Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: 04/25/11

Monday, April 25, 2011

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: Android Hits 350K Daily Activations, But Overspending Looms Over Google

http://www.dailytech.com/Android+Hits+350K+Daily+Activations+But+Overspending+Looms+Over+Google/article21391.htm

Android activations have hit 350,000 units a day. (Source: New York Daily News)

Android is now the world’s most popular OS. But concerns remain about Google’s new CEO and its recent spending increases. (Source: Mission Geek)

Android is outselling everybody, but the investors are disgruntled
It was a tale of mixed news for search and smartphones giant Google Inc. (GOOG) with yesterday’s earnings report. The company reported its Q1 2011 calendar quarter earnings [press release] and while there’s cause for optimism, investors seemed to almost unanimously feel that the bad outweighed the good.
I. The Good News — Great Growth
The good news was that Google continues to beat analyst earnings expectations. It recorded first quarter revenue of $8.58B USD, well above the average analyst prediction. That represents a terrific 27 percent year-to-year growth.
Video ads on YouTube appear to be at last increasing revenue and paid ad-clicks over all recorded a nice 18 percent raise.
And in the conference call on the earnings, Google’s Jeff Huber reported that the company’s smart phone OS, Android, continues on its prodigious growth pace. The OS is now recording 350K activations per day. Not long ago it was a big deal when Android hit 100K activations per day (May 2010) and 200K activations a day (September 2010).
To top off the good news, Android users now have 3 billion apps installed on their smart phones, a testament to the success of Google’s Android Marketplace, which today has over 200,000 apps.
II. The Bad News — Leadership Concerns, Rampant Spending
But the “bad” news, as far as investors were concerned, was Google’s elevated spending pace. One big spending spot was the workforce. Google went on a spending spree, growing its workforce 28 percent.
And Google also gave all its employees a raise last year.
This year, it says it will hire 6,000 more employees (it hired 2,000 in Q1 2011) and raise pay, on average, another 10 percent.
The company also spent a lot of money giving its various departments more funding. It also picked up its pace of acquisitions, something that’s expected to continue as the company tries to fortify its social networking, music, and mobile businesses.
Investors are also concerned about new CEO Larry Page,who assumed the post on April 4. While lauded as a visionary who likely will slash bureaucracy, some wonder if he will offer the same quality of communication that 10-year veteran Eric Schmidt — someone viewed as more of a businessman — offered.
III. Investor Reaction
The company’s investors were off put that Mr. Page only came on the earnings call for a few minutes and failed to deliver a detailed roadmap of his plans for the company. In an interviewwith Reuters, Jim Tierney, chief investment officer of asset manager WP Stewart, an investment house that holds a significant number of Google shares, states, “My sincere hope is that over time he (Page) enunciates the strategy much more clearly.”
BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis, another major investor expressed more concern about the company’s spending habits than its communication. He remarked, “You got expenses growing faster than revenue and some people were caught by surprise by the willingness of the company to spend. But Larry Page has signaled pretty clearly that he is going to be driving up expenses. If the expenses are targeted and result in future revenue streams, then good for Larry. If not, that results in an undisciplined spending approach.”
Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette tried to quell spending complaints assuring investors that his company was still taking a very “disciplined” approach and that every spending proposal would be “scrubbed and scrutinized.”
Investors seemed unconvinced, though and share prices dipped over 5 percent during the day’s trading.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: Online Crime’s New Frontiers

