Being a home-based business owner can sometimes be a lonely experience. Visiting online forums and discussion boards as I mentioned yesterday can be a good way to escape the loneliness.
Sometimes this helps and other times it doesn’t. Many new home business owners get so lonely that they relish the times when they receive email. This feeling of excitement will die down over time as you fight off the constant spam that will flood your inbox however. But can you always tell the difference between legitimate email and spam? You’d like to think so, but this may not always be the case.
More and more frequently, thieves trying to steal your identity, financial information, and access to your accounts are getting better at their game of deceipt.
Fake emails and even entire fake websites are built to appear to be sent from your financial institution or online account provider (even your ISP “Internet Service Provider”). These are referred to as “Spoof” or “Phishing” emails and/or websites. The sole purpose of them is to get you to enter your personal information so it can be saved to the thief’s database to steal your money, identity, credit worthiness and/or your life as you know it.
Here is only a partial listing of the types of spoof emails you may receive as they relate to:
Banks
Credit Card Companies
PayPal
Ebay
Mortgage Companies
StormPay
Usually, it’s the html-based emails that are the easiest to get tricked by. That’s because they have the logo of the bank, or PayPal as an example, in the email. Even the underlined hyperlinks only show the name of the company’s website. What the thief does in the background in the html code is where the deception starts.
A basic understanding of the composition of a hyperlink is necessary so you can gain an understanding and appreciation of just how sleezy these thieves can be:
When you read an email that has a link like: www.paypal.com and it appears underlined, what is making the link active is html code. I’ll use PayPal as an example, but the same would be true for any spoof email and/or website for the types listed above. It is written like this:
<a href="www.some-slimebags-spoof-site.com">www.paypal.com</a>
Let’s disect the parts of that html code. The first section within the brackets <> is the code that makes the link active after the closing bracket “>”. It provides the instructions for the link. The link is what appears between the closing bracket of the “a tag” and the opening bracket of the “closing a tag - </a>.” The at the end of the link tells the page where to stop making the link active. The “href” tells the link where to go when it is clicked on. Notice that the href instruction and the name of the link does not have to be the same. Compare href=”www.some-slimebags-spoof-site.com” to www.paypal.com Even though the readable text in your email says “www.paypal.com” that is not where the link will take you.
Now, the deception goes deeper. Many thieves are now using an “IP Address” in place of the domain name in the href tag. An IP Address is an identifying number for the “Internet Protocol Address” of a domain name. Since you couldn’t remember every website by a number, the technology of the Internet assigns a human-readable domain name that resolves itself to an IP Address.
So, an email spoof may have this html coding: <a href=”255.255.255.255″>www.paypal.com</a> Unless you knew the actual IP Address for the PayPal domain, you wouldn’t know that you were going to a spoof website.
To make matters worse, sometimes an email will appear to be a text-only email, but it will just be an image file written in a text font to make it appear to be text and not html. The links would be the same as illustrated above.
Now, when and if you click on the www.paypal.com link, you would arrive at a website that is an exact clone of the PayPal website. The graphics and text would match exactly that of the real PayPal website. However, you would also either click another link to enter your information to “verify,” “validate,” “re-activate” or “update” your personal information that the thief is probably notifying you that it has “expired,” “been compromised” or “temporarily suspended” for some oddball, but believable reason.
If you were to enter your information on that spoof website, your username, password and other personal information would be trapped by the thief and recorded to their database. They may use it personally to raid the funds in your account, and/or they may make more money by selling your information to other theives.
Now, if you find yourself to be the victim of a spoof email, you can visit the company’s website and report the violation. PayPal, for instance, has a Security Center link you can click on at the bottom of their website to report the crime.
This is a SCAM of the worst kind. ABSOLUTELY NO bank, ISP, PayPal, Ebay, credit card company, mortgage company, StormPay, or any other company you have an account with will ASK YOU FOR YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD. They already have access to it in their own legitimate database. Some companies may not be able to access your password and in these cases, you would need to log into your account and change the password yourself. You can also use their “lost password” or “forgot password” function and have your password sent to you by email.
If you really think about it, receiving one of these spoof emails should trigger alarms in your brain the same as if your banker called you asking for your account number.
