SPAM - how to spot that fake message from the bank...

Surely I am not the only one receiving emails about winning the Nigerian Lottery, having a really rich uncle with the same last name as mine somewhere in England or about a suddenly expired PIN number from all the major banks around South Africa. Yes, at some point in our lives we have all received the occasional spam message, but fear not as there are some sure-fire ways to check if it is a hoax or if it is legitimate. Needless to say any mails telling you that you have won a lottery or that you have inherited money from England is a scam, but the emails from the banks are getting increasingly crafty. Take a look at this recent example:

example phishing email with authentic branding and no grammatical errors

This type of scam - where the user is asked to click a link which actually takes them to another site imitating the real one only to net your personal information - is known as phishing. To spot if any email is trying to phish for your information - simply hover over the link with your mouse (DO NOT CLICK) and check where the link is actually pointing - see the screenshot below:

check the link you are directed to when hovering over "CLICK HERE TO STOP DEBIT ORDER" link

What they do here is a simple link redirection to a page that they are hosting themselves or even to a page that contains some malicious code to intercept your information. Even I can do it in this blog post: click here to visit https://www.fnb.co.za/secure

The easiest and most basic tips to avoid becoming a victim should be followed in a top-down approach:
1.) never react to any email from a bank as the bank will never request any private information via email
2.) if you do not know the sender do not click on any links or respond in any way, nevermind opening the attachment!!!
3.) if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is...
4.) do not forward any promotions, virus warnings or any other message that requests to be forwarded to x-number of friends as this is just another way that the spammers net email addresses (also see rule 3 above). General rule of thumb is to check the validity of the claim via a google search before you lie to your friends and hand spammers their email address...
5.) if there is any uncertainty: forward the message to somebody that knows what to look for or even better, just delete it - no questions.

Avoiding phishing and email scams is easy if you just follow the hard and fast rules and think it through rationally. Click here for some basic tips and feel free to do your own reading up on the matter.

Feel free to send me your suspicious emails, queries or even messages that you have received and recognised as spam.Who knows, through my blog you might save somebody a lot of trouble!

Be safe,

WarBrad.

Backups - important for more than just your computer...

Recently I wrote a blog about the importance of backups trying to highlight why you need to backup your data - whether you are a basic home user thinking backups are not for you or whether you are at the top of a big company.

More recently I have found myself in the interesting situation where I was asked to restore contacts from an older phone to a newer phone and boy what an interesting project! Needless to say information on the internet for a wizard on how to import your contacts from a Nokia E66 to the latest iPhone was about as abundant as sober students, but I had to get this done - it became a personal thing, a pride thing.

After looking out for some tips on the net I set out with a plan:
* transfer all the contacts onto a memory card from the E66
* import these to my Blackberry
* connect the Blackberry to the Notebook with iTunes
* copy the entire address book from the Blackberry to the notebook
* import all the contacts to Outlook (or a similar program)
* connect the iPhone and using iTunes, synchronize all the contacts from Outlook

Unfortunately there is no easy way to import the 475 contacts in one batch to Outlook so I had to sit and add them all one by one. On top of that the Bluetooth connection between the Blackberry and the notebook was probably not the best idea and I should have just used the cable from the beginning - however overall success was on my side and not only was I able to import the contacts, but the email accounts, calendar information, tasks and several programs. iTunes really is a good program and Apple really have some fantastic projects out there!

I guess what I am really trying to say is every so often, just every month or so, try to connect that phone of yours to your machine with that cable that you probably lost with the box and try backup your contacts. Think about the years of friends, family and business relationships that will go to waste if you are to drop the phone in the pool, "misplace it" or if it gets stolen - probably not worth the risk!

If you struggle, open up that manual that came with the cable in the box, refer to the mighty Google or even give me a call as I have recently graduated to smartphone contacts backup and iPhone expert.

Good luck,
Warbrad.

Setting up your @chainmail.co.za account - step by step

Hi there and firstly thank you very much for using this free service from WB Consultants - I hope it helps you and please feel free to refer it to your friends and family.

Now, down to business. Here I have compiled a step-by-step configuration with screenshots to assist with setting up your new email account. Please note that I have used the default mail client that comes with Windows Vista called Windows Mail to set this up, but rest assured that it will be the same steps or relatively similar to set up in any other mail client.

