by Charles Oropallo | Nov 27, 2019 | Internet, Monadnock Shopper News, Shopper News, The CW Corner, Website Development, Website Updates
Along with all the many scams out there on the Internet are what I’d call the “inflated monthly maintenance plans”.
Are you paying expensive maintenance fees?These are usually fixed monthly pricing plans that include hosting and website maintenance. Such plans are touted as providing the business owner with a means to budget ongoing website maintenance, so-to-speak.
I’ve seen many of these offerings since 1998. I’ve also spoken with many website owners who have had such plans. They’re almost never advantageous to the business owner.
In most cases, business website owners had paid up to several hundred dollars a month for these plans – for many years in some cases. Most never had any work done to their websites. Those who did have work done indicated it was far less value than they had paid for with their “budget”.
Put specifically in dollar terms, some had paid thousands of dollars for only about a hundred dollar’s worth of web updates over time. For that reason I highly recommend businesses avoid such plans.
In short, be very careful about doing business with web companies or web developers that want to sell you these inflated monthly maintenance plans. Paying for website work on an as-you-need-it basis will almost always cost you much, much less in the long term.
by Charles Oropallo | Nov 13, 2019 | Do-It-Yourself, Internet, Monadnock Shopper News, SEO, Shopper News, The CW Corner, Website Development, WordPress
I’ve mentioned SEO (Search Engine Optimization) throughout many articles. While it is important – I believe it’s the most abused area of website development.
SEO scammers are excellent liars!It’s important for your business website to be found in the search engines. That is best and most inexpensively done by having pertinent material in your website so the search engines see your website as pertinent or closely related to a topic.
There are many unscrupulous individuals and companies out there selling just plain bogus SEO. It’s often impossible to discern the truth. There are no regulations or meaningful certifications in this field.
As an example – let’s say you receive a dozen Viagra spam messages in a month. Does that mean you need it? Certainly just because a number of spam messages are saying you need something doesn’t turn it into a fact.
Why would you believe the same about SEO regarding your search placements on the Internet? Our web clients are bombarded with spam and with phone calls saying they need this and that for their websites. Some fall prey to these sales pitches and some even go out of business as a result of spending hundreds of dollars each month on scams.
Your web developer should care about you as a client – should want you to be as successful as possible and not up-selling you right out of business.
The worst part of the SEO scams is they can oftentimes hurt your placement with the search engines.
Don’t fall prey to the scamsters selling these bogus “services”. Check with your web developer FIRST about such offers to find out if they are for real or whether you actually need them.
by Charles Oropallo | Oct 30, 2019 | Email, Internet, Monadnock Shopper News, Shopper News, The CW Corner
It’s Halloween time again so I thought I’d mention Halloween Spoofs! Well, actually email spoofing happens year round.
An example of spoofing is when emails are sent that are addressed from you (and maybe to you) but you didn’t send them. In that case your address has been “spoofed”.
Spammers and scammers alike do this. There are a couple reasons it’s done.
Sometimes it is malicious. Let’s say someone goes onto numerous websites to sign up for information as XYZ Company. So a ton of spam is sent to XYZ. XYZ finds itself barraged with email and phone spam – wasting lots of their time.
More often XYZ is spoofed to appear to be the sender of spam. Folks local to XYZ are more likely to open the spoofed emails. The spam really isn’t from XYZ – just made to look like it is. So recipients think XYZ is spamming them. They’re annoyed with XYZ and report them as spammers and complain and so on.
Fortunately, spoofing doesn’t account for most Internet issues. It just makes life miserable for XYZ – the target – for a while.
The good news is that usually spoofing usually only lasts a few days. The actual sending server is identified and blocked or shut down.
Always report these issues to your email administrator. Early intervention saves lots of headaches in the long term.
by Charles Oropallo | Sep 18, 2019 | Internet, Monadnock Shopper News, Shopper News, The CW Corner
When working in the web world as I do, Internet scams appear to be everywhere.
Phishing is defined as the act of attempting to trick the recipient of a malicious email into opening and engaging with it.
It’s amazing how people fall for phishing scams. They fall for them mostly because the emails are designed to appear like the writer isn’t too bright. So immediately the recipient thinks they have the upper hand. Many count on the recipient’s greed – believing they’ll get something for nothing.
