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Pharming is one of the latest online scams and rapidly growing
threat that has been showing up on the Internet. It\’s a new way
for criminals to try to get into your computer so they can steal
your personal data.

Phishing and pharming are related online scams but pharming has
evolved into a much more sophisticated trick. Phishing scams
involve sending you bogus e-mails that look like they are from a
bank or another online business.

The ideal thing the criminal wants you to do is click on an
e-mail link that takes you to a web site that looks authentic.
Then, the instructions ask you to enter your password and
account number. Once you do they get your sensitive personal
data and they help themselves to your money.

The new pharming scam is similar to phishing scams but with a
bit of a new twist. The pharming scam works by actually
redirecting your Internet browser. That just means when you type
a legitimate website address into a web address bar you are
redirected without your knowledge to a bogus site that looks
identical to the genuine site.

Once you log in with your login name and password, the
information is immediately captured by the thief. The real
danger of the new pharming scam is that you no longer have to
click an email link for your personal information to be stolen.

You can obviously see how serious this scam could be. So to
avoid becoming a new victim of the pharming scam here is a list
of recommendations that may help you.

• Always use a secure website when you submit credit card or
other sensitive information via your Web browser. The beginning
of the Web address in your browsers address bar should be
\”https://\” rather than just \”http://\”

• Log into your online accounts on a regular basis. Check your
bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all
transactions are legitimate. If anything looks suspicious,
contact your bank and all card issuers immediately.

• Regularly check that your browser is up to date and new
security patches are applied. Go to the Microsoft Security home
page at http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx The
easiest way to stay updated is click on the \”Get updates for
Windows automatically\” link.

• Always report an entire original phishing email with its
original header information intact to the Federal Trade
Commission at spam@uce.gov. Then, notify the Internet Fraud
Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint at
https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01.

New security measures must continually be added to the Internet
because criminals probe for any weakness they can find. Be aware
of the latest online pharming scam so you won\’t becoming a
victim of this new threat.

Copyright © 2005 Spyware Information.com All Rights Reserved.

About the author:
This article is provided by http://www.spyware-information.com
where you will find free spyware cleaners, downloads, removal
software and valuable tips. For regularly updated articles about
adware and spyware and protection from identity theft go to
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Internet is the ocean of knowledge. In this ocean you will find
beautiful pearls of knowledge. Also you must not forget the
lethal sharks (x rated sites) in this ocean, especially when you
allow your innocent children to surf on it. The children are
more vulnerable when they are using the Internet without close
vigil of their parents.

If your unescorted children innocently search the Internet the
chances of being they stumble into an adult site, are more. The
solution is to keep a watch on their each and every activity,
which is next to impossible.

The Internet is gift for knowledge hungry people; it\’s also a
good tool for communication and learning. If you use the
Internet for doing research & study then it\’s a gift for you but
if you use Internet for surfing pornographic sites or chatting
with anti-social elements, it will become a curse for you
especially for your unescorted children.

Internet is an essential resource for your children to learn,
read, write and to get knowledge. But as I said earlier there
are some risks to our children when they are using the Internet
hence parents need to be aware of those risks.

Previously the biggest threat for parents was the pornography
but the latest threat is live chat rooms. The live chat rooms
are the main media where sex hungry people target children in
search of satiating their unnatural carnal needs. The online
anonymity helps such people to deceive children easily. The
children need to be careful when chatting online with stranger.
Children can easily trust anybody. The parents must educate
their children for what can happen in live chat since kids may
innocently trust on any stranger online.

Read following tips carefully & protect your kids…

· First you need to teach yourself the use of the Computer and
the Internet. Generally school children have more operating
knowledge of computer and Internet than their parents.

· Openly communicate with your children and know their
expectations from the computer and the Internet

· Never keep the computer in kid\’s bedroom, keep the computer in
a room where it\’s easily accessible by parents.

· Closely watch kid\’s online activities.

· If every time it\’s not possible to keep close watch on your
kid\’s online activity, use filter or parental control software
that can block the porn sites and control the chat room
activities of your child.

· Monitor the kid\’s inbox and keep close watch on emails they
receive. If it\’s not possible, I will recommend you to use the
parental control with email monitoring software.

· Educate your child about the importance of online privacy and
prevent them from revealing the personal identity (name,
address, and phone number etc.) to online strangers while
chatting.

· The most important thing is to give more time to your kids so
that they will not become the victims of online predators.

The unescorted children are the popular targets of predators.
The lack of parental supervision tends the children to easily
fall in the hands of online anti-social elements. I hope that
above article will help you to protect your kid\’s privacy while
surfing the Internet.

About the author:
Get Computer Tutorials, Tips, How to guides at
http:/
/www.cheapest-computer-hardware-software.com
For more
Computer tips join his \”Build Computer ezine\” at
mputer_ezine.html\">
http://www.cheapest-computer-hardware-software.com/build_computer
_ezine.html

Again

Windows Media Player 10 has been full of bugs from Microsoft
since they offered it as a download from their site. Windows
Media Player 9 was nice and simple. Windows Media Player 10 is
way too complex and feature-rich that it has taken away from the
simpleness of version 9 and ruined itself. Another great media
player is Winamp but we won\’t go into that right now.

If you have installed Windows Media Player 10, you can roll back
to the version of the Player that was on your computer before
installing Windows Media Player 10.

To roll back from Windows Media Player 10 to a previous version,
do the following:

* In Control Panel (Category View), click Add or Remove
Programs. * Click Remove a program

Now do one of the following: If you are running Windows XP
Service Pack 2, select the Show updates check box (at the top of
the list), click Windows Media Player 10 (in the Windows Updates
section), and then click Change/Remove.

If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 1 or earlier, click
Windows Media Player 10, and then click Change/Remove.

As of writing this many people have found bugs in WMP10 that
make it unavailble for common audio and video files. If you find
that WMP10 is crashing or giving you errors and you cant play
your media files. Uninstall it with these directions and stay
happy.

Be like the rest of the world and install Winamp.

About the author:
Ken Savage is a Webmaster employee who writes about what is
going on in the Tech industry usually days before it breaks to
the rest of the world. He can be found at
http://www.kensavage.com