Ways to Prevent from Popular Online Scams

Online Scams can be done in many forms to your computer,phones or website. so this article going to cover some popular online scams and ways to prevent from it...

 

The use of Internet services or software with Internet access to defraud victims or to otherwise take advantage of them, for example by stealing personal information, which can even lead to identity theft. A very common form of Internet fraud is the distribution of rogue security software. Internet services can be used to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme.

 

Internet fraud can take many forms: identity theft, injecting malware, fraudulent transactions. It can occur through e-mail, smartphones, websites, and chat rooms. Here are some such scams and ways to avoid them.

1) Infected sites

These are the sites that are not legitimate and have malicious software to hack your personal information. A lot of such infected sites come up during festive season, when people are buying gifts online, and hackers build these using popular search items. Another variation of infection is legitimate sites that get heavy traffic and, hence, are injected with ads and images that have viruses. 

 

>> A good way to avoid these is to go with familiar, popular sites or install ad blockers on your browser.

2) Fake phone apps

Be very careful about the apps that you download on your phone. Android and Apple phones are particularly vulnerable to fake apps in their stores, and these can introduce malware that steals the datayour phone. 

 

>> To avoid fake apps, check the users' review about the game or app before you download it. You can also go to the developer's website and get more information about the app before zeroing in on it. Another safe option is to go for the most downloaded apps or those that come with the 'editor's tag'. Avoid the apps that are 'paid' but are being offered for free, or ask for too much information.

3) International dialling

If your Internet connection is through a modem using a local telephone number, beware. Some sites lure people into viewing content that requires them to download a dialler or viewer. If you do so, your computer will be disconnectedthe Net and will instead be used to dial an international number, resulting in high phone bills. 

 

>> To safeguard yourself, avoid sites that require you to download a program to view content. You can also have your line blocked making international calls. Also make sure your computer has anti-malware software to detect any illegal activity.

4) Phishing

This is probably the oldest known scamming technique that is still going strong. Here e-mails, purportedly sent outwell-known institutions and social networking or payment sites, are used to draw out sensitive, personal informationpasswords and credit card details. These mails could also carry links to infected sites.

>> A preventive step is to never give out personal information and call up the company to crosscheck that the e-mail is genuine. Also scan the url for security (use of https in the address bar means it is safe).

5) Pharming

A combination of 'farming' and 'phishing', this term refers to the process by which a hacker gets a domain name for a site and then uses it to redirect this site's traffic to another, bogus website. It can comp romise serious information and cause heavy losses if the site being copied is that of a bank or taxation department. It can also be used to steal passwords, PIN or account numbers.

>> The best way to prevent this is to make sure you use secure Web connections (https) to access privacy-sensitive sites.

 

6) Wi-Fi hacking

If you use a public Wi-Fi connection, such as at airport terminals or coffee shops, to log into your account, you stand the risk of having your password and private information hacked. The hacker can also access your browsing history. This is especially true if you save the password to your account. 

 

>> If you are using a smartphone to access your account, try to use the 3G or 4G connection as it is more secure.

7) Auction/shopping scams

With online shopping and auction sites—wherein you put up household items and gadgets for bidding and sale— becoming popular, the scope of fraud has increased. You could be scammed out of your money by not receiving the goods at all, getting poor quality items, or beingged more than the price mentioned. Your credit card information could also be used fraudulently. Besides, the seller could be defrauded if he doesn't get any payment.

>> To avoid it, make sure you know as much as possible about the item and seller/buyer. The latter shouldn't have just an e-mail or a post office box address. Call him up and ask him about the address and extrages. Also go through the feedback.

8) Investing scams

Here, the prices of stocks are manipulated by sending out false information about the companies through e-mails, chat forums or Internet boards. This results in a rise or fall in the prices of stocks and the scamster benefits by selling or buying shares at the right time. In another variation of investing scam, which came under the Sebi scanner recently, companies were offering 'guaranteed return' schemes through e-mails, websites, blogs and social media platforms, and conning people out of their money. 

 

>> The best way to avoid it is to conduct your own research about the company, and not invest in schemes that promise outrageous returns.

