What happens if we don’t change IP? What can changing or hiding our IP addresses do? What if we don’t change our IPs at all and just continue surfing with our real cyber identities? There’s a great chance that we will not fall as victims to cyber crimes like identity theft and cyber fraud, so there is no need for an IP changer program. This is how many Internet users think. They also think that configuring their computer systems or getting an anonymous proxy is a hassle. They think they are safe enough with their present security settings for their personal computers. A lot of information has already been spread around the Internet about the importance of surfing the Internet anonymously. Showing our real IP address to cyber space will only create problems for us, problems that may we may not be able to fix once it happens. The best solution to this kind of problem is usually prevention, and to change IP is to do just that. Who benefits if we change and hide our IP address? We do. We’ll get anonymity in the Web and have privacy as we browse online. We will be able to stay away from the trackers and hackers with evil intentions. We will also be able to avoid unwanted traffic and spam. Now who benefits if we don’t change our IP address? Well, obviously, hackers and cyber criminals are one of those who will take advantage of us not protecting ourselves from them. Identity theft is especially very damaging for us but very advantageous for them. There are also a lot of criminal groups using the Internet for fraud activities. Businessmen and companies who also conduct online operations will also benefit from knowing our IP addresses. Our information will be recorded in their database and we will become potential customers for them. As a result we get all these spam emails and annoying unwanted traffic. Of course, there are those who will not be able to reach out to us and help when we change and hide our IP. For example, site that specialize in antivirus and antispyware software will not be able to give us news on the recent threats and how we can avoid them. Unless we keep up with them ourselves by subscribing to their newsletters or giving them our email, we will not know about the new virus or spyware out there. The same goes out to specialists on operating systems, who can give us updates on the latest versions of the operating system we are using. But comparing the dangers of having our IP exposed and having it hidden certainly creates a clear line on which option is better. Because of the great influence of the Internet on the whole world, it is better to protect ourselves by hiding our IP. Revealing our address just because we think that getting an anonymous proxy server is a hassle is not a responsible thing to do. If we want to protect ourselves, then we do so by preventing ourselves from becoming the next victims. Despite the disadvantage of the solution, it is still better to change IP.
Sometimes scammers, clever and scheming vultures they are, may not immediately prey on you for your financial contribution. They may have something more deadly in mind – deadly to you, your computer, and the computers of all your friends. Once the scammers establishes a relationship with you, he/she knows that your email address is a “live” address (one that will give him and others he will sell your address to) so he can secretly then move on to phase two – flooding you and all the other “live” addresses he obtained with hoaxes and chain letters.
And, sadly, these emails and chain letter emails carry hidden spyware (pieces of coding that will allow the originator to take control of all the computers it touches). The code is so written that even if the email is deleted, it will still work effectively from the Recycle Bin. That’s the work of scammer who are also hackers. What Are Internet Hoaxes and Chain Letters? Internet hoaxes and chain letters are e-mail messages written with one purpose; to be sent to everyone you know. The messages they contain are usually untrue. A few of the sympathy messages do describe a real situation but that situation was resolved years ago so the message is not valid and has not been valid for many years. Hoax messages try to get you to pass them on to everyone you know using several different methods of social engineering. Most of the hoax messages play on your need to help other people.
Who wouldn’t want to warn their friends about some terrible virus that is destroying people’s systems? Or, how could you not want to help this poor little girl who is about to die from cancer? It is hard to say no to these messages when you first see them, though after a few thousand have passed through your mail box, you (hopefully) delete them without even looking.
Chain letters are lumped in with the hoax messages because they have the same purpose as the hoax messages but use a slightly different method of coercing you into passing them on to everyone you know. Chain letters, like their printed ancestors, generally offer luck or money if you send them on. They play on your fear of bad luck and the realization that it is almost trivial for you to send them on. The chain letters that deal in money play on people’s greed and are illegal no matter what they say in the letter. The Risk and Cost of Hoaxes: The cost and risk associated with hoaxes may not seem to be that high, and isn’t when you consider the cost of handling one hoax on one machine. However, if you consider everyone that receives a hoax, that small cost gets multiplied into some pretty significant costs. For example, if everyone on the Internet were to receive one hoax message and spend one minute reading and discarding it, the cost would be something like: 50,000,000 people times 1/60 hour times $50/hour = $41. 7 million
Most people have seen far more than one hoax message and many people cost a business far more than $50 per hour when you add in benefits and overhead. The result is not a small number.
Probably the biggest risk for hoax messages is their ability to multiply. Most people send on the hoax messages to everyone in their address books but consider if they only sent them on to 10 people. The first person (the first generation) sends it to 10, each member of that group of 10 (the second generation) sends it to 10 others or 100 messages and so on. Generations and (Number of Messages): 1st (10); 2nd (100); 3rd (1,000); 4th (10,000); 5th (100,000); and 6th (1,000,000)
As you can see, by the sixth generation there are a million e-mail messages being processed by mail servers. The capacity to handle these messages must be paid for by the users or, if it is not paid for, the mail servers slow down to a crawl or crash. Note that this example only forwards the message to 10 people at each generation while people who forward real hoax messages often send them to many times that number.
