Reunion.com Invades Your E-mail and Spreads Like a Virus

(Image is used under the Pixabay license)

Reunion.com is using a deceptive marketing strategy where they pretend to be someone you know who is inviting you to Reunion. If you go to Reunion.com to see who it is, sign up, and make the horrible gross mistake of giving them your e-mail address password, they will automatically send out false e-mails to all the people in your contact list.

Two things are going horribly wrong here. One is that Reunion.com is using false and deceptive practices and is doing nothing less than what a virus or hacker would do. I hope the hammer of law hits them hard and fast

The second thing is that people somehow believe it's ok to give up their e-mail address password which is a huge no no.

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More Scientology Documents Leaked

(Image used under: Creative Commons 3.0 [SRC])

The last thing this cult wants is more exposure into their secret operating documents. Go Wikileaks!

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Are Your Co-Workers Incompetent or Master Espionogists?

CIA
(Image is in the Public Domain)

Someone I know of who works at a three-letter agency forwarded me this CIA Simple Sabotage Field Manual from 1944 that was recently declassified. If you every wondered if someone was TRYING to get in the way at work, maybe they are…

Here's the full list in case you don't want the pdf:

  1. Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
  2. Make "speeches" Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.
  3. When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible – never less than five.
  4. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
  5. Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
  6. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
  7. Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.
  8. Be worried about the propriety of any decision – raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated is within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.
  9. Demand written orders.
  10. "Misunderstand" orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.
  11. Do everything possible to delay the delivery of orders. Even though parts of an order may be ready beforehand, don't deliver it until it is completely ready.
  12. Don't order new working materials until your current stocks have been virtually exhausted, so that the slightest delay in filling your order will mean a shutdown.
  13. Oder high-quality materials which are hard to get. If you don't get them argue about it. Warn that inferior materials will mean inferior work.
  14. In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.
  15. Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw. Approve other defective parts whose flaws are not visible to the naked eye.
  16. Make mistakes in routing so that parts and materials will be sent to the wrong place in the plant.
  17. When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions.
  18. To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
  19. Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
  20. Multiply paper-work in plausible ways. Start duplicate files.
  21. Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.
  22. Apply all regulations to the last letter.
  23. Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.
  24. Prolong correspondence with government bureaus.
  25. Misfile essential documents.
  26. In making carbon copies, make one too few, so that an extra copying job will have to be done.
  27. Tell important callers the boss is busy or talking on another telephone.
  28. Hold up mail until the next collection.
  29. Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope.
  30. Work slowly. Think out way s to increase the number of movements necessary on your job: use a light hammer instead of a heavy one, try to make a small wrench do when a big one is necessary, use little force where considerable force is needed and so on.
  31. Contrive as many interruptions to your work as you can: when changing the material on which you are working, as you would on a lathe or punch, take needless time to do it. IF you are cutting, shaping or doing other measured work, measure dimensions twice as often as you need to. When you go to the lavatory, spend a longer time there than is necessary. Forget tools so that you will have to go back after them.
  32. Even if you understand the language, pretend not to understand instructions in a foreign tongue.
  33. Pretend that instructions are hard to understand and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.
  34. Do your work poorly and blame it on bad tools, machinery, or equipment. Complain that these things are preventing you from doing your job right.
  35. Never pass on your skill and experience to a new or less skillful worker.
  36. Snarl up administration in very possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so, that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.
  37. If possible, join or help organize a group for presenting employee problems to the management. See that the procedures adopted are as inconvenient as possible for the management, involving the presence of a large number of employees at each presentation, entailing more than one meeting for each grievance, bringing up problems which are largely imaginary, and so on.
  38. Give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questions.
  39. Report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or police.
  40. Act stupid.
  41. be as irritable and quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble.
  42. Misunderstand all sorts of regulations concerning such matters as rationing, transportation, traffic regulations.
  43. Complain against ersatz materials.
  44. In public, treat axis nationals or quislings coldly.
  45. Stop all conversation when axis nationals or quislings enter a cafe.
  46. Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks.
  47. Boycott all movies, entertainments, concerts, newspapers which are in any way connected with the quisling authorities.

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Lifelock Adds a REAL Service!?

(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

According to Businesswire.com, Lifelock will be adding a real bon-a-fide service to their program.

Effective immediately, LifeLock will begin rolling out eRecon(TM), a regular patrol of the Internet in search of the social security numbers, credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers and email addresses of LifeLock members to protect against the information being illegally traded or sold online.

What is not explained is what parts of the Internet will be "scoured" or what they will do when they find this information. But in either case, a service that actually monitors your online profile is hinting at becoming actually useful.