Even if you buy something on Ebay, no Ebay seller should ever have to ask you for your eBay ID and/or password. If you are a customer, they should already have your ID and THEY DO NOT NEED YOUR PASSWORD.
Moving onto passwords and password security. There are precautions you can and should take to protect your passwords. DO NOT EVER use the same password from one account to the next. This is especially true if you’re setting up a new account with a company that you know little about.
You should also change your passwords monthly. When you choose a password, don’t use common words such as password, or the most commonly used “P-A-S-S-W-O-R-D.” Don’t even use words that can be associated with your own name, birth date, street address or anything that a hacker could use to enter into their program to guess your password with. Use random letters and numbers in combination. Make a simple text file in Notepad and maintain a listing of your passwords. This will help you keep track of your random passwords for your different accounts.
I use a program called Mailwasher Pro. This has been a lifesaver for controlling the amount of spam I receive on a daily or even hourly basis. You load the program just like any other program. Enter your email accounts and then download the email from your mail server before you even load it into your email program. You can tag messages to be deleted from your mail server and even bounce the message back to the sender (spammer). The spammer thinks that since they received a bounce on your email address, that it is bad and usually remove it from their list. I have found that I rarely receive second emails from the same spammer after I bounce their messages back to them. And it feels good to hit that “Process Mail” button and bounce the spam back to the spammer. You can learn more about Mailwasher Pro at www.programs2helpyou.com/mailwasher
Until next time, be safe, be smart and enjoy your home-based business success!
Posted by Administrator as General, Skills at 1:15 PM EDT
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Online Forums… also referred to as Discussion Boards, offer some of the best advice you can find on the Internet. Forums exist for almost any niche you can think of: from Internet marketing to cooking.
As a home-based business owner, you normally lack the camaraderie of associates such as in an office building setting. However, you can learn from others in forums and even develop some friendships that can assist you in running your own business at home. Your first visit to an online forum can be a bit intimidating in the beginning, but if you follow some basic rules and learn some basic terms, your visits will be much more productive and comfortable for you.
Let’s identify some basic terms used in online forums or discussion boards:
Moderator - The person or persons assigned with privileges to monitor the quality of the posts. A moderator may be the owner of the forum or one that volunteers to assist the owner or even appointed by the owner to monitor and provide answers to posts.
Visitor - Also referred to as a guest. These are people who are visiting a forum but either have not registered as a user or member, or have not logged in as a user or member.
Member - Also referred to as a user. These are people who have registered with the forum and have chosen a user name to be identified when making posts to the forum.
Stalker - A person who visits forums as a visitor or a member but doesn’t post any messages. They are there to read other posts and learn from them.
Nuke - To remove a post. Most posts only get nuked if they violate the forum’s rules. An originator of a post may sometimes make a request of the moderator to nuke the post also.
Flame - To post a message in reply to another post that attacks another person and their post.
Sig File - A file you create in your member or user profile that is appended to the end of all your posts. Sig files can contain your real name, a URL text link to your website and on some forums, a graphic. This lets people know who you are and can be an acceptable way of subtly advertising offers on your website.
Thread - A series of replies to a post.
When you begin visiting a forum, it is a good practice to be a stalker for awhile. During this time, you become familiar with the environment of the forum and get a feel for how posts are accepted and responded to by members. This gives you time to gain knowledge and even the courage before actually posting messages themselves. Get into the flow of the forum and be comfortable being a stalker before you begin to post yourself.
Every forum or discussion board has a written or implied rule about advertising. Even if advertising is not specifically banned in the policies or rules of the forum, it is highly discouraged anyway. Blatant advertising is the best way to get flamed and lose all credibility in the forum. Best advice: don’t EVER post a blatant ad.
The main reason why you don’t want to post an advertisement in a forum or discussion board is because people go to them to look for information and learn. They are not there to buy something. Many newbies are ignorant of this fact and begin to drool over what they perceive to be a captive audience for their ads. They think that with all these people reading through the posts, that they can post an ad and sell tons of products or services. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you post an ad, not only will you lose all trust of the members and visitors, but you will tarnish your name and reputation that cannot be made up for with even the most brilliant informational posts in the future. If you get flamed because of an ad you place, you might as well not ever visit the forum again.
