• 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.91 million people or 4.6% of the population in the last year alone.
• Spyware infects 91% of all computers. That equates to an alarming 9 out of 10 computers!

1. Use a good anti virus program. This is the most important piece of work in preventive maintenance. Installing the anti virus program is not good enough.

   You should do following as well.

   • Set-up the program to download and install updates automatically.
   • Schedule periodic full system scans.
   • Check the virus definitions date regularly and see whether it is up to date.
2. Set-up your PC to Download and install "Windows Updates" automatically. Windows updates include Operating System patches for bugs and PC security related issues. These patches can reduce many unknown computer problems.
3. Install anti Spyware program to detect Spyware tools.
4. Install a Personal Firewall. Most of the anti virus programs are bundled with a Personal Firewalls these days.
5. Do not download and install unknown software from Internet. This is the biggest mistake most of the PC users are doing.

   This software can damage the Windows registry, which cause lot of errors.

6. Be very careful when you download music from the Internet. Always stick to one trustworthy web site.
7. Perform Scandisk periodically to check the Hard Drive.
8. Delete temporary Internet files.

Spyware had the exact same item on sale for $10.00 less so I bought it with the intention of returning the first item to Radio Shack. When I compared the two products they were exactly the same, with the exact same bar codes and packaging. However, I noticed the cheaper item had one wire a couple centimeters shorter than the more expensive item.I made a decision to return the item with the shorter wire (the one purchased at Spyware) back to Radio Shack and keep the original item. Thus saving $10.00 but keeping the better product. After the clerk had finished all the paperwork I felt extremely guilty.

But then I rationalized it was too late to do anything about it and told myself I would just have to let this guilt go. What a way to bring my high vibration to a crashing halt. I reminded myself that this is why I shouldn't do things like this in the first place because not only can I not live with the guilt but now it is a double whammy because I'm so aware of my vibration and this is bringing it way down.Anytime we do something that is not in alignment with our core values, we feel negative emotions which hinder us from receiving the real desires of our heart.The antidote is simple: be honest, pay all debts, return what you've borrowed, speak kindly about others and keep your word. In other words, do nothing that will hinder the flow of pure positive energy toward you. Be true to your self an you'll open the way for receiving everything that will make you happy.This same client had such an opporunity to 'make it right' on an energetic level.

Again, she wrote:I was feeling pretty bad when I returned to my office, and then remembered I needed to go to the bank. I went up to the bank machine and there was $40.00 sitting in the slot. Someone had forgotten to take it with them after they finished their transaction. They had also forgotten to take their bank slip. I took both out of the machine and put them in my pocket while I did my own banking.

Now I was dealing with the moral dilemma of what I should do with the found money. I so badly wanted to keep the money as I am heavily in debt with all my credit cards almost maxed out. I tried rationalizing: The bank slip doesn't have the account number on it so it's not like one can trace it but it did say that the person had a balance of $195.00 which isn't very much. I remembered how I felt when I once left $20.00 in the bank machine myself and went back for it but it was gone. I then decided to go into the bank and leave the $40.00 with a bank teller.

While I was waiting in line, another lady came into the bank and told me I left my card in the bank machine so I went back to get it. Then she came back again saying now I'd left my bank slip in the machine. This is how frazzled I was! Anyways, I gave the money to a bank teller with my business card and I am feeling much better. I feel like the Universe gave me an opportunity not only to redeem myself but also an opportunity to change my vibration after something I've done in the past that I feel badly about.Indeed! This client demonstrates the wonderful way the Law of Attraction works: Her dominant intention was to offer a high vibration so that she can attract more money and enjoy her life. The Law of Attraction arranged an opportunity (the item from Radio Shack.) Her actions in the first opportunity caused her vibration to drop, which didn't feel good.

So she RESET her intention to feel good,and the Law of Attraction sent her another opportunity to take actions that feel better. Are you noticing your feelings when you are about to do something that would place you out of INTEGRITY? Do you have a story about how you learned this lesson? Email Rebecca with your story. She would love to hear from you.Rebecca@YouCanHaveItAll.comDo you have a secret dream, desire or hope? Contact Rebecca to learn how YOU can live your dream! Please notify Rebecca if you wish to reproduce this article. Thanks!.

The email note will ask you to click on a link provided to go to one of a scammer's official looking websites. At their website you are ask to share or confirm some personal information. Though it looks like you are at your bank's website, you are at a scammer's website where any information that you share could be used to steal your identity,These scams are increasingly common and difficult to detect but you can reduce the likelihood of this type of online identity theft happening to you if you follow some simple rules.~ Be suspicious of urgent requests for personal financial information sent to you by email. As a general rule -- never directly respond to email asking for personal information.~ Don't give out more information than necessary for an online transaction. Legitimate businesses ask for more than they need for there own marketing purposes.