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Shortlist for Checking Out A Company Online Before You Give them Money

Don't let them cheat you.
(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

Not too long ago, I put an item on my Christmas wishlist that my wife bought, but I put a link to a fraud company as a place to buy it. If I had bothered to check it out first, I would have quickly realized as much and saved us both a lot of trouble.

So before you pull out your credit card, you should check them out.

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Class Action Suit Against Lifelock

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This was faster than I thought.

The Arizona Department of Insurance has reviewed LifeLock's service and does not believe it is an insurance product, department spokeswoman Erin Klug told the Arizona Republic.

There are people filing class action suits against Lifelock stating that because of fine print and loopholes, most people won't be able to get any money even if they were victims of ID theft.

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Your Internet Service Provider Tracks and Sells You

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Some marketing research firms are working with ISPs to track all data transmitted over your Internet connection to build profiles of you by which to advertise more junk. On the question of how they'll protect your privacy, the companies said:

First, every user in the NebuAd system is identified by a number that the company assigns rather than an Internet address, which in theory could be traced to a person. The number NebuAd assigns cannot be tracked to a specific address. That way, if the company's data is stolen or leaked, no one could identify customers or the Web sites they've visited, Dykes said.

Oh right. Because that worked so well before.

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Bogus Lifelock Sites Litter the Web

(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

Lifelock is that company run by the dude who boasts, "Here's my Social Security Number! I can't be hurt by ID Theft Man, I'm In-VINCIBLE!!!!" or some such nonsense.

First of all, he was robbed by some guy in texas which proves the point I've been trying to make all along: Lifelock doesn't PREVENT ID theft. But more important than that is how this company advertises. Besides having ads just damned everywhere on the web, I've found a wealth of fake sites that pretend to be 3rd party recommendations, but have little to no content other than Lifelock ads disguised as reviews. Whether this is the direct result of Lifelock marketing or the fault of over-zealous users of a Lifelock affiliate program, but either way, having sites like this really damage what little reputation Lifelock has.

http://sixfoldsecurity.com/financial/identity_theft.php

Created: Nov 2007 by Larry from Bothell WA

Though the site has a ton of links and categories, the only actual page I can load is the one under identity theft which contains lines like "I was skeptical at first" and "Lifelock does a lot more than I thought".

[+] Sixfold's only article

Here's their whole ''article'' (a.k.a. Lifelock ad)

http://www.lifelock4me.com

Created: Sept 2007 by Marketing Partners INC. St Joseph, MI

This site has no content other than a few pages explaining things about Lifelock.

http://www.igotmyidentitystolen.com

Created: Feb 2008 by Domains by Proxy, Scottsdale AZ

I found this site originally because the very first comment on my "Lifelock Sucks" article was from a guy who left this url with his comment. The comment appeared to be reasonable, if wrong, criticism of my position. But when I went to the site, I found out that it was a thinly disguised front site. Though there are a few articles on it not related to Lifelock, the page navigation consists only of "About Lifelock", "Features", "How Lifelock Protects You", and "Order".

I love their "About Us" page:

About Us

Here at IGotMyIdentityStolen.com we try to focus on protecting you from identity theft. Giving you tips and updating the site with the ever changing identity theft crisis changes. Criminals think of new ways every day to scam innocent people.

Identity Theft has been such a problem in the United States along with the world. So prevent yourself from identity theft.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns. Please feel free to drop us an e-mail at support@igotmyidentitystolen.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

– Trying to make your life easier,

Mr. Identity Theft Protector

Could you get more generic than that? Note that neither the domain registration information nor the comment left on my site has a name attached.

http://lifelockreviews.com

Created: April 2007 by Whoisguard (a company that shields the registrant)

You couldn't make a better search engine bait site than this. Lifelock is mentioned 55 times in 4 postings (the only four posts on the site) with titles like "A Review of Lifelock", "Lifelock Consumer Review", "Lifelock Million Dollar Guarantee", and "Lifelock – Identity Theft Security or Scam".

