In this article I will take you through the creation and configuration of a HomeGroup in Windows 7.

Windows 7 comes with a new networking feature called HomeGroup that is designed to offer the features of a traditional domain but is much easier for an average user to configure.

This is a great article for IT pros to familiarize themselves with this new Windows 7 feature, since you never know when you will run across it in the future. It does not matter whether you support home clients or just your family and friends networks.

Before I delve further into the article, I will briefly take you through the workings of the Windows7 HomeGroup. The Windows 7 HomeGroup is typically a peer-to-peer network that is similar to a standard peer-to-peer workgroup on the surface, but behind the scenes shares some of the networking functionality of a domain. For instance, the computers in a HomeGroup have an inherent machine trust and there are consistent user identities throughout the network.

Firstly, you must realize that only computers running Windows 7 are able to participate in a HomeGroup. As a requirement for the proceedings in this article: you must have at least two computers both running Windows 7. Secondly the creation of a HomeGroup is only possible through the Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise Editions of Windows 7. However, you can join the HomeGroup from any other version. Furthermore, machines can only belong to only one HomeGroup at one time.

Machines that are already joined to a domain can belong to a HomeGroup with some minor restrictions. First, if your Windows 7 system is connected to a domain, you can join a HomeGroup but you cannot create one. Second, you can access files and see resources from other users in the HomeGroup but cannot share your own files and resources with the HomeGroup.

Another thing to take note of is that in order to create and join a HomeGroup your network adapter must have IPv6 enabled.

This is just a summary of the process of creating and configuring HomeGroups in Windows 7, if you want detailed information you can read this article on the Microsoft website by Gloria Boyer. or this one by TechRepublic’s Greg Shultz.

In the installation process of Windows 7 there is an option of creating a HomeGroup, but you can still set this up later in case you skip it initially. I will assume that you are setting up the HomeGroup from already pre-installed Windows 7 machines. To create the HomeGroup, there must be more than one machine on the network, your network location must be configured as Home and not Work or Public.

Step One:

Access the Control Panel, type Home in he search box, when HomeGroup appears select it.

The initial HomeGroup window will appear and you will most likely be informed of the absence of a HomeGroup on the network with some brief intro to its features and helpful links.

Step Two:

Launch the wizard by clicking on the Create a homegroup button. You will then be prompted to choose what libraries, or types of files, printers you want to share across the HomeGroup.

Once you have made the choices, Windows 7 will create the HomeGroup and a HomeGroup password and send it to other users of the HomeGroup.

Step Three:

Click on finish to complete the process of the HomeGroup creation.

Additional operation in relation to the created HomeGroup

There are other settings you can configure in relationto the HomeGroup you have created. e.g, you can limit or expand the shared libraries as well as enable and customize the media streaming feature of Windows Media Player.

Most important are the settings for viewing or changing the HomeGroup password, leaving the HomeGroup, changing Advanced sharing settings and starting the HomeGroup troubleshooter. Check out the articles I mentioned earlier for a detailed description of each option. Once you’re finished on this screen you can click Save changes.

Joining a second computer to the HomeGroup

Step One:

Open the Control Panel and select the HomeGroup option. You should be immediately alerted to the fact that a homegroup has been created on the network.

Step Two:

Click on the Join Now button to continue.

You’ll be prompted to choose what types of files and devices you want to share to the homegroup.

After you’ve made your choices, you will have to provide the HomeGroup password we generated earlier. Keep in mind that the password is case sensitive. Click Next, and you should see a window letting you know that you’ve successfully joined the HomeGroup.

Once joined, you can easily access the shared folders on other computers in the HomeGroup. Launch Computer and expand the HomeGroup section in the Navigation pane. When you do, you’ll be able to see other systems in the HomeGroup and access their shared libraries.

Please note the expanded Network tree in the Navigation pane. It is a functioning peer-to-peer WorkGroup consisting of Windows XP and Vista systems as well as the Windows 7 systems that are participating in both the peer-to-peer WorkGroup and the HomeGroup.

