New Hampshire Real Estate & Consumer Resources

Archive for October, 2005

Check out this fascinating article in the Los Angeles Times that takes a look behind the scenes of a Nigerian 419 Scam operation.

There is certainly an abundance of information about these scams in numerous locations around the net, so it is amazing to me that some people are still falling for this stuff.

A month or two back, NBC’s Dateline did an extensive peice on these types of scams also.

Penny Stock Proof

Talk about timing. This morning I got a heads up on a site called SpamStockTracker.

The guy that put that site together decided to track the performance of the stocks that were being promoted using spam.

I was getting a whole lot of those penny stock spam messages a few months back but they seem to have dried up of late. Probably due to the fact that my ISP has decided to put a little more effort into spam filtering recently.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you check this site out and see the proof of what I have been saying about these penny stocks that are being promoted using spam, and more recently in my case, promoted with postcards sent via the U.S. Mail.

Since I have received a few of these in my snail mail recently, and they always tend to get my dander up, I’ve decided to share this one with the readers of my blog.

Click here to see the postcard

I don’t normally get so emotional about junk mail (SPAM is another matter!), but this kind of junk mail gets me hot under the collar, and here’s why:

I’ve had my share of experience with penny stocks a number of years ago, and all of it was not good. Let’s just say I should have listened to the good advice I was given by a few wise people who told me to stay away from penny stocks because the vast majority of them are garbage.

This little junk mail gem is pushing a stock that provides services for people who want to sell things on eBay. It may be a decent company for all I know, but the fact of the matter is that the person or persons behind this junk mail are not doing any favors for anyone except themselves.

It’s real simple if you think about. Why on Earth would someone go through the trouble and expense to send this nifty postcard out to me (and a lot of other people) to make sure so many people knew about this tremendous opportunity?

Is it because they are just generous, caring folks who want nothing more than to help others?

I didn’t think you’d fall for that either. The sad truth of the matter is that the someone behind the creation and distribution of this postcard stands to make a very healthy sum of money if the price of this stock experiences a nice run up.

And what, might you ask, would cause the stock price to go up? Yes, you guessed it. Recipients of this postcard buying into (literally) the hype and buying up shares. Supply and demand. As the supply diminishes demand increases and up she goes!

What’s interesting about this postcard is the stuff they are required to print at the bottom (in small print of course!) to keep themselves out of jail.

If you take the time to read that small print, it pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Here’s what that small print at the bottom of the page says, along with my translation:

‘[Name of company that sent the postcard] is not a registered financial advisory.’

Translation: We have no training in finance or investing. For all you know, we could just be a couple of guys named Vinny and Sal holed up in an abandoned warehouse in Jersey printing this stuff and sending it out to everyone we can think of.

‘The information presented here is not an offer to buy or sell securities.’

Translation: We are not brokers and we are not offering to sell you any stock, but we really, really, really think this stock is going to the moon and we think you should buy it. Quick.

‘Since [Name of company that sent the postcard] has received this information from sources other than the company, there is no representation, warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained herein.’

Translation: We didn’t get this information from the company, but we don’t expect you to read this fine print anyway, so what’s the difference? Hell, for all you know, we could have dropped a few hits of acid and hallucinated this whole thing! So even though we want you to think this is the stock pick of the century, in reality, this stock and the company may actually suck, and you could lose your shirt if you invest.

‘[Name of company that sent the postcard] contains forward looking statements, and the company’s actual results may differ materially.’

Translation: We have no idea if this company is about ready to fold up and go out of business tomorrow. But we, after consulting with Madame Jamba (Palm readings, tarot cards and entrail readings. Corner of 124th and 12th. Mon. ‘ Fri., 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 555-3192. Free palm readings on Tuesdays!) have determined that the price of this stock will explode soon. Oh yeah, we may have just made all this stuff up, and if you ask the company about it, they may not be willing to let you in on all these cool secrets.

‘Penny stocks are considered to be highly speculative and may be unsuitable for all but very aggressive investors.’

Translation: The vast majority of penny stocks are indeed crap. That is why they are priced so low. Unless you have some good inside info, you probably shouldn’t be messing with them at all.

‘[Name of company that sent the postcard] may hold positions in companies mentioned and may buy or sell at any time, which may affect share price.’

Translation: We are holding a boatload of this crap and as soon as the price runs up nicely, we are going to dump all 10 million shares. That, unfortunately for the chumps who actually buy this stock hoping to make a killing, will cause the price to plummet so fast it will make a shooting star appear slow in comparison.

‘The profile of [Penny stock being promoted] is a paid advertisement by a third party shareholder to [Name of company that sent the postcard] in the amount of two hundred fifty thousand shares of stock that need to be sold to pay for the cost of this advertising.’

