Fake Google Email Attempts to Steal Your Money
We all know that Google, the Mountain View super search giant, communicates with its users by phone or by email every time users have to be informed about important matters.
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23.3.2008 Leaked Google Chrome OS Private Beta Screenshots Are Fake
Just a day after Google confirmed that it was cooking its own breed of open source operating system, the first screenshots allegedly depicting Google Chrome Operating System got leaked.
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9.7.2009 Microsoft investigating fake WinLogon patch
Microsoft is investigating an e-mail that appears to be a security warning from the software heavyweight which patches a vulnerability in the "WinLogon Service".
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29.5.2006 Firefox, IE vulnerable to fake login pages?
Mozilla's Firefox 2 and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 are vulnerable to a flaw that could allow attackers to steal passwords.
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23.11.2006 Probably Fake IE8 alpha screenshots appear on the Internet
IE8 is set to be released in mid-2008, so we can fully expect IE9 to ship with Windows 7 (formerly known as Windows Vienna).
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5.7.2007 Beware: Fake Microsoft patch malware
“We received some questions from customers about an e-mail that’s circulating that claims to be a security e-mail from Microsoft.
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15.10.2008 Incoming - Real and fake Win7 patches
Microsoft has made available a patch to a Windows 7 bug in the Release Candidate (RC) and is preparing to roll out some “fake” test patches to verify Windows 7’s automatic-updating abilities this week.
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13.5.2009 Microsoft Deletes Fake Xbox Live Accounts
Following on from the recent launch of the video marketplace for the Xbox 360, many users who suffer from regional download barriers, simply created fake accounts from outside America.
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29.11.2006 Windows 7 RC1 Build 7048 is Fake may be 7041 or 7046
Last time we talked about Windows 7 RC1 build 7048 which was rumored to be released a group of Beta Tester. Win7info a dedicated Windows 7 blog reveals that the actual build was 7041 not 7048. According to Geeksmack : ”
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1.3.2009 Fake Windows patch e-mail leads to Trojan horse attack
Messages insisting that users install a just-released Microsoft Corp. security update are bogus and actually lead to a site that plants malicious code on PCs, several security companies warned today.
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28.6.2007 Google Links Blog Search to Google News
Some time over the weekend Google put links to Google Blog Search on the front page of Google News and at the end of each news search results page.
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24.10.2006 Google Chrome - Web browser from Google
Google has released the very first beta of their new web browser, Google Chrome. Chrome is a browser that, for now at least, is focused on offering a full browsing experience within a minimalistic user interface.
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2.9.2008 Can Microsoft Out-Google Google?
It aims to grab more of the search market with a new slew of search services that copy, and try to build on, Google's approach.
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13.9.2006 Next Up: Google Office?
There's a Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. These times must be really interesting for Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft's CEO allegedly said he'd crush Google, his company's rival in search, and the lucrative ad business it engenders. On Tuesday, Google may strike back at Redmond's heart: Microsoft Office.
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Google PC?
Just five years ago, Microsoft Corp. was considered the Big Bad Wolf of the media business.
Armed with a stockpile of cash and the Windows operating system that dominates office computing, Bill Gates' company was expected to huff and puff its way into America's living rooms as well, with video game consoles, home networking systems and TV set-top boxes.
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3.1.2006 Google Sites For All!
Google has just announced a new service called Google Sites, which is now available for any registered Google user. This service was previously only available to businesses with specialty accounts.
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22.5.2008 Google TV Coming soon?
Using Google?s search and advertising technologies to enhance users? Television viewing experience trends that are shaping user behavior when watching Television identify areas where use of Google?s search and advertising technology can enhance this user experience.
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Google history - Milestones
Google is a play on the word googol, which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman. It refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.
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Google Talk Unleashed
I'm impressed with their initial effort, and I think when they add the ability to connect to MSN, AIM, Yahoo, et. al. they claim a major share of the IM market. Google Talk is worth a look
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Google fright for eBay
GOOGLE is testing a new service that could eventually propel it into new markets on the web in competition with a wide range of existing internet companies, from e-commerce giants like eBay to online listings sites.
News of the test, which Google would not discuss publicly, spread quickly around the internet and contributed to a 4 per cent fall in eBay's shares.
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Google Whistles a New Tune
Google on Thursday launched a new service intended to give searchers fast links to song lyrics, musical artists and CD titles on the main search results page.
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16.12.2005 Google to buy Opera?
"Take that, IE 7"
Google may soon announce its acquisition of browser firm Opera, if rumour is to be believed.
Pierre Chappaz, founder of Kelkoo and ex-Yahoo! Europe president, has revealed in his personal blog, Kelblog, that a "usually well informed source" has told him the buy is on the cards.
