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Oct 04 2007
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eBay PayPal and Yahoo Join Forces

To fight phishing emails. It seems that the three companies came to an agreement (perhaps not quite as hard for ebay and paypal since they are both owned by eBay but who knows) to fight the phishing email problem that ebay users are constantly bombarded by from the moment they join. I use to get these emails and think I would never fall for that, but the emails have gotten so sophisticated in their attempts to scam you that it is hard for even seasoned people to tell the difference, and I even admit to clicking on one when I got lazy and didn’t read the email close enough.

There sounds more to it than just the normal press release this time, they are incorporating some anti-spamming techniques used by yahoo to remove the message before they are even delivered to your spam folder, so perhaps it will make a difference, that would be great.

It took me all of about 30 seconds to find a phishing email addressed from eBay, and that was because I actually had to sign into a different email account to check. The screen shot below is typical and I receive these every day. Perhaps this merger of sorts will help, but most likely they will find another way, that usually do. Part of the original post from eBay’s Chatter addressing the joint venture (so-to-speak) is below, here is the link to the Paypal press release post.

eBay, PayPal and Yahoo! are partnering to reduce dangerous Phishing emails
Domain_keys_2 eBay, PayPal and Yahoo! have joined forces to reduce the number of phishing emails that eBay and PayPal members get. All emails from eBay and PayPal have a digital signature (a bit of code that spammers can’t replicate). Yahoo! Mail will now check all emails claiming to come from eBay or PayPal for this digital signature. If you use Yahoo! Mail for your eBay or PayPal activity, you will receive only genuine email from eBay and PayPal in your inbox, because authentic emails will have the correct digital signature. However, a phishing email that is pretending to be from eBay won’t have the digital signature, and so Yahoo! Mail will automatically prevent it from reaching your inbox. This is a huge victory in the ongoing battle against phishing.

For now, this effort will help only our members who use Yahoo! Mail, although we hope to form similar partnerships with additional ISPs in the future. (Read more about this project on PayPal’s blog. )

Speaking of phishing emails, remember these important safety tips:

Please — don’t get Phished! An email from your bank, PayPal, eBay or another institution that asks for you contact information or for your immediate response is fishy – or possibly PHISHY! Here are some steps to take:

  1. Stop. Don’t rush to reply or take action – even if the request is really urgent sounding.
  2. Look. Read the text several times, and ask yourself why this information or call to action is necessary.
  3. Check. Check My Messages for an eBay email, or contact PayPal customer support.
  4. Forward. Forward any suspicious emails to us at spoof@ebay.com and spoof@PayPal.com.

This image below shows a typical email received to me as being sent from ebay.

eBay Phishing Email

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Sep 30 2007
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ChannelAdvisor Acquisition of Marketworks Update

Marketworks a Channel Advisor CompanyThis is an update to the acquisition of Marketworks by ChannelAdvisor that I posted earlier. I have posted what I have found to be some bullet points of information on the Marketworks acquisition. These were various sources written about the acquisition that I have compiled and some other thoughts about the merger.

  • ChannelAdvisor will cut Marketworks staff by about 50%
  • Most all changes seems to be geared at the Marketworks customers, nothing I could find on existing Channel Advisor’s customers having to change anything
  • Not many details known about future implications, most everyone online is quoting the original press release
  • Sounds like ChannelAdvisor will keep both channels functioning independently for a time, then move everyone over to the Channel Advisor side
  • There are implications about this happening because of a slow down on ebay, and that Marketworks was not a well run company
  • Found MANY posts that were totally unhappy with Marketworks product line and features
  • Infopia and Zoovy may have to change tactics because of this move

The quotes below are just little plugs I thought some might find of interest on the subject. I have put most of the feeds from various sources of the news on my rss feed reader to stay on top of any changes that might be coming