The bad guys that develop these schemes are experts. All they do is work scams – day and night. They wouldn’t continue if it didn’t pay off in the long run.
I read someplace that billions of dollars annually are conned out of people through the various scams out there on the Internet. For the most part – I hate to say – they can’t be stopped. They are sent from all types of email addresses, all types of servers, from all over the world.
Bottom line is that you should keep deleting them. The best course of action is to stop responding to them and opening them. Report them as spam or report them as phishing attempts. Your email provider may provide insight with how to do this. They will ultimately stop coming.
Remember that if the bad guys can’t trick you into parting with your money they will focus on someone else – until they find someone who does. Just don’t be that someone.
by Charles Oropallo | Apr 24, 2019 | Email, Internet, Security, The CW Corner
We had intended to continue weekly with our web developer checklist. However, this week we’re presenting this post because so many people are receiving these bogus scam messages trying to trick them into paying an extortion.
This scam we mentioned quite a while ago. It has continued to pick up steam – plowing its way through every part of the Internet. It IS a SCAM. Do NOT pay it. We’ve had numerous people contact us that they are receiving such messages.
Here is is below in English and Chinese:
ENGLISH
Hello there!
You may have noticed that I sent an email from your account.
This means I have full access to your device.
I have been watching it for a few months.
The truth is that you are infected with malware through an adult website you have visited.
If you are not familiar with this, I will explain.
I created high quality spyware. It allows me to gain full access and control over your device.
This means I can see everything on the screen, turn on the camera and microphone, but you don’t know.
I can also access all your contacts and all communications.
Why is your antivirus software not detecting malware?
Answer: My malware uses the driver, I update the signature every 4 hours so that your anti-virus software is silent.
I made a video showing how you can satisfy yourself in the left half of the screen, and in the right half you will see the video you watched.
One Key! All of your contacts in email and social networks will receive this video! Your life will change forever!
I can also post access to all email communications and messengers you use.
If you want to stop this ʌ
Transfer the $362 amount to my bitcoin address (if you don’t know how to do this, please write to Google: “Buy Bitcoin”).
My bitcoin address (BTC wallet) is: *********************************
After receiving the payment, I will delete the video and you will never hear my voice again.
I will give you 50 hours (more than 2 days) to pay.
I received a notification from this letter and the timer will work when you see the letter.
It doesn’t make sense to file a complaint somewhere because it can’t be tracked like my Bitcoin address.
I have not made any mistakes.
If I find that you shared this message with others, the video will be distributed immediately.
Good luck, goodbye!
CHINESE
你好！
您可能已经注意到，我从您的帐户发送了一封电子邮件。
这意味着我可以完全访问您的设备。
我已经看了好几个月了。
事实是，您通过您访问过的成人网站感染了恶意软件。
如果您对此不熟悉，我会解释。
我创建了高质量的间谍软件。 它允许我获得对您设备的完全访问权限和控制权。
这意味着我可以在屏幕上看到所有内容，打开相机和麦克风，但您不知道。
我也可以访问您的所有联系人和所有通信。
为什么您的防病毒软件没有检测到恶意软件？
回答：：我的恶意软件使用驱动程序，我每4小时更新一次签名，以便您的防病毒软件无声。
我制作了一个视频，展示了你如何在屏幕的左半部分让自己满意，在右半部分，你会看到你观看的视频。
一键！ 您在电子邮件和社交网络中的所有联系人都将收到此视频！ 你的生活将永远改变！
我还可以发布您使用的所有电子邮件通信和信使的访问权限。
如果你想阻止这个ʌ
将362美元的金额转入我的比特币地址（如果您不知道如何做到这一点，请写信给Google：“购买比特币”）。
我的比特币地址（BTC钱包）是：**********************************
收到付款后，我将删除该视频，您将永远不会再听到我的声音。
我给你50个小时（超过2天）付款。
我收到了这封信的通知，当你看到这封信时，计时器会起作用。
在某处提交投诉没有意义，因为无法像我的比特币地址那样跟踪此电子邮件。
我没有犯任何错误。
如果我发现您与其他人分享了此消息，则视频将立即分发。
祝你好运，再见！
AND IT IS IN MANY OTHER LANGUAGES AS WELL!
European Union General Data Protection Regulation Compliant