Now you are able to access the Shared Libraries of the other user of the HomeGroup. When setting up a HomeGroup we are able to choose which Libraries to share. The libraries you chose are now accessible by other users of the HomeGroup but with a few restrictions.

Restriction One:

Files in your personal folders like My Documents or My Pictures are shared with read-only access. Other user of your HomeGroup can open and save copies to their hard drives. They just can’t make changes to the original files in your personal folders.

Restriction Two:

The whole scenario changes with public folders (Public Documents or Public Pictures) are shared with read/write access meaning anyone within the HomeGroup can access, edit and even delete the files.

Sharing files that aren’t in the Library is easy you just have to add the files or folders to the Library. Right-click the folder access the Include in Library sub-menu and select and exiting Library to whcih you want to add that folder or create a new Library in which to share them.

Please note, HomeGroup users are not restricted to sharing within the Libraries but can share foldes directly through the Share sub-menu. Just right-click the folder access the Share WIth sub-menu and select one of the four options available. The options that apply for HomeGroups are: Nobody, HomeGroup (Read) and HomeGroup(Read/Write). When you select the Specific People option, you choose to share the folder with users who have accounts on your computer.

With Windows 7 HomeGroups you have a flexible means to customizing file access. And thanks to this article you can now easily set this up on your computer. Like I mentioned earlier you can refer to the linked articles for further information on HomeGroups.

I hope you enjoyed this article on HomeGroups please do leave your comments.

What is WAN caching?

WAN caching is term that is not very often used in the IT field in reference to optimizing your Wide Area Network. Usually WAN caching is referred to as WAN optimization, Bandwidth Accelerations, or even Wide Area Application Services (WAAS by Cisco).

I choose to refer to WAN optimization as WAN caching because in actual case for WAN acceleration to really happen a lot of caching is done, but I am not going to get into this here.

The benefits of WAN caching:

The essence of deploying this technique on your network is to improve the general performance of the network in terms of speedy file transfer between your branch offices. Back then in college one of my projects was implementing a secure Information Communication System for a company that had several other branches around the region. This network optimization technique would have come in handy then, but that is not the crux of this article.

How does it work?

To accelerate your WAN one places an appliance that will do the caching between your WAN router and your servers at your headquarters or data center and other similar appliances at the same place on each and every one of the other branches at the same spot. Files get over the network all the time. However there are some files that get sent repeatedly. The remote appliances setup will replicate these large files and only make small changes to them with some compression and tweaking to optimize the networking protocols.

Once this is achieved successfully, there is a five to ten increase in the performance of most files and applications. In better situations the speed increase is 100 times more. This in essence will increase your companies productivity. The WAN caching technique also decreases the usage of the WAN by 60 – 90%. This is because once the files and applications have been replicated they don’t have to be resent through the network. This is where you will  see ROI because in most cases it will reduce the amount of bandwidth you will need to purchase at some branches.

Cisco offers an Application and  Content Networking System (ACNS) with software and Wireless Application Engines.

The great thing about WAN caching you don’t need to interrupt your current network as it is to deploy it and once you make the first file transfer you can start experiencing the efficiency of the caching. However, WAN caching does not speed up applications like video conferencing or VOIP.

How do you implement this technique for telecommuters who will not be working from your already optimized branch offices. It is not as difficult as it sounds, WAN acceleration vendors offer software solutions that can be installed on laptops and PCs and provide most of the same benefits.

Some of the companies to watch for are WAN acceleration specialists Riverbed and Blue Coat and networking giants Cisco and Juniper.

In conclusion, WAN caching is a big step in optimizing your file transfers, Microsoft Exchange servers, databases and several other corporate applications that rely on static files.

Excel makes it easy to set up a system for tracking time. Follow these steps to create your own or download our sample timesheet template and customize it to fit your needs.

