buyers generally buy these items very rarely, they may not know about the various scams out there.

Automobile Scams.

With cars, you will generally find that scammers try to get you to send them money in advance, for whatever reason. For some reason, some people aren't all that reluctant to pay 50% or 25% of the money before delivery using a relatively insecure payment method, especially on a car. They reason that the seller will obviously deliver it, as they'll want the other half of the money.

But there never was a car! Pictures of cars aren't hard to find, and the experienced scammers will have a whole library of pictures of different cars. The seller just got your $5,000 for nothing, and you can leave them all the negative feedback you like. They'll just go and open another eBay account and find their next sucker.

While it's not an outright scam, what you might find is that the car does turn up, but simply doesn't live up to the description - it has been oversold, in the tradition of used car dealers through the ages. If this happens to you then you should open an eBay dispute and say your item was not as described - you might get a partial refund.

Computer Scams.

If you bid in a computer auction but don't win, the seller might email you to ask whether you would like to buy a computer the same as the one they just sold through their own website.

This is a bad idea! You have no guarantee that the item will ever arrive, and you haven't just given them your money - you've given them your credit card details too.

There are sellers with nothing but positive feedback who use this scam often - and since you won't be able to leave them any feedback on the transaction, their reputation will stay that way. If you complain to eBay that you bought an item outside the site and got scammed, they will tell you to get lost and not do it again.

How to Beat the Scams.

There are lots of ways to beat the scams. First, whenever you buy anything expensive, be sure to check your seller's reputation thoroughly. Make sure they have sold items of a similar high value before, and haven't just sold a string of $10 items to get their feedback rating artificially high. If you want to be even more cautious, insist that the money is placed in an escrow service (eBay recommend escrow.com - don't use any other service unless you're sure of it).

To be honest, it's generally quite a bad idea to use eBay to buy things like cars and computers to begin with - you can get them anywhere, and the discounts aren't that big any more. It's better to use eBay for those rare, special things that you can't find anywhere else. The next email will give you some tips for buying collectibles.

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Low Cost Advertising and Scams on the Internet

“A business without a sign is a sign of no business”. This is an advertising banner or quotation that can be seen in large billboards along the roads and on the side or top of buildings that is vacant. Television and radio would say, “This program would not be shown or be heard without advertisement”. It is true since most of us are watching the free television channel and programs are produced by payments of advertisements.

Business owners understand how important an advertisement is. It is in this manner that they would tell to everybody that they are selling products and offering services. They would not have sales, which in turn give them profit, if people would not notice and buy their products and avail of their services.

However, it is not happy to note that there are people who would try to steal money from advertisers and business owners by offering cheap advertisement packages and not delivering the agreed service. Business owners and advertisers should be informed of this because they would become victims of a scam.

The scam here is when the advertiser paid for these different kinds of services but none or some of them are not really even performed. The main point to consider here is to whom is the advertiser transacting with. To avoid being ripped off doing a background check by knowing the following will help.

-past successful projects as evident on customers comments

-a good reputation that will be confirmed by his references, (people that he's had past transaction with and that are also reputable)

The pay-per-click ad campaign is when an advertiser would pay a certain agreed amount by the search engine developers every time a user clicks on that banner. This was a good idea before it was not touched by hackers who developed a certain program to automatically click on that banner which increases the amount to be paid by the advertiser. The next paying scheme was the “pay per action”, which is harder to hack since the advertiser would only pay the search engine developers an agreed amount every time a sale would be done on that customer.

One thing is for sure, advertising in the Internet is not easy but it is fun, especially when one understands fully the power of the Internet. It is not a unidirectional means of advertising like the television or radio, but it is an interactive avenue for both the advertiser and the prospective clients.

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Be aware of iOS 6 1 6 0 6 0 1 and 6 0 2 iPhone jailbreak scams

Apple iPhone iOS 6.1, 6.0, 6.0.1 and iOS 6.0.2 jailbreak scam websites

Currently, millions of users are eagerly awaiting an untethered jailbreak to be published for their Apple iPhones and Apple iPads running the iOS 6.x.x version. With this, several scam sites claiming to provide various jailbreak methods have also appeared. These websites typically ask the user to pay a fee in order to be able to either download a jailbreaking software or access a tutorial video with the procedures outlined. Some websites also claim to offer the jailbreak tool for free and asks the user to download and execute a file. If anyone happened to stumble upon one of the websites claiming to offer iOS 6.x.x jailbreak, then be very cautious. In the best case, you may simply lose some money, but in the worst case your credit-card information may be stolen or you may actually be infected by a virus when you visit the websites and in particular if you download any tools they claim to make the jailbreak available.

The true status of a jailbreak for iOS 6.x.x is actually that none exists today. I refer to my previous article which outlines the jailbreaks that do exist today. When an officially working jailbreak does become published, I will also correspondingly update my article with the procedure that is to be taken to successfully jailbreak an iOS 6.x.x device.True status of iPhone/iPad iOS 6.1, 6.0, 6.0.1 and iOS 6.0.2 jailbreak

The true status of a jailbreak for iOS 6.x.x is actually that none exists today. I refer to my previous article which outlines the jailbreaks that do exist today. When an officially working jailbreak does become published, I will also correspondingly update my article with the procedure that is to be taken to successfully jailbreak an iOS 6.x.x device.

We can be assured that the developers, and in particular the Jailbreak Dream Team is working hard to find an exploit that would enable jailbreak on an iOS 6.x.x device. Currently, there has actually been a video posted of an iPhone 5 running the IntelliScreenX Cydia tweak, but the specific procedure has not so far been published.

Recently, it was shared through the "Hack in the Box" conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that the Jailbreak Dream Team is attempting to find an exploit through several vectors. For example, pod2g is working on finding userland exploits and planetbeing is working on finding kernel exploits. In addition, p0sixninja is working to extract the encryption codes for iBoot in order to dump the bootROM. Having the bootROM available will greatly aid in the process of creating an untethered jailbreak when a exploit that triggers code execution is found. Of course, many more well-known iOS hackers are also investing considerable amounts of efforts into finding a jailbreak and hopefully with their joined efforts we may soon have an untethered jailbreak available to us.Conclusion: No jailbreak for Apple iPhone on iOS 6.1, 6.0, 6.0.1 and iOS 6.0.2... yet

For us regular mortal people, all we can do currently is to await official words from the Jailbreak Dream Team and be very cautious when surfing into websites that offer jailbreaking tutorials or tools either for free or for a fee!Recent updates

February 2013

As of February 4, 2013, an untethered jailbreak is now available through the use of the evasi0n tool. The jailbreaking process is relatively simple and this process is described and discussed in the guide that can be found here.

January 2013

It was recently communicated by iOS jailbreak hackers that an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 5 and older models running the iOS 6 operating system, including iOS 6.0.1, 6.0.2 and even the soon to be released iOS 6.1, should be very possible and possibly even within the very close future. More details can be found in this article.

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