9) Employment fraud

There are two variants of this scam. The more common one involves job offers by recruiters that require you to pay an advance fee or make a deposit, without the job ever materialising. The second one typically offers you the job of a 'representative' of an overseas company and your task is to collect customers' deposits in your account and remit most of it to the company abroad. In doing so, you could not only be a victim of identity theft, but also have money stolenyour account.

>> Avoid any such offers without verifying the company and do not give out personal information.

10) Click scams 

Have you ever clicked on the game strips or dancing/jumping figures that pop up and move across your screen while you are on social networking or other sites? 

 

>> Don't click on on the game strips or dancing/jumping figures . These could be fake and could lead you to click on concealed links, which either make your personal information public or provide access to confidential information stored on your computer.

 

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Identify Your Real Zodiac Sign !

The 'real' signs after alteration

Astrological signs represent twelve equal segments or divisions of the zodiac. According to astrology, celestial phenomena reflect or govern human activity on the principle of "as above, so below", so that the twelve signs are held to represent twelve basic personality types or characteristic modes of expression.There are "sun" signs and "moon" signs, which both depend on your date of birth.

Washington, Jan 15 (IANS) Astronomers suggest an overhaul in the process of defining horoscope on the basis of one's birth date as the earth's position vis-a-vis the sun and other stars has changed since the astrological signs were determined over 2,000 years ago.

Apart from the existing 12 astrological signs, the experts include a 13th sign Ophiuchus, a formation which the ancient Babylonians discarded because they wanted 12 star signs.

According to astronomers, the 'real' dates of all the 12 astrological signs will be altered for about a period of 30 days.

Here are the 'real' dates of astrological signs:

• Capricorn: Jan 20 to Feb 16.
• Aquarius: Feb 16 to March 11.
• Pisces: March 11 to April 18.
• Aries: April 18 to May 13.
• Taurus: May 13 to June 21.
• Gemini: June 21 to July 20.
• Cancer: July 20 to Aug 10.
• Leo: Aug 10 to Sep 16.
• Virgo: Sep 16 to Oct 30.
• Libra: Oct 30 to Nov 23.
• Scorpio: Nov 23 to 29.
• Ophiuchus: Nov 29 to Dec 17.
• Sagittarius: Dec 17 to Jan 20.

In Indian astrology, there are five elements: fire, earth, air, water and space. The master of fire is Mars, while Mercury is of earth, Saturn of air, Venus of water and Jupiter of space.

Jyotish astrology recognises twelve zodiac signs (Rāśi),that correspond to those in Western astrology. The relation of the signs to the elements is the same in the two systems.

N0.	Sanskrit	International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration	Sanskrit gloss	Western name			Tattva (Element)		Ruling Planet
1	मेष	Meṣa	ram	Aries			Tejas (Fire)		Mars
2	वृषभ	Vṛṣabha	bull	Taurus			Prithivi (Earth)		Venus
3	मिथुन	Mithuna	twins	Gemini			Vayu (Air)		Mercury
4	कर्कट	Karkaṭa	crab	Cancer			Jala (Water)		Moon
5	सिंह	Siṃha	lion	Leo			Tejas (Fire)		Sun
6	कन्या	Kanyā	girl	Virgo			Prithivi (Earth)		Mercury
7	तुला	Tulā	balance	Libra			Vayu (Air)		Venus
8	वृश्चिक	Vṛścika	scorpion	Scorpio			Jala (Water)		Mars
9	धनुष	Dhanus	bow	Sagittarius			Tejas (Fire)		Jupiter
10	मकर	Makara	sea-monster	Capricorn			Prithivi (Earth)		Saturn
11	कुम्भ	Kumbha	pitcher	Aquarius			Vayu (Air)		Saturn
12	मीन	Mīna	fish	Pisces			Jala (Water)		Jupiter

The dates for these zodiac signs are those in sidereal astrology, different from those in Hellenistic tropical astrology. Aries begins at the date when the sun enters into the constellation Aries, taking into account the precession of the equinoxes, while in tropical astrology Aries begins at the vernal equinox.

Posted by Azziet Singh follow me on twitter

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Facebook builds a tool to manage data on both facilities and servers

Facebook is blowing up the data center infrastructure management space by joining two kinds of data that typically lives in separate silos — information on the building and information about the hardware.

