In This Issue:

• Random Free Hosting Site

• Phishing for Dollars

• Beating Interactive Voice Response Systems

• New Clients

Random Free Hosting Site

We'd like to congratulate Willow Ridge Retreat or being the winner of this month's free hosting site. At the beginning of each month we will call up our own site's homepage. Whomever's site is the featured site when the page loads will get FREE hosting of one domain for one month. It's just our way of saying thank you.

Phishing for Dollars

As geeks we often forget that normal folks don't stay abreast of what's going on with the Internet as much as we do. This leads to the assumption that you normal folks are 'up' on the latest scams. So, just in case you aren't, let us show you one of the scams that crosses our inbox quite often (shown below this discussion). It's an attempt to get me to divulge personal information such as credit card number, bank account numbers, etc. Phishing rose from one in every 125 e-mails sent in Q1-Q2 '05 to one in every 119 e-mails sent in Q3-Q4 '05.

In most cases, we don't have an account with the company mentioned in the e-mail, but in this case, we actually do have a Chase account. But before I would follow the instructions on the 'urgent' e-mail (really I'd never follow the instructions) I'd check a couple of things.

First, notice that the link they want me to click on is not chase.com but rather chaseonline.chase.com . Though they may look quite similar they are completely different locations.

Second, when I move the cursor over the link (we've disconnected that link in this example) the information in the status block (the line of information at the bottom of your browser) shows that the link actually takes you to:

http://249767695/images/Identity_Confirm.html

That's a dead give-away that something's fishy and this has nothing to do with Chase Bank.

Here are four steps to help protect yourself from phishing attacks.

1. Don't click on a link in an e-mail to get to a Web site asking for personal information. Enter the name of the Web site into your browser yourself.

2. Check the URL (address) in the browser's address bar when you're prompted for personal information. While some phishing attacks can display valid-looking addresses for sites, most can't.

3. Look for the padlock icon in the browser's lower right corner. This usually means it's authentic. A padlock on the Web page itself means nothing, however.

4. Never give your Social Security number to verify your identity. SSNs should be used only for tax identification. No one should ask for the full number to check your identity.

If you ever have a question as to whether an e-mail is authentic, it's best just to call the organization on the phone and not click on the link in an e-mail.

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Beating Interactive Voice Response Systems

If you've ever wanted to call a large company and talk with a human about a problem, you know that might not be possible because of the IRV (Interactive Voice Response) system. Bookmark the GetHuman site which lists either direct dial phone numbers or a sequence of numbers to press to transfer to a human representative.

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