The process of tracking time is unique to every employee or position, so there’s no one-size-fits-all sheet that will do the job. Still, certain principles and features will generally play into most timesheet models. For instance, before you start formatting cells and entering formulas, you need to decide why you’re tracking time, who’s going to use that information, and how:

• Decide on a time period. (Management will probably make this decision for you.) Most of us track hours weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
• Tracking just time isn’t always enough. Many companies bill your hours back to clients. Therefore, you must allocate your time to specific projects.

This article will show you how to create a weekly timesheet you can easily adjust to track biweekly and monthly times and projects. As is, this sheet doesn’t document breaks or allow for flexibility in scheduling. However, the basic structure and formulas are present, so you can easily customize the sheet to fit your needs.

1: Determine your needs

When preparing a template other people will use, you need to consider several options:

• How to solicit and validate input from users to eliminate typos and other invalid data.
• How users will access the template — from an Excel workbook on their local systems or via a browser and a Web-based application.
• How to protect the template sheet so users can’t alter formulas and automated features.
• How to secure confidential data.

If you’re creating a timesheet for yourself, your job is somewhat less complicated.

2: Enter labels

The first step to actually building the timesheet is to enter the appropriate labels. That includes the following headings:

• All applicable employee information, such as name, social security number, employee identification number, department, and manager. Include only data that’s truly required.
• A time period. This could be the first day of the work week, the start and end date of a bimonthly time period, or even the first day of a fiscal month.
• Generating dates is necessary. Including the names of the workdays might seem unnecessary, but your users will probably appreciate your attention to helpful details.
• Time in and out, breaks, sick, vacation, overtime, and so on.
• Subtotals and grand totals, as required.
• Employee and approving manager signature lines, if required.

A weekly timesheet for tracking hours might resemble the one shown in Figure A. Enter meaningful labels in bold, center the column headings, and apply the appropriate borders. You’ll want to customize the labels to fit your specific needs.

Figure A

Enter the appropriate labels to identify your timesheet data.

3: Automate the dates

You can require users to enter the dates manually, but that leads to mistakes, even with the best trained users. If you know the exact time period, the simplest solution is to automate the required dates as follows:

1. Have users enter the first date of the time period in cell B2.
2. In the first cell in the Date column, A7, refer to the input date using the formula

=IF(B2<>"",B2,"")

as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

Let the sheet generate dates based on the first date of each time period.

If the time period cell (B2) is blank, this formula returns a zero-length string. If there’s a value, the formula returns it. The formula will return a date serial value until we format it (which we’ll do later).

1. In cell A8, enter the formula

 =IF(A7<>"",A7+1,"")

as shown in Figure C.

Figure C:

This formula adds 1 to the value (date) in cell A7.

1. Copy the formula in cell A8 as needed. For instance, if you’re tracking time by the week, copy the formula in cell A8 to cells A9:A13 for a total of seven rows (A7:A13). For a biweekly timesheet, you’d copy the formula to cell A20, and so on.

The next step is to enter a formula in column B that returns the name of the weekday for the dates in column A. To do so, enter the simple formula =A8 in cell B7 and copy it to cells B8:B13. (Later, we’ll format B7:B13 to display the day of the week by name rather than the actual dates shown in column A.) If there’s no date in cell B7, the sheet will appear empty.

4: Format Date and Day of Week columns

Right now, the General format displays serial values in the Date and Day of Week columns. First, let’s format the dates in column A, as follows:

1. Select A7:A13.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Format Cells from the context menu.
3. On the Numbers tab, select Date from the Category list, choose the appropriate format, such as d/m/yy, from the Type list, and click OK.

Next, format the dates in column B, as follows:

1. Select B7:B13.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Format Cells.
3. On the Number tab, choose Custom from the Category list.
4. Enter dddd in the Type field, as shown in Figure D, and click OK.

Figure D

The dddd format displays a date value as its day of the week.

As you can see in Figure E, the sheet clearly denotes the dates for which you’re tracking hours. Now you’re ready to start adding formulas for tracking time values.

