Elamb Cybersecurity

Category: Main Digg

  • Filipino Date Scammers

    “Necessity is the mother of all invention” so its no wonder that countries with unstable economic conditions and decent access to the Internet have an disproportionate number of scammers, liars, con artists and criminals online. Its all about survival.

    This post is one man’s assessment of certain member’s of on dating site.

    The dating site filipinocupid is full of desperate people. Some desperate for love, some for companionship, and some desperate for money… I am certainly that not talking about all the members on Filipino cupid. Its actually a great site with many great people to meet. But the level of desperation and online panhandling on the site is something that must be mentioned.

    I ran across several types of people on the site:

    Real ladies looking for real relationships: Typically, will not ask for money and will get PISSED if you compare them to other ladies who do that. They usually have a decent job and are doing alright for themselves. Sometimes they will have a degree or be a professional in some career field. This is certainly not always the case. They are usually looking for stability, companionship, love…

    Desperate ladies: They are really in need of help and will say anything to get you to help them. There is no telling how they got in their situation or how much of what they are saying is the truth. Some will scam you and there is just no way of telling whether or not they are being truthful. Some of these ladies are ladies are desperate for stability.

    Ladies Desperate for Stability: They might already have a relationship with a local filippino guy but they are not able to pay bills, not able to buy much food, and need support. They seek support with ANY western guy. They are not usually choosy. I am not saying there are not good women here. And I am not saying that its bad for them to want stability. You should just be aware of this… to make a good decision before you commit to anything.

    Before you decide to play Mother Theresa, consider this:
    1) If they are so desperate how do they have Internet services?
    2) How do they afford the utilities and rent of the place they are in?
    3) How do they have a computer?
    4) How can they have a webcam?

    Very Good Very Truthful ladies looking for a Long Term Relationship: If you find one, consider yourself lucky. The economic situation in the Philippines makes very difficult to be a good person when you are in real need of help. As of 2010, unemployment is high in many provinces and the wages for many jobs are really not much compared to western standards. So the good ladies here are not just good, they are the best in the world. Consider this: they are willing be good for the sake of being good ahead of their own real needs. These are REMARKABLE women.

    Webcam girls: Aside from the very good honest ladies, Web cam girls are my favorite. They are about business. They want money and they are honest about it. They need to figure out who you are so they will flirt to see what you are after. They will then mention that they really need help with money. Then when the moment is right, they ask if you want to see them naked. Not all of them are scammers, but since its an honor based system, if you pay first, you have to realize that there is a chance you will never see them again. Yahoo Messenger is the instant messenger of choice.

    Date Scammers: These are people that hang around dating sites to trick you out of your money. They put a false profile to draw people in. Once they are talking with you they will attempt to quickly gain your trust by being very nice or saying that they are from your area and wish they could get home. Sometimes they will just tell you how very desperate they are to eat (remember the 4 points listed above before playing Mother Theresa). To be perfectly honest, unless you get to know them of a long period of time or have it on good faith from someone else that they are who they say they are, you just don’t know. And you should not give them anything. In a perfect world it would be nice to help those in real need, but the truth is that their profile is not real, they just took several other people’s money and are laughing all the way to the bank.

  • Transfer fund Email Scam

    Recently, I received an email coming from someone whom I do not know. Below is the email I received:

