Tag: advice

Is that really an email from the EFPTS? Don’t get caught buy a phishing attempt

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 08/11/2010

So, you may be asking yourself: why is the EFTPS contacting me? And who the heck is EFTPS?

It’s likely a phishing atempt.

The EFPTS is a service offered free by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to help business and individual taxpayers conveniently pay all their federal taxes electronically (as noted on their website). This time of year, people receiving an email from the EFPTS may be concerned as they may make Federal tax payments on line in the States

But, as noted on their home page the EFTPS, this is someone trying to get your bank information and other personal identifying information, also known as “PII”. This from their home page at https://www.eftps.gov/:

Remember! EFTPS values your privacy and security and will never attempt to contact you via e-mail. If you ever receive an e-mail that claims to be from EFTPS or from a sender you do not recognize that mentions a payment made through EFTPS, forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov or call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.

After reporting a phishing attempt, you will receive an email from the IRS confirming your submission:

Please note that the IRS does not contact individuals by email.
Therefore, if you received an email claiming to be from the IRS it is a phishing attempt and should be reported to us.

Additional information on IRS phishing can be viewed here:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=155682,00.html

Additional information on avoiding phishing scams can be viewed here:
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html

So, if you receive a mail from someone at the EFPTS, it’s likely not genuine. You may forard the mail (as an attachment is best) to the EFPTS as noted above.

For more info to avoid getting caught in a phishing scheme, see my post “Did you win £450,000 in a “Microsoft Lottery”? Think again: it’s a phishing attempt“.

Tags: Windows Vista, Security, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Microsoft Security Essentials.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, Security, download, Microsoft Security Essentials.

Bookmark this on Delicious

Also available via http://bit.ly/axLzc2

Tags advice, articles, Privacy, products, security, what i read, Windows 7, Your Questions

Uncategorized

Remember: October 31 is Halloween, and the Office 2010 beta expires, too

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 29/10/2010

As noted on the Office.com official blog, the Office 2010 beta expires Sunday, Oct 31, which means it’s time to upgrade to the full version or roll back to a previous version you have licensed…

Didn’t it seem like only yesterday when we made the Microsoft Office 2010 Beta available? Actually, it’s been nearly a year! Since then, Office 2010 has experienced over 9 million downloads — more than 6 times the size of the Office 2007 Beta.

With so many folks out there using the Office 2010 Beta, this is our gentle reminder that the Beta is set to expire on Halloween. For those of you who live outside of North America, that’s Sunday, October 31, 2010.

If you’ve been busy putting all of the new programs through their paces, you’ve already experienced many of the cool new features that can make your life easier. Personally, I’ve decided that I can no longer live without the Ignore Conversation button in Outlook 2010, linked notes in OneNote 2010, photo editing in Word 2010, using video in my PowerPoint 2010 presentations, or making walls of numbers come alive with Sparklines in Excel 2010. You get the picture.

If you’re currently using the expiring Beta, you can simply uninstall. More on uninstalling is available here.

For more info, see this FAQ from the Microsoft Support team, with Common Questions (and Answers!) about the Expiration of Office 2010 Beta.

Try Microsoft Office 2010

Tags: Microsoft, how to, customer support, Microsoft Product List 2010, feedback, customer service, Learning Essentials, Microsoft Office.

Bookmark this on Delicious

Also available via http://bit.ly/cmSTmJ

Office, advice, MS Product Listing

Tags advice, beta, Microsoft, news, Office

Uncategorized

The Little BIG Things: 163 ways to pursue excellence by Tom Peters

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 04/08/2010

I count myself among the many Tom Peters fans out in the business world, and just started his new book “The Little BIG Things”.

I noticed on his blog that Mr. Peters has released a summary PDF version of the book available for free download – I highly recommend it. What you’ll likely find (as I did) is that you’ll end up ordering the book or checking it out at your library to get more detail on the ideas he covers.

And if you want to ask the man himself questions about the book or his work, you’ll find him on Twitter and — if you have something interesting to say — probably very responsive!

Tags: Books, customer satisfaction, twitter, satisfaction, Tom Peters.

Bookmark this on Delicious Also available via http://bit.ly/bQGe1d

Tags advice, books, customer feedback, customer satisfaction

Uncategorized

Did you win £450,000 in a “Microsoft Lottery”? Think again: it’s a phishing attempt

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 27/07/2010

I was asked today…

I received a message in my email on behalf of Microsoft from the National Lottery International [stating] "A certificate of winning and other certificates including your winning cheque of Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great Britain Pound Sterlings has been sent to us by the claims officer of overseas Winner of the Microsoft National Lottery."

Is this real?

Nope, sorry… See this post at http://spamemailgraveyard.com/2010/04/microsoft-notification.html.

As I noted in my prior post, "Did you win One Million Euros in a Microsoft Lottery? Think again: it’s a phishing attempt", a lottery scam is a common phishing scam known as advanced fee fraud. One of the most common forms of advanced fee fraud is a message that claims that you have won a large sum of money, or that a person will pay you a large sum of money for little or no work on your part. The lottery scam often includes references to big companies, such as Microsoft.

In short: there is no Microsoft lottery.

For more information on how to protect yourself from fraudulent emails, please see Microsoft’s Anti-Phishing Site, and my posts on Phishing: Don’t get caught and FYI: new scams featuring the IRS logo to get your PII.

Do you have strong passwords on your devices? Here’s what to consider

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 26/07/2010

A friend noted today that their online email account was compromised over the weekend. I thought about my post on creating strong passwords (and passphrases) in six easy steps, which is still relevant today…

There’s a good article that was recently posted on on the Microsoft Security At Home web site that outlines how to create strong passwords.

Why should you care? Because last year InformationWeek reported that simple passwords created using short, simple key sequences can be easily cracked:

"For example, a lowly P3 PC running a widely available cracking tool at just 500 MHz was able to guess the password "ChEcK12" in only 26 seconds; and today’s top-of-the-line PCs could perform the same crack almost instantly. (For more examples of just how quickly simple password techniques like this can be bypassed, see this page from McMaster University). It’s scary stuff."

You can find the article on creating strong passwords here and more info and suggestions here on TechNet which notes that a strong password…

Is at least seven characters long.
Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
Does not contain a complete dictionary word.
Is significantly different from previous passwords. Passwords that increment (Password1, Password2, Password3 …) are not strong.
Contains characters from each of the following four groups: Uppercase letters, Lowercase letters, Numerals and Symbols found on the keyboard.

When all else fails, you may also use an online service such as http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/ to suggest strong passwords.

Tags: Microsoft, passwords, password, passphrase, security.

Share this post:

Also available via http://bit.ly/9JLnhG

Tags advice, Hotmail, How to, Microsoft, security