Figure E

The sheet generates dates for each time period if you provide a beginning date (cell B7).

5: Enter a formula that calculates the first eight hours of each day

At this point, we need a formula that evaluates the In and Out time values up to and including the first eight hours of each day. If overtime isn’t an issue, you won’t need such a complex formula. However, for most hourly employees, overtime is a possibility. Enter the following formula into cell G7, as shown in Figure F, and then copy it to cells G8:G13:

=IF(((D7-C7)+(F7-E7))*24>8,8,((D7-C7)+(F7-E7))*24)

If the number of hours worked in one day is greater than eight, the formula returns 8. If the number or work hours is equal to or less than 8, the formula returns that amount. For now, the formula returns 0 because there are no time values to evaluate.

Figure F

This formula returns the first eight hours of each work day.

6: Enter a formula that calculates overtime for each day

Overtime constitutes hours over eight in any given day or any hours over 40 for the week. You should check your company’s policy. This sheet simply tracks overtime by the day. How you compensate the employee isn’t necessary at this point, as this sheet doesn’t deal with wage earnings — it just tracks time. To track overtime by the day, enter the following formula into cell H7, as shown in Figure G, and then copy it to cells H8:H13:

=IF(((D7-C7)+(F7-E7))*24>8,((D7-C7)+(F7-E7))*24-8,0)

Figure G

When the number of work hours is greater than 8, this formula returns the overage.

7: Format In and Out columns

Entering In and Out values can muck things up a bit if they’re not formatted correctly, but before we format those cells, let’s take a look at why you must. Figure H shows a few days’ worth of In and Out values entered as general numbers. As you can see, the formulas just don’t know how to handle them all.

Figure H

When calculating time, work with valid time values to avoid troublesome errors.

Now, you might think that a different set of formulas could handle general numbers. What would happen if you delete the *24 components in both formulas? Those formulas work up to a point, but neither handles all timelines. For instance, neither formula can handle an In value that’s greater than its companion Out value (such as row 10 in Figure H).

To format the In and Out values appropriately, do the following:

1. Select C7:F13.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Format Cells.
3. On the Number tab, choose Time from the Category list.
4. Select the 00:00 format and click OK.

8: Provide In and Out default values

Because entering time values is prone to errors, consider providing default time values. That way, users will have fewer opportunities to introduce errors into the sheet. The default values you save with the sheet depend on each user’s schedule, and you might have to provide individual sheets for many individuals. However, Figure I shows the most common 40-hour week schedule.

Figure I

Enter default time values to avoid user input errors.

The default values shown here are entered using a 24-hour clock. 13:00 is 1:00 PM (check the Formula bar) and 17:00 is 5:00 PM. You can enter 1:00 and 5:00, but you must train your users to also enter the PM. Excel will assume that 1:00 is 1:00 AM and 5:00 is 5:00 AM if you don’t specify that it’s PM. Either way, entering time isn’t intuitive for most users, so providing the default values is helpful.

In this example sheet, Saturday and Sunday aren’t regular workdays, so it stores 0 values. Of course, you can customize the days normally worked to suit each employee.

9: Enter defaults for sick and vacation time

You’ll want to enter default values for sick and vacation time. In this case, just enter 0s and format as General displaying two decimal places, as shown in Figure J. Format these values as follows:

1. Select I7:J13.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Format Cells.
3. On the Number tab, choose Number from the Category list and click OK.

By default, the Number format assumes two decimal places, but you might want to set that to 0. The two decimal places will allow employees to specify partial hours.

Figure J

Enter default values for sick and vacation time.

10: Enter a formula that calculates daily totals

The next step is to total the daily hours in column K. To do so, enter the following SUM() function in cell K7 and copy it to cells K8:K13, as shown in Figure K:

=SUM(G7:J7)

Figure K

This simple SUM() function totals daily hours.