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17.12.2005 Google Sued Over Talk
Rates Technology (RTI), a company that owns several internet voice communication patents, is suing Google for $5 billion claiming the search giants' Google Talk software uses two RTI patented technologies without licensing them.
The suit, filed in October in US District Court in the Eastern District of New York, seeks damages in compensation for "irreparable damages" caused to RTI.
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2.1.2006 IE7 getting the Google treatment
For those of you who have downloaded Windows Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview you might get a surprise when visiting the Google.com webpage.
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9.2.2006 Playing catch-up with Google
At Ask.com, Steve Berkowitz didn't have enough resources to take on Google. Now, at Microsoft, he has plenty of money, but still has a lot of work to do.
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21.11.2006 No more replies from Google Answers
Google is pulling the plug on Google Answers, a service that allows people to submit questions over the Internet that researchers answer for a fee.
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29.11.2006 Google Groups gets an Update
Google Groups is all about helping users connect with people, access information, and communicate effectively over email and on the web. Now there's a new version on the block.
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24.1.2007 On antitrust, is Google the next Microsoft?
Not too long ago, nearly every move that Microsoft made seemed to draw complaints that the company was abusing its market dominance.
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23.7.2007 Google Toolbar 5 Beta
The Google Toolbar is a free and easy-to-use tool that allows you to take the power of Google with you anywhere on the Web.
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16.12.2007 Google Gets 70% of U.S. Searches
Seventy percent of U.S. searches in June were done on Google Inc.'s search engine, according to Web measurement figures from market research company Hitwise Pty. Ltd.
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21.7.2008Fix for free anti-virus generating fake traffic
The freeware version of anti-virus software AVG 8 was released with a feature called LinkScanner at the end of May that was found to create massive
amounts of fake traffic, enraging webmasters, and skewing site rankings...
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07.07.2008Apple: Fake Memo Didn't Come from Internal Server
Apple attempted to squash the
confusion surrounding a fake
memo published on AOL blog
Engadget Wednesday, which
claimed both the iPhone and
Leopard were being delayed and
temporarily led to a major
drop in Apple stock. The
company says the memo was
not sent from its
servers...
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18.05.2007Identity of 'Fake Steve Jobs' Revealed
The identity of Fake Steve
Jobs is a secret no more. The
author of the popular Web log
that for the past year has
taken a candid look at the
world of CEO blogs has finally
revealed himself...
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06.08.2007Fake sites with Obama news infect users with malware
Trend Micro Advanced Threats Researcher Paul Ferguson has discovered fake websites with headlines like Barack Obama has refused to be a president and
links that take the user to fake Obama sites which mimick the official Obama website. Trend Micro has found binaries with file names like barack.exe
and baracknews.exe which belong to Waladec family of worms that spread more after New Year as spam greeting cards. Below is a glimpse of the fake
obama website Some of the malware found are: WORM_WALEDAC.KAX WORM_WALEDAC.AE WORM_WALEDAC.AG WORM_WALEDAC.AD WORM_WALEDAC.AL WORM_WALEDAC.AH
TROJ_AGENT.DOZZ TSPY_BANKER.BFE TROJ_DLOADER.XGZ BKDR_KRYPTIK.AB These malware are mostly hosted on domains that contain Obama-related key words.
Read full story.....
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21.01.2009Carbonite caught red-handed posting fake product reviews
It was just 10 days ago we had the news of Belkin paying people to post fake reviews and the comments of anonymous Belkin employees confirming those
fake reviews, we now have Carbonite - an online backup service provider setting a similar example. The Daily Background highlights the dirty
practices of yet another tech company posting positive reviews of their own products. Bruce, an annoyed customer who wanted to write reviews in
Amazon.com regarding his experiences with Carbonite, found out that the high level employees of carbonite gave positive product reviews disguised as
normal users.
Read full
story.....
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29.01.2009EU cracks down on fake blogger astroturfing
Nothing beats word of mouth for getting people to put their hand in their pockets. So it didn't take long for cheeky marketing departments to cotton
on to the power of blogs and pose as consumers praising their own particular widget to the skies to help lift their top line.
Sneaky, perhaps, but usually legal. Not for much longer, however, as covert commercial blogging - or flogging - will soon be banned by
Brussels.
Under laws due to come into force at the beginning of next year, but likely to be delayed until April for the UK,
companies posing as consumers on fake blogs, providing fake testimonies on consumer rating websites such as TripAdvisor, or writing fake book reviews
on Amazon risk criminal or civil liability.