    “My Dearest in christ,
    My name is (MRS RITA GUNTHER)a nationality of Kuwait. I am married to late (MR NGOSSAN GUNTHER) who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year Octorber 2005. We were married for twenty years with a child. He died after a the illness that lasted for four days. Please I know this may come to you by supprise , because you did not know me, I needed your assistance that was why I write you through divine direction, it is my desire of going into relationship with you.
    Before his death we were both born again Christians.When my late husband was alive we deposited the sum of (Ten Million U..S.Dollars) with one of good company here in Cote d’Ivoire Presently, this money is still with the company. Recently my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next three months due to my cancer problem,Though what disturbs me most is my stroke. Having known my condition I decided to donate this fund to church or better still a Christian individual that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here in.I want a person or church that will use this fund to churches,orphanages, research centres and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained.
    The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I have a child that will inherit this money but my son can not carryout this work only because i and my late husband decide to use some of the money to work for God and live some for our son to have a better live.our son is just (17 year old) now and been grow up in africa, he have low manterity and my husband’s relatives are not Christians and I don’t want my family hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers,I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner.Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus 14 VS 14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace.
    I will like you to understand that my contact to you is a divine direction from God , I don’t want any of my husband family relatives to recieve this money but I know that With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Finance/company . I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the new beneficiary of this fund. I want you and the church to always pray for me because the lord is my shepherd. My happiness is that I live a life of a worthy Christian.Whoever that wants to serve the Lord must serve him in spirit and truth,Please always be prayerful all through your life. Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for a church or Christian individual for this same purpose. Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated here and Please I will like you to contact me Immediately you receive this mail so that I will instruct the company to ship this box of the money into your country for me and my Son to start coming over there because since now we are having a very big problem in Abidjan for political crisis so we need this transaction very urgent.but the company did not know that the content of the box is money
    Remain blessed in the name of the Lord.
    MRS RITA GUNTHER AND SON JOHNSON.”

    This email went directly to my spam folder.
    Now, what exactly is a spam? According to Wikipedia Spam is “the use of electronic messaging systems including most broadcast media and digital delivery systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.” Spam is often used to scam people. Typically, the distributor/creator of the message will send you a message just like the email above to collect information about you. The bait is usually a large sum of money that needs to be transferred to your account. They will ask for personal information such as your home address, contact number, bank account, and other information about you. Once you give all the information they need, they will start asking you large amount of money in order for them to transfer the money to your account.. but of course, there is not money transfered to you after you’ve paid them.. they vanish and you get ripped off. So if you received one of these scam emails, it is important that you DO NOT respond. The Scammers are likely to act upon any response from those they see as potential victims. The people behind these scams are criminals.

  • out numbered never out gunned

    success_babySummer 2002, shortly after an Army briefing on “land mine awareness” in Afghanistan, I realized that I should be home taking care of my new daughter. She needed me more than Uncle Sam. Apparently, there were a lot of land mines in Afghanistan. Now keep in mind this was about a year after 9/11 (before the base I was stationed at had a Chili’s and massage parlors and shit.. it was unreal).

    So I got back to the states, my commander started talking about send me directly to Iraq and it was about that time I decided to get the hell out of the military. The military gave me a very good start on my life and career, but I must admit I wasn’t completely prepared for civilian life. I thought some huge company would pay me a lot of money and take care of me. The opposite was true. Murphy’s law kicked in and everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.

    I went into debt to move my family to another state, I didn’t make enough money to pay for the debt or my wife’s medical bills once she got hospitalized, and I had no vacation time as a new hire to take care of my daughter while her mother recovered from surgery. When I went to the company for some help, they told me there was nothing they could do that would not violate their policy. The company policy for taking care of employees had an “LOL clause”. It states in fine print, “the joke is on you.”

    I was on my own in another state with no family, a sick wife, a new daughter and an old military buddy. I don’t blame the company for my mistakes.. my first mistake was thinking that I could rely on any organization that didn’t own me to take care of me. Success favors the prepared.. I was not prepared.

    I got an application for Domino Pizza and filled it out. Before I submitted the application for my second job, it occurred to me that there must be a better way than surviving on tips from my neighbors. I started a 6 year war path to financial independence. This site is apart of that war path. baby-and-daddy*got a better job but never regained my trust of companies i don’t own. u and i have to do for you and i.

  • match free trial

    Although there is a lot of complaint on the Net about match.com, I would not call it a scam. The complaints are related to people canceling, or misunderstanding the terms of service and seeing additional charges on their accounts. They see “WMV*MATCH.COM” on their account. Seems the biggest issue is with matches billing services. Something they really should address.

    match has a free trial period. We usually completely ignore these things. But this one deserves your time due to the shear number of complaints:

    This free 7-day (168 consecutive hours) trial subscription to Match.com (“Trial Subscription”) gives you access during the Trial Subscription period to contact eligible singles.