Recently, we have been hearing of spammers (bulk mailers of unsolicited mail) harvesting e-mail addresses from hoaxes and chain letters. After a few generations, many of these letters contain hundreds of good addresses, which is just what the spammers want. We have also heard rumors that spammers are deliberately starting hoaxes and chain letters to gather e-mail addresses (of course, that could be a hoax). So now, all those nice people who were so worried about the poor little girl dying of cancer find themselves not only laughed at for passing on a hoax but also the recipients of tons of spam mail. How to Recognize a Hoax: Probably the first thing you should notice about a warning is the request to “send this to everyone you know” or some variant of that statement. This should raise a red flag that the warning is probably a hoax. No real warning message from a credible source will tell you to send this to everyone you know.
Next, look at what makes a successful hoax. There are two known factors that make a successful hoax, they are: (1) technical sounding language. and (2) credibility by association.
If the warning uses the proper technical jargon, most individuals, including technologically savvy individuals, tend to believe the warning is real. For example, the Good Times hoax says that “. . . if the program is not stopped, the computer’s processor will be placed in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop which can severely damage the processor. . . “. The first time you read this, it sounds like it might be something real. With a little research, you find that there is no such thing as an nth-complexity infinite binary loop and that processors are designed to run loops for weeks at a time without damage.
When we say credibility by association we are referring to who sent the warning. If the janitor at a large technological organization sends a warning to someone outside of that organization, people on the outside tend to believe the warning because the company should know about those things. Even though the person sending the warning may not have a clue what he is talking about, the prestige of the company backs the warning, making it appear real. If a manager at the company sends the warning, the message is doubly backed by the company’s and the manager’s reputations.
Both of these items make it very difficult to claim a warning is a hoax so you must do your homework to see if the claims are real and if the person sending out the warning is a real person and is someone who would know what they are talking about. You do need to be a little careful verifying the person as the apparent author may be a real person who has nothing to do with the hoax. If thousands of people start sending them mail asking if the message is real, that essentially constitutes an unintentional denial of service attack on that person. Check the person’s web site or the person’s company web site to see if the hoax has been responded to there. Check these pages or the pages of other hoax sites to see if we have already declared the warning a hoax.
Hoax messages also follow the same pattern as a chain letter. Chain letters and most hoax messages all have a similar pattern. From the older printed letters to the newer electronic kind, they all have three recognizable parts: (1) A hook. (2) A threat. and (3) A request.
The Hook: First, there is a hook, to catch your interest and get you to read the rest of the letter. Hooks used to be “Make Money Fast” or “Get Rich” or similar statements related to making money for little or no work. Electronic chain letters also use the “free money” type of hooks, but have added hooks like “Danger!” and “Virus Alert” or “A Little Girl Is Dying”. These tie into our fear for the survival of our computers or into our sympathy for some poor unfortunate person. The Threat: When you are hooked, you read on to the threat. Most threats used to warn you about the terrible things that will happen if you do not maintain the chain. However, others play on greed or sympathy to get you to pass the letter on. The threat often contains official or technical sounding language to get you to believe it is real. The Request: Finally, the request. Some older chain letters ask you to mail a dollar to the top ten names on the letter and then pass it on. The electronic ones simply admonish you to “Distribute this letter to as many people as possible. ” They never mention clogging the Internet or the fact that the message is a fake, they only want you to pass it on to others.
Because cybercriminals are becoming smarter and more sophisticated in their operations, they are real threats to your personal security and privacy. Your money, your computer, your family, and your business are all at risk. These cybercriminals leave you with three choices:
1. Do nothing and hope their attacks, risks, and threats don’t occur on your computer.
2. Do research and get training to protect yourself, your family, and your business.
3. Get professional help to lockdown your system from all their attacks, risks, and threats. Remember: When you say “No!” to hackers and spyware, everyone wins! When you don’t, we all lose!
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The reason I ask this is everyday in our neighborhoods and communities these animals are allowed to walk the street. This is a crime in itself. These people dont desevre a life in our society. I feel that if someone steal’s the innocence of youth from a defenseless child they should be sent straight to the gallows! Everyones input would be great. I just want to know if everyone else is fed up with these monsters.
I understand the worry of an innocent person, and this is a valid point. On the other hand these animals are usually guilty. We have to think about our children this is the most aspect of our survival as a society and if we dont stop this now it only will get worse as it has appeared to do. It would be a terrible mistake for an innocent person to be put to death but at this time we as a people must stand up against the horrible animals that destroy the youth. Our children are to precious to take chances. As a child I could walk to school or even ride my bike in my neighborhood. Now we have to keep our children
in the house all hours of the day. This has to stop and these people need to be stopped whatever the cost may be. So yes sure a few innocent will lose out but in the long run at least the children that havent had the opportunity to grow will have a fair chance.
Peter,
In response to your answer, The treatment given to these people does not work it is evident everyday the ones that go through the treatment and jail and then get out more often repeat than not. I am not morbid in the fact that the only answer left is to remove them from our society. I was always taught to not hate people but how could anyone not hate a person that attacks and innocent child. You almost classify these people as if they are a race or culture. They are not. You act as if I am a racist in someway. As for the thoughtful people that make our laws, I will not even commit on this subject for we all have seen the desicions they have made. That is another subject all together.
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