Remember that leap-second incident that threw much of the internet last summer? Facebook does. Its servers suddenly hit 100 percent CPU utilization, and as a result, a breaker failed at a site Facebook’s leases in Virginia, bringing down a few rows of gear — something like 300 racks.

The event hardly threw off Facebook’s entire footprint. But it did get engineers thinking more about writing software that integrates third-party building management software with home-cooked tools for monitoring server performance, Tom Furlong, Facebook’s vice president of site operations, said in an interview during the Datacenter Dynamics Converged event in San Francisco on Friday.

The combined system can take into account outdoor information such as temperature and humidity, power consumption for an entire building, and also data on CPU, storage and memory.

Over the past few months Facebook has been rolling out the new data center infrastructure management (DCIM) program and a new cluster-planning system for visualizing all the data. The plan is to roll out the program more widely this year.

The tack Facebook is taking helps in a couple of ways. The software can reduce the amount of time engineers spend to figure out how to rearrange equipment to improve performance. How big of a difference can it make? “Thirty minutes instead of 12 hours worth of drawings and other things,” Furlong said.

It also can contribute to the noble cause of getting Facebook to squeeze the most efficiency out of its existing data centers — and, by extension, precluding the need for yet another data center.

Furlong expected the company to talk more about the system at the next Open Compute Summit in January. He wasn’t sure if the company would make the tool available for public consumption in a similar way that it has disclosed hardware designs in the Open Compute Project. The hitch is that the combined program incorporates some existing internal Facebook monitoring tools, which the company might not want to expose.

But regardless of whether that happens, public discussion of the initiative — Furlong talked it up in general terms before data center aficionados during a session at the Friday conference — can give people an idea of the next logical step for improving efficiency with existing hardware and being smarter about how and when to bring in new equipment that best fits workloads.

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Nokia's Lumia 1020: All Pixeled Up but Nowhere to Go?

There's no denying that 41 megapixels is impressive for a smartphone camera, but will it really make enough of a difference for the beleaguered Finnish smartphone maker and its widely hyped new device? "The secret to Nokia recreating the greatness they once held is to reinvent the brand, not add a camera or other feature," suggested telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan.

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but users of Nokia's upcoming Lumia 1020 mobile smartphone may well be able to do better than that. That's because the new marquee Windows phone -- formally unveiled Thursday at a Nokia event in New York -- will offer 41 megapixels, not to mention six-lens Carl Zeiss optics, high-resolution 3X zoom, autofocus and a dual flash system.

The Lumia 1020 will also be able to capture 1080p full HD videos at a rate of 30 frames per second.

The Nokia Lumia 1020

"With the Nokia 1020, pictures will mean more to you," said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop at the Thursday morning press event in New York City. "You'll discover and rediscover new stories. It will change how you shoot, create and share photos forever."

The phone -- some details of which had been leaked earlier this week -- will be exclusive to AT&T beginning on July 26, with preorders starting 10 days earlier. It will be priced at US$299.99 with a two-year contract.

Nokia did not respond to our request for further details.

Nokia's 'Next Chapter'

The new Lumia 1020 can capture photos in both 16-by-9 and 4-by-3 aspect ratios, but the resulting high-resolution images can also be saved as 5-megapixel images.

"This is the next chapter in Nokia smartphone technology," Elop said. "It can capture video with incredible quality."

Of course, the device is still a phone as well and will run on a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It will feature 32 GB of internal memory, with the option of supplementing that by 7 GB of SkyDrive cloud-based storage from Microsoft.

The 4G LTE handset further features a 4.5-inch AMOLED PureMotion HD+ display with a 1,280-by-768 HD display in 16x9 ratio.

Included in the AMOLED screen is a Clear Black filter to reduce outdoor glare, and the handset offers a Gorilla Glass 3 ultrasensitive touchscreen as well -- one that can reportedly be operated even with a glove on the user's hand.

the 'Cool' Factor'

With 41 megapixels, the Lumia 1020 sounds as much like a camera with smartphone technology as a smartphone with a camera thrown in. That functionality might not appeal to every user, but for those who rely on their handset as a camera, it could up the ante significantly.

"The 1020's vast megapixel count is a significant marketing asset because consumers have been well trained that more pixels are better in digital photography," said Daniel Gleeson, mobile analyst at IHS Electronics & Media. "This message is far clearer and simpler than HTC's 'UltraPixel' proposition.