Written by NAPSI

Sunday, 17 April 2011 07:47

Las Vegas, Nevada (NAPSI) – More than ever, Americans are using new gadgets for entertainment, to communicate with friends and family and to perform their jobs. Thanks to technological advances, streaming movies, downloading music and e-mailing can be done with the tap of a finger. Two of the most popular technology trends over the last couple of years are the ever-increasing use of mobile devices, like smartphones and tablet computers, and social networks. Together, the improvements have allowed people to broadcast information and interact with their friends and family, anywhere and anytime.
Unfortunately, while new devices and new ways of connecting have made getting online much easier, they’re also providing cybercriminals with new, creepy ways of targeting victims. As more people use their “smart” devices to access the Internet and stay up-to-date with their social networks, online thieves have more opportunities to steal personal information, which can then be used or traded for their financial gain.
Norton by Symantec, the makers of Norton Internet Security, recently released its 16^thInternet Security Threat Report. Among the top findings, the report revealed that mobile devices and social networks are among the hot new targets for crooks looking to make a quick buck.
One of the latest scams involves cybercriminals taking popular smartphone applications (or “apps”) and creating “poisoned” versions. The versions may look like the originals but after unsuspecting users have downloaded them, a number of things can happen—potentially damaging or dangerous software may be installed onto your phone, unnecessary personal information may be requested or the application (and the cybercriminals controlling it) may be able to see and even control all your mobile phone activity.
“Many people aren’t even aware that these kinds of mobile threats exist,” said Adam Palmer, Norton’s Lead Cybersecurity Adviser. “Taking precautions can be as simple as using a mobile security application and sticking to legitimate app marketplaces.”
On social networks, once a cybercriminal has access to someone’s account, he or she can post links to other websites on the victim’s profile. These links will show up on the news feeds of the victim’s family and friends and lead them to infected sites with viruses and other nasty items. The popularity of using shortened links also works in the scammer’s favor, since people aren’t able to easily tell if the link connects to a “bad” site. According to the Symantec report, of the total number of dangerous links found on social networking sites, 66 percent of them were hiding in shortened links.
Whether you are on a mobile phone, social network or just surfing the Web at home, it’s important to remember that cybercrooks are constantly stepping up both the complexity of their attacks and the ways they target victims.
Here are some tips you can follow to protect yourself:
• Use security software on your computer and your mobile phone.
• Be cautious when clicking on links in e-mails, instant messages and social networking sites—even when coming from trusted sources, like friends and family.
• Limit the amount of personal information you make publicly available on the Internet (especially via social networks), as it may be collected by cybercriminals and used to scam you.
For daily updates on cybercrime and what you can do to protect yourself, visitwww.NortonCybercrimeIndex.com.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: Internet fraudsters always open to change

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Internet+fraudsters+always+open+change/4664200/story.html
By Jason Van Rassel, Calgary Herald April 23, 2011

Excited about getting a tax refund? Watch out -there’s a scam for that.
Just as Apple says “there’s an app” for many of life’s tasks, criminals are perpetually tailoring e-mail scams that capitalize on current events and prey on people’s instincts.
Phoney donation drives typically flood the Internet after natural disasters. And during the FIFA World Cup in 2010, scammers latched onto the event’s global appeal to create fake contests and lotteries.
“During the royal wedding, there will probably be one,” said Const. Kathy Macdonald of the Calgary police crime prevention unit.
The ever-evolving multitude of e-mail frauds recently took on a Calgary flavour when spam messages bearing the name and image of police Chief Rick Hanson started making the rounds.
The fake Hanson was used to lend a legitimate appearance to a scam telling recipients they had received a multimilliondollar inheritance and instructing them to send a sum of money to pay for legal costs involved in claiming it.
Police said at least one victim from Calgary lost money, despite seemingly obvious red flags such as the “calgarypolices@yahoo.com” e-mail address.
In 2010, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre recorded $53 million lost due to mass-market frauds such as spam e-mails and telephone scams.
That total represents Canadians targeted by frauds based in this country and abroad, as well as foreign victims of scams operating in Canada.
Telephone-based frauds remain the most prevalent, with more than 23,000 reported cases. Scams using e-mail and text messages accounted for approximately 13,000 reported cases.
While it may be easy to dismiss victims as gullible, Macdonald and other experts said the scams are often good at exploiting people’s emotions.
During tax time last year, fake e-mails purporting to be from the Canada Revenue Agency made the rounds, advising recipients they were eligible for a large refund and instructing them to provide their bank account information.
The e-mail was a classic “phishing” scam, which tricks recipients into divulging personal information that can then be used to steal the victim’s money or identity.
Police departments, banks and government agencies repeatedly warn the public that they don’t send unsolicited e-mails seeking personal information -but to some, the lure of “free money” proves too strong.
“When you want something so much, your mind kind of shuts off,” said Tom Keenan, a University of Calgary professor and technology expert.
Not only that, scams littered with spelling mistakes and pidgin English are increasingly giving way to more realisticlooking fakes.
A recent phishing e-mail used an exact copy of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation letterhead and included an accurate facsimile of the director’s signature, said Keenan.
“They’re upping the ante,” he said.
Even the poorly done scams have a chance of succeeding, added Keenan, considering spammers can target tens of thousands of people with the press of a button.
“You only have to get one out of 10,000,” he said.