Step one is to get to the setup screen - to do this, launch the mail application of your choice and get to the accounts wizard. In this case I obtained it from the Tools menu:

getting to the email setup wizard

Now we have to select what type of account we are going to create - here we select to create an email account as follows (if you have to select an account type at this point be sure to select POP or POP3):

select to add an email account

Once we have started up the wizard we can now input our personal details starting with your name. This name that you enter here will appear on your recipient's inbox so if you would like to show your full name then enter it so. If you are using this email address for your business or whatever else, enter here what you wish the client or recipient to see:

the name you type here will appear exactly on the recipient side

 This is followed by your email address - be sure to get this right as this is generally the address that the reply is sent to and that will be stored in the recipient's address book:

ensure to enter the correct email address

The penultimate step is the most important of the whole process - here you select what account type to use (if you have not already done so) and you give the name of your sending and receiving servers respectively. In this case the servers have the same name. Also be sure to select the option that the outgoing email be authenticated with the outgoing server when sending, generally the option can be ticked when configuring the smtp server:

ensure to select POP3 and use mail.chainmail.co.za for incoming and outgoing servers

The final step is to configure your username and password - here you are required to use your entire email address and the password that I have provided for you. Please keep this password on record somewhere, but if you forget it or lose it I can always reset it. Here's a screenshot of the final configuration step:

final step of adding the username and password - use full email address

Congratulations! Now you can finish and close the wizard and provided you have configured everything correctly, your shiny new email account is ready for the grind...

If you are unable to send email please do not hesitate to contact me so I can help to troubleshoot.

Otherwise, happy hunting.

Regards,
Warbrad

Hold on to your horses iPad...

Hey guys,


today I bring a bit of tech news that many of you might not be aware of yet. As we all know the market is saturated with smartphones and smart devices all capable of everything short of the really annoying tasks like ironing, dishes and getting up to fetch another cold one.


The endless war between big brands has created some really interesting developments on this front as they fight to outdo each other on practically a monthly basis. Needless to say this is excellent for us, the consumer.

The latest artillery has sprung up in the form of the Blackberry Playbook. Take a look at this demo video:



Let's face it: Apple is just not that big in SA and blackberry handsets abound which would make integration of the playbook into many lives far easier and much more practical - even the guys over at Blackberrysolutions.co.za agree.

Unfortunately there is no official release date (never mind a South African one!), but I suppose we can always be hopeful of a launch sometime this year. Peter from Blackberrysolutions.co.za made the following speculation:

"The playbook has NOT officially launched in the states and is scheduled for launch end of the USA’s 2nd quater. This is the 31 March 2011. Now RIM has also said the blackberry playbook will come in under $400. So analysts say the entry level playbook playbook should be around $399

Now south afirca has a very good blackberry market, so if we would have to take a guestimate as to how and when? You would probably say South Africa should get the Playbook round about 2 months after the officall launch. Which gives us MAY/April 2011.

Again this is all speculation as RIM has not said a single thing on the price and release date of the playbook!"

Let's keep those fingers crossed!
Regards,
WarBrad.

TrueCrypt - Secure your data from the get go

To anyone that uses their computer or laptop for business I am sure the thought of "what happens to my company data when they steal my machine!?" has (hopefully) crossed their mind! The first part to this answer is backups - the critically important step to saving yourself a lifetime of regret and trouble and probably your business.

The second part of the answer should be data security: what if it gets in the hands of a competitor? or a theif that can now see all your or your client's personal details like banking pins, house alarm pins, bank balances etc. YIKES!

It is for this reason that I can recommend a program called truecrypt - a free and fantastic way to encrypt your entire hard drive with a password that would render it completely useless without the correct password. It is relatively simple to install and has many different implementations the best of which is the encryption of the entire boot drive as in this mode nobody can even boot up your computer without your password and even if the hard drive is removed and attached to another computer - it is still safe!

The download and relevant help information is available on their website and I shall look into a screenshot type tutorial in the near future for all who are interested in this product.

www.truecrypt.org

For sound security of our personal information I can definitely recommend this product as I am a client myself and can rest assured that all my information is safely backed up and encrypted should someone try some affirmative shopping.

Regards,
Warren.