Be Careful Out There!

Comment

Comment by Diane Bjorling on February 28, 2010 at 2:00pm

good afternoon everyone :-)

It is difficult to keep up with conversations at the best of times so that is very understandable Scott. I do wonder though in this age of automation as to whether we are losing something in building relationships? Angie has made very good points or is that questions about whether programs, services or products are as good as they are made out to be. How do we know? I think that is where the old art ( hmmm, is that old?) of building our online credibility comes from talking to what we know and know what we are talking about comes into play. Word of mouth is still the best way to find out about whether something is good and worth looking into.

We are so bombarded with information that it can make ones head swim, especially on the net, so doing your due diligence becomes very important. As Angie has stated, doing searches, going to reputable sources is sound business practice. Keeping yourself targeted and focused is wise and using sound practices of using only those programs that will actually be of real use is just smart and common sense thinking.

I had noted that Scott has been using an auto follow programs and i invite you all to go see exactly what i think of these things...um... it is not what most people think?

Thanks Angie for a great discussion and would love to hear what you have been learning...sharing your knowledge is a wonderful way to help others out!

Comment by Scott Reynolds on February 28, 2010 at 10:54am

Hi Angie, I have been meaning to contact you about those twitter messages! I was wondering about your new twitter marketing strategy... lol And I did reply to one but had and auto follow reply which must have infected my account and shut it down... I had to reset my password to get in...

Thanks for the info Angie & Diane although I was a little slow catching on this time... lol Shame on me... didn't keep up with the conversations on my own community!

Comment by Diane Bjorling on February 25, 2010 at 9:56pm

Hi Angie, some days ago there was big warning from Twitter and other blogs, news media, that Twitter might be having issues with another phishing attack.

It was confirmed that an attack had indeed taken place.

On a recent Buzz, I let it be known to my contacts and this is what i said:

A Twitter phishing attack is spreading rapidly today, attempting to obtain Twitter logins via Direct Messages. If you receive a message reading “lol, is this you”, and linking to a site called “bzpharma”, do not click the link.

Users who do click that link and enter their details are inadvertently letting spammers take over their accounts, which are then used to spam the same Direct Message to all their friends.

If you’re receiving these messages, your account is not compromised, but if you find you’re sending them, make sure to change your TwitterTwitterTwitter password immediately.
twitter-phishing-attack


If you are unsure what a phishing is. Wikiedia defines phishing as "the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication." We've identified a phishing scam directed at Twitter users and we don't want you to get tricked into giving your password to a scammer.

From the twitter blog Biz Stone says that if you do get tricked "Some folks may have clicked the link and given their Twitter password to the phishing site. In those cases it would be possible for the phisher to send out direct messages on your behalf which could trick your followers. In those cases, we proactively reset the passwords of the accounts.

So, if you find yourself unable to login to your account with your username and password, please use the reset password link to regain access. This will send an email to the address associated with your account and you'll be able to create a new password.

If you don't receive the reset password email, please check your junk or spam email folder as it may be accidentally delivered there. If you are still having trouble logging in, please contact our support team and we'll help you out."

Some folks may have clicked the link and given their Twitter password to the phishing site. In those cases it would be possible for the phisher to send out direct messages on your behalf which could trick your followers. In those cases, we proactively reset the passwords of the accounts.

So, if you find yourself unable to login to your account with your username and password, please use the reset password link to regain access. This will send an email to the address associated with your account and you'll be able to create a new password.

If you don't receive the reset password email, please check your junk or spam email folder as it may be accidentally delivered there. If you are still having trouble logging in, please contact our support team and we'll help you out. "

For Tips on how to avoid phishing attacks go to National Consumer Leagues Internet Fraud Watch

Sorry this happened Angie, but thanks for following Scott and myself

Comment by Angie Smith ( Angies Freebies ) on February 25, 2010 at 8:05pm

Ok, well, Twitter removed the last bad message, the worst one. Thank goodness!!!! However, there is one more. Scott, I actually got this message from you first burrdnut haha. This you???? http://tr.im/PyJJ
Then I noticed in my sent folder it was also sent from me to everyone!!!!

So, that one is still there but not nearly as embarrassing or horrible!!!!

I am still trying to figure out what the heck happened!!!!

Comment by Angie Smith ( Angies Freebies ) on February 25, 2010 at 7:48pm

Hi guys!
You are not going to believe this, well Scott & Diane will because the two of you follow me on twitter. My account was hacked and someone has sent a really embarrassing (not sure if that is spelled right) direct message to all of my followers. I just got an email from Twitter saying the following
Full ViewPlease change your twitter password
From: Twitter Add to Contacts
To: angies.freebies@yahoo.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hey there.
Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset. Please create a new password by opening this link in your browser:


This will reset your password. Remember to choose a strong password that is a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Do not reuse your old password.

As a reminder, you should be extraordinarily suspicious of any third party that offers to artificially inflate your follower count. We do not endorse any of these sites.