The Internet’s borderless nature and the anonymity it affords allows scammers to target people in wealthy countries such as Canada while operating with impunity in less-developed countries that don’t have vigorous law enforcement.
Requests from Canadian police would likely “just go in the garbage can there,” Keenan said.
That reality has police placing emphasis on providing people with advice and tips to avoid being scammed.
“Be really selective about who you give your e-mail address to,” Macdonald said.
People should have a primary e-mail address they use to correspond with friends and relatives and use a secondary address for online shopping, contests and surveys, she said.
In addition to never giving out personal information in response to potential phishing scams, Macdonald said people should limit the amount of personal information they’re giving out on a daily basis via their e-mail signature.
Police also recommend users disable the “preview” pane in their e-mail readers to prevent accidentally launching spyware or malicious software that can compromise your computer.
Disabling e-mail previews can also cut down on junk e-mail: spammers often embed code in their e-mails that sends back a signal confirming your address when the message is opened or displayed in the preview pane.
jvanrassel@ calgaryherald.com

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: Facebook and the Behavioral Marketing Scam

http://www.bnet.com/blog/technology-business/facebook-and-the-behavioral-marketing-scam/10182
By Erik Sherman | April 22, 2011

The LA Times appears to be shocked, shocked thatFacebook planned to use personal data in delivering ads to users. Its reporter must have missed the terms of service and Facebook’s help page on ad targeting options.
In fact, Facebook has thereputation of being the über personal data impresario. You’d think with all that information, the site would work tremendously well for advertisers. And yet, thatdoesn’t seem to be the case, as Mike Shields at AdWeek has pointed out. The contradiction between having massive personal data and low advertising effectiveness is true in a lot of online marketing. Granted, many ads may just suck and so work badly. But maybe there’s also something wrong with online behavioral marketing as it’s done.
Behavioral marketing falls flat
The theory of behavioral marketing is that you get data on what people do online, learn what actually interests them, and then present ads to those who will be most receptive. The concept passes the common sense smell test. Then again, at one time so did the notion that the world was flat.
Results often tell a different story. Facebook ads don’t perform well. The company should be king of behavioral marketing, given the massive amounts of information users reveal to them. (Facebook cost-per-click prices jumped by 40 percent last quarter.) And a recent survey showed 58 percent of people saying that, in general,banner ads aren’t relevant to them, even with the wealth of targeting data that many outlets claim to have.
That’s not to say that online advertising is ineffective. I recently spoke with the digital marketing executive for a global electronics brand. He said that in his experience, standard Flash ad click-through rates — the percentage of time that someone seeing an ad would click on it — were in the range of 0.7 percent. (Many direct marketing campaigns would find that level of response to be disappointing.)
Move to video ads, and he said that number can jump by a factor of 10. But if having the data and appropriately targeting ads was such a powerful concept, why would advertising on Facebook do so badly?
It strains credulity that the problem is poor concept and execution on the vast majority of ads. If behavioral marketing really were so powerful, wouldn’t you expect companies to get better results? And that would lead to greater demand and, therefore, higher ad rates — an issue of supply and demand that would trump the problem of infinite inventory the online ad industry sees.
Advertisers can’t see the customers
The ad industry has sold the concept of behavioral marketing as a way to make ads more relevant to consumers and, as a result, more effective. However, something is wrong. Behavioral ads often don’t deliver what the ad vendors promise. Here’s why that may be:

Behavioral marketing assumes that there is a one-to-one relationship between people and computers. Put multiple people on a home computer, and results go haywire.
Automated systems can easily misunderstand why people do what they do and, as a result, assume all manner of interests and needs that don’t exist.
There is no direct learning connection between the advertiser and the process of targeting.

