Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, June 13, 2010
In this Issue:
Special Feature: How Crooks Use Distraction Scams to Trick and Rob You
Tips & Tricks: The 10 Best Search Engines of 2010
Featured Computer Term: The Top 30 Internet Terms for Beginners: 9. Social Media and Social Bookmarking
This Week's Topic: Minimizing Spam - Report Spam
Websites of Interest: Flag Day; FactCheck; Kids Cooking Activities; Household Products Database; Astronomy Facts
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Special Feature: How Crooks Use Distraction Scams to Trick and Rob You
The following article is from scambusters.org
Distraction scams -- they're one of the oldest and most common tricks around. One way or another, the victim's attention is sidetracked while the con artist or his/her accomplice pulls off a theft.
Here are some of the most common distraction scams to watch out for:
Solo Distraction Scams
It's perfectly possible for an individual to distract you and rob you at the same time. For instance, there's the flim-flam used on store cashiers, where so much money is swapped back and forth that the cashier loses track of what is happening and ends up handing over too much change.
Or the thief may simply distract you with conversation, by spilling a drink on you or your table, or pointing to something a distance away, while he lifts your wallet.
And let's not forget the old street-card trick, sometimes known as "Find the Lady" where three cards are shuffled around and you are asked to identify the Queen. The con-artist keeps an entertaining conversation going so your attention becomes distracted while he switches them around.
Accomplice Distraction Scams
There are so many of these tricks, it is impossible to list them all, but here are the key ones to beware of:
* Theft from your home. Scammers use all sorts of ruses to get into your house, like claiming to be researchers or utility workers. While one questions you or asks you to check, say, the flow from a faucet, the other rifles through your property and possessions.
They may do nothing more than preoccupy you at the front door or ask you to inspect an external part of your house, while the accomplice slips around the back, into your house.
A variation is to call at your door, faking an emergency and seeking your help. Sometimes these scammers may be accompanied by a child, enough to convince you to come out of the house, leaving your door open.
* A street encounter. They may drop coins and you, naturally, help to pick them up, or ask for directions producing a map for you to use, taking your attention away from your possessions.
* In the store or the mall, a person in front of you on an escalator stops at the top. You bump into them, while the accomplice, who is behind you, commits the theft.
* The visual stunner. This time, one of the pair may be exceptionally attractive, snappily dressed or scantily clad -- something that's going to put your focus on them and not on what their accomplice is doing.
* The fake drowning. On the beach, you see someone apparently struggling in the water. You rush to their aid and when you return, the possessions you left behind, like your iPod and camera, are gone.
Crowd Distraction Scams
This is a favorite in vacation resorts where a group of people surround you on the pretext of begging. Often they are kids and sometimes will carry a large piece of fabric or card which they may press against you. The idea is that their sheer number will disorient you, while the press of bodies and cardboard will distract your attention and conceal the hands that are rifling through your pockets or dipping into your purse.
A similar approach is used by groups of adults who crowd into a store, arguing or chattering, all moving in different directions or surrounding a particular area where valuable items are displayed. Sometimes, a fight seems to break out -- enough to divert your attention away from minding your wallet or purse.
Online Distraction Scams
Yes, you can even be a distraction scam victim on the Internet. This happens when you are visiting an unsafe site and you are preoccupied by an item you are looking at or reading - usually a fake, dramatic story or photo. Unwittingly, at some stage, you either clicked on or moused over part of the page which activates malicious code -- a download to your PC of a virus or spyware. You're so busy looking elsewhere you don't notice your hard drive whirring as the program downloads and installs.
How to Avoid Distraction Scams
In all cases, vigilance and protection are the watchwords for avoiding distraction scams. Keep your eyes focused on what's going around you, whether you're in a Mumbai street or surfing the Net.
Make your cash and valuables as inaccessible as possible -- and, of course, use Internet security software to protect you while surfing.
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Tips & Tricks: The 10 Best Search Engines of 2010
The following article is from Paul Gil of about.com
These 10 search sites should meet 99% of the searching needs of a regular everyday user.
Clusty (aka 'Yippy')
Clusty is a Deep Web engine that searches other search engines for you. Unlike the regular Web, which is indexed by robot spider programs, Deep Web pages are usually harder to locate by conventional search. That's where Clusty becomes very useful. If you are searching for obscure hobby interest blogs, obscure government information, tough-to-find obscure news, academic research and otherwise-obscure content, then Clusty is your tool.
http://www.clusty.com/
Cuil (pronounced 'cool')
This search engine was founded by ex-Google staff. It is spartan, like Google and DuckDuckGo. But there are differences beyond the black background. Cuil uses a column format like a newspaper, and it offers both tabled and columned groups to help your searching. The results are not ranked in the same currents events/popularity sequence that Google is known for. But Cuil.com can really be helpful in choosing research directions when you are just discovering a topic for the first time.
http://www.cuil.com/
Duck Duck Go
At first, DuckDuckGo.com looks like Google. But there are many subtleties that make this spartan search engine different. DuckDuckGo has some slick features, like 'zero-click' information (all your answers are found on the first results page). DuckDuckgo offers disambiguation prompts (helps to clarify what question you are really asking). And the ad spam is much less than Google. Give DuckDuckGo.com a try... you might really like this clean and simple search engine.
http://www.duckduckgo.com
Webopedia
Webopedia is one of the most useful websites on the World Wide Web. Webopedia is an encyclopedic resource dedicated to searching techno terminology and computer definitions. Teach yourself what 'domain name system' is, or teach yourself what 'DDRAM' means on your computer. Webopedia is absolutely a perfect resource for non-technical people to make more sense of the computers around them.
http://www.webopedia.com/
Yahoo!
