Retailers aren't the only ones gearing up for the holiday season. Criminals are also out in force.
To highlight the increased crime during the holidays, security company McAfee has come up with the "12 Scams of Christmas" ranging from bogus electronic greeting cards that deliver malware instead of cheer to fake charities that steal your money and your identity.
It's especially important to be extra careful this time of year, says McAfee's David Marcus. "The bad guys know people are spending more time online, they're paying more bills online so [the criminals] stand a chance of being a bit more successful this time of year.
In a podcast interview (scroll down to listen), Marcus counted down the 12 scams of Christmas starting with:
- Charitable phishing scams: Marcus warns consumers to be wary of e-mails that appear to be from legitimate charities. Not only will they take your money and deprive charities of needed funds, but they will also steal your credit card information and identity.
- Fake invoices from delivery services: During this period, scammers will send out fake invoices and delivery notifications appearing to come from Federal Express, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service or even the U.S. Customs Service saying that they were unable to deliver a package to your address. They ask you to confirm your address and give them credit card information to pay for delivery.
- Social networking friend requests: Bad guys take advantage of this social time of year by sending out authentic looking friend requests via e-mail. Marcus recommends that you not click on those links but sign into Facebook and other services and look for friend requests from the site itself. Clicking on a link could install malware on your computer or trick you into revealing your password.
- Holiday e-cards: Be careful before clicking on a holiday e-card, especially if it's from a site you haven't heard of. This is a way to deliver malware, pop-ups, and other forms of unwanted advertising. Some fake e-cards will look like they come from Hallmark or other legitimate companies, so pay close attention and make sure it's from someone you know. If you're going to send an e-card, be sure you're dealing with a reputable service lest you risk infecting yourself and your friends.
- Fake "luxury" jewelry: If you see an offer for luxury gifts from companies like Cartier, Gucci, and Tag Heuer at a price that's too good to be true, it probably isn't true. These links could lead you to malware and take your money or merchandise that will probably never arrive (or be fake if it does). Some of these sites, according to McAfee, even display the logos of the Better Business Bureau.
- Practice safe holiday shopping. Make sure your wireless network is secure and be sure you're shopping on sites that are secure. Though it isn't an iron clad guarantee, you should look for the lock icon in the lower right corner of your browser and make sure the Web page starts with https. The "s" stands for "secure."
- Christmas carol lyrics can be dangerous: Bad guys know that people are searching for holiday related sites for music, holiday graphics, and other festive media. During this time, they create fraudulent holiday related sites.
- Job search related scams: With the unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, there are plenty of job seekers looking for work. Beware of online offers for high paying jobs or at-home money making schemes. Some of these sites ask for money up front, which is a good way for criminals not only to steal your "set up fee" but misuse your credit card too. Marcus said that some "get rich quick" sites are all about money laundering, asking you to accept an inbound financial transfer and pay them.
- Auction site fraud: McAfee has observed a rise in fake auction sites during the holidays. Make sure you're actually going to eBay or whatever site you plan to deal with.
- Password stealing scams: Criminals use low-cost tools to uncover passwords, in some cases planting key logger software to record keystrokes. Once they get your passwords, they gain access to bank accounts and credit card accounts and send spam from your e-mail accounts.
- E-mail banking scams: A common type of phishing scam is sending out official looking e-mails that appear to come from your bank. Don't click on any links but type in your bank's Web address manually if you need to access your account.
- Files for ransom: Hackers use malware to gain control of your computer and lock your data files. To access your own data you have to pay them ransom.
Listen to Larry's interview with McAfee's David Marcus
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Many of you already know how to get a great deal on software, but for those who could use a reminder, we've compiled a list of tips that take freeware, Webware, and boxed software into account.
Ditch the features
Ask yourself how many features of that $30, $60, or $200 program you're really going to use. If the answer is less than half, you can probably make do with freeware or with a less expensive shareware application. If you're already comfortable finding, downloading, and using freeware alternatives to pricey, branded software, then congratulations.