11: Enter formulas that calculate weekly totals

You’ll also probably want to calculate weekly totals for each category of time. To do so, enter the following function in cell G14 and copy it to cells H14:J14, as shown in Figure L:

=SUM(G7:G13)

Figure L

SUM() functions total weekly hours.

12: Validating sums

The week’s total hours, which you’ll want to display in cell K14, should be the same whether you sum the daily totals in column K or the hourly components in row 14. By checking both ways, you add a level of validation to the sheet. Should the totals not match, you want a formula that alerts you to the problem. Enter the following formula in cell K14, as shown in Figure M:

=IF(SUM(G14:J14)=SUM(K7:K13),SUM(G14:J14),"Error!")

Figure M

Verify subtotals using this IF() function.

13: Fine-tune the formatting

The sheet is now functional, but you’ll want to add a few borders to distinguish the sections and totals. Just select each section and choose the appropriate border from the Borders drop-down palette. You might also want to add shading to the weekly total cells in row 14. Figure N shows the finished sheet.

Figure N

Add borders to separate sections.

14: Ensure valid input values

Users will have to change some data, but the sheet is specific in what types of values it needs. To protect the sheet’s purpose, you can restrict users to specific types of data. For instance, cell B2 must be a valid date for the date- and day-generating formulas in columns A and B to work. Enable data validation for this cell as follows:

1. Select cell B2.
2. From the Data menu, choose Validation.
3. On the Settings tab, choose Date from the Allow drop-down list.
4. Choose Greater Than from the Data list.
5. Enter 1/1/1900 in the Start Date field, as shown in Figure O, and click OK.

Figure O

Make sure users enter only valid values.

When validating this particular date, you can narrow things down a bit. However, if you just want to ensure that the input value is a valid date, the above works fine.

You can also ensure that the In and Out entries are valid time values, as follows:

1. Select C7:F13.
2. Choose Validation from the Data menu.
3. On the Settings tab, and choose Time from the Allow list.
4. In the Start Time field, enter 0:00. In the End Time field, enter 23:59 and click OK.

As with the date value, you can narrow down the acceptable times. You can even limit the columns individually. However, the “between 0:00 and 23:59″ settings will reject anything but a valid time entry.

To protect the Sick and Vacation columns, set up validation as follows:

1. Select I7:J13.
2. Choose Validation from the Data menu.
3. On the Settings tab, choose Any Value from the Allow list.
4. Choose Decimal from the Allow list.
5. Enter 0 and 8 as the Minimum and Maximum values and click OK.

Choosing Decimal in step 4 will allow users to enter partial hours. Choose Whole Number from the Allow list to restrict users to only hours. In addition, you can enter clues to the type of data the user must enter, as well as error messages. Applying validation rules adds the first layer of protection.

15: Protect formulas

Once the sheet is finished, add a second layer of protection by specifying what cells users can alter before you distribute it. You can do so as follows:

1. Select a noncontiguous range consisting of the following ranges: B1:B4, C7:F13, I7:J13. (Hold down the [Ctrl] key while highlighting each range.)
2. Choose Cells from the Format menu and click the Protection tab.
3. Deslect the Locked option and click OK.
4. Choose Protection from the Tools menu.
5. Choose Protect Sheet.
6. Enter a password.
7. Uncheck the Select Locked Cells option and click OK.
8. Reenter the password to verify it and click OK.
9. Delete any test values, such as the date in B2.
10. Save the workbook.

Now users can select only the cells they might need to update. Train your users to open the template and save a new file to create a new timesheet. That way, they can open the template with all the defaults to start each new time period.

Source: TechRepublic

Use of virtual machines has greatly improved the lives of several administrators and developers. Virtual machines provide for efficiency and security and are a good way to save time and money. Microsoft has given users options for creating and using virtual machines through Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-. However these virtual machines do not come with images, hence the necessity to create them. One can always install an image or visit one or more sites that provide various images in vhd format for download. The vhd format can then be imported as a virtual machine.