For my former-direct-marketing-guy money, the third reason is the biggest. You can use personal data to better profile customers and prospects. However, implicit in every such campaign is a feedback loop:

Analyze the product or service and create a best guess of the ideal target market.
Find communications channels that seem to fit the profile.
Build offers designed to appeal to the prospects.
Communicate with the prospects.
Analyze results.
Refine the customer definition and measure the effectiveness of the channels.
Go back to step 1 and try again.

Direct marketing is iterative. What you learn in each round helps you better understand how to reach prospects and which are likely to be most receptive. Companies deal with list vendors, agencies, and publishers, but they also get the raw data of what does and does not work. You examine how a given mailing list, magazine, or television channel performs, correlating that data with different offers and target market definitions. Campaigns improve results over time.
When a Facebook, an Apple, an ad network, or some other third party interposes itself into the process, it generally denies companies access to that raw data, because advertisers buy categories of user characteristics. They don’t necessarily know the context of the ad, or even on what sites it will appear. They can only assume that the ad network is accurate in user categorizations. The process actually resembles a television buy, in which you choose programs based on demographics that might match your target customer base.
Some behavioral marketing outlets may pass on the information necessary for incremental improvement. But many, like Facebook, are black holes. That suggests one of the biggest systemic ad sales scams that the industry has seen — and that’s saying a lot.
Related:

Image: morgueFile user hogg, site standard license.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News: Technology against Phishing Needs to be Blended with User-Education

http://www.spamfighter.com/Technology-against-Phishing-Needs-to-be-Blended-with-User-Education-16072-News.htm
Trusteer the security company recently conducted an experiment according to which, a phishing scam can fool even an extremely wary Internet-user. Taking a sample of 100 individuals who had accounts on LinkedIn the social-networking website, Trusteer dispatched e-mails to them quite like the regular messages received from LinkedIn. The result – almost 70% of the individuals got deceived and conned. Security published this on April 15, 2011.
Actually, despite constant explanations of phishing assaults and warnings against them, people continue to become victims. Generally, security professionals are capable of elucidating the safe stuff that users require seeking as also the ways for avoiding getting victimized, still victims get made.
Meanwhile, during the Trusteer experiment, the security company, in the guise of one fresh identity, dispatched a bogus employment warning to the selected individuals. It stated that because LinkedIn issued a warning whenever any contact of an end-user had one fresh job, it decided for utilizing the particular update technique for crafting a fake e-mail. So it selected a contact of the 100 individuals respectively and told them that this contact was employed at a firm, which was a direct rival of the Trusteer victims’ firms, the company elaborated. SCMagazine published this on April 15, 2011.
Trusteer further explained that it introduced a link “View [contact's name] new Title” along with the contact’s photograph. Hitting on the link produced a landing web-page, which, however, wasn’t of LinkedIn. The landing page wasn’t harmful either only that it was to act as one potentially malevolent site, which loaded malware onto visiting PCs, Trusteer continued.
Curiously, 24-hours since the e-mail’s receipt, 41 of the experimented individuals became victimized with the con and in 7-days, 68, suggesting the enormous return on the crime had it been a genuine assault.
Nevertheless, technology although beneficial won’t stop people from becoming victimized with phishing scams. Possibly, it’ll be better if technology is combined with fundamental user-education since successes of phishing scams occur via eluding technology and exploiting the human nature.
Besides, Trusteer suggests enterprises to evaluate their approach again vis-à-vis phishing assaults as these act extremely perilous during their day-to-day operations.
» SPAMfighter News – 22-04-2011

Fisher Capital Management Scam Prevention News