South Florida Web Marketing Blog

Why do people do it?

Why do people who want more links, use systems that post nonsense comments to Wordpress Blogs?  I get them every day and all I do is delete them.

What gets me is the people that sell these programs – tell everyone this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Get Real -  It’s not. All it is – is comment spam.

If there are new Wordpress Blog owners out there, be sure to setup your blog requiring authorization for each comment.

It’s getting so bad – I think it is probably better to just turn off comments.

Just to experiment.  I am just leaving this post with the comments left on.

I’ll post what I get (without the back links) just to see what “people” or their systems post.

Watch out for the bogus e-mail from facebook – service@facebook.com – it is a fake! The e-mail actually comes from Return-path: <baikalk12@electricsheepcompany.com>. The attached document is a zip file that will unleash a virus. Be careful out there folks

I ran across a good article about securing your Wordpress blog by Davide Di Cillo. I feel it is something all Wordpress users should read and consider doing to their blogs.

To read more about this topic from Davide:
how-to-secure-your-wordpress-blog

Davide Di Cillo – his blog http://www.davidedicillo.com/

I am getting more spam and troublesome e-mails from all over. The latest one looks like a Hallmark e-mail. The problem is the long link to retrieve the card.  It points to an EXE file on another domain.

This is how the e-mail reads (this is an image of the e-mail and will not cause any problems to your computer):

If you do not recognize the sender or you think the e-mail is suspicious be very careful. These people are out to either steal your identity, your personal information or they just want to infect your computer with a virus, trojan or bot.

I have gotten this letter a few times already.

First, IRS will mail you their request with the US post Office.

Second, Never, Never respond to these e-mails.

Finally, Contact the IRS and forward the message to them.

http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement

The letter I received:

From: Internal Revenue Service [mailto:no-reply@irs.gov]
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 2:16 PM
To: XXXXX@smittysholdings.com
Subject: Notice of Underreported Income

Taxpayer ID: webmaster-00000174073547US
Tax Type: INCOME TAX
Issue: Unreported/Underreported Income (Fraud Application)

Please review your tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website (click on the link below):

review tax statement for taxpayer id: webmaster-00000174073547US

Link Omitted
Internal Revenue Service

I received the following information in an e-mail Newsletter from Stumble:

Back in February the collocation facility we leased server space from was raided by the FBI. All 10 of our servers were removed and still remain with the FBI. The owner of the collocation center that was hosting our servers is being investigated for some crime.

In speaking with the special agent assigned to the case we learned many things. I understand that they are there to catch the bad guys. But sometimes their wave of attrition can really hurt the little guys. Hurt the small businesses. The FBI received information that all the servers in the facility were owned and operated by their target. It wasn’st until after they raided the facility with guns drawn that they learned that the facility had over 100 clients. I asked the special agent why they did not check out the intel and he asked me the following question… “If you were with the FBI about to raid a building and you received intel that all the units were owned by the owner of the building, what would you do?”

I replied,”I would check public records to make sure that the information is accurate.”

I guess that reply struck a nerve because shortly thereafter he hung up on me.

I tried calling back but he let me go to voicemail.

Unfortunately the several hundred legitimate companies, like ourselves, have been left out in the cold while the FBI drags its feet in returning our servers to us. They are looking for some forensic evidence against the collocation facility. Unfortunately they do not have the manpower to go through each and every box in a timely manner. We have been promised that they will return them to us, but one special agent hinted it could be many months.

The good news is that neither us, nor any of the other clients are under any type of investigation, only the collocation facility. We are not waiting for the FBI. We have built a whole new look to our site and we will be releasing all new features over the coming months.

UPDATE: The FBI was able to get us images of our drives.

Again thanks to all those that stood by us and please use the contact us form located at: http://www.stumblehere.com/contact.php to report anything that will help our site and community grow.

Stumblehere Team

Top 10 Search Providers for April 2009 (U.S)

Ranked by Searches (U.S.)

By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press

BOSTON — A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online to pay $675,000 to four record labels.

Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.

The complete story – read it closely…
Jury awards $675K in Boston music downloading case

Microsoft, Yahoo link up in Internet search deal

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Microsoft has reached a deal with Yahoo for an Internet search partnership, ending years of back and forth negotiations.

The agreement announced Wednesday gives Microsoft access to the Internet’s second-largest search engine audience.

The Complete Story…

With the new announcement from Google about an upcoming OS in 2010, the issue of which operating system to use keeps coming back. Apple has been constant with the Mac and the stellar applications to keep their users happy.  Microsoft’s introduction of Vista two years ago has created a riff amoung Windows users over software issues as well as the treats of dropping XP (which many users decided was more stable for their needs) has created an opportunity for a more competition.

We have seen many articles, posts, forums and debates over operating systems – Windows, Unix, Linux and Apple.  Now Google will add their Chrome product to the mix.

I think everything comes down to how each person needs to handle their computing needs.  The applications we need to use to get our work or play accomplished is the foundation of why we need a computer.  Some applications will work on many Operating Systems, but some are very specific.

The basic Internet user wants to surf the net, read e-mail, tweet and dive into the social networking side of life – will be happy with most any OS products.  The power users, software developers and higher end applications will more targeted in their needs.

Take your time and think about your needs before diving in.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-xp/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspx

http://www.ubuntu.com/

http://www.linux.org/

http://www.freebsd.org/

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/

http://www.opensuse.org/en/

http://www.redhat.com/

http://www.novell.com/linux/

http://www.us.debian.org/

These are but a few of the OS’s out there.

Applications first, then how is the support, finally decide on what platform.