How To Report A Scam, Part 2

Report a scam (US)

If you were a victim of a scam that made by an individual or a company in the US or if you have a suspicious about such actions, then you can report any scam to one of the follow sites (governmental sites), which will receive your report in order to deal with it as it should be. See for example:

Ø  Federal Trade Commission:

The process is simple to be followed by any user without any need to ask anyone to help you. But before start anything it is recommended to read this site policy:

http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.shtm

This link will lead you to the form:  https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

Although, if you were a victim of scam by a person who lives outside your country, then you may report that scam to:

Ø  Econsumer.org:

This site is established In April of 2001, responding to the challenges of multinational Internet fraud, and working to enhance consumer protection and consumer confidence in e-commerce, 13 countries unveiled econsumer.gov, a joint effort to gather and share cross-border e-commerce complaints. Today, consumer protection agencies in 26 countries participate in this initiative

It is recommended to read “about us”, “members” and “privacy policy” before submitting your complaint to this organization (site)

The form contains the follow sections:

https://econsumer.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

1.      Your contact information

2.      Your complaint

3.      Additional comments

Note: You do not need to complete every field. However, 3 fields are required - these are marked with a *. The more information you provide, the more useful your complaint will be

Hope that you find this post useful

Mohammad Al-Thunibat

How To Report A Scam

Report a scam (UK)

One of the important tools to avoid and fight scams is by reporting them, if you were a victim of a scam or when you suspicious one

This tool is important to be used by all of us to decrease the huge number of scam actions via the internet, it is an obligatory action nowadays especially if you were a victim, as others rely on such reports to help them avoid such kind of actions whilst using the internet

Consumer direct.gov.uk provides to the UK citizens an opportunity to report any online scam, by filling a simple report that presented in this link: https://secure.consumerdirect.gov.uk/reportascam.aspx

This report contains four sections:

1.      Details about trader

     2. Details about the scam

     3. Details about the reporter

    4. How did you know about their service

After you finish you can click submit

Note: do not use such tool to harm others, (Please be aware it is a criminal offence under sections 5(2) of the 1967 criminal law act if you knowingly make a false report) http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/report-a-fraud/how-to-report-a-fraud

For more details and advices visit:

http://www.direct.gov.uk

Mohammad Al-Thunibat

Data Protection (Amazon Privacy Notice)

How your data (personal information) collected and how it’s used or shared?

A preview on Amazon.co.uk and .com Privacy Notice:

One of the basics that any user must know and read while joining Amazon (or any other service provider site) is the privacy policy (agreement or notice), this policy contains the measures and methods regarding the collection and use of users’ data. So, if you are seeking after protecting your personal data then you must concern about reading and acknowledging this agreement

The most two terms that you must read and understand are: how your data collect and does Amazon (or any other site) share such data or not? Let’s see the answer as Amazons’ privacy notice states:

Ø  How your data collected? (Amazon privacy policy)

According to the privacy notice terms, your data collected in accordance to the following ways:

1.      Information You Give: these information collected since the registration process, through your use and search ending by placing an order (buy or sell) which cover payment and delivery process and information

2.      Automatic Information: your information collect in such case by placing cookies in your computer or laptop, the collecting process start when your web browser  accesses Amazon.co.uk (.com) or advertisements and other content served by or on behalf of Amazon.co.uk (.com) on other Web sites

3.      E-mail Communications: this tool uses to enhance Amazon services. The collecting process starts when you opened an e-mail from Amazon, only if your computer supports such capabilities. This tool gives to Amazon the opportunity to create a list, which will be compared with other e-mail lists provided by other companies (business process)

4.      Information from Other Sources: unfortunately, these sources are not specified or known to public

Ø  Does Amazon share your information?

According to the privacy notice, your information used according to Amazon practices:

1.      Affiliated Businesses, Amazon Do Not Control: these affiliated businesses might have stores on Amazon or Amazon might operate stores to provide or sell services jointly or on behalf these businesses (including 3^rd parties)

2.      Third Party Service Providers: Amazon might employ some companies or individuals in order to facilitate its service, by include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analysing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments and providing customer service. Third party providers can access to your personal data but they must obey this privacy notice and the rules stated by data protection laws

3.      Promotional Offers: Amazon may send to you or to selected group of costumers offers on behalf of other businesses, but without giving these businesses any personal data or information about the selected group

4.      Business Transfers: as any other business, Amazon may sell or buy stores, subsidiaries or business units, in which your information is part of such transfer (unless you have consent otherwise)

5.      Protection of Amazon.co.uk (.com) and Others: WE (Amazon) release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property or safety of Amazon.co.uk, (.com) our users or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from customers for commercial purposes in a way that is contrary to the commitments made in this Privacy Notice.

