How to Report Fraud?

Bustathief.com is a community-friendly fraud information site. Its tagline is "Protecting you and your finances".

Indeed, on the front page of the site itself, is a permanent "sticky" page detailing how to effectively report fraud. Strategies and methods to get your money back and cautioning others about scams are provided in that single post. There is also a list of agency which will accept fraud complaints and do whatever they could to nail down the culprits and recover your money.

Scams are one of the worst crimes ever, both in the cyberworld and reality. Scammers pounce upon human's greed and are opportunistic leeches - they strike indiscriminately whenever they sense an opportunity, regardless the victims are rich or poor, young or old and whether they urgently need the money or not. Scammers are hated both by the whitehat and blackhat people, instead of working hard to earn honest money, scammers prefer to take the easy way out and swindle and cheat innocent people.

Bustathief.com strongly advises and calls for people who have been (almost) scammed to come forward, share their stories and report fraud. By doing so, you may not get your money back but you are providing a great service to other people so that they do not fall victim to the same scams again. To make it easy for people to share their stories, Bustathief.com hosts an online form for visitors to submit their stories.

Various types of scams are neatly organised on Bustathief.com, featuring categories and posts such as Consumer Scams, Identity Theft, Investment Scams, Mail Fraud and Credit Card Fraud. Besides these useful information regarding the nature and modus operandi of various scams, Bustathief.com also has interesting articles about making money online and how to optimize articles for maximum search engine visibility.

To avoid getting scammed and for other street-smart online tips, do visit Bustathief.com. Let's co-operate as a community and help to reduce scam cases. Make the cyberworld and our world a safer place. You could help by linking to this site now...

This community friendly message is brought to you by BobbyT. Have you visited Bustathief.com? Do you like it? Have you been scammed before? Do you have any tips to share with us to avoid being scammed online?

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Cheap $2.19 dot com domains at GoDaddy

This is the sort of time when I would really chant, "Gooooooooooooooo Daddy!"

Yes, GoDaddy is at it again, there's some sort of inexplicable coupon code which will enable each customer to register a dot com (.COM) at the low price of $2.19!!! I have just got myself a domain, within first 5 minutes of getting to know about this coupon code. Be warned, most of the time when this kind of things happen, it will not last long! So, use the coupon code below to get a major discount for 1 new .COM domain:

199TEST

Comments on my blog posts and thanks appreciated if I helped you in any way with this post.

Lastly, I don't claim credit for the discovery of this coupon code, read about it on The University Kid today, just have a hunch to visit it, normally I don't visit it everyday. I guess that just means that there are gems to be found almost every other day on The University Kid. Thanks TUK!!!

What domain did you register using this coupon code?

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Entrecard, Where to?

I guess this is a pretty stale news by now but I still would like to talk about the recent Entrecard and its economy makeover.

On 29th September, I received an email from Entrecard. Apparently it is having an overhaul of its economy and redefining the value of its credits as well as setting some rules on what is allowed and what is not when it comes to credit transfers. Here's a quote from the email I received from Entrecard management:

1. Buy credits for less: Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. You can buy them here: http://entrecard.com/r/buy_credits
   
2. More pricing increments: Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps. The new price points can be found on the Advertising page in the wiki, here: http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising
   
3. Members are not allowed to sell credits: This goes for ebay sales, posts in the Marketing forum, and posts on other forums. If you have references on your site to the sale of credits, please remove them immediately, as it is now against our terms.
4. Credit transfer limits: Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week. Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.
5. Transfer tax: From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).
6. Blogs cannot be unlinked: Once you link a blog, it's there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.
7. No more coupons: You are no longer allowed to send coupons.
8. Shop closed: Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice. Please do not request a seller token until the shop returns. When it comes back, it will be bigger and better. We'll communicate more details nearer the time.

I don't see eye to eye to this new rules set by Entrecard, many original Entrecard users are not happy either when many changes were made in regards to its economy several months ago. I would like to respond to each points presented above (the number corresponds to the number of the points found in the email sent by Entrecard):

1. Buy credits for less (1000 for $6)? I think the Entrecard management has been oblivious to the fact that 10,000 EC were selling as low as $1. No doubt we can buy from Entrecard but their price IS not low.
2. No comment here, just that publisher would be earning very little EC from now on.
3. Nice, so now there is total monopoly when it comes to sales of EC. However, I think some users would ignore the warning and continue to sell EC from underground.
4. I actually welcome this new rule. From now on there will be less worthless contest offering thousands of EC which does not worth much anyway!
   
5. Entrecard gets EC each time an advertiser buys ad from a publisher, they also impose tax on EC transfer. The EC will go directly into their account to be resold for $6 every 1000EC. Perhaps this is enough to pay for server fee?
6. No comment, maybe it is the logical rule to impose?
7. Many people will be affected when coupons are no longer allowed, people who run contests and other people who offer EC for visitors who participate in their events.
8. Shops are closed, many interesting items will also be pulled. Gone are the days when 1000EC can be sold for $10 and when 7000EC could buy you a year of Linux hosting. Wonder when the shops are opened again, will it be as good as it were.

