GrayScales - Scams, Viruses & More
Jim's Blatherings - Simple ramblings (maybe rants) from the Co-Founder of Quikonnex about Scams, Viruses, Internet Marketing, web techniques, tips & anything else that pops into his head.
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GrayScales - Scams, Viruses & More

Wireless Computing Exploit - Broadcom Driver

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Are you connecting to the Internet via a wireless connection? If so you need to pay special attention to this alert. Apparently there is a hack out for computers using Broadcom Drivers: HP, Compaq, some Dells and others that will allow a hacker using this exploit to gain FULL control over your computer. If your wireless driver is not update to Version 4.100.15.5 or better, then you're vulnerable. Go to this ZDNet link now to check out your system: Critical Broadcom Windows driver exploit released!. My wife's Compaq needed this update. Do you?
Posted on 11/15/06 at 10:14:18 by Jim Gray
Category: Security - 1 comment - [Link to this item]

Prosperity Automated System in Trouble

Thursday, September 28, 2006
The LA Times reported today that the Prosperity Automated System (PAS) is being targeted by the Securitys & Exchange Commission (SEC). Their goal is to shut them down. Honestly, I'm not familiar with their products or compensation plan, but having the SEC go after you is bad news from any perspective. If you're involved in any similar programs, you might want to pay attention to this case.
[Read More!]
Posted on 09/28/06 at 16:05:18 by Jim Gray
Category: Internet Marketing - 4 comments - [Link to this item]

Postcard from Family Member

Thursday, September 28, 2006

This one would only come from a family member that really despises you:

"You have just received a virtual postcard from a family member!
You can pick up your postcard at the following web address:

http://www2.postcards.org/?a91-valets-cloud-31337"

This one would probably ruin your day. [Read More!]
Posted on 09/28/06 at 08:47:19 by Jim Gray
Category: Scams - 15 comments - [Link to this item]

PayPal Report - Avoid AUP Violations

Thursday, September 14, 2006
Mike Filsaime of Butterfly Marketing fame has put out a lot of information in the past much of which costs quite a bit. However, he just released this report for FREE and I 100% recommend it. Download it at this link: http://the-pay-pal-report.com/ThePayPalReport.zip.

PayPal is an excellent service to use, but you have have heard some negative reports on them freezing accounts and such. This report will set you straight on what can cause this.
Posted on 09/14/06 at 10:51:56 by Jim Gray
Category: Internet Tools - 4 comments - [Link to this item]

$100,000.00 in 4 Months? Not Likely!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Some say MoreThanTraffic.com is a scam, others say it's legitimate. This site guarantees that they'll send you enough targeted traffic so that you'll make $100,000.00 in 4 months. If you do, you pay them 15% or $15,000.00. If not, you pay nothing. It sounds like a WIN-WIN proposition.
[Read More!]
Posted on 09/13/06 at 10:29:55 by Jim Gray
Category: Scams - 6 comments - [Link to this item]

Opportunity Meeting Place - Findings

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
On the inside, Opportunity Meeting Place contains the typical Profile pages, a Blog, Classified posting area, Groups, a Forum, and direct links to a HotConference private room. The only updateable areas are the profile, ability to add banners (although I can't see where they'd be displayed yet), you can create and join groups, and post classifieds. The Group categories are rather limited: MLM Opportunities, Investment Opportunities, Day Trading Opportunities, and Franchise Opportunities. Where does Quikonnex and DeskView fit into that mix???? There's definitely a lot of work that needs to be done. I can't dis them for linking to HotConference -- that's all they have available :-) the poor guys :-( There's still the promise that this will be a good networking location, but they've got a lot to do to catch up with Ryze and LinkedIn.
Posted on 09/13/06 at 09:26:25 by Jim Gray
Category: Internet Marketing - 0 comments - [Link to this item]

New Marketing Opportunity - Investigation Starts

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Okay, I'm checking out another site. You might want to join me on this test, who know Quikonnex could dominate it. Joel Theiren, of HotConference.com and Kiosk.ws, is launching OpportunityMeetingPlace.com on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9AM.
[Read More!]
Posted on 09/13/06 at 08:43:53 by Jim Gray
Category: Internet Marketing - 6 comments - [Link to this item]