6.      With your consent: any other situation than the 5 points above, Amazon will give you the opportunity to choose if you want your information to be shared with other 3^rd parties or not

Other related issues:

Ø  What Choices Do You Have?

According to the privacy notice terms, you have the following choices:

Ø  What Information Can You Access?

Amazon gives you access to a broad range of information about your account and your interactions with Amazon.co.uk (or .com) for the limited purpose of viewing and, in certain cases, updating that information

This term is set by Amazon in order to follow the law requirements, which data protection laws state and require, in which grant to users to gain access to their data and correct or modify these data

By, Mohammad Al-Thunibat

Online protection (101)

Online protection (101)

keywords: online protection, privacy, data protection, consumer protection, child protection, contractual rights, online genral rights, online scam, online fraud

One of the main issues that I highly concern about and focus on in my posts within my blog, is to determine what kind of protections that online users should have whilst using the internet regarding their daily use, contracting, communicating or any other purposes. Whereas, online protection should be one of the matters that any online user must know, acknowledge and determine before and while using the internet, in which it will increase users’ trust and develop his/her activities

What is online protection?

Well, online protection is a wide term that includes laws, customs, software, programs and general rights, which establish to protect online users from thievery, virus, scam, fraud, harm sites and content, oppressive terms and contracts...etc

Furthermore, this term covers child rights and protections in addition to protect consumers from adhesion contracts and protect online users’ privacy and data

Why this term is important?

In order to know the importance of online protection we must ask ourselves this simple question what can we do without protection?!! It is simply because without protection most of online users will be victims of fraud, scam, harm content, virus...etc

On the other side, the more you know about your rights the more your online activities will be protected and legalised (simple rule)

What kind of protection do I have?

Well, it is depend about the user use. For example:

1.      General use: privacy, personal data, protection of viruses or thievery...etc

2.      Users’ activities: copyright and trademark (IP), transaction (financial or record), banking, travelling...etc

3.      Contractual activities: consumer protection, unfair terms and agreements, jurisdiction, dispute, limitation, responsibility, termination, refund, rescind contracts...etc

4.      Child activities: harm content (pornography, gambling ...etc), contractual aspects

5.      Others: communication, distance selling or transactions, advertisements, liability...etc

These categories contain many rights that online users must grant whilst using the internet; but one of the grounds and reasons that online users become victims is the lack of knowledge, as they do not know their rights and protections and how to seek after them; so learn and work to avoid that problem

How to use online protection? (the tools to specify your protection)

The main keys (general advices) to be adopted in order to be able to use this powerful tool are (for example: the more you know the more you gain protection) by:

1.      Reading and searching (for example learn about privacy, data protection, consumer rights, or any subject before your use) (self knowledge)

2.      Investigating before acting (if you are intending to form a contract it is recommended to investigate before that in order to avoid scam or fraud contracts or terms)

3.      Specifying your use (we must always have a purpose of use, and to know your purpose ask yourself {what, why, how, who} before starting, as without a purpose you and I will be an easy catch to scammers)

4.      Clarifying the person you dealing with (use whatever you have or know of tools to identify the person you are dealing with, by this tool you can avoid scammers)

5.      Search for trust (read and look for reviews, history transactions...etc)

6.      Reading the latest reports (governmental reports) related to this topic

7.      Downloading the latest antivirus and anti spy software (be updated)

8.      Keep in touch with the latest posts in this blog J

These keys are simple and effective, it is true that there are many others but at least start adopting and applying these, after that you can look for others to develop your knowledge and skills. Specify what kind of activity you intend to do and know what kind of protection and rights you have in regard, this is the way to legalise and protect your online activity

Mohammad Al-Thunibat

Why to lose your privacy because of the lack of knowledge? (Spam E-mails)

Why to lose your privacy because of the lack of knowledge? (Spam E-mails)
keywords: privacy, spam e-mails, unwanted e-mails, unsolicited e-mails, data protection, online scam

One of the sources that your mail box receive spam e-mails (Unwanted e-mails, Junk e-mails or Unsolicited e-mails) is return to the unknown activity that you make while using the internet or by joining with unnecessary sites or software. As most of spam mails send by unknown party to you, from unknown sites or e-mails; in which it might make you confuse as how these people knew about my e-mail address, more surprisingly that some of these e-mails might send and base on your consent and/or contain your first name!!!