Translation: Someone who is also holding a boatload of this stock has given us many shares of stock to send out all these postcards and drum up some buyers for this stock so the share price will rise, and this certain someone can make a fortune. By the way, we’ll do pretty well ourselves!

‘The target price was determined arbitrarily and may fluctuate, please consult a registered financial advisor before making in any decisions.’

Translation: All this stuff about a $15.75 target price is just a bunch of stuff we totally made up in order to get you excited enough to buy this stock. Although we don’t really want you to consult a financial advisor (because you will probably be told that this stock is garbage and you will most likely lose money if you do buy it), the law says we have to say that and we don’t want to go to jail!

At times I have to wonder if the major software developers have some kind of secret agreement with the hard disk manufacturers that involves using up as much disk space as possible on customers’ computers.

This is nothing new, but since I recently re-installed the operating system and all the application programs on my PC, it brought the subject forward to a prominent position in my never-ending (and ever-growing) list of computer gripes.

It all started when I visited the Adobe web site to download the latest version of the Adobe Reader application. Adobe Reader has been around for quite a while and is used to display the contents of PDF files. If you have spent any significant time surfing around the net and downloading things, you have probably encountered PDF files.

Adobe Reader has been free for a long time, and although it is good of Adobe to make it freely available to anyone who wants it, that generosity also goes a long way towards promoting the use of their PDF file format. After all, what good is it if people can’t read the contents of PDF files?

Luckily Adobe had a link to the Adobe Reader download right on their web site home page, so I didn’t have to search around trying to find the download page. That, apparently, was the end of my lucky streak.

When I arrived at the download page I was rather surprised to see that the Adobe Reader download was 26.8 megabytes. I then noticed two little check boxes that were already checked (for my convenience no doubt!) that included two other applications as part of the Adobe Reader download.

These two additional applications were called ‘Adobe Yahoo! Toolbar’ and ‘Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition,’ and that was, no doubt, the reason the size of the download was listed as 26.8 megabytes. I’d just uncheck those two boxes and simply download just the reader, since that was all I really wanted.

Imagine my surprise when I unchecked the two boxes only to reveal that the download size had dropped a massive 7 megabytes to 19.8 megabytes!

Why in the world would Adobe require 19.8 megabytes to code a PDF reader? I fondly recall the days when the Adobe Reader download was around 5 megabytes. Don’t quote me on that, but it was certainly less than 10 megabytes!

I went ahead and downloaded the installation file and began to install it when I realized that it may not be necessary. Had the file been a reasonable size, I would have just finished up the install and moved merrily onto the next application on my list.

The more I thought about the ridiculously bloated size of this installation file, the more determined I was to not install it on my PC. It’s not a disk space issue. I have well over 200 gigabytes of space on this machine.

For me it becomes a matter of what else is bundled in with the simple functionality of a PDF reader, which is all I really want. I’m not suggesting that Adobe has included any kind of spyware or adware or anything else obnoxious or harmful, but it does leave me wondering what is taking up all that space.

Having used Microsoft Windows for about as long as it has been available, I know from years of experience that the more software you install on a PC, the greater the likelihood of running into problems like sluggish performance and application errors. It’s a simple fact of life with Windows.

This is what gave me pause during the initial phase of the installation process for Adobe Reader. I don’t need a dozen other functions or applications in addition to Adobe Reader, all I want is the reader dammit! And since coding the reader should require no more than a megabyte or two, I knew this package was bloated with a bunch of crap I did not want or need.

I aborted the installation and went in search of an alternative.

In recent years, I have happily noticed a growing supply of free software available on the net that can be used in place of these bloated corporate products that we have all become dependent upon.

I went to Google and performed a search for ‘adobe reader alternative’ and was rewarded with exactly the results I had hoped for.

Among the search results was a web site that hosted a free application called Foxit Reader. Billed as the ‘lightened alternative to Adobe Reader,’ I knew I had come to the right place.

I downloaded the program and installed it and it works like a charm. It comes up a lot faster than Adobe Reader and it does just what I want it to do. It decodes and displays the contents of PDF files. It doesn’t tell me about the weather in Kalamazoo, ask me if I want to register it or offer to fetch my slippers. Imagine that!

And the best part? The download was about 1 megabyte in size! Holy mackerel! Have you seen this Adobe? You can actually code a very nice PDF reader with around a megabyte of space!

The moral of the story is to seek alternatives. You may be surprised to discover how many choices you have for various applications that you require.

Next time you are about to install some bloated mainstream application, stop and check out the free alternatives that may be available. There are a tremendous number of free software sites on the net to explore.

If you are in a hurry (like I often seem to be) the good old ‘name-of-software-here alternative’ search on Google usually does the trick for me.

A while back, I related the story of how I was once foolish enough to respond to a spammer’s e-mail, using my actual e-mail address, and tell him what I thought of his spam.

