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Here is a very interesting story (may be stupid story) for you to think about. Today one of my friend called me and said he was cheated online. He paid $60 for a horoscope report from www.aboutastro.com and he did not get it.  My first reaction was “What the …!!! sixty dollars for an useless report?”. I asked him whether he read any reviews before going for the deal? “Well. No!” was his answer.

Ok!! before writing what exactly happened let me share you one of my experience with online reviews. I own a compaq presario v3225au laptop and before buying this I read reviews about this model for atleast 2 months. I also made sure I was not wastin my money by enquiring about this product with others who own it. Once I was happy with my selection I ordered the laptop and so far I am more than happy with its performance.

Now back to the horoscope story. My friend. who is fond of these astrology stuff, decided to get a paid report about his future from aboutastro.com. He tried out their free report and found it true. So he paid them 60$ for a detailed report and he is still waiting for the report.  He showed me some of the email from an astrologer named Jenna and it ws pretty interesting. All emails were written as if she was his guardian angel and wants him to realise where he was heading (no wonder he fell for it ).

I thought I will give it a try myself. I signed up for a free report. but this time I gave my emil ID as shobankr+aa@gmail.com. Gmail is very intelligent in delivering all emails to this ID to my original ID shobankr@gmail.com Guess what even before I received my free horoscope report. I started receiving emails from doctors all around the world giving me tips to increase my ***** size . these guys were also ready to send free viagara to me. And to add more flavour I also won a lottery of 60,000 pounds from UK national lottery.

I checked the header of all these emails and guess what they were all addressed to shobankr+aa@gmail.com. These guys sold my email ID.

I was 100% sure that aboutastro was nothing but a site owned by a bunch of few idiots who want to earn some quick money.

I did a whois check up for this site and more interesting stuff turned up. The site is registered to some address in France. Did I tell you that these guys had their HO at United States?

Last I did a quick google search for “Jenna horoscope fraud” and landed in a very interesting discussion about this scam!

Atleast I am happy that my friend was not alone

So next time, before making an online deal, make sure you know about the product completely. Oh! BTW did you read about my experience with Indiatimes shopping ?

Over the past year, there has been a considerable spike in cyber attacks against the financial services and the online retail industry. There are a number of actions a firm can take in order to prevent or thwart the specific attacks and techniques used by these intruders. The following steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a similar compromise while improving an organization’s ability to detect and respond to similar incidents quickly and thoroughly.

We are providing the following preventive measures. Performing these steps may not prevent the intruders from gaining access, but they will severely impact their effectiveness based on current attack methods.

Read the rest of the story here.

Inspired by Google Talk design, suddenly I thought of developing a Twitter App for windows based on Google Talk design.

Its nearing completion and soon it will be available for download here. Its developed using VB.net and soon I will be posting the source code in codegeeks.

Here is a preview of jata. Oh yeah! I named it jata. Its nothing but just another Twitter app.

1. Login screen

2. Once Logged in jata shows the recent tweets just like new mails in Google Talk.

3. jata periodically checks for updates and alerts us.

4. You can check for the new message and post your status right from jata!

Watch this space for updates

I work for a company which has office in UK and sometimes it is very difficult to manage time between both offices. Its a headache when ever you schedule a meeting between 2 teams in 2 different time zones. It becomes more pain if the country follows a day light saving

Here is how you can display a second time zone in your outloo calendar.

1. In Outlook, click Tools, click Options, click Calendar Options, and then click Time Zone.
2. Enter a label for your current time zone (for example, DE for Germany), select the Show an additional time zone check box, and then select the appropriate time zone from the list displayed.

All set now you will never confuse them by saying “Good afternoon” in the morning

Via : http://www.crankup.net/microsoft-daily-tips-and-tricks-special-delivery

Finally crankup.net is live in the new server. Sorry for bringing the site down for a long time. I had a tough time making perma links work in the new server which is running on Windows. I never thought it will take so much time. I had to put a “Site under maintenance” page

Thanks to Simmons Consulting for helping me out with the perma links issue.

Check out this useful list of mobile codes. So next time when you get a miss call you know where to look

http://mobilecodes.blogspot.com/

Recently I have started becoming active in Twitter. Do you use twitter? Then why not follow me?

Here is my link : http://twitter.com/shobankr

Kogan intros world’s second Android phone: Agora / Agora Pro. Check out the details here

The FBI is reminding people this holiday season that cyber criminals continue to aggressively seek ways to steal money and personal information. Scammers are using several techniques to fool potential victims including sending unsolicited e-mails that contain attachments such as electronic greeting cards containing malware (malicious software), setting up spoofing websites that look like legitimate commercial sites, and unleashing phishing and vishing attacks where individuals receive e-mails asking for personal data. Read more here.

I had a real bad ending at office today. I came out late from office with a sad and frustated face to see this wonderful sky!!!!

It made me smile and say WOW!! … I quickly grabbed my camera to realise that I needed a telescope and not camera. But before I miss this some one posted a picture in flickr. Check it out.

moon