Well, if you face this problem then you must reconsider your online activities. Whereas, one of the sources that some sites and/or persons based on to send unwanted e-mails to others’ mail box is by using the lack of knowledge that online users have and face nowadays

In order to be sure about what I’m talking about, ask yourself these questions:

How many times you joined a site that you gain a good knowledge about its activities?

How many times have you ever investigate about a site or software or any online activity before you joined it?

Have you ever replay to the sender of a spam e-mail asking him/her how they got your e-mail or to stop sending you e-mails, and did he/she replay?

How many times you gave your e-mail address to unknown person?

Have you ever read the agreement of use of the site that you are interested in, before joining it?

How many times you joined to a newsletter that presented by a person who claims that he will teach you something such as how to be rich or such so?

Have you ever joined a group of users in order to enter or develop online business?

Ok enough questions, now let’s move to your situation (or our situation), whereas the main question herein is how we can less or decrease the possibility of receiving spam e-mails? (There is no method until now that can resolve this problem totally)

Before I tell you how to do so, let me remind you about the ways that people use to collect your e-mail address to use it in their business (advertisements), as most of the common ways are:According to the Message Anti-Abuse Working Group, the amount of spam email was between 88-92% of email messages sent in the first half of 2010

1.      Chat rooms (your consent)

2.      Websites (your consent)

3.      customer lists (your consent)

4.      newsgroups (your consent)

5.      viruses (without your consent)

6.      online business sites or blogs (your consent)

7.      affiliate programs (your consent and in some cases without)

8.      service provider sites (see third party term in any online agreement) (your consent)

9.      others (you should know that our e-mail addresses are sold to spammers and scammers nowadays) (without your consent)

Now to the main part again, how we can less or decrease the possibility of receiving such unwanted e-mails. Well, the solution is simply by:

1.      not filling any form asking you to put your e-mail address when you do not know anything about the person or the site that presented that form

2.      not giving your e-mail address to anyone you do not know

3.      not joining any service or tribe when you have a suspicion if it suit you or not

4.      reading the agreement of use when you join any site that provide a service you want, especially the terms of privacy, data protection, user data and the use of third party (as those terms will determine how your data will be used and by who)

5.      using a secondary e-mail address for any activity you want to try it but still have a suspicious on (alternative solution)

6.      replaying, in some cases, and declaring in your e-mail that you will make a claim if you received anymore e-mails from that person/ party (this solution depend on the sender and the e-mail content in addition to the method that this e-mail sent to you whether by automated or manual method) this tool is not always affective but in some cases it is

7.      not filing any joining box asking you for your e-mail to receive an e-book, report, gift, video or any similar things when you do not need such or if you have a suspicion in that party

These tools can be used by any user in order to control his privacy and protect it from spammers and scammers, there are many others but these are the most important tools that must be adopted by any online user

These pictures have been taken from: http://www.fortiguard.com/report/roundup_january_2011.html

If you have a question or a comment please feel free to place it under this post

Mohammad Al-Thunibat

Web Agreements

Web Agreements, (The agreement of use)

“You need to know the following terms in order to legalise your online activities, in a way that can protect your rights and decrease your risks”

By Mohammad Al-Thunibat

Definition:

Web agreement is a term that is known as Term of Service (TOS) or Term of Use. These terms, however, lead to one main source which is the site that provide the service, in which such terms set to be accepted by online users in order to use the service

In other words, a web agreement is about number of terms that set in advance by the service provider (for example eBay, Amazon, PayPal...etc), in which any person who want to use such service must accept and agree to abide the provided terms in order to use that service

It should be noted that such kind of agreement shall be questioned (not all of the terms are binding), with regard to the laws of consumer protection

The terms that a web agreement contain: (these terms deserve to be read by any user because they legally control users’ activity and the use of the service)

The most common and important terms that any online or web agreement must contain are:

1.      Definitions, parties, addresses, account terms (if the user required to join), third party...etc

2.      Jurisdiction Disclaimers, and disputes

3.      Body content: which cover service Descriptions, time, limitations, changing the terms, termination, the use of service by the user,

4.       Security and data protection (privacy)

5.      Responsibilities (whether user or the provider responsibilities)

6.      Fees and payments (cover also tax issues)

7.      Modification terms, (in case of modify any terms in future)

8.      And some providers use a term that called Miscellaneous, which cover the use and the process of the service

Examples:

Amazon.com:

eBay.com:

PayPal.com:

If you have any question please feel free to leave your question and I’ll do my best to replay as soon as possible, although if you have any comment or additions please feel free to comment