  1. It will allow customers to move from one platform to the other. ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo said of Marketworks, “They have some large customers that have been interested in moving to ChannelAdvisor over the years, but there hasn’t been a great way, an automated way, of getting them over. So we’re going to create bridges both ways.” http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m09/i12/s02
  2. “We may choose to rebrand to make it clear. But (Marketworks) will be a product offering of ChannelAdvisor rather than a separate company.”
  3. ChannelAdvisor will continue to support and invest in Marketworks’ customers and products. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070912/20070912005384.html?.v=1
  4. What is clear; this will be a blow to Salt Lake City based Infopia as ChannelAdvisor gets stronger. Look for a possible marriage between Zoovy and Infopia in the near future.
  5. One last point, that may have been overlooked. This acquisition and possible further consolidation in the space are definitive signals that eBay is slowing down . Marketworks, may have seen their growth hit the ceiling and decided this approach was one of a few options. I certainly don’t think it is a sign that the eBay Marketplace is healthy. A few years ago eBay could support many large service providers and sellers; not anymore. http://rksmythe.blogspot.com/2007/09/channel-advisor-aquires-marketworks.html
  6. The biggest downside of both companies is the buying experience on eBay. Both companies have a customized eBay checkout enabling them to cross sell additional products from their own website. Buyers in general are not comfortable with a non-standard eBay checkout and some buyers avoid sellers using either solution simply for that one reason. If ChannelAdvisor want to attract more eBay sellers they need to implement a option without a custom checkout which still updates the sellers inventory. http://www.tamebay.com/2007/09/channeladvisor-vs-marketworks-war-is-over.html
  7. I doubt CA is going to want to support the Marketworks system long-term, and I doubt they are going to want to put resources into making it better

I will continue to update the information on this topic as it becomes available.

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Sep 28 2007
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Google Launches TheGoogle.com

TheGoogle.com Search SiteOr did they? Well, not really, and it sounds a little stupid like theDonald, but a news type site (the Onion) reported yesterday that Google was launching a new site, called TheGoogle.com saying “Google Launches ‘The Google’ For Older Adults”. The article goes on to say how it is a more secure search engine and it has a more dumbed down version of the search, i.e. you can do a search or a url like http.google.com and it will render the correct address.

Just take a look at the article information below. Of course, the Onion does say that this is a satire site (or article) so it can be read with a grain of salt, but the site is still real, and it is still bringing in thousands of hits. So if it satire who cares. Well, perhaps those people using the site that doesn’t know it is a faux site, or that the article is just a joke. I am sure there are some out there that don’t know the history of everything on the internet (me being one for sure), afterall it is Google’s Birthday.

The Google will have all the same information currently found on regular Google, but with the added features of not stealing your credit-card numbers or giving your computer all kinds of viruses,” said Rick Tillich, The Google project director. “All you have to do to turn the website on is put the little blinking line thing in the cyberspace window at the top of the screen, type ‘thegoogle.com,’ and press ‘return’—although it will also recognize http.wwwthegoogle.com, google.aol, and ‘THEGOOGLE’ typed into a Word document.Google’s 9th Birthday

Tillich added that he hopes the site will soon replace Yahoo Internet Website.com as the most popular search engine for users over 55.

If you take a closer look at theGoogle.com, it is nothing more than a 100% ad site. Every time you search, every single result is that of an ad. Why would The Onion publish a report to such an obvious hoax? Just take a guess. I don’t know, but I could guess. Is it just a joke? Are they the owners of the hoax site? Well a quick WhoIs search shows probably not, but it is NOT Google. I love the disclaimer at the bottom of all their pages.

Disclaimer: The registrant of this domain maintains no relationship with third party advertisers that may appear on this website. Reference to or the appearance of any particular service or trade mark is not controlled by registrant and does not constitute or imply its association, endorsement or recommendation.

I don’t recall google ever saying that themselves. There are a few obvious signs this is not something Google owns, and certainly not something they made an announcement for as the article says.