Please make sure to:

Scan your computers for viruses / malware, especially if unauthorized tweets continue to be posted in your accounts even after you've changed the password.
Check the Connections page at http://twitter.com/account/connections and revoke the access privileges of any third party applications that you do not recognize.
Avoid providing your username and/or e-mail and password to untrusted third-party sites.
Remove any updates that you did not post personally.

You can also visit our help page for hacked or compromised accounts

The Twitter Team

Please do not reply to this message; it was sent from an unmonitored email address. This message is a service email related to your use of Twitter. For general inquiries or to request support with your Twitter account, please visit us at Twitter Support.

However, I did not give out my password to anyone or any service. I am literally in tears right now. I have people that follow me from my blog and here. I can not believe this has happened.

Does anyone know if I can send a direct message to everyone at once? I want to let everyone know that I did NOT write that.

Thanks in advance!!!

Comment by Diane Bjorling on February 23, 2010 at 9:11pm

i was just thinking of something Angie and thought i would come back, hope you dont mind :-)

As a business owner, what i have learned is that the best way to get a customer is with using something free. it has been a long term strategy for many years off line and that is what your site is all about, showing people all the different deals that people can get for free. sweet!

There is a methodology to this in the business world and it is called the first conversion ( dont ya love the names...lol)

Once a person get a free product and they like it, then they will go out and buy it. This is the second conversion. The trick is then to get them to come back a third time..so on and so fourth ...thus called the third conversion.

Off line businesses have learned not to think of the first conversion, but to plan for the third conversion.

Most people who are working online, do not think this way...they are so busy with the first conversion ( the free product) and I will bet ya that many will sign up..but how many will stay?

As a business owner, one needs to think to the future and that third conversion ..where they have repeat customers..that is what this is really all about, but you wont hear this kind of talk on all the affiliate programs or services and that has caused so many people to fail.

For anyone who is working on line and using a blog as their vehicle, then when it comes to all the different programs, products or services, then one has to start thinking a different way. To put it simply. What you need to ask yourself, what do you need in or on your vehicle that will work with or harmonize what your target is? Write down a list of all the different things you are going to need to help push your business into the forefront. If it is for example a plugin for you site, then do your homework. See what is out there and compare. What is the page rank for the site in question, what is their alexa rating. You can go to Alexa and get even more information ( if available) about the company. Read the comments left on the owners site, you will get a feeling as to whether this is something that will work for you.

Do this with everything that you want on your site. It may take time, but it is worth it in the end.

I hope that i have added to this conversation and now toodles...lol

hope to hear your feed back soon

@blogneta

Comment by Scott Reynolds on February 23, 2010 at 8:22pm

I have to specify that I was not talking to "you" in my reply Angie... just the general public...

Comment by Scott Reynolds on February 23, 2010 at 7:30pm

Very well written Angie and Thank you!

It is amazing to watch people really put their all into promoting something that has scared them away from believing anything they see on the internet.

OK. First, everyone is afraid of Identity theft online. A reasonable concern.
But... post something somewhere on the internet with tracking so you know exactly how many people see it. Most will never get 1 hit unless you tell someone where it is. So How is someone going to steal your identity when you probably can not even find your information online? Most personal info online is encrypted and locked away from the general public anyway, except on public sites like social networks where you usually want people to find you. How will they find you if your info is not public? Your profile and posts are invisible to the public on this site unless you are a member and signed in! I don't like scamers and spammers so they will be gone before they will get your info! So how does our information get seen online if it is locked away from the general public? Our posts, discussions and other content we create by conversing back and forth on the site gets indexed by the search engines, the most people can see is a few lines, hopefully these few lines will entice them to come read more! When they do, they have to sign up...... We just gained a targeted lead with your content, chances are they will keep a close eye on what you write because they liked what they saw..... Se how it works?

The main site rank helps get your search terms seen .... other members links on other sites spread our web presence even further..... I myself have a fairly large web presence that I could keep to myself..... but I offer it here for you to use free. But by setting back and waiting for the traffic to come to you??? Aint going to happen! It is already going right by! You are the only one that can reach out and grab yours!

Comment by Diane Bjorling on February 23, 2010 at 7:08pm

well done! um..not just because you named me ..k?

You have hit on a very important issue and that who do you trust? There are many scams out there by people who will fleece you. I sometimes feel that the scarier people are those who come across well meaning but don't know what they are talking about.

There are places that you can go where you can check to see if there are issues with a site, service or program. I keep a list of them on file ( me paranoid...lol...naaa) In fact I listed some of them on another post elsewhere.

I also agree that leaving comments ( still hate that word by the way..i much prefer joining a conversation) will not only help the person who wrote their post/article, but it also helps create traffic for the person who joined that conversation.

Scott is one of those people who just believes in what he is doing and i know that he appreciates what you and others are learning from him.

i hope that you are well and having fun.

Best Regards,

Diane

@blogneta

Ps... another thing you should do when you are posting a blog is create a signature.. in fact use your twitter name ( wink)

keep sending the message out...it will be heard.


Thank you for your kind words by the way..that was very kewl!