New PayPal Scam - No $100 bill awaits you!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006
"You have been chosen by the PayPal online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit $100 to your account - Just for your time! " Yeah.. right! [Read More!]
Posted on 08/30/06 at 06:40:11 by Jim Gray
Category: Scams - 5 comments - [Link to this item]

Blog feeds may carry security risk

Friday, August 04, 2006
ZDNet.com ran an article today stating that RSS Feeds may present a security risk to subscribers. You can read about it here:

Blog feeds may carry security risk

The question should arise, "What about Quikonnex RSS Feeds?"
[Read More!]
Posted on 08/04/06 at 13:50:43 by Jim Gray
Category: Security - 3 comments - [Link to this item]

Year End Pay Pal Scam - Update

Monday, July 10, 2006
This is an update to my Dec 23, 2005 post. No, you do not need to update or verify your PayPal account information at the end of every year. I got this phishing attempt talking about getting ready for 2006.

There are also more victims of this type of scam than just the email recipients.
[Read More!]
Posted on 07/10/06 at 14:04:00 by Jim Gray
Category: Scams - 6 comments - [Link to this item]

New Definition of Fast & Slow

Saturday, June 10, 2006
It used to be that you could describe something that was really fast as "faster than a speeding bullet" or "faster than the speed of light". Now fast should really be described as "faster than the price of gas can increase after hearing a little bit of bad news". Instead of slower than a snail, think about "slower than the price of gas goes down on hearing good news".
Posted on 06/10/06 at 14:03:33 by Jim Gray
Category: Peeves - 1 comment - [Link to this item]

Tag and Ping - Is it worth it?

Monday, June 05, 2006
There's a new SEO technique being promoted call Tag and Ping. While this technique in itself is not bad, there's a package being sold via an affiliate site at tagandping.com for $147.00 that looks like the start of a new spamming method. Blogging and Pinging was great when it started, but now if you look at the listings on sites like weblogs.com all you see is a list of porno sites. When will social bookmarking tools that allow tagging be degraded by abusive techniques.

[Read More!]
Posted on 06/05/06 at 17:31:03 by Jim Gray
Category: Internet Marketing - 4 comments - [Link to this item]

Don't Trust Phone Numbers Either

Friday, April 28, 2006
It looks like the typical phishing email, but this one is different. It's not asking you to click on a link, but asks you to call a phone number ASAP because your bank or credit card has been compromised. You make the call and you're relieved that the bank answers. WRONG! You've just gotten stung!
[Read More!]
Posted on 04/28/06 at 08:04:20 by Jim Gray
Category: Scams - 5 comments - [Link to this item]

Just Say NO ... to IE 7

Wednesday, March 22, 2006
I've not been one to bash Microsoft, however, they're definitely going down the wrong road with their new Internet Explorer Beta 7 (IE7 Beta). With this product they're out to defeat the work of a lot of hard working folks who've spent the time to make RSS feeds readable. Feedburner.com does it and so does Quikonnex.com. What I'm talking about is the use of XSL stylesheets within the RSS feeds so that when you click on one of those orange RSS/XML icons you don't see geeky code. When someone clicks on one of those links on Quikonnex.com, a site that uses Feedburner, and if a user is using my RSSBoss product, they'll be presented with attractive, readable information and with quick subscription links for popular newsreaders. Microsoft doesn't recognize the existing stylesheet in abhorence to all conformance to standards and replaces it with their own style sheet.
[Read More!]
Posted on 03/22/06 at 19:44:50 by Jim Gray
Category: Peeves - 1 comment - [Link to this item]

Patents and Petty Content Providers

Thursday, February 23, 2006
This is going to be nothing but a screaming RANT! First of all, I got an email from MediaPost's "Around the Net in Online Marketing" regarding a newly issued patent regarding Rich Media Content. The whole U.S. patent system is insane, but that's on the tip of the iceberg with this rant. I wanted to provide you a link to the Information Week article on this, but they license their links. They want me to pay them $2.50 to give you a link to their website! No !@#$%!%!% WAY!
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Posted on 02/23/06 at 12:16:09 by Jim Gray
Category: Peeves - 4 comments - [Link to this item]