Possibilities are infinite, and you can opt to create your own virtual machine designed to your specification. To achieve this you will use Disk2vhd, created by Sysinternals. Systeminternals have a reputation of developing some great software.  In this tutorial we will be creating a virtual image from your own running Windows Installation and use it as an image.

How it works

Disk2vhd is  a cool application from Systeminternals that can create vhd images from any drive attached to your computer so long as the drive has the necessary files to create a virtual image. How is this possible? This tool works with the help of Windows’ Volume Snapshot found in any Microsoft Windows Operating System from XP and later. To enhance performance during the creation of the image, it is advisable to save the .vhd file on an externally attached device. The process of creating the image is quite slow saving the image on the same drive it is from will just make it slower. Furthermore the installation you are creating the image from is probably not a clean one.The image will be built with various applications and configurations from your running installation and will cause the size of the image to grow a bit. If your drive is VFAT formatted then your image file can be no more than 4gigs. Ensure that the file system will accept larger files or your vhd file has to be less than 4gigs. With all that said, lets dig in.

Getting and installing

Disk2vhd is a quite handy tool. There is no need for installation since it is just a  self-contained binary, which  can be executed from any location including your flash stick. So head over the Microsoft Technet site and download and extract the file using your favorite extracting tool, you will now have three files inside the newly created Disk2vdh directory. You can double clik on disk2vhd to launch the tool. Once it is running, you will see the main window (Figure A). You do not have to configure it, all you have to do is select your parameters as defined on the main window – so simple, huh!

Figure A

The only configuration you need to do is select the source drive and the destination image.

As shown above, my configuration is set to have the target file on an external  I have set the location of my target file to be on an external hard drive. This ensures hat I have enough space and my computers performance is not compromised by the entire process. Now all you have to do is clik on Create. You have to be patient since the process might take some time depending on the size of your installation. Once the process has begun you will see the progress bar moving quite slowly.  (Figure B).

Figure B

Once the process is complete, you will have a file on your target drive named after your PC with the extension .vhd. This is the file that you can then import into the virtual machine application of your choice. Without much details on the workings of each virtual machine tool, the process of adding these image files is even simpler:

• Create a new virtual machine with the characteristics that match the machine used to create the image file.
• During the process of creating the virtual machine, use the vhd file as the new machine’s IDE disk.
• When you first boot the new machine, the virtual machine tool will detect the machine’s hardware and automatically install the drivers.

The steps above is variant on the virtual machine tool you use.

Food for thought

Working as an administrator often entails use of virtual machines for reasons highlighted in this tutorial. It is therefore good practice to take advantage of Disk2vhd to create virtual images designed to your specifications.

The internet is a jungle and users must be careful not to be struck by a tarantula or hunted by the mighty big cats. Even the most beautiful flower can be dangerous. E-mail is one of the greatest form of internet communication and more than often you might get hit with e-mail scams. Here I will take you through what to do to avoid being duped.

In the wake of using E-mail as an online Marketing tool you will find yourself receiving  e-mail messages that are no more than an attempt to sell you some stuff you totally don’t need. Spam is one thing and Scams are just dangerously different. With spam other than clogging your bandwidth, they really do not cause much harm. But when it comes to E-mail Scams you better protect your e-mail system, because they tell another story of theft, truancy, scare just to mention a few.

E-mail scams have been around since the Internet went commercial in the early 90’s. A typical example would be the Nigerian scam messages which were there then and still are now. However, scammers have become more sophisticated, and some of the latest email scams are harder to detect — unless you know what you’re looking for. For instance, the Swine Flu scam that could really give your PC a cold.

Holiday seasons come with a lot of online activities, with users shopping online for gifts for their friends and family. This creates a window of opportunity for scammers to take advantage of the average computer user. Time is of the essence and we are in a hurry, we don’t take time to scrutinize e-mail messages to ascertain that they are legitimate.

Below are some of the email scams that are currently circulating on the Internet and information on how you can identify them and keep yourself from being victimized.