Yahoo! is several things: it is a search engine, a news aggregator, a shopping center, an emailbox, a travel directory, a horoscope and games center, and more. This 'web portal' breadth of choice makes this a very helpful site for Internet beginners. Searching the Web should also be about discovery and exploration, and Yahoo! delivers that in wholesale quantities.
http://www.yahoo.com/
Bing
Bing is Microsoft's attempt at unseating Google. Bing used to be MSN search until it was updated in summer of 2009. Touted as a 'decision engine', Bing tries to support your researching by offering suggestions in the leftmost column, while also giving you various search options across the top of the screen. Things like 'wiki' suggestions, 'visual search', and 'related searches' might be very useful to you. Bing is not dethroning Google in the near future, no. But Bing is definitely worth trying.
http://www.bing.com/
Ask (aka 'Ask Jeeves')
The Ask/AJ/Ask Jeeves search engine is a longtime name in the World Wide Web. The super-clean interface rivals the other major search engines, and the search options are as good as Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo. The results groupings are what really make Ask.com stand out. The presentation is arguably cleaner and easier to read than Google or Yahoo! or Bing, and the results groups seem to be more relevant. Decide for yourself if you agree... give Ask.com a whirl, and compare it to the other search engines you like.
http://www.ask.com/
Mahalo
Mahalo is the one 'human-powered' search site in this list, employing a committee of editors to manually sift and vet thousands of pieces of content. This means that you'll get fewer Mahalo hit results than you will get at Bing or Google. But it also means that most Mahalo results have a higher quality of content and relevance (as best as human editors can judge).
Mahalo also offers regular web searching in addition to asking questions. Depending on which of the two search boxes you use at Mahalo, you will either get direct content topic hits or suggested answers to your question.
http://www.mahalo.com/
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a favorite destination for longtime Web lovers. The Archive has been taking snapshots of the entire World Wide Web for years now, allowing you and me to travel back in time to see what a web page looked like in 1999, or what the news was like around Hurricane Katrina in 2005. You won't visit the Archive daily, like you would Google or Yahoo or Bing, but when you do have need to travel back in time, use this search site.
http://www.archive.org/
Google is the undisputed king of 'spartan searching'. While it doesn't offer all the shopping center features of Yahoo!, Google is fast, relevant, and the largest single catalogue of Web pages available today. Make sure you try the Google 'images', 'maps' and 'news' features... they are outstanding services for locating photos, geographic directions, and news headlines.
http://www.google.com/
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Featured Computer Term: The Top 30 Internet Terms for Beginners: 9. Social Media and Social Bookmarking
Whether you are brand new to using the Internet, or you've been using it for years, there are thirty important terms that are absolutely worth learning. Join us for our ongoing series on Internet terminology, where, with the help of Paul Gil from about.com, we provide definitions and information on the Top Internet Terms for Beginners.
This Week: 9. Social Media and Social Bookmarking
Social media is the broad term for any online tool that enables users to interact with thousands of other users. Instant messaging and chatting are common forms of social media, as are blogs with comments, discussion forums, video-sharing and photo-sharing websites. Facebook.com and MySpace.com are very large social media sites, as are YouTube.com and Digg.com.
Social bookmarking is a specific form of social media. Social bookmarking is where users interact by recommending websites to each other ('tagging sites').
Read more about social media and social bookmarking here:
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/internetlanguage/tp/top_internet_terms.htm
In our next edition: ISP
Please visit our Newsletter Archives to review the terms we’ve already covered:
http://computerkindergarten.com/30internetterms.html
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of? Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Today's Topic: Minimizing Spam - Report Spam
For most people, spam is somewhat irritating, but to Internet Service Providers, it's a huge problem. All that spam takes a tremendous amount of resources (which, of course, increases the prices that we have to pay for Internet access). If you'd like to help stop spam, you can do so. Before you do anything else, report spam to your ISP.
Many email provides use spam filters. This means that their computer goes through each email that comes into your account and compares it to certain parameters. Some may use a very extensive list of keywords. For example, if an email has the word pharmaceutical in it, it will be directed right into the spam or junk folder.
Occasionally the spam filter may not work. That is when you should use the Spam or Junk button that many email programs have at the top of the inbox. Select the email and then click the Spam or Junk button. It will take the email out of your inbox and move it into your Spam or Junk folder.
For email services without a Spam or Junk button, check with your Internet Service Provider for any steps they may have that can be used to report Spam.
This ends our series on minimizing spam. We hope you enjoyed it and will welcome any questions or comments you may have. Please visit our Newsletter Archives for the previous articles we published on this topic:
Minimizing Spam - Create a New Address
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/110908.html
Minimizing Spam – Registering Online
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/111608.html
Minimizing Spam – Stop the Forwarding Fiend
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/120708.html
Minimizing Spam - Never Respond to Spam
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/121408.html
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Websites of Interest:
Flag Day
June 14 is Flag Day. Read about the history and celebration of this observance at these websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_in_the_United_States
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jun14.html
FactCheck
FactCheck is a nonprofit and nonpartisan website that devotes itself to exposing and correcting what it considers inaccurate or misleading statements by politicians and partisan groups.
http://factcheck.org/
Kids Cooking Activities
Helps your kids learn in the kitchen through cooking lessons, food fact information and cooking party ideas
http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com/
Household Products Database
from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, learn what is in the products in your home, their health effects and more.
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/
Astronomy Facts
The history of astronomy, facts about the solar system, stars, meteors, asteroids and so much more.
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/astronomy-facts/