  1. There is no announcement on Google’s actual website, or in their blog
  2. All the results are ads (Sponsored Results shows at the top of all their results)
  3. The WhoIs information is NOT who they say they are (this isn’t always important but you can still learn from it)
  4. Look at the code from the site. Just right click and “view source”, nothing that is genuine Google
  5. Look at the results it does return.
  6. They ask for money! That should be a no brainer right there.
  7. Links that don’t work (see “donation” form below)

TheGoogle.com Form SubmitLook at the screen shot when you go to “inquire about this domain” and see what results it shows. I filled out the form and offered $5,000, perhaps I should have made it $100,000 but I thought I would make it something realistic. What happens when I click on the link after submitting an inquiry? Nothing. The link doesn’t work.

Why would a satire news site report on something like this, well hopefully they just thought it would be a good joke, but it could be more than just a harmless search engine ad site that is probably right now raking in tons of ad click through’s and donations from the article publicity, it could be a phishing site or something worse, but I guess the Onion looked into this far before they published an article about the site. At the least, you would think Google would not care for this and do something about it, but perhaps it really don’t matter, or perhaps I just don’t know what the heck I am talking about (probably the case as well) and everyone thinks sites like this are just fine.

One comment put it like this:

I’m pretty surprised Google hasn’t WIPO UDRP’d for the domain.

I do my share of online marketing, I use click through ads (don’t get paid anything but that is for a different post), and marketing is a big part of the Internet now, so I understand using advertising, but to what extent?

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Aug 26 2007
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GPS Amateur Radio Shoes Using RF Radio Frequency for Prostitutes?

GPS Packet Radio Shoes

I don’t know how many people actually use Google Alerts (I am sure it is millions), but for those who don’t, you can find some real interesting and sometimes strange stuff on your topics of interest, along with many other beneficial aspects of the alert system. All in all I probably have more than 50 google alerts to keep up to date with indexed items like my blog, new trends in amateur radio, my name search and so on.

The information is much differently than a reader, like Google Reader, but since it is an email with a little blurb on the new found alert, it is a similar concept, except in email form. Instead of the user finding a site of interest and adding the rss feed to their rss reader, they find a topic of interest, then have Google go get it (with various optional settings). You just type in the search term you want, just like when you Google something, (including special character searches, which I love) and whenever Google’s spider indexes the term, it finds a match, and boom, you have an alert.

Google Screen Shot of GPS Alert Shoes

Today, this was the title of the alert for my heading “amateur radio” blog (see screen shot above). I didn’t really want to put the text of the alert in this post, but you get the idea from the screen shot. The article itself was detail oriented (approved for all audiences), but the quote from Wired read as:

The GPS unit uses APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) a system which uses amateur radio frequencies to send data, which, ironically, was first developed at the United States Naval Academy (all the nice girls love a sailor).

The shoes are a concept right now, albeit a working one, and can be tried out at the Gallery Aferro in Newark, New Jersey in September (15th, 22nd, and 29th). Mens and women’s sizes will be available, and orders will be taken for custom builds.

information and photo above of shoe: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/08/gps-alarm-shoes.html

I would like to know a little more about the technology that went into the shoes, like how they are able to transmit without using a call sign without being a licensed radio operator (I assume that a shoe can not be a licensed amateur radio operator). There are FCC statements for frequency use that allows radio controlled planes, RC cars, and similarly controlled machines, to operate on ham radio frequencies without a license, but most will still post their call sign on the side of the plane if they have one. I don’t know that much about RF tags that retailers use on everything, but I am fairly certain they don’t use amateur radio frequencies.

Of course, it says it is using APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System), a system developed by WB4APR which, according to his website, “uses amateur radio to transmit position reports, weather reports, and messages between users”, and all those users are amateur radio operators (as far as I can tell anyway). I am sure the inventors of these shoes are aware of all the frequency implications and how it can and can’t be used, and I am by no means any expert on the subject at all, I am just interested, as a licensed amateur radio operator, how the technology (and shoes) move from mainstream over to amateur radio use.

For those who know a lot more about packet radio (and APRS) than I do, which wouldn’t be hard, I would love to hear your comments.

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