Security: Fraud

Written by Richard Lowe


Fraud is rampant onrepparttar internet. It is everywhere that you look. When you are lurking in newsgroups you will find hundreds of messages inviting you to spend money here, there and everywhere. You'll get email demanding your time, attention, and, of course, money for something. Surfingrepparttar 132086 web will turn up many sites with some incredible offers which, of course, just happen to require your credit card number - but don't worry, they "just need it to validate your age" (or whatever) - DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW IT'S SAFE.

The web is a media of communication. It allows everyone to communicate with anyone forrepparttar 132087 price of a computer, phone line and internet service - and even most of that can be gotten for free if you try. This is perhapsrepparttar 132088 most wonderful invention inrepparttar 132089 history of man to date for it's sheer power of getting us all just to talk to each other, but there are dangers.

In a way, it's just like any other part of life. However, whatrepparttar 132090 internet does is to allow you to communicate (and be communicated with) exceptionally fast. Where else could you surf a hundred sites, receive 200 emails and examine 250 newsgroup messages all in one evening?

Some ofrepparttar 132091 schemes that you will need to be onrepparttar 132092 lookout for include:

Pyramid schemes galore. These arerepparttar 132093 things that say "send a dollar to a bunch of people with your name and address". They are all illegal (in spite of what they claim) and unethical. You will get ripped off and if you partake you are breakingrepparttar 132094 law.

http://www.internet-tips.net/Moneymaking/chain.htm

Startup companies which offer stock or "points" - these are not frauds, per say, butrepparttar 132095 vast majority of these will never pay anything to anyone. For example, many pay-to-surf programs at their beginning will not pay anything. Instead, you will get points or stock, withrepparttar 132096 promise of money downrepparttar 132097 road if they (a) go public or (b) get lots of people signed up or whatever. Beware - you are taking a risk to never get anything.

Credit card fraud - be very careful with your credit card number onrepparttar 132098 web. DO NOT EVER send it in email or post it in a newsgroup. And DO NOT USE YOUR DEBIT CARD FOR ANYTHING ON THE WEB. That comes directly out of your checking account - you may get it back fromrepparttar 132099 bank if you can prove fraud, but at least with a normal credit card you are riskingrepparttar 132100 banks money and not your own.

Multi-Level Marking (MLM) - I'm sure there are good MLM companies out there, but they really only tend to benefit those who get in early. Those onrepparttar 132101 bottom wind up supporting those on top, thenrepparttar 132102 whole thing loses steam and falls apart. Of course, those who do get in early make a lot of money.

Security: Ad Blocking

Written by Richard Lowe


I don't know about you, but I find banner ads pretty darn obnoxious. Now, I do understand thatrepparttar foundation upon whichrepparttar 132083 internet is built is, pure and simple: advertising. That's what makesrepparttar 132084 internet work, and that's why it was growing so fast. It's interesting to see companies fold as advertising falls short of expectations.

I hate those ugly banner ads (especially that "punchrepparttar 132085 monkey" thing). They steal my bandwidth and they take room from content. Think about it, you have a 10k banner, you lose a couple of seconds of bandwidth and about an inch offrepparttar 132086 top of your screen.

Even worse are those idiotic pop-up banner ads which free web sites seem to love (at least now most of them offerrepparttar 132087 option of using inline ads). There is very little worse than visiting a web site and having that stupid panty hose ad pop up over and over and over. It just won't stay closed.

There is now a product onrepparttar 132088 market which does a superb job of eliminating not only advertisements, but also pop-up banners, cookies, sounds, Java and JavaScripts.

Just to give you an idea of how well this product works, I clearedrepparttar 132089 statistics, then surfed for 5 minutes to 8 web sites. A total of 5 ads were removed! Wow.

On top of that, AdSubtract saved me from 4 annoying pop-up windows. I purchasedrepparttar 132090 Pro version, which is about $29 - worth every penny. You can get your own copy fromrepparttar 132091 AdSubtract web site. There is also a free version available which is find for most uses.

Another product which does just aboutrepparttar 132092 same thing is Norton Internet Security 2001. In addition to performing all ofrepparttar 132093 ad blocking and cookie management, Norton Internet Security 2000 contains a firewall. The ad blocking and cookie manager of this product is reasonably good, butrepparttar 132094 firewall has some flaws. I would recommend AdSubtract over Norton Internet Security 2001.

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