    HOW TO REDEEM. To redeem your Trial Subscription to Match.com, you must meet the “eligibility” requirements set forth below. As part of the enrollment process for the Trial Subscription, you will be required to pick a subscription package and submit a valid credit card or other form of payment. If you do not cancel your subscription before the end of the Trial Subscription period, you will be billed for the subscription package to Match.com that you selected during the Trial Subscription registration process. Your Trial Subscription allows access to all of Match.com’s basic site features (“Basic Features”) and begins immediately upon approval by Match.com of the information outlined in this paragraph.

    ELIGIBILITY. Eligibility is limited to non-subscribers of Match.com who are 18 years of age or older, single or separated from spouse, and meet all other requirements outlined here and in the Match.com Terms of Use Agreement located here: http://www.match.com/registration/membagr.aspx. Current subscribers are not eligible.

    BILLING UPON EXPIRATION. Upon the completion of your Trial Subscription period, you will be automatically billed for a Match.com subscription for the term and rate you selected when you signed up for your Trial Subscription unless you cancel your subscription (see “How To Cancel” below). Thereafter, until you terminate your subscription, your subscription will be automatically renewed at the conclusion of each subscription term at the same subscription rate you initially selected .

    HOW TO CANCEL THE TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION. In order to avoid a subscription charge following completion of your Trial Subscription, you must cancel your Trial Subscription prior to its conclusion (that is, before the end of the trial 168-hour period) by logging into www.match.com, selecting Account Settings, clicking on “Change/Cancel Membership” and following the instructions. If you cancel your Trial Subscription, your access to the Basic Features will be terminated immediately.

    TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP AND PRIVACY. Your Trial Subscription and any subsequent subscriptions are governed by all of the terms and conditions on the Match.com site, including but not limited to the Match.com Terms of Use. The Terms of Use can be found by going to www.match.com and clicking on the “Terms of Use” link. All information supplied by you to Match.com is subject to the Match.com Privacy Policy, which can be found at www.match.com.

    Match.com reserves the right to refuse any Trial Subscription for any reason. This offer expires on Friday, December 31, 2010, provided that Match.com may discontinue this offer at any time. Limit one Trial Subscription per person. Any attempt by a person to redeem more than one Trial Subscription will be rejected. This offer is void where prohibited.

  • Feel Safe with uninterrupted home monitoring security systems

    By: Jhoana Cooper

    The world is highly uncertain. There are many security threats for human life worldwide. No country is an exception when it comes to issues related to the home security. With the advent of high technologies in electronics and computers, many new home security systems and other monitoring equipments are available. The present-day home security system is highly sophisticated and helps homeowners to secure their home and protect family members. Home security monitoring systems can be described as reliable, superior in quality and capable of offering protection for a long time. There are many home security companies offering great services for monitoring and watching the home day and night. They will give immediate warnings and provide intrusion signals.

    A home equipped with home security systems is less prone to unwarranted intrusion of strangers and criminals. The homes provided with home warning alarms are mostly safe from burglaries. Basic home security system consists of sensors, surveillance cameras, alarm devices, switches and a control panel. There are wired systems as well as wireless systems. There are individual independent home monitoring systems as well as centralized home monitoring systems. Centralized home monitoring systems will be managed by a pool of experts and professionals in the field. They have lots of experiences in the field and they could inform the homeowner or the family members about the potential security threats in the home. They will be in monitoring mode all through the day and night.

    There are many varieties of home security systems available with home security companies suitable for your budget and requirements. Nowadays there are many sophisticated systems available at a cheap monthly rate from the dedicated home security services. An independent home security system installed individually for the home will be cheap and you will be responsible for the monitoring of the system. When a security threat alarm comes, you have to take necessary measures to counter the threat. This will be less expensive and mostly the expense will be only at the time of installation. In case of centralized monitoring system, the professionally qualified executives monitor the system and the security threats; they will take necessary counter measures including the information passage to police, fire and rescue systems and medical emergency systems.

