Internet Safety - Part 2

Internet Safety – ‘Cyber-Bullying’ is ‘Beatable’

By Dr. Peter James – Independent researcher, writer, and web tactician.

Yesterday Part 1 was published here...

Internet Safety Tips - Part 1

Part 2 follows on below.

Fraud Email
Everyone gets junk and scam emails, be it Mr ‘Microsoft’ Bill Gates, your favourite film star or singer, even me, efforts are made to curb this daily threat but without employing many of the suggestions in this article, it is a hard battle to win. Now my own spam emails received is low at around five or six items a week. If your IP address gets hi-jacked, you can send spam unknowingly. A few months ago whilst on holiday I found that despite not being on the Internet during the 5 days away that 1000+ spam emails had been sent using my IP address. The matter was resolved 6 weeks later and the offender caught, literally, no one is exempt from the ‘Cyber-Bully’ or Internet nastiness out there today.

There are always plausible reasons given to get you to respond to them, many are from banks that you do not have an account with at all. Never open or respond to them at all, if it is from your bank, go to the nearest branch and sort it out there, not over the Internet or phone, many bogus emails use false logos, and ghost embedded addresses to fool the recipients into responding. In the time it takes to re-read this paragraph, a computer operator elsewhere in another part of the world could electronically rob your bank account!

Have you brought anything in the last few days? Has anyone brought anything from you? Apart from the odd promotional email from ‘EBay’ or maybe a follow up question from a buyer or seller – You know who they are; there is no need for ‘EBay’ to contact you at all. Any such emails can be deleted without a second thought. The contents look good and the links work to bogus sites – not ‘EBay’ – they usually contain ‘bugs’ of various descriptions, all designed to get into your computer and feed back any useful information found on it. Want to see EBay’s latest offers, go to the EBay website much safer than opening the ‘offer you can not refuse’ email.

The scenario is very similar to ‘EBay’, again they look good and just like all scam emails they contain false links, sometimes phone numbers, impressive reproduced layout and a lot of ‘English’ spelling mistakes. (A fact many non-native ‘English’ speakers miss completely when responding to ‘scam’ emails.) Along with other poorly educated people, they happily answer all questions asked and lose thousands every day to these ‘Cyber-Criminals/Bullies’ - The same rule for PayPal special offers applies as well.

Phone numbers that are not
It is possible to buy phone numbers for other countries and many do this for genuine legally accepted reasons. Just because it is a ‘UK’or 'USA' etc number to ring, does not mean your call (along with the bogus contact name) is going to that country. Invariably the call never does, answered in a completely different country to the one dialled on your phone. In the event that you find such a number in an email, there is a very high chance that is an attempt to reassure that the email is genuine.

Lottery winner
Bin them! Do not waste a second opening them, each one is aimed at making you a lot poorer and the ‘Cyber-Bully/ Criminal’ a lot richer. You have not won anything at all. Your lottery winnings are false, every lottery has a ticket with ‘Your’ chosen numbers on it that will be in your possession, not faceless individual, – Foreign lotteries; do not normally sell outside their own national borders. Again badly written ‘English’ gets thousands of greedy individuals to empty their bank accounts chasing the mythical money they have not won, not only not won – The winnings never exist at all! – If the email were on paper, the paper would be worth more than the contents written on it.

Inheritance emails
Again bin them without opening them, the wording in the mailbox as to ‘From’ and ‘Header’ contents usually give them away first, if any is present in the header that is. As with any unknown names if in doubt – ‘Delete’ without opening. The header usually wants you to contact someone; this someone has a false name and phone number and is only intent on passing you along a chain of fraudsters getting you to part with as much money as possible on the way. Later after a few months respite they get in touch with you again and go through the whole rip-off process again. Think about this: ‘Why they do not know your name if you are actually inheriting such a large sum of money?’

Microsoft Junk emails
Microsoft do not, repeat do not send junk emails, nowadays nearly all Microsoft emails are by subscription only, only sent by request. You can happily delete any you have not asked them to send, as they will not be from Microsoft at all.

Password request / Locked account emails
If your mate across the street, a stranger in the bar where you have a beer, or a bus passenger asked for your password, bank details etc, would you give them to them. No! So why do people happily do so to an unknown plausible electronic enquiry? These details are yours and yours alone not for Jo/ Joe Public – Keep them safe!

If a stranger asked you for your ‘Front Door Key’ would you give it to them?

Passwords
Use a clue to remind you, never write the password down just write the clue down. Anyone can find it in your absence or even in front of you without you knowing.

Incidentally, forget any ideas of using big words from dictionaries or any other dictionary word unless disguised - Once access is gained to your computer from an illegal source, in nearly all cases, an incredible amount of dictionaries come into action as your data is trawled looking for passwords that you may have stored on it.

A far more secure combination today is around 16 characters/symbols long.

