Tired being scammed?

One should really be careful when doing transactions online, mainly buying things. I could still remember around 2 years ago, someone used my card and do an un-authorizated transaction. And the technique that the scammer used is “Phishing”. For your information, Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your valuable personal data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data etc. Actually, that was quite humorous, because i am being scammed, i grow an interest in internet security which makes me pay more attention in class.

In fact, i didn’t know that was called Phishing until that module was taught in my school. So this is how it goes. I bought a reseller hosting package from a person(scammer) through his website, which requires me to enter my card details in a html form. Well, you might find thats funny, but inexperienced as i was, i stupidly filled up that. And the next day on, when i checked my bank balance, wow, around $400 was spent in some items(software licenses). Actually, that scammer was still a noobie. Normally, when we buy things using debit or credit card, a transaction code will comes with the transation. With that transaction code, you could easily find the company where that item was purchased. So, i called up that company, tell them the details, give evidence and proof and tell them it’s an unauthorized transaction and after a few days, they refunded me through my card. The first thing that i do when i found out about my card was being used for unauthorized transaction is to call up my bank and cancelled the card. This step is damn important. If you suspect your card is being used by others, always cancelled it. This is the first thing to do!!!

How they get my card details

First, they make you fill up your card details in their so called “company” website. After you fill up that form, the form values will be inserted into their database. And thats how they get all the card number, expiry date etc. And they will then redirect you to the payment page, where they give you a false impression that you actually paid for that product and asked to wait for a few days for processing. During this few days, they will immediately use your card details on other websites and make unauthorized transactions.

So the thing is that,

1) When you buy things online, always contact that person in terms of email or msn. Saved up all the chat logs, emails as evidence of purchase. If It’s possible, make them sign a contract. Check their details, example, nickname, email in google. Make sure they have a clean record.

2) DO NOT PAY THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE USING CARDS. Those scammers will try to make their website looks damn professional with ssl which make it seems secured. Instead, Use paypal. It’s secured and there’s a chargeback. If you are being scammed, issued a chargeback with paypal and they will help you to get your funds back, provided you have all proof and evidence.

3) Don’t use a debit card online, use credit card. This tip is given by one of my teachers. Using debit card online, is relatively stupid, because it deducts money directly from your bank. However, i do not have a credit card, and up to now, i am still using debit card online.

4) If you do online transaction reguarly, make sure you log in and check your bank statement everyday.

5) This is important. Make sure your pc is clean. Not infected with virus or trojan horse. Trojan horse is very very dangerous because they are used by blackhat hackers to steal details like password. Imagine your paypal password being stealed.

6) When you received emails from paypal or egold or what asking you to update your details. DO NOT EVER click on links in the email. Because, that may be the email that are sent from scammers. Even if the email looks like support@paypal.com, dont ever click on links in it. This is called dns poisioning, where they make their email looks like its really sent from paypal. Instead, forward that email to paypal.

These are some of the things that i experienced and learned. Hope it helps.

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Basic of Website Flipping 1

Website flipping is like playing property real estate. Below are the similarities between both of them.

Process of Real estate

• Buying a house, and reselling it for a profit when the land prices increased.

Process of Website Flippings

• Example 1. Buying a domain for $7, develop a website, and resell it for $50.
• Example 2. Buying a established website, build value to it and resell it at a higher price.

Of course, flipping a website is far more easy then playing property real estate. You don’t need to have a large sum of money. It’s really that easy and don’t really require any knowlege of expertise. By just a small investment of maybe $10usd and some hours, you could have earn $50usd in profit. Even a 9 years old kid can do it. Is there a market for flipping websites? Definitely yes. Just browse through some popular webmaster forums like sitepoint, digitalpoint, webmastertalk, there are people selling and buying sites every hour.

I mentioned that flipping a website requires no knowledge of expertise at all. Below is one example of how you can flip a website requiring little knowledge. Also, you should thank open source softwares like wordpress, phpbb, because they make it possible.

Step 1 : Register a $7.15usd domain at godaddy.
Step 2 : Buy a hosting package. Just visit digitalpoint forum. They are people selling packages at such low cost of $1 per month. If you want, just email me, i can provide you free hosting.
Step 3 : Go and download wordpress and install it in your webhost. Alternatively, you could just login to cpanel, go to fantastico and click on install wordress. It’s just a few clicks
Step 4 : After your wordpress blog is created, spent a some time to research which type of blog you should start. Cycling, tennis, swimming etc. Then start posting around 7 to 8 articles regarding that niche. People are looking for unique content, so make sure that your articles passed through copyscape.
Step 5: Build some link exchanges to your blog and get some traffic to your blog.
Step 6: After a few days, when your blog received some traffic, post it up for sale.

That’s how you can earn $50 usd with just an investment of $10usd and some hours of work. However, that requires some hardwork. If you are hardworking, i am sure you could make some petty cash out of website flippings.

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The most important thing after starting a website

In my perspective, the most important thing after starting a website is how to market it effectively. I believe many webmasters, including me failed in doing so. Yes, i failed utterly in marketing and i still have hell lot to learn about web marketing.

Marketing a website seems relatively easy if you have a high budget. Using google adwords, nuffnang? adverlets? SEO? link developments? BUT, i have to say that its hard to do so if you have a low budget. What is the point of having a website if no one knows about it? Up to now, i have flipped over 50+ websites, and i only have one or two websites that managed to get 1k plus uniques per day. And that’s really pathetic. I heard from someone that if you know how to market one website, you will know how to market others. From my experience, i don’t agree with it totally. Yes, you will know how to market sites from the same niche if you know how to market one of them. But, what about sites from other niche? You can’t possibly market the same way as what you done for a health related site for a game-related site right?

Currently, i am kinda busy and don’t really have time to learn marketing. It’s a wide topic and it really need time, effort, money. So, the purpose of me blogging about marketing is to keep a log record for future. To remind me not to give up on web marketing.

If there’s any one of you out there who knows about web marketing or seo, link development and you don’t mind teaching a noobie like me for free, please add me in msn at contact(at)derek-ang.com. Would like the discuss and ask for some tips and advices.

My next blog entry will be about what i learn from 2 years of flipping websites. If you are interested in flipping websites, remember to visit my blog next week.

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Modern furniture

A dining room is a place of elegance and hospitality in house and it should be a retreat away from hustle and bustle of busy. It is a special place where every member of house sits together and enjoys their meal in each other’s company. In fact, Dining Table is the most important modern furniture of the house because when someone comes for dinner or lunch, they visit your dining room and share the most important memorable moments on your modern Italian dining set. Contemporary dinning room furniture has given this opportunity to bring the family together at one place.

There are many styles available that you can choose for contemporary table. Modern furniture is known by unconventional and unbelievable styles and designs in the way of modern art. The traditional look has been changed by modern lacquer table. The wood has been replaced by metals and other synthetic materials and also new color schemes have emerged. Modern dining table is not like vintage style tables, they are stretched for several feet and they are comfortable enough for all. Even though larger tables are available but the normal seating capacity of modern lacquer table is for 4 to 6 people.

These dining tables leave an innate impact on guests and they are very attractive. They are strong and greater emphasis is laid on space as they hold everything from plates and bowls to glasses and spoons. Some of them are fashionable because they include the cabinets which are used to store the cutlery. The most important thing is to take are of the quality and durability before buying any furniture but in the case of European furniture collection you don’t need to worry about anything. Quality and durability is the main aspect of this furniture. So, there are many online options for you to choose your favorite design, style, look and material for modern dining tables.

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