SubscribeBe sure and check those credit card and debit card statements every month. While perusing mine, I discovered two fraudulent charges I never authorized, and the bank is closing the card number down and charging them back:
04-25-2009 STUFF FOR MINIONS 561-459-1883 FLUS $30.99
05-05-2009 CCWEBCREATIVE 785-527-9676 NYUS $13.29
“Stuff for Minions” claims to be a pet supply store with a suspiciously bland catalog and website. The name doesn’t exactly match either. Calling the number takes you nowhere. “CC Web Creative” is permanently forwarded to a voicemail box with a NYC accented woman prompting you to e-mail them instead. Yeah, like that is going to happen. The website is a generic web template slightly modified with contact information that is hardly detailed.
Stuff for Minions hit more folks early on, and usually for around $30. The CC Web Creative charge is more recent and is probably now popping up on credit card and debit card statements only this week.
What usually happens is someone gets access to a card number through another purchase you made and then resells it. The subsequent charges that are made are usually under $50 and are generic enough to make one assume they are a result of a spouse or child who ordered something, and because the dollar amount is inconsequential for a lot of people, they don’t hurry to investigate. The Stuff for Minions victims reported about four additional charges from other companies.
Lesson to learn: If any charge looks suspicious, investigate it, even if a small dollar amount. If you don’t, it will lead to potentially many more.
Good to know you found out about these fraudulent charges. Seems like everyone’s trying to scam/fraud someone these days, but that is no surprise really. Take a look at DSLReport’s Spam and Phishbusters forum. It’s typically quite busy. On a side note since this is an Off topic article, WIndows 7 Release Candidate 1 was released to the public today! The 32-bit version is 2.36GB big, and the 64-bit version of it is ~3.1GB big. I have it downloaded and burned to DVD, and now I have to install it on my test box. I’m curious to see what bugs… Read more »
I am *really* hoping good things for Win 7. We’re getting close to the Star Trek movie formula here: Windows 3.0 meh Windows 3.1 yeah Windows 95 attitude problem Windows 98 getting there Windows:ME war crime Windows XP best of the lot Vista Windows:ME risen from the dead/virus/malware, hate it Windows 7 ???? I so loathe Vista I refuse to run it on the home computer, although it’s on three of the seven laptops we own (part of our Laptop for Every Room campaign). We are bi-curious when it comes to OS’s. 🙂 We own a Mac Mini (I can’t… Read more »
LOL same here in terms of computers. I have 7-8 computers as well as 3 game consoles that typically get monthly updates. That’s shooting over a gig some months, not to mention on a good day of updating (if my programs have updates for them as well). Here, I have two XP machines, a bunch of Windows 2000 machines, one machine running Ubuntu 9.04, and one machine currently running Windows 7 Beta (going to be nuking this machine for a fresh install of RC1 shortly). Then of course I have one machine running Windows Vista Ultimate. I used to have… Read more »
Windows XP best of the lot should read Windows XP SP2 best of the lot. Before then it was a mess. I have a spare box sitting in the hallway so I might DL windows 7 just to check it out. A quick format and it can become anything I want later. I doubt Win7 is anything worth while but it will give me something to play with and complain about. Then again maybe I wont as it requires an msn or passwork account so ill just get it off the bay and wont even need a key. Ill assume… Read more »
Mr. Smith why would somebody block port 80?
Well, take it like this. In almost every ISP you come across, there is a clause in the TOS that states that you are not allowed to run servers unless you pay for a certain package. In this case, Verizon’s Static IP package with the 3Mbps or higher Business DSL, or Static IP FiOS for Business. Really, back in year 2000 I believe it was when there was a scare going around with people’s computers getting infected with a virus that used HTTP (Port 80) that caused ISPs to block Port 80 incoming, that’s what the whole purpose of blocking… Read more »
Mr Smith when I go down to the gibson site all 1023 are unseen. Every thing they throw at me my computer will not respond like im not even there. I assume ports open and close as needed. What was it port 113 that required me to block that one in the router. Routers are the best $50 you can spend if only for a single computer and I recomend them to everybody. Gread first line of defense a hard ware firewall. I spent and hour on phone with TWC because I could not access somethings on their own sites…… Read more »
Understood Mr Smith.
This just in http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/9002/itunes.html
Related to what TWC is trying to pull YES
NAT routers with SPI firewalls or home built Linux routers are wonderful pieces of equipment. They block so much internet noise without you even noticing (unless you’re logging of course). NAT is the key thing though, as if the router doesn’t know where an unsolicited packet from the internet (incoming) has to go to, it’ll simply drop it, hence why whenever you visit Gibson’s Shields Up! website and do a port scan, if behind a router with the SPI firewall off, the ports will show as closed or Stealth, because the router is simply dropping the connection because there’s nothing… Read more »
Thank you mr. Smith. I have done tests with and without the router in line and the software firewall disabled and it still shown the same thing except port 113. So I must be blessed that something is working right in my system. Port 113 seem to be a bastard port but im sure with a little more study Ill will get the solution. I dont want to be told that makes me weak If a person has the desire and finds the solution they will never forget it. So true of many problems. Hire a person to fix it… Read more »
No problem 🙂 Port 113 is for IDENT/Auth purposes, so unless it’s wide open, don’t worry about it for as long as you have a software firewall, you’ll be fine. Some software firewalls I know for a fact are quite adaptive and if it sees something trying to exploit that port if it comes up as closed, the firewall will immediately stealth it for a while. If you have a NAT router though, just use port forwarding to forward Port 113 to a non-existent LAN PC if you’re that worried about closing the port 🙂 I use GIMP instead of… Read more »
Yee Mr. Smith I know about the other 65535 ports I some times use them for other things. 🙂 But I look at those also. As long as a program is not using them they to are behind closed doors. Only active if being used. I have seen that. Gibson checks the first 1023 because the are the most likley for a person to have open. Someone like yourself knows that without even thinking about it the other 98 percent done even know what a port is, dont have any protection or even know what hits them till the thing… Read more »
Windows movie maker is a very nice progran (FREE) I have done many great things with it. I took 60 still pics of my model boat hauling out at 40mph. Changing the timing I made it look like a movie. Sure I have some of the best but with that it becomes more complex.
Pro: Welcome to the wonder world of windows. For me its XP that
sometimes plays tricks for any number of reasons. A reboot usually
takes care of it. If you have vista be glad it will boot at all. As long as it does
not happen often I dont think there is anything to worry about. You could
also look in the control panel system events and look for any strange
events that happened. That could give you an idea what was not working.
One would think if your business was $8 BILLION dollars in debt somebody should have been keeping track. This did not happen overnight. Both TW and Verizon could handle that amount but only if they saw the payback for it quickly given the economy. I do not think either would take the chance right now and I still will not accept some idea of back door deals in NY regarding Rochester and fiber. Payback is a given up here and they know it. The backbone and weakness is the ability to find out what back room deals were made and… Read more »