Entrecard has been on the decline for quite some time now (I hope I don't get into trouble with the management for saying this) but I guess necessary steps are undertaken to help revive its glory. However, with the gigantic amount of EC still floating in the market, I think it will take quite a long time before the economy is steadied and Entrecard Credits will be a valuable commodity again.

Don't worry Entrecard, I have been with you for 9 months now. I hope to still be around to see you regain your glory, hopefully sooner rather than later :)

What do you think about the recent Entrecard makeover? Has it affected you? How? What is the ideal way to run Entrecard and regulate the use and value of its credits?

Coming up next: BobbyT will be discussing about Entrecard's partnership with OIO Publisher :)

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The New Yorker Premium WP Theme is launched!

If the tons of features of self-hosted WordPress themes do not sway your heart and make you wonder whether you should remain on blogspot or not, then certainly the sight of this premium WP theme will tempt you dearly.

I almost immediately fall in love with The New Yorker theme when I set my eyes on it! I have always wanted to build a news website (one of my childhood ambitions is to be a journalist) but I lack the technical skills to build such sites from the ground up. Imagine how glad am I when feel that my dreams might just come true soon with this The New Yorker theme. The New Yorker theme has just been released less than a week ago.

Click here to view a live demo of The New Yorker Premium WP Theme in action

Reading the information about the themes, I found that it can be easily installed like most WP themes and yet it boasts having many sophisticated features not found in other themes. From the screen shot, I suppose we can say that this theme has the magazine looks. Although I have not tested the theme myself, I think we can set some posts or pages to display permanently on the front page (making them the "featured" news). Apparently the theme 136 settings in its control panel (wow!), dynamic drop-down menu system, 37 widgetised areas (can be increased to even more, I suppose) and integrated banner management and dynamic video block.

Considering all those sophisticated features and the aesthetic features of the theme itself, it is hard to believe that it only costs $39 to buy. From the usage information I find that I can add thumbnail or image to every post and I can also add some videos to posts whenever I fancy. That's really power and freedom in my hands (or themes, if you prefer :D).

Truth be told, never have I ever imagined myself being able to have my own news website like the screen shot above. I know having a wonderful WP theme does not get me to my goals just yet, but it will be instrumental as a means to an end. I really wish to have a professional news website, either serving and interacting with a large or small community. Whether the website succeeds or not, that should be another story for another time but I suppose it is the experience of running the website that really matters, and I would rejoice if part of that experience involves working with this wonderful theme. I would try my best to get my hands on this theme, perhaps you should too!

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P1 W1MAX Promotion Extended

Packet One has recently extended its WiMAX service launch promotions till 31st December 2008.

The most attractive offer in the promotions is of course the free modem which is worth RM999. Nationwide access fee of RM10 per month has also been waived (you need this enabled for your account if you intend to use WiMAX services outside of your registered service address).

Besides that, there are some fee reductions in the personal 2400 plan and both 1200 and 2400 business plans. Normally business plans will certainly be more expensive than personal plans but now they have the same subscription fees, business owners should seriously consider this once in a lifetime offer. The fees shown above are recurring meaning you only have to pay subscription fees according to the advertised fee until your 1 or 2 year contract expires. You can also opt to sign up to P1 W1MAX service without contract but you would have to forgo the promotions, they are only available for contract subscribers.

This extension of the promotions is indeed a wise and sensible move by P1. Many internet users are dying to try this new Internet service but unfortunately many places in Peninsular Malaysia do not have WiMAX services coverage yet. Hopefully P1 will cover more areas in the coming months so that more internet users could benefit from this promotions.

Have you heard of WiMAX yet? Do you wish to subscribe to this service (hoping to have better internet connection)? Or are you satisfied with your current internet connection? Do you prefer fixed line or wireless internet access? Do you mind sharing with us what connection you are using now?

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Video Marketing

Nowadays video marketing is the in thing and almost every big company out there that can afford it are doing it already. Even some talented individuals are producing their own videos, either to spread a message or to further their causes.

Some of the videos or advertisements produced never make it to the (now flat) silver screen while some are celebrated by television viewers and even nominated for awards.

In my native country, we can usually expect to see pretty interesting videos with the theme of unity during major celebrations like Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Independence Day.

Petronas has been the leader in producing creative, touching and meaningful social advertisements. However in recent years, some bigger local companies are also contributing to the cause. Companies like TM, P1 and TV3 are producing their own videos and they hope to attract as many viewers as they can on the most popular video sharing site ever, YouTube. The average daily number of videos viewed in YouTube is above 100,000 videos (an unofficial estimate in 2006).

I especially like this new video below - Iklan Raya Wimax 2008

P1 W1MAX is seen as a strong competitor to TM's Streamyx broadband service. They certainly are equal in efforts to reach online video viewers. Check out the video above and follow the link back to YouTube to view other social advertisements produced by companies like TV3, P1, Petronas and also TM. TM's Raya 2008 video is very meaningful too :)

Perhaps I should also try video marketing in my future online projects. I will compile and share the report of the results with you if I find this method of marketing worthwhile.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims.

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