    The monitored home security system will be a little more expensive than independent systems and you may have to pay a monthly fee for the home monitoring. It is very convenient as you do not have to worry about the monitoring and you can feel free and secure with the monitored home security systems. These systems will alert you when security alarms are triggered due to a criminal intrusion or burglary. You have to make sure that you have selected the best in the field with all necessary infrastructure facilities and professionally qualified staff to monitor the home security warning systems. Also it is necessary for the home security company to have uninterrupted power supply with a backup power for at least 12 to 15 hours. You can search in the internet online sites to locate the best monitored home security company.

    Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/home-security-articles/feel-safe-with-uninterrupted-home-monitoring-security-systems-873252.html”

    (ArticlesBase SC #873252)

    Jhoana Cooper –
    About the Author:

    If you look for a home security system with high reliability and long life, you can get it through online home security sites. Home security systems are really inevitable in the present world with many potential home security threats all around.

  • block text messages

    block-text-spam-1
    Its called SMS spam, SpaSMS, mobile spamming, and m-spamming.

    I was in Amsterdam in Sept. 2010 and I kept getting spam texts:
    Leonewd (AIM):-1/2-
    Investor Stock Alert! Our pick is up 60% so far today, DO NOT MISS OUT! Get in Fast and Early. For

    maryleedwxq (AIM):-1/2-
    Hot Penny Stock Alert! AHuge PR Campaign has begun for Fleet Managment, starting

    I don’t normally get these messages in the US. I am not sure if this has to do with the carrier I have here or what.

    256-019
    AIM: You have received a txt from an AIM user. To stop AIM TXTs, reply ‘out’ to this msg.

    What really sucks about this sort of spam is that you have to open the text message up to stop it. Once you open up the message, you will see something like this at the bottom of the text (Reply 'block' to stop this user). But the way the spam “user” gets around this is to send the same text message from multiple fake user names. The other thing that really sucks is that, depending on your text message service plan, you maybe charged for each message you receive! OUCH!

    How do you block spam text messages?
    The way the sms text spammers are finding your phones text address is by guessing. They know that the typical address follows this format:
    AT&T
    [10-digit wireless number]@txt.att.net

    Verizon
    [10-digit wireless number]@vtext.com

    T-mobile
    [10-digit wireless number]@tmomail.net
    (comprehensive list 1,2)

    So they just put all the numbers possible for a given area. This is easy with good software. Its abuse of the text message marketing using bulk text messaging software and/or services. They will typically forward from multiple fake usernames to the same text address. Its like war-texting or brute force marketing.

    The good news is that your cell phone service should offer some sort of text-blocking services.

    (from pogue nytimes blog)
    * AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

    * Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)

    * Sprint: No auto-blocking is available at all, but you can block specific phone numbers and addresses. To get started, log in at www.sprint.com. On the top navigation bar, click My Online Tools. Under Communication Tools, click Text Messaging. On the Compose a Text Message page, under Text Messaging Options, click Settings & Preferences. In the text box, you can enter a phone number, email address or domain (such as Comcast.net) that you want to block.

    * T-Mobile: T-Mobile doesn’t yet offer a “block text messages from the Internet” option. You can block all messages sent by e-mail, though, or permit only messages sent to your phone’s e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases. It’s all waiting when you log into www.t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools.