Well, there was at least one spammer that apparently decided he wanted to pay me back for having the nerve to tell him that I do not like receiving spam.

For months I have been getting e-mail messages returned to this address (which I no longer use, but I keep it active because of all the scam messages I receive there and make use of here on this site) due to the fact that the messages are infected with a virus.

As you might imagine, I am not sending out virus-infected e-mail messages. It is quite easy however, for a deranged spammer to use anyone’s e-mail address to send out whatever they want to as many people as they want.

What happens when the virus-infected e-mail message arrives at an e-mail server with virus protection is that the server bounces, or returns the e-mail to the original sender, with a message that informs the original sender that the message was not accepted by the server and is being returned due to virus infestation.

Since the deranged spammer has used my e-mail address as a return address when sending the message, the e-mail server returns the message to my e-mail address. There is no way that the receiving e-mail server can know that the message did not really come from me.

Anyway, what I am noticing recently is that this deranged spammer is now selecting e-mail addresses belonging to real estate agents here in New Hampshire, and sending virus-infected e-mail messages to them. I guess this is his idea of trying to take it to the next level or something.

If you are a real estate agent and have received a virus-infected e-mail, or any other weird kind of e-mail message that appears to have originated from this domain (homesfornh.com), you can rest assured that I am not sending these messages.

I have not heard from any other actual person that has received any of these messages, only the bounced messages from the other e-mail servers. So, I can’t say that this deranged spammer is actually causing much trouble.

Once again, if my spammer friend happens to be reading this blog, my message to you is that you are going to have to do a lot better than you have so far. And while you’re at it, seek some help for that psychiatric problem that you obviously have.

Most people who are active on the Internet have probably heard terms like spyware, adware, and perhaps even malware. These are all terms used to describe software that invades people’s computers for the purposes of making money for someone else.

These program are designed to invade a victim’s computer without the owner’s knowledge and can be very difficult to remove.

There are many variations of this malicious software, which I will simply call malware for my purposes here. Malware can be as simple as a harmless (but irritating) program that delivers pop-up advertising to your computer screen, or as harmful as a program that runs silently in the background each time you start your computer and records everything you type and then sends all that information to some crook somewhere.

I was reading this article in the printed version of that publication last evening and realized that what they are saying is right on target. A hacker’s focus these days is no longer to impress other hackers with their computer prowess, but to use their hacking skills to make money. Hacking is evolving from a hobby and becoming more of a business, or perhaps more accurately, a criminal enterprise.

Yes, the article I referenced above talks mainly about how this new breed of hackers are going after businesses, but you can be sure that there is no shortage of hackers who are quite satisfied to settle for much smaller fish. Like you and me.

Just reference the Internet Dangers section of this site to see just a few of the scams that have been sent my way. Granted, these are more ‘social engineering’ scams and have little or nothing to do with malware, but it just proves that anyone can be a target. Not just big companies with deep pockets.

I also ran across another article that covers this subject and even offers a few ideas for combating it. I agree completely with this article and believe he has some very good ideas on fighting it malware I’ve already started investigating BartPE and will be experimenting with it for use in my own defense against the growing cadre of Internet lowlife.

It is not my intent to scare people away from the Internet. Hardly. As someone who makes a good deal of his living through the net, I naturally want as many people as possible out there searching for my products and services.

My intent is to make people understand that you can no longer simply plug a computer into the Internet and expect to be left alone. Unless you intend to limit your Internet visits to a very small number of trusted sites, you can be sure you will eventually wind up on a site that attempts to invade your computer and install malware.

In many cases, all it takes is a visit to the wrong web site to infect your computer with this stuff. The creators of these malicious programs stay on top of the latest news regarding computer vulnerabilities and know exactly how to exploit them.

Even if you manage to avoid every harmful web site on the Internet, you are still susceptible to the more active virus programs out there that can connect to your computer and infect your machine with a virus without you ever suspecting a thing. These types of virus programs often exploit software vulnerabilities, and there never seems to be a shortage of those to take advantage of.

If you have questioned whether or not things like anti-virus programs and firewall programs are worth the money, do not wonder any longer. Spend the extra few dollars to protect your computer, your privacy, your identity and your assets.

Even with all the ant-virus, anti-spyware and firewall protection, you still may not be safe. If you read the article I mentioned above on the SpyWareInfo site, you know about these ‘rootkits’ and other nasty methods that may be able to hide these malware programs even from the best anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

The anti-virus developers are going to have to come up with more sophisticated methods that have the capabilities of programs like BartPE to examine a system from outside the environment that your computer normally operates within.

I don’t wish to diminish the value of anti-virus and anti-spyware programs that are available today. They are still quite capable of protecting you from a vast number of threats that you are likely to encounter on the net, and I’m sure that they will evolve and improve as new threats emerge.

Protect yourself and don’t let these cyber crooks make you a victim.