1: Fake Facebook “friend” messages

Social Network popularity has surged and scammers are taking advantage of how social networking websites work. For example, in Facebook you might setup your account in such a way that you receive notification messages in your e-mail when someone posts something on your wall, sends you a private message or in this case requests to be your friend. Figure A below shows a fake Facebook friend request notification. If you have been receiving these notifications then if you look closely you will realize that this one does not have a reply link as the authentic Facebook notifications do. If you further scrutinize the fake message in comparison to an authentic one Figure B you will realize that the original message has more salient features.

Figure A

Fake Facebook message is close, but not close enough.

I opened up a message from Facebook that I know is legit. Figure B shows real message (with the content blacked out to protect the privacy of the sender).

Figure B

The real facebook notification message has some salient features

If  you check out the reply address in the fake message Figure A, you would expect the domain name to be www.facebook.com, but the fake address is facebook.montadalatihad.com. If you have read something on domain naming  then you know that the “facebook” in the fake address is just the name of a web server in the domain montadalitihad.com.  The To field in the message also does not show my name instead it shows “Undisclosed recipients” meaning this message found its way to several peoples inboxes. With further scrutiny of the e-mail message that is the headers – from commercial e-mail providers like Yahoo, Hotmail select the message, right click it and click on View full headers | View message source respectively.

In a real Facebook message, the Received: field in the header would be from mx-out.facebook.com. In this one, it’s mail.illimail.com. Surely, by now you must realize how conniving these scammers are.

To be safe opening e-mail scams or other security risks should be from a virtual machine, so that the malicious code does not affect your real OS. When I clicked on the reply to link the fake e-mail message directed me to a convincing replica of the Facebook website. Variations on this scam may use other popular social networks, such as MySpace or LinkedIn. If you’re in doubt about the legitimacy of any “friend” message, login to your social network directly through the web browser and not through the link in the fake e-mail message. If the message is real, there will be a copy of it there.

2: Fake admin messages

Ignoring “friend” messages from friends especially those you have never heard of is common practice. But scammers are becoming more intuitive and know that a message from the site administrator will more likely get your attention. The fake message Figure D pretends to be from “The Facebook Team” and notifies you of a policy change that requires you to submit a new account agreement. They go a step further to threaten you of your account closure or restriction if you do not go through with their instructions.

Figure D

Scammers ante-up by sending fake administrative messages.

Here the scammer tried to fool people with a convincing From name, which shows that it is from facebookmail.com just like a real facebook message. However when you take a look at the To name, you can see that he is still randomizing recipients, maybe pulling them from a mailing list somewhere hoping that he/she would hit the right one. What triggers a RED ALERT is the attachments – notification messages never come with attachments and to make matters worse an attachment with an executable extension(*.exe). If the e-mail message was for real you would be directed to the social network site where you can read the agreement directly and accent to it by clicking on I Agree or something similar.

3: Fear-mongering messages

Apart from profiting reasons a scammer can at times send out scam messages which are not quite financially beneficial to him/her but earn them some gratification by upsetting or putting fear in others with an effort to feel great or powerful.

There are several examples of these types of messages, which usually don’t seem to make the current news headlines. Some years back there was one that warned that if you saw another car on the road at night with headlights off and blinked yours to signal the driver you were in danger of getting shot as part of some gang initiation. This article details the history of this email hoax.

Others have warned of a serial killer who lured women out of their homes by playing a recording of a crying baby and another of a rapist who would approach women in parking lots claiming to have picked up a five dollar bill the woman had dropped.

The latest in fear-mongering messages like to play on health fears caused by all the recent media attention to swine flu (H1N1). An email message has been going around the Internet for several months warning that “The CDC says H1N1 is wiping out entire villages in Asia and expect it to hit the U.S. in January, where it will kill 6 out of 10 people.” The message further predicts that Martial Law will be imposed and you will be shot if you leave your house to purchase food, urging recipients to stock up now and buy face masks, use Purell and take Enzacta products to “keep your immune system strong.” If you were not already suspicious then reading on to the end will, it says that the pandemic was predicted years ago by a Russian mathematician and that it was caused by a tsunami. The full text of the message can be found here.