If you're not, there are a few ground rules to know. The programs may not always be as flashy or as feature-rich as the reigning app you're familiar with, and they may require you spend some time with the ReadMe file or Help Manual if they operate differently than you're used to. Yet on the whole, the freeware category is growing ever-more sophisticated in everything from interface design to customer support. If you hate the app, it costs you nothing but trial time, and you can always buy the full-priced software to replace it.
Filter the freeware on Download.com.
(Credit: CNET)For a real-life example, take an image editor. Unless you're an advanced or frequent user, you may not actually need a program as fully caffeinated as Adobe Photoshop, especially if Paint.NET or GIMP's core features are what you'll actually use the majority of the time. With a little research, you can even find two or more freeware programs that cover the feature spectrum in a suite of pro-grade software. In fact, that's how we cobbled together our own Adobe Creative Suite.
How do you find freeware? We recommend CNET Download.com, of course, as your go-to source for discovering and downloading Mac and Windows freeware (also Mobile and Webware.) It's especially useful if you narrow your search results by free licenses (see the illustration at left).
You can also find Windows, Mac, and Linux alternatives from similar download catalogs. SourceForge.net is another good source for the more adventurous and savvy users who are unafraid of choosing from a list of active builds and downloading through mirrors. Forums run by the open-source community may also reveal worthy freeware for those with time to investigate. While search engines are another path to freeware titles, some sites--especially those advertising cracks and serial numbers--are notorious for delivering malware. We recommend for Windows users to at the very least install an application to rate your search engine results as safe or suspicious, such as McAfee Site Advisor for Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Start off with these top freeware security apps and all-around apps for Windows. Mac users will find freeware in this Mac Starter Kit, plus less expensive alternatives to popular programs that are worth the asking price.
... Read more
Believe it or not, the way to help us get out of this recession is to shop as often as you can manage. And Amazon just made it even easier for you to do that, if you have a BlackBerry.
(Credit:
Amazon)
Amazon's iPhone app launched in December, and on Thursday the company released its Amazon App for BlackBerry. Like the iPhone app, this new application can be downloaded for free.
The app takes advantage of the BlackBerry's trackball for a quick and simple way to find, discover, and buy products from Amazon.com, as well as from thousands of other retailers.
Beyond that, according to Director of Amazon Mobile Sam Hall, the app also allows you to access the Amazon Remembers feature, which is an easy way to build an image list of products you want to remember for later or to make price comparisons across multiple merchants.
The coolest feature of the app is that it allows you to snap photos of a product with your BlackBerry, and the photos are automatically uploaded to Amazon.com. The company will then try to find products similar to the ones in the photos. As soon as a product is found, you can purchase it immediately or save it to the "remember it" file in your Amazon account.
Other features of the app include:
- Purchase using Amazon's 1-Click ordering and Amazon Prime
- Track packages or modify orders using the Your Account feature
- Receive personalized recommendations
- View editorial and customer reviews
- Get the Gold Box Deal of the Day
- Access to Wish List
There you go. Now you have no excuse not to shop, at least for inexpensive things. Just remember to do it responsibly.
(Credit:
CNET)
On Wednesday, Amazon announced the throwing open of its virtual doors to iPhone and iPod Touch users everywhere with Amazon Mobile, a free app now available in the iTunes App Store.
It's a pretty nice offering that simplifies the search experience for products found not just on Amazon.com, but also on partner retailers Target and Macy's.
The bulk of the app is dominated by a search bar you can launch either from the home screen or from a separate Search screen. While there's a tiny promo area on Amazon Mobile's home screen, the app completely omits browsing by categories. The vast majority of shoppers probably beeline to their wanted product, but there should be an option to browse from the More menu.
The surprise feature is one Amazon is trying on for size that lets you snap a photo of a product to jog your memory later. In addition, the app will try to find the product in Amazon's catalog. Amazon Remembers, as the feature's called, was a little slow when we tried it out, but found our products in the end.
This visual shopping assistant is a great feature that replicates many others we've seen for iPhone and Google Android. SnapTell for iPhone (free) is also more flexible, pulling in data and price comparisons from IMDb, Barnes and Noble, and Wikipedia, along with Amazon.com.
However, Amazon Mobile's advantage to registered members is its simplified purchasing that honors 1-Click buying and Amazon Prime, and its memory for items you've flagged in your wish list, shopping cart, and now, photo bank.