You do not have to provide more information than you feel is necessary to complete the transaction.~ If asked for personal information online at a website or via email, never click on a link that goes to a new unfamiliar website. If needed, search for the financial institution's or company's website via your search engine and then navigate from there.~ Do not click on program files or attachments in your email in-basket unless you are sure of their source. Why was it sent to you and do you know the sender?~ Never send personal financial information by return email. If your financial institution requests this information via email, go to the institution's secure website and enter it there.~ Be sure that you are using a secure website whenever you enter any personal financial data on the web. If you are in doubt, when prompted for a password, give an incorrect one first.

A scammer's phishing site will accept it; a legitimate website will not.~ Keep your computer anti-virus and anti-junk email prevention software up to date.~ Use "anti-spyware" programs if you have a tendency to download a lot of free Internet programs, games, music, screen savers, etc.~ Before doing business online, check into a company's privacy policies the same way you check their return and other policies. They may be attaching you to their website only to sell your email address to scammers.~ Question email messages from any official sounding financial institution. You can always verify their contact, by contacting the institution itself. When in doubt, use your telephone and not your mouse. A quick call can determine if an email request was legitimate.~ Stay alert to your own financial status.

Carefully check your banking, credit card and other statements regularly.~ Closely monitor your credit history to ensure that all transactions in my name and under your credit card number are legitimate.~ Consider signing-up for a personal credit monitoring services.~ Install firewall software on your computer or a firewall in your network router.~ Use a password to protect your wireless networks.~ Avoid storing sensitive data on all laptop computers. Wireless laptop computers are particularly vulnerable and should always have security passwords and firewalls in place. Use encryption products to secure the data on all computers. ~ Pay attention to your children's online usage. Children like to download free games, screensavers, etc.

and may share more information then they should to get it. ~ Protect your paper. Shred anything with personally identifying information on it before tossing it out.~ Choose carefully where and when to opt-in to mailing lists, promotions, or other freebies. If in doubt, post a "throw-away" email address (one you do not use as your main email address) or your email address scripted (i.e. ? yournameatprovider.com).

~ Only opt-in to promotions or deals after checking what will be done with the information that you provide. Websites That You Can Trust To Help?Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) ?Spybot (www.security.kolla.de) ?CWshredder (www.spywareinfo.com/merijn/index.html) ?WinTask, Manages Resources and Improves Security (www.onlinesoftwareguide.com/wintask)?download of Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy (www.download.com) ?Spyware information tools, tips, and vendor for Trend Micro software (www.housecall.trendmicro.com) ?McAfee anti-virus and anti-spyware software (www.mcafee.com) ?Windows security patches and spyware protection information (www.microsoft.com/athome/security/viruses) ?Virus and spyware scans (www.pcpitstop.com) ?Lists software that may spread spyware (www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm) ?Norton spyware information (www.symantec.com/avcenter/) ?Spy Sweeper anti-spyware (www.webroot.com)?Zonelabs firewall (www.zonelabs.com) If you're victimized, place a fraud alert on your credit file at the major credit bureaus: Equifax, [800] 525-6285 Experian, [888] 397-3742 TransUnion, [800] 680-7289You may also request to view your credit reports for fraudulent activity. Lastly, if you are a victim of fraudulent activity, online or off, file a police report so that it is on record and keep a report copy as proof.Copyright .

• Awsome popups comes out of nowhere, when browsing the web
• Home page reset to some other site

Deceptive software includes programs which take over your home page or search page without first getting your permission. There are a number of ways deceptive software can get on your system. A common trick is to covertly install the software during the installation of other software you want such as a music or video file sharing program.Whenever you are installing something on your computer, make sure you carefully read all disclosures, including the license agreement and privacy statement. Sometimes the inclusion of adware in a given software installation is documented, but it may appear at the end of a license agreement or privacy statement.Sometimes deceptive software gets silently installed on your system without any warning at all. If you use Internet Explorer as your Web browser, this can happen if your Internet Explorer security setting is set to its lowest value.

Make sure to keep this setting at the medium level or higher. Doing so will help you control what is being installed on your computer.Have you ever had an experience where you were repeatedly asked to accept a download even after you said "no"? Creators of deceptive software often use such tricks to get you to load their software. If this happens to you, do not click "yes". Instead, try to close the Web page that first asked you to accept the download by hitting the "X" in the corner of the window. Alternatively, quit Internet Explorer and restart it to begin browsing the Internet again.

If you visit a Web page that continually displays these tricky pop-up windows, that Web site may not be worthy of your trust.Your computer may be infected by now, but you may not know. Just have a checkup with a software specifically designed for it, to know the status of your computer. You must clean infections once you find it and the game is not over yet. The spyware might reinfect your PC. So it's highly recommended that you run a firewall on your system after the clean up.