"Also, 41 megapixels outguns even Samsung's camera-smartphone hybrids by more than two to one, although Samsung will correctly point to its stronger but bulkier optics as an advantage," Gleeson told TechNewsWorld.

"IHS believes that Nokia's 41MP technology serves two key purposes," he added. "First, it is a marketing and sales tool to impress consumers. Second, it re-establishes Nokia as a technology leader.

"If Nokia can gather support from the early-adopter community for its innovative technology, that will go a long way to making the Nokia brand 'cool' again," Gleeson said.

A Single Focus

With the New York City event's focus on the Lumia 1020's camera functionality, it's clear that this is where Nokia is betting the device could score with users. The question that remains to be seen, however, is whether that one feature -- however important -- will be enough to capture mass appeal.

"The camera is one of the key features many users are looking for, so focusing on the camera is important to Nokia," said telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan.

It might not be enough to rebuild the company, however, without first rebuilding the brand, Kagan told TechNewsWorld.

"Nokia used to lead the traditional handset space much the same way Blackberry led the smartphone space,"  he explained. "Nokia has tried numerous times to reinvent itself in the smartphone world -- they have failed time after time. The secret to Nokia recreating the greatness they once held is to reinvent the brand, not add a camera or other feature."

'Nokia Must Continue to Invest'

Indeed, the "Lumia 1020 alone won't revive Nokia," Gleeson agreed. "The Lumia 1020 will act as a halo product to boost Nokia's brand appeal."

The fact is, "photography on smartphones is not just about having the best-quality pictures," Gleeson stressed. "Sharing pictures to social networks is more important to most consumers than printing."

High-engagement levels, meanwhile, "mean that convincing Instagram users to switch from iPhone or Android to Nokia's platform will be difficult," he added.

There is no Instagram app for Windows Phone, in fact, thus reinforcing the fact that the platform lags behind iPhone or Android, at least when it comes to apps.

"The popularity of Instagram's filters again proves that absolute top-rate picture quality is not actually important for the majority of users," Gleeson concluded. "Nokia must continue to invest in content and services to bolster the range of Windows Phone app choice and quality."

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Convert Web Page (Aspx,Html) to PDF File - Asp.net

For many developers while developing applications the question arises that How to Convert  Web Page (Aspx,Html,php) to PDF File. Solution is here..

You can convert any web URL in to PDF file by this utility.

wkhtmltopdf

Convert html to pdf using webkit (qtwebkit)

Download Now.

Searching the web, I have found several command line tools that allow you to convert a HTML-document to a PDF-document, however they all seem to use their own, and rather incomplete rendering engine, resulting in poor quality. Recently QT 4.4 was released with a WebKit widget (WebKit is the engine of Apples Safari, which is a fork of the KDE KHtml), and making a good tool became very easy.

Simple shell utility to convert HTML to PDF using the webkit rendering engine, and qt.

That is it. You can go to any web page... even aspx. is supported better than any other utility as it uses the web-kit HTML rendering engine (Safari, Chrome). Enjoy

There is a single .exe (7 mb) that can be used from .Net simply by using Process.Start Make sure that you copy the exe into your project directory or you have to specify the full path..

Example: -

public void HtmlToPdf(string website, string destinationFile)
    {
        try
        {
            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
            p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\Program Files\\wkhtmltopdf\\wkhtmltopdf.exe";
            website = "\"" + website + "\"";
            string arguments1 = website + " " + destinationFile;
            p.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments1;
            p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
            p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            p.Start();
            p.WaitForExit();
            p.Close();
            p.Dispose();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw ex;
        }
    }

  

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Know About Your Form - 16

Your Form-16 contains details you need to file your Income Tax Return. Having a basic

understanding about your Form-16 goes a long way to help you file your tax return. See the below annotated image to understand some of the most relevant portions of your Form-16. It is a very brief form packed with information.

After reading this guide, you will be able to understand how the information from the Form-16 is entered while filing income tax returns online. Let's take ClearTax as an example as the tool or e-filing returns.

This is the format of the new Form-16 to be used from this year onwards. This form is generated using TRACES.