CompareEverywhere can map retail stores nearby.
(Credit: CompareEverywhere)ShopSavvy, Barcode Scanner (by the ZXing team), and CompareEverywhere (an Android Challenge winner) are three free shopping applications for Google Android poised to help you find the best deals in town and online.
At their core, they're nearly identical, using the phone's camera to auto-focus on a barcode. That barcode is then matched to a product using an open source decoding library, ZXing, that was developed by Google engineers last year. (You can also search by product name.)
While these shopping apps share a back end, the front ends are distinct. Unfortunately, they all produced varying results that inconsistently found retail and online stores stocking common products like hand lotion, gum, and breakfast cereal.
Barcode Scanner doesn't even try to compare prices by seller, but instead lets you search Google for product listings. All three applications were best at finding books, CDs, and DVDs, but were weak at tracking down brick-and-mortar stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. For example, CompareEverywhere plotted Barnes & Noble stores on a map, but failed to find the Borders down the street, which also listed the books I scanned in their online store.
Of the three applications, Barcode Scanner best integrates Google technology by linking book searches to Google's Book Search arm. That, by extension, gives you access to all those searching, buying, and library-hunting services, albeit through a Web interface. We'd rather see those tools pulled into an easily-read UI.
By contrast, CompareEverywhere has the best community spirit and default discretion. If it can't find your barcode in the UPCDatabase it uses, it asks if you want to add your product. Its confirmation--a low buzz compared to the other two apps' shrill beeps--is also the least conspicuous if you're laying low while comparing DVD prices from a physical store. As I mentioned, CompareEverywhere also maps retail stores on its radar and can e-mail links to your gift ideas, shopping list, and wish list to whomever you choose.
Of the three, ShopSavvy has the best-looking interface that lets you easily scan barcodes with the camera or enter them by hand if the barcode is smudged. Like CompareEverywhere, you can add products to a wish list and read reviews. You can't yet share lists, but you can send yourself an alert when prices drop below a certain point. If only ShopSavvy pulled up more online and retail stores for the everyday products thrown at it. I was disappointed it didn't find a source for my favorite brand-name cereal anywhere.
CompareEverywhere has the most useful features and had the best success rate in my tests, though all three apps will have something to offer when and if they're able to fill in sparse retail databases for online and especially brick-and-mortar shops. It's a daunting task, but instrumental if the apps are expected to help a wide swatch of people nail down deals.
Join CNET TV on Friday, November 23 for the Holiday Help Desk our live, 10-hour call-in show. Whether you need advice on software, games, electronics, gadgets, computers, or anything else technological under the sun, experts will be answering your holiday tech shopping questions live from 8 a.m. PST to 6 p.m. PST.
Call 1-888-900-CNET with your questions on Friday or e-mail them in advance to holidayhelp@cnet.com. If your call is answered on the air, you'll be entered into a drawing to win one of eight Nintendo Wii Holiday Mega Bundles valued at $600. Included in the bundle: a Nintendo Wii System with Wii Sports, Super Paper Mario, Mario Party 8, Mario Strikers Charged, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Drawings will be held every hour starting at 10 a.m. PST.
We'll also have live reports from the streets of New York and San Francisco, and we'll check in with Amazon.com and Buy.com to check out their hottest sellers. Don't think of making a holiday tech purchase without calling the Holiday Help Desk first.
Digby has partnered with well-known retailers like Barnes & Noble and Fossil to create a downloadable shopping app that lets you purchase goods from your (RIM 4.1 or above) BlackBerry smartphone.
Digby has done a good job minimizing typing and fast-tracking purchases with select retail partners. Simply scroll through the brand list, clicking deeper within the stripped-down interface to see items and special deals. You can set the alert function to nag you to buy a gift before an important occasion. You'll have to do much of that buying on faith, though--there's no built-in functionality to preview an item or research product ratings for items, at least none that I perused.
When the purchase is nigh, enter your locally-stored password and Digby will do the rest, passing the transaction along to the vendor to process. Credit card information is password protected and stored, encrypted, on the device.... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