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04.11.2007Symantec: Fake security software on millions of computers
Millions of computer in the US are infected with fake security software, which their owners may have even paid for, according to a cybercrime report
from security company Symantec. Such software would only make computers more vulnerable, possibly allowing cybercrooks to take complete control of an
infected computer. "Lots of times, in fact they're a conduit for attackers to take over your machine. They'll take your credit card
information, any personal information you've entered there and they've got your machine," said Vincent Weafer, Symantec's vice president
for security response. Symantec found 250 different kinds of fake security software installed on computers, all with perfectly legitimate sounding
names such as "Antivirus 2010" and "SpywareGuard 2008".
Read full story.....
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19.10.2009Steve Ballmer's Presentation Laptop, (We Hope This Pic is Fake)
Gizmodo
came across a
very interesting photo (possibly fake) from one of Steve Ballmer's
presentations:
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28.04.2008US shuts down 'scareware' sellers
The US government has moved to shut down sellers of fake security software. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops
several sellers of "scareware" from continuing to trade. Millions of people are thought to have been caught out by the software which, once
installed, issues false alerts about viruses and illegal porn. The FTC is pursuing further legal action to win a permanent ban on those peddling
the scareware. Court papers submitted by the FTC show that the peddlers of the fake security software tricked websites into advertising their
products. The companies behind the fake security software won customers via adverts on many popular websites.
Read full story.....
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13.12.2008"Windows 7 Video" Is Fake
Robert McLaws: A couple different websites around the net have been reporting over the past few days on
a new video making the rounds on YouTube, purporting to be a video demo of
Windows "7". While it is pretty high quality, very elaborate, and shows off some pretty interesting stuff, multiple sources inside Microsoft have
told me it's a fake. One source told me that security on Windows 7 is extremely tight for various reasons, and that we shouldn't expect to see
anything for quite a while yet.
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15.05.2008Introducing the fake Microsoft Store
Microsoft today unveiled it's "Retail Experience Center". The experience center is like a real Microsoft store but unfortunately it's fake.
This store acts, feels and functions like a real store and was built at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, WA (USA). The Retail Experience
Center is a private, 20,000-square-foot facility housing a fully functioning, interactive store environment, from point of service to receiving dock.
The Retail Experience Center is also part of Microsoft's larger effort to establish a research facility to better understand and address how
consumers are experiencing the Windows brand at retail as they select and purchase PCs.
Read full story.....
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12.01.2009Google ranked as #3 spammer's paradise
As of today (6 January 2009), Google has been ranked as the third worst "spam service ISP" by Spamhaus.org. Besides not doing enough to stop dodgy
drug companies redirecting unwary consumers through Google Docs, the company has been serving as a major host to those intent on committing
advance-fee fraud (one example being the "Nigerian" or "419 letter"), mule fraud (in this case, setting up an email account as a fake
"intermediary" or escrow service to dupe an unsuspecting punter), and excessive spamvertising through its Gmail and Blogger services. No
respectable ISP wants to be seen as pro-spam, but the fact is that some companies permit spammers and scammers to operate through their networks.
Read full story.....
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06.01.2009Apple finishes with Think Secret, targets Fake Steve Jobs
Apple Incorporated’s lawyers have found a new target: the fake Steve Jobs. Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes, is the author of the blog
“The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs”, which is written by him in first person, as if it were Jobs himself writing. Most blog entries are
simply little snippets of what’s happening in the tech world, usually completely irrelevant to Jobs or even Apple. The lawyers are, however,
interested in three posts that they “deem to be actionable”. They emphasize, of course, that they don’t want to take any legal
action and that it’s all up to Lyons. Apparently, the lawyers just want to talk about the problem and not actually take anyone to court or send
them a cease-and-desist letter.
Read full story.....
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23.12.2007Bloggers battered by viral storm
Google's Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs.
The fake entries contain
weblinks that lead to booby-trapped downloads that could infect a Windows PC.
Infected computers are being hijacked by the gang
behind the attacks and either mined for saleable data or used for other attacks. The Blogger attack is the latest in a series by a gang that has
managed to hijack hundreds of thousands of PCs.
Security researcher Alex Eckelberry from Sunbelt Software first noticed the
booby-trapped links turning up on Blogger on 27 August...
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30.08.200763% users fail to spot fake pop-ups
Internet users are unable to distinguish between genuine pop-up warnings messages and false ones, a study at North Carolina State University has
found. The study examined the responses of undergraduates to messages which popped up while they did other tasks on a PC. Seeing the pop-ups as a mere
annoyance the majority clicked 'OK'. Fake pop-ups are a well-known vehicle for cyber-criminals to install harmful software on PCs.
"This study demonstrates how easy it is to fool people on the web," said co-author Michael Wogalter, professor of psychology at North
Carolina State University. "Be suspicious when things pop up. Don't click OK - close the box instead," said Dr Wogalter." Participants
were fooled by the fake messages 63% of the time, even when warned that some of what they would be seeing would be false.