It is said that when something seems to good to be true then it probably is – not true. Similarly these messages (especially if you are hearing them for the first time through e-mail) are ill intended and you can bet that if a body like the CDC put out an announcement it would be all over the main steam news outlets.

4: Account termination scams

As I said before the holiday season comes with its downsides, especially you are an average user who needs some professional guidance as you surf the dangerous waters of the internet. Ill-motivated individuals always prey on users vulnerability and ignorance especially during the holidays. Case in example you might receive a number of fake messages – purportedly from online service providers like Amazon, PayPal and even as far as the bank telling you that your account has been or is about to be canceled. Be cautious and scrutinize them well, in some cases you will find that the scammer sends you an e-mail message purportedly from a service provider you don’t even have an account with.

Here’s a clue for you: The fake message will have a link that looks legit, like www.yourbank.com, but when you hover your mouse pointer over the link  it should show you the actual URL, something different, often with a foreign country code such as .ru (Russian) or .cn (China).

Another clue is that these scam messages usually contain typos or grammatical errors you wouldn’t expect from a legitimate company.

5: Messed up greeting cards

The holiday season is here and it is a time to be jolly – maybe send a few cards to family and friends. Scammers know this and they have created e-mail messages with a link to view bogus greetings/holiday cards from a friend. On clicking the link you will be directed to a web site that will implant some malicious code on your computer.

Telling them apart is not as difficult, for one if you receive a card from the real card services, the message will contain the name of the sender. Scammers will use generic “A friend sent you a card”. The best way to know if the service is legit is to do a web search and find out more information about it. Or alternatively you can ignore the online card services and do it old school and send the greeting cards through the postal service or by personal e-mail and not through some web service.

6: Phantom packages

I would describe a phantom package as one that does exist and is a clever way to get unwary users to sign up for a whole lot of trouble. Like now the Christmas holidays are here and you should be suspicious of some unexpected delivery form DHL, FedEx or UPS. So scammer will send you messages telling you that you have to provide your shipping address among other personal information so that the package can be delivered.

The e-mail message will contain an attachment that is to be a form that you need to print and fill out so you can pick the package. However the package does not exist and on clicking the attachment your computer gets infected with a very bad virus.  Be aware of variations on this scam, users are aware not to download attachments but, will readily click on a link to a scam powering web site which will only deliver malware straight to your system.

7: In Microsoft, Apple, HP, Dell we trust

Microsoft has grown to be the greatest provider of software solutions, from operating systems, database systems to simple word processing systems. This status makes Microsoft on of the most trusted companies in the world among others in their various niches, like Apple, HP and Dell. Scammers know this and they are sending e-mail messages that attempt to exploit users’ trust in their software/hardware vendors. The messages say they’re from the vendor and range from fake security warnings with attachments that claim to be vulnerability fixes (but are really malware) to bogus “special offers” to “payment requests” that require you to download and install a “transaction inspector module” (which is really a Trojan) if you want to decline to have the payment charged to your credit card.

8: You’re a winner!

You might have received an e-mail message telling you that you’re a winner in the lottery, contest, or drawing. All you have to do to claim your prize is fill out a form and email it back. Of course, the entity awarding the prize needs your social security number because the value of the prize must be reported to the IRS.

The bad thing about this scam is that you will indeed have to provide such information to claim a prize in a legitimate contest. Therefore, you have to be very careful before you send in any information. You might want to thoroughly scrutinize the e-mail message and ensure that it is legit. Besides if you haven’t signed up for any of these contest then you must be extra suspicious and even if you really did enter the contest, you shouldn’t be careless. Check into the legitimacy of the email notification. It also comes down to practicing safer communication techniques – always encrypt your e-mail when sending sensitive information. Look out for other safer alternatives of submitting this info. Legitimate contests will always have alternative methods to do so.