I say 'far more', owing to the fact that a 'Secret' is only a 'Secret' until you tell one other person. - So keep those passwords 'SECRET'

Use different on each website
In the event you have so many website passwords, then try to group your site passwords so that in the event that if a password is found, the password will not give access to all of the websites that you use, just a few. If there are several passwords on one site make sure that every password is different, adding a figure at the end of the main password is not a good idea.

Change passwords each month
Regularly change your passwords; it is in your own interest to do so and prior to this if you suspect someone else may know a password. A second option exists; if you do not use particular websites regularly, use the sites password reminder service, yes it takes a few minutes of your time but is well worth the effort involved.

Passwords...
Never share them - Never email them - Ignore requests for them

The passwords that you use to access ‘Chat’, ‘Windows’, your various accounts etc are yours and ‘Unique’ to you! No one else needs or needs to know them, not even the company website that you use, only their computers do. In every case, individuals are ‘locked out’ from this information and no one has any right to ask you for it. Electronic reminders are just that, no human is involved in the reminder at all.

Many systems do not send it; they send a temporary replacement instead, so that you can re-access your account. (A step that stops interception of the email whilst in transit to you)

Yes, there are even 'Spy-Bots' that read the body (Main Part) of your email content in transit looking for email addresses and nothing else, so try to disguise any email addresses you send to others - Doing this, actually makes them invisible to these 'Spy-Bots' - Example... donald(dot)duck(at)quackers(dot)com(dot)au

Email addresses that you enter in the 'Header' of your email are quite safe from illegal interception these 'Spy-Bot' Internet Nasties.

Naughty Websites...
All are lockable by you! Every ‘web site’ is lockable from your browser, just as every unwanted ‘email’ or ‘chat individual’ may be locked on the relevant provider. All responsible parents on every computer in the home should take these actions, before any problems start in the future.

That token fee of 1 Euro / $1 / £1 etc is more than just a means of verifying the users age, in many cases it is a ‘Yippee’ another sucker has given us permission to go on a spending spree at their expense. Result; loads of extra expenses many will go un-noticed by you as the Credit Card is usually paid by Direct Debit, with no questions asked by the Card owner at all. Tracker cookies are now safely implanted on your computer from this transaction.

Cookies...
Cookies are useful aids that enable regularly visited websites to open faster. Unfortunately, there are also ‘malicious’ cookies; these tend to turn up in emails and some downloaded programs as well. Employing the email precautions above will help reduce them, as will regular virus and spyware scans and updates of said programs. Another precaution you can take is to ‘Save’ rather than ‘Run’ a new program that you download, this will enable you virus and spyware programs to scan and remove any problems before they get the chance to ‘hide in your computers registry. Many new ‘Bugs’ self-duplicate, meaning you will get it back within seconds of removal as its clone left behind elsewhere in the registry reproduces itself.

Key-loggers sit there on your hard drive recording every keystroke and mouse click that you make. Then your computer sends this information to another (Unknown to you at all) computer in ‘Cyber-World’.

Conclusion...
At the time of writing, There are sadly still several thousand missing children in the world related to ‘chat’ and other instant message issues. There were a little over 4,100 recognised frauds in progress and a list of over 400 recognised Internet Fraudsters at large, with 420,000+ frauds deleted from the Internet. Together with a large number of hi-jacked, IP addresses by unknown parties. With your help in adopting as many of the above advice items, larger numbers of Internet crimes will be solved and the perpetrators caught and punished. Even better still thousands of children will be re-united unharmed with their families and the ‘groomers’ will not be able to lead many more astray in the future.

Another point not yet clarified as ‘a fact’ is ‘chat’ systems being used as an extension to street and playground bullying, to incite violence or crime on the victim against other victims, keeping the ‘actual’ aggressor/ perpetrator safe and sound.

URL Help websites to note:

1. Internet fraud - http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/
2. Child web safety - http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/
3. Internet Police UK - http://www.wiredsafety.org/gb/law/uk_police_information.html
4. FBI Cybercrime - http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm

There are many more, most countries have them, in some form. Your first priority should be to contact your local Police in the event of personal issues and missing persons, they can help far quicker and will take all the necessary steps needed both where you are and contact more specialised units/ teams as needed.

Please enjoy the Internet it has a wealth of information on it and the vast majority of users are genuine, the minority spoil things in the ‘Cyber-World’, as well as the ‘Real World’.
Learn to be safe not sorry, together we can stamp out ‘Cyber-Crime’ - ‘Cyber-Bullying’ and develop a much safer ‘Cyber-World’

In case you ever wondered, there is a last page on the Internet, its URL is… http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

Enjoy your life and help others to enjoy theirs, together we can make this borderless Internet safer, together Internet crime will be reduced. Everyday people like me are working behind the scenes to give you a better safer Internet, everyday the Internet gets a bit safer for all. With your help, we can all be winners and stop the minority from running our lives, fuelling our fears and feeding our limited knowledge to blame those who are not guilty in any way for the minorities actions against us all.

Part 3 follows tomorrow - Extra anytime tips whilst out and going about your daily life.