Fill your from 16 info to Cleartax.in
The corresponding sections in ClearTax where this information goes is:

.PART B of the Form 16, sometimes called Salary Statement

Information your Employer Provides

Taxable Salary

Your employer will provide key information such as Gross Salary, Perquisites, Various allowances and deductibles.

From a tax perspective Field-6, Income Chargeable under the head 'Salaries' is relevant. This is your taxable salary.

Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

The other relevant information your employer will tell you is Tax deducted at source. This is field-18(a). This tax deducted is what you have paid to the Income Tax Department already.

Information you already have

Deductions

Deductions under Section 80C, 80D, 80E, 80CCF, 80G, 80DD, 80U, etc are reported by you to your Employer.

You may or may not have reported all deductions to your employer. That is no problem. You can still claim them in your Income Tax Return by filling up the relevant columns in ClearTax.

In general, its a good idea to report your tax deductions to your employer to minimize the TDS by employer.

If you receive any other Income, like interest from a bank account or rent, etc, you may have informed your employer about it. This is mentioned in Field-7.

Most commonly, people who have a housing loan report it to their employers for less tax deduction at source. Don't worry if you have not reported income to your employer.

You can add additional Income to your Income Tax Return in the relevant columns of ClearTax.

References:-

Upload Your Form-16 with ClearTax.in

Understanding Form 16

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How to make pendrive bootable

When You Have to Install Windows(Xp,Vista,7) and you don't have CD to install.then you think could i install my window with Pendrive.

The answer is Yes! but again new question arises How?if You don't Know the answer then it is By making your Pendrive Bootable.

Questions again arises like..

1. How To Boot From A USB Flash Drive?

2.How to Install Windows 7 From a USB Flash Drive or USB Hard Drive?

3.How To Create Bootable Windows 7, Vista, or XP USB Flash/Pen Drive Quickly? etc. etc.

So the Solution is Below..

Method 1.

Requirements to create bootable Windows USB:

# Windows 7 or Vista ISO

# Pen drive with 4GB+ (2 GB is sufficient for XP)

# 15 Minutes of free time

Procedure:

1. Insert your USB flash/pen drive to your system and backup all the data from the USB as your USB drive will be formatted during the process.

2. Now download WinToFlash tool (free)

Download Here.

http://wintoflash.com/download/en/

3. Run the tool, and browse to your Windows 7, Vista, or XP DVD files (make sure that your USB drive letter is correct).

"WinToFlash starts a wizard that will help pull over the contents of a windows installation CD or DVD and prep the USB drive to become a bootable replacement for the optical drive. It can also do this with your LiveCD.

You don't have to worry about scratches on the disc or misplacing your original media discs once you transfer their contents to the flash drive. The optical drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past, especially in office environments, as media is shifted to the cloud."

4. Click Create button to begin the bootable USB process. Wait for few minutes to see the bootable USB.

5. That’s all!

Help Video

Method 2: Manually
Create Your Pendrive Bootable
bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable. 

2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator. 

3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART and hit enter.
LIST DISK and hit enter. 

Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1. 

4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do. 

SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT 

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it. 

5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “G” as my USB drive letter. 

6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
6.1. Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot
6.2. Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g: 

(Where “G” is your USB drive letter) 

7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB. 

You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature). 

Method:3.
Help Links.
http://www.unp.me/f140/make-bootable-pen-drive-windows-xp-live-46352/
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm 

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Check Indian Train Current Location : Track Indian Train

To all Indian Rail Passengers, those want to know the current status/location of running train, now you can easily track train.

The Indian Railways has just launched RailRadar, a useful website that shows the current geographical location of any train on a Google Map.

To get started, you can zoom-in to any location /city on the map to see all the trains which are arriving at the station or have just departed. Or you can use expand the left sidebar to search trains by name, by train number or by the station name.

If you click a particular train, the map will also show the exact route of the train including all the stops and the current location of the train. The train markers highlighted in blue indicate trains that are running on time while the red markers indicate trains that are delayed or behind schedule.

The press release says that the train data is refresh every 5 minutes and the displayed location and running status of any trains displayed on the Google will always be delayed by at least 5 minutes.

The site is extremely useful and it will work on your mobile phone as well.

 There are also another useful websites to track train...

http://www.travelkhana.com/travelkhana/track-train 

http://www.trainenquiry.com/CurrentRunningTrain.aspx

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