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24.09.2008Technology detects fake works of art
US researchers are harnessing digital technology to help differentiate original works of art from forgeries. Penn State scientists James Z Wang,
associate professor of information sciences and technology, and Jia Li, associate professor of statistics, have published their work in the July issue
of IEEE Signal Processing.
The team's findings are based on 101 high-resolution greyscale scans of paintings by Vincent van Gogh
provided by the Van Gogh and Kröller-Müller museums in the Netherlands.
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14.07.2008Beware of fake Microsoft security alerts
With Microsoft's monthly
patch release expected on
Tuesday, scammers are sending
out fake security bulletins
that attempt to install
malicious software on
victim's computers.
The e-mail messages claim
to describe a "Cumulative
Security Update for Internet
Explorer" that fixes a
critical security flaw in the
browser. It comes with a link
entitled "Download this
update."
When users
click on this link, they are
taken to a server that
attempts to install malicious
software known as
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Agent.
avk. This Trojan software then
attempts to reach out to other
computers on the Internet in
order to install more programs
on the victim's computer...
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09.06.2007Report finds fake antivirus on the rise
Malware posing as antivirus software is spreading fast with tens of millions of computers infected each month, according to a report to be released on
Wednesday from PandaLabs.
PandaLabs found 1,000 samples of fake antivirus software in the first quarter of 2008. In a year, that
number had grown to 111,000. And in the second quarter of 2009, it reached 374,000, Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs said in a recent
interview.
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30.07.2009Economic Hardship Gives Birth to New, More Sophisticated Scammers
The money crisis has not only rippled through the offline lives of millions, but those who felt they were safe from losing their homes or retirement
funds are now facing new risks each time they browse the internet. At one time phishing for private information was primarily done with trojans and
other malware designed to spread easily between computers and steal a user's personal data such as their social security number, credit card
numbers and bank account information. Unfortunately these easy to detect and remove programs are no longer the norm as cyber-criminals have become
more computer and consumer savvy to get tight-fisted computer users to part with their money.
PandaLabs has released an alert in
regards to a new way that crooks have begun stealing money from unsuspecting computer users. Cyber-criminals are creating and releasing fake
antivirus programs and websites designed to scare the average user into believing their computer has a virus and in order to remove it they'll
need to activate an antivirus or follow a link to download it.
"More than 30 million users have been infected by this new wave of fake
antivirus programs," said Ryan Sherstobitoff, chief corporate evangelist for Panda Security. "The information we have at present suggests that
approximately 3 percent of these users have provided their personal details in the process of buying a product that claims to disinfect their
computers. Extrapolating from an average price of $68.31, we can calculate that the creators of these programs are receiving more than
$13,666,000 per month."
Spread through peer-to-peer sharing websites, adult sites and fake sites, the popups and programs look and act
so much like the real thing, as shown in fake Google image below, that even knowledgeable computer users are falling victim to this latest scam. Once
detected on a victim's computer, it can take days to remove completely.
Protecting yourself or friends and family though is easy.
Ensure that they have a legit antivirus on their computer and that they understand and know how to use it and always keep them up-to-date on the
latest scams that you find floating around the internet.
neowin.net -
15.10.2008Economic hardship gives rise to more sophisticated scammers
The money crisis has not only rippled through the offline lives of millions, but those who felt they were safe from losing their homes or retirement
funds are now facing new risks each time they browse the Internet. At one time phishing for private information was primarily done with trojans and
other malware designed to spread easily between computers and steal a user's personal data such as their social security number, credit card
numbers and bank account information. Unfortunately these easy to detect and remove programs are no longer the norm as cyber-criminals have become
more computer and consumer savvy to get tight-fisted computer users to part with their money.
PandaLabs has released an alert in
regards to a new way that crooks have begun stealing money from unsuspecting computer users. Cyber-criminals are creating and releasing fake
antivirus programs and websites designed to scare the average user into believing their computer has a virus and in order to remove it they'll
need to activate an antivirus or follow a link to download it.
"More than 30 million users have been infected by this new wave of fake
antivirus programs," said Ryan Sherstobitoff, chief corporate evangelist for Panda Security. "The information we have at present suggests that
approximately 3 percent of these users have provided their personal details in the process of buying a product that claims to disinfect their
computers. Extrapolating from an average price of $68.31, we can calculate that the creators of these programs are receiving more than
$13,666,000 per month."
Spread through peer-to-peer sharing websites, adult sites and fake sites, the popups and programs look and act
so much like the real thing, as shown in fake Google image below, that even knowledgeable computer users are falling victim to this latest scam. Once
detected on a victim's computer, it can take days to remove completely.
Protecting yourself or friends and family though is easy.
Ensure that they have a legit antivirus on their computer and that they understand and know how to use it and always keep them up-to-date on the
latest scams that you find floating around the internet.
neowin.net -
15.10.2008