However, with that said, there are ways to develop credibility and thereby increase the number of visits to your website. When you are comfortable with the forum and begin posting replies to questions submitted by other members, you can build up your own credibility on the forum with fellow members. As they learn to admire and respect your knowledge about certain subjects, they will be prone to visit the link in your signature file and seriously consider your offer(s).
Visiting a forum can be a very rewarding experience. How you behave in the forum depends on how valuable it can be for you.
A good rule of thumb to guide you is that “silence is golden” in most cases. In other words, it is better to remain silent and have people think that you’re ignorant than to post something stupid and remove all doubt. Think before you post. Keep in mind that as you are composing your post or reply, that what you finally submit to a forum will become a permanent record of who and what you are. Submit a post or reply and you own it. It will make you appear as a hero or mark you as a loser.
No matter what you do, if you find a flame thread in a post (even if you are 100% in agreement with the other flamers) do not ever post a flame yourself. Do not ever attack anyone on a forum. Remember, what you post is permanent and if the victim of the post should decide to take you to court, your post can be used as evidence against you in court. A precedent has already been set that forum or board owners and moderators cannot be held accountable or responsible for the posts of others. You bear 100% of the responsibility of the content in your posts.
Some people visit forums, create a member or user name that they think is anonymous and start posting away with blatant ads or flames. Don’t think for a minute that you are anonymous on any forum. Owners and moderators and even visitors with the right know-how can track you down if necessary.
Even if a forum or board allows you to post as a visitor or guest, I highly recommend that you do not do this. If you are going to post a message or reply to a post, make sure you register as a member or user. When you create your profile, you will also setup a password for your profile. This will prevent someone using your member or user name and posting something totally inappropriate pretending to be you.
If you find a forum that you feel comfortable with and visit it frequently, give the owner the courtesy of visiting any links they provide within the main forum or board. Your support will ensure the on-going operation of it.
Now, with everything I stated above, make use of forums to your best advantage. Once you have a good feel for the flow of the forum, don’t be afraid to post a question or reply. There really is no such thing as a stupid question. You’d be surprised at how many people may have the same question and be afraid to post it. Many times, you’ll get a simple reply such as “great question! I’m glad somebody finally asked that!”
Until next time, enjoy your home-based business success!
Posted by Administrator as General, Skills at 11:33 AM EDT
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I just got my hands on an ebook, The Power of Charisma, by Race Kale.
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Posted by Administrator as Skills at 4:42 PM EDT
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Being the owner and operator of my own home-based businesses for the past 25+ years, along with the college accounting courses and work-related experience with accounting has given me an appreciation of the many tax advantages of owning my own home-based business.
Here are some of the major tax advantages available to the home-based business owner:
Automobile Expenses
Business Gifts
Business Meals
Business Entertainment
Demos, Samples and Promotional Tools
Depreciation
Home Entertainment
Home Office Expenses
Inventory
Salaries to Children
Telephone
Travel
Utilities
There is hidden treasure in each of the categories for deducting expenses related to your home-based business against your income. And the reduction of expenses against your income is at a 1:1 ration (except for the limitations of meals and entertainment, of course).
Deducting legitimate expenses against your income is perfectly legal. However, many people get snared in the trap because they don’t know how to keep the proper records and deduct it the right way. Many also don’t understand all of the tax savings benefits available to a home-based business owner, so they don’t take deductions they’re entitled to and end up overpaying their income taxes to the state and federal goverment.
I’ve taken my experience and research and put together a detailed description of the tax benefits for my members at WealthyHealth.com and I also show them how they can keep the proper records and report the income and expenses properly so they can maximize their tax savings benefits.
This is just one of the benefits of working with us at WealthyHealth.com We also provide training and support to assist them in successfully running their own home-based business with 4Life Research… the company with the patents on the most powerful and effective forms of transfer factors in the world. You’re welcome to join us and take advantage of all the income-generating benefits of the 4Life compensation plan as well as learning how to maximize your net income by taking advantage of the tax benefits that you are legally entitled to take.
Until next time…
Posted by Administrator as General, Skills at 1:54 PM EDT
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