And of course, the first line in each "unbiased fair 3rd party review" is "LifeLock is the only Identity Theft Prevention Solution backed by a one-million dollar guarantee!Click here to get a 10% discount."

http://lifelockreviews.net

Created: April 2007 by Kurt from Tallahassee

Single page ad for Lifelock. No other content.

http://lifelockreviews.org

Created: March 2008 by Patty from Louisville

Four posts on a blog, all about Lifelock.

http://lifelockreviews.info

Created: Nov 2007 by Ken from Singapore

Single page ad for Lifelock.

http://lifelock-reviews.com

Started in April 2007, lifelock-reviews.com has put out a wealth of (sarcasm) useful unbiased information (/sarcasm)… into their only two categories "ID Theft" and "Lifelock". Of note, this site includes real news and videos unlike every other site I've seen so far, but the last line in EVERY post is something similar to this: "To purchase LifeLock or get more information please click here."

http://idtheftquiz.org

Created: Sept 2006 by Kurt from Tallahassee

There is nothing, nothing, on this site but a single page ad for Lifelock. I count is as a front site because of this:

We are proud to be working with Lifelock to offer the most comprehensive ID-Security programs available... blah blah blah

Correction: There is something besides the ad. If you look carefully through the ad, there are some links that go to other articles and such promoting Lifelock. There. Are you happy now George?

http://www.identitytheftlabs.com

Created: April 2007 by Domains by Proxy, Scottsdale AZ (another registrant shielding service)

This one is a bit curious. They have information about some other monitoring services as well and aren't as clearly a front site, but they've got the tell-tale signs. They were also started in April of '07 and their postings are heavily weighted towards Lifelock more so than the others they talk about (which, by the way, is only 2 other services).

http://lifelockworks.com

Created: Feb 2008 by Domains By Proxy, Scottsdale AZ

A single page ad for Lifelock. Most notable is that the normal links at the bottom of the page (Contact, TOS, Copyright, etc) all link straight back to lifelockworks.com. They're only there for looks.

This is getting dull so here are some more listed in no particular order

lifelock-promo.com lifelocktv.net safeidentityreview.com getlifelock.net identitytheftsecrets.com reviewsonlifelock.com www.f1racing.ws/ http://www.hillarybillary.com/

And the following are sites that have other posts, but at least one on lifelock that pretends to be a review, but isn't:

http://www.brokencode.us/finance/lifelock-scam/ (3 articles) http://brinformatica.alojagratis.org/2008/04/06/lifelock/ (3 articles) http://mbaonlinedegree.biz/2008/04/10/lifelock-review-for-the-id-prevention/ (1 article) http://dmnewexpress.com/?p=128 (4 articles) http://infinitum-media.com/ (4 articles) http://www.drcopa.com/index.php?s=lifelock&x=&y= (1 article) http://www.ginolopez.com/?p=43 (1 article) http://abshome.blogspot.com/2008/04/value-of-life-lock_13.html (18+ articles) http://msteenybopper.multiply.com/journal/item/146/Lifelock_Promo_Codes (1 article)

And a million more. Just do a search for Lifelock and you'll find them everywhere.

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TJX Settles with FTC Over Biggest Data Breach In History

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC][Mod])

TJX has settled under charges that they had insufficient computer security protecting their systems, but the only thing TJX must do under the settlement is upgrade their security. Woo.

And this:

"By now, the message should be clear: companies that collect sensitive consumer information have a responsibility to keep it secure," said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. "Information security is a priority for the FTC, as it should be for every business in America."

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Confessions of a Debt Settlement Company Worker

Don't fall for the debt trap
(Image copyright Jeremy Duffy)

If you weren't already suspicious of such services, you should be. Companies like this that prety on the weak and defenseless while simultaneously pretending to offer a helping hand are the worst kind of scum.

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Security Software

Make sure you have a up-to-date Anti-Virus Program to protect you against bad websites or files.
Sometimes spyware gets in your computer and the anti-virus won't stop it. Use a spyware scanner to find and remove spyware and adware.
Use a software firewall to detect bad code on your computer when it tries to connect to the Internet.
Always keep your system up to date with security patches or none of the rest of your security software will matter.
Use an encryption tool to protect your important data when storing or transmitting it.
Switch to Firefox for your web browsing and you'll be better protected from Internet threats.

Safe Computing Practices

Don't get tricked by fake alerts or clever webpages into downloading viruses or spyware!

... or check out any of my other guides and tutorials by clicking here!

Anti-Virus

A virus can come from files, e-mails, web pages, or even devices you plug in (like thumbdrives or printers) and destroy your files or your computer once they get in. An anti-virus is software designed to detect and prevent that from happening.

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Spyware Scanners

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Software Firewall

Learn what a firewall is and why you want one on your computer.

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Operating System Updates

Make sure to keep your operating system up-to-date with security patches or else none of the rest of your security software will be able to protect you.

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File Encryption

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Mozilla Firefox - Internet Browser

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Fake Alerts

Maybe you've done everything right and you're computer is sufficiently fortress-like, but then you or someone in your family falls for a simple scam that tricks them into directly installing the bad guy's virus! Learn how to spot and ignore fakes!

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