  • scam artist-ushenry2009@yahoo.com

    I have been chatting online and he calls but has to hang up. At first I received loads of sweet nothings in my ear to good to believe. It was fascinating but I figured it out when the person wanted money to pay for his goods in Nigeria before he could board the plane. He wanted $450 because they told him he couldn’t pay with a money order there. I then realized it was a scam when I told him I couldn’t help him. He immediately emailed me after I said I accused him of being a scam artist and told me to go to hell. He changed his personality fast. I still keep trying to chat with him to tell him to get honest work and stop this insanity. He kept asking for the money. I never gave it to him. He is very persistent. This ordeal may take awhile to get him to realize his dilemma he is in. I guess people don’t learn quick. He goes by honestcare02 on zoosk.com and by Henry Cole, ushenry2009@yahoo.com You are forewarned

  • About to take the CCENT Certification Test (Part II): Failed Certification

    In July I wrote a short post about taking the CCENT to get my networking marketability back up. Well, I took it about one month ago and failed it. It is the first certification I failed. The bad the thing about this, is that it is the lowest level Cisco certification you can take! So, as you can imagine, I took the failure hard. But since I feel that failure is not an option, I have decided to take it again.

    How is the CCENT? I would say it is easy. That may sound like a contradiction coming from a guy who just failed it, but allow me to explain. It covers all the basics of TCP/IP & Cisco switching and routing. If you have a year of experience doing routing and switching on Cisco equipment in small to medium environment, you will probably laugh at this test. If you are like me and have mostly an academic understanding of Cisco technology, you may struggle.

    Where did I go wrong? I think I just didn’t put enough time into getting on the switches and routers I have at home. In fact, I am ashamed to admit, I put almost no time into it. I have been very busy for the last 7 months working on a very large project.. so I just don’t have a lot of spare time.

    Anyway, I will be taking the test again soon.. Wish me luck.

  • SAP security audit programs

    SAP- Increasing Demand by Increasing Efficiency

    Systems, applications, Products (SAP) is a security auditing program that checks a computer systems data integrity and overall security. This application is accompanied by a user interface that is highly flexible. SAP security audit programs were introduced in the 1980s and provides the best audit resources for major companies and industry leaders.

    In SAP, audit security is the foremost requirement enabling access control and separation of duties. These two areas are very important for the integration of control mechanisms. A company must plan prior to implementing SAP to obtain better access and a clear understanding of the system. This includes proper design of profile and removal of surplus IDs. Security audit programs includes many audit procedures that are designed to efficiently access a variety of transactions.

    The main administrative function of SAP security Audit Programs includes automatic scheduling of jobs according to different user IDs, monitoring errors, administering backdrop session and access to proper management functionality. As far as security settings are concerned, SAP system audit program helps to execute online programs using different procedures and maintenance of different tables. This allows access to maintain different profile parameters including password and security of default user IDs. SAP system audit programs also allow locking of sensitive codes of transactions and execution of OS commands externally.

    The SAP system audit program contains different audit procedures showing steps to extract useful information from a system. Some system audit program resources are highly beneficial and include audit programs for financial accounting, audit programs for basic security, audit programs for Fixed Asset, audit programs for expenditures, audit programs for treasury, audit programs for inventory management, audit programs for HR & payroll and audit programs for revenue. Companies using SAP applications can create different software packages to meet their key objectives. This application is assembled in such a way that allows each department of an organization to get integrated.

  • google’s Safe Browsing Alerts

    The all seeing eye of Google is upon Safe browsing and and alerts for your network. I think this is proof that Google is not “evil” as some say. Some believe that Google is “evil” just because they want to organize all of the worlds data. To this I say, “stop, hatin’!”

    Google has taken steps toward protecting is users from malware and phishing attacks by alerting webmasters of malicious content and bad URLs.

    Now Google offers a service for Network Administartors that allows system owners to receive early notifications for malicious content on their network. Its called “Google Safe Browsing Alerts“. As an example of how powerful this can be, imagine an Internet Service Provider have such a service.

    I can already hear the “nayers of google” crying, “what about the privacy of the networks and your users?” To this I say, “SHUT THE HELL UP!” Google loves you. Google died for your sins. Repent, for the kingdom of Google is at hand.
    http://safebrowsingalerts.googlelabs.com/

    That is all.

    http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2010/09/safe-browsing-alerts-for-network.html