This will allow you to monitor every single communication occurs with your computer and block the ones which you feel unnecessary. The firewall acts as a barrier between your PC and the external world (Internet / Network).A good spyware detector recommended by most people is, http://noadware.cjb.net and it shows you all the infections and potential dangers in great detail. It's free to scan but not to clean. It's a good idea to have a scan even you have no idea of cleaning, since you know the status of your PC in great detail. This gives two advantages.Firstly, if there are minor infections and if you have a fair knowledge on registry settings and how to edit them, you may have a try to clean them up.

Secondly, if it shows that there are major infections, you can avoid using credit cards and doing other confidential stuff, until you clean it up later.You must run a firewall. In many new operating systems (eg. Windows XP), there is a built-in firewall. Google search on how to activate it. Others may try one at http://www.download.comYou may have a question by now.

What is the purpose of these spyware? Even though we cannot give an explicit and clear cut answer, we can safely state that every thing boils down to the urge of more profits. How? The spyware collects all your personal information and transfer it to an external computer. The information is reviewed by a software in the receiving computer and then deleivered targeted popup ads to your PC. There are many things that spyware does in addition to this. The most dangerous of those is that collecting the credit card numbers.If you have some technical knowledge on your PC, here's a technical explanation on what trouble does the spyware cause.1.

An extra process is running to monitor and log your activities in your PC.2. Constant transfer is taking place between your PC and the spyware writer's computer.The first process in it self is an unneeded process and it contributes to slow down your PC. Second is the most harmful. It transfers logged info to the external PC (spyware writer's PC). Then the external PC transfers targeted popups to the infected PC.

This, in addition to slowing down your PC because of these extra processes, it also slows down the internet connection, as the bandwidth is shared. In short, PC with a spyware is like a dumping ground for snakes. Once its there and up and running, it can do almost anything with your PC.Please pass this on to all you know. The most risk is for people who use Internet Explorer, as it is the most popular web browser and that very fact has drawn more attention of many malicious software developers..

Or so I thought...Here's what the virus was doing:Everything looked normal. If you don't know much about website development, you may never notice that something was wrong. And that's really dangerous, because anything can happen once your system is infected!As I continued with my research, I noticed something very strange. Many of the links that I clicked on, led me to one particular website that was filled with hundreds of different affiliate programs and products.Regardless of what website I would look at, every single website had these links placed on specific key words and phrases, such as: money, internet marketing, data, webhost, home based business, business opportunity, work, and others. And all of the links would take me to this website with the hundreds of products.

That was very unusual.But when I looked at my website, much to my surprise I saw the same links on my site!I couldn't believe it! The links did not exist in my html. But where were these links coming from?It's my website. I wrote those webpages! I didn't put those links there. And yet when I looked at the website the links were there.I called my sister and I asked her if she was seeing the same thing on her computer as I was seeing on my computer. She looked at my website and told me that she wasn't seeing any of those additional links, other than my usual links.That made me realize that something was wrong with my computer.

I saved the file that I was typing for my next article so I could devote my attention to finding a solution for this problem. A strange thing happened as soon as I hit the save button. The file reformatted itself. Hyperlinks were placed on all of the key words (as I already mentioned some) that were found in the file. But who placed those links?When I clicked on the link, it took me to the same page with the hundreds of products.

I got very scared because I felt like I was losing control of my computer. From my previous experience (but not as extreme), I've learned that the virus always stays in touch with the hacker's server, constantly transferring information about my activities gathered from the registry.This looked like a very serious virus. So I immediately unplugged my Internet connection. This way, the hacker was no longer going to be able to pull information from my registry, and I was going to face the virus without any additional input by the hacker.But regardless. I lost the battle.

For THREE FULL DAYS I tried to remove the virus, but without any luck..The Spyware Doctor narrowed it down to one trouble file, which was a type of Trojan that existed in my System32 directory. The Trojan was renaming itself every few seconds by randomly selected names.Norton Antivirus said that this type of Trojan gave no visual indication that my computer had been infected. It was dropping a copy of itself with a randomly named executable file.Every time the Spyware Doctor would find the Trojan, it was unable to locate it and it couldn't remove it. That's because the Trojan already had a different name.Also, what I found out was that I was never looking at my Internet Explorer browser. I thought I was, but I wasn't.

I found a Java Script that was taking the source code from any website that I would go to, reformat it by adding the links to the selected key words and then display the new code in another window that was being generated by a remote server.My original browser window was getting killed and I was looking at a cloned window with inserted links. That was happening with such speed that I didn't even notice it because of my fast Internet connection (cable modem).After I unplugged the Internet connection, my computer was no longer functioning properly. I couldn't access my "windows explorer" window any more, I couldn't open my Internet Explorer window and I lost control over many other functions.But each time I would turn the Internet modem back on, my computer would start to work fine. Only, the Spyware Doctor would give me a notification that over 40 dangerous files were immediately being downloaded into my hard drive.The Trojan virus that I couldn't remove because of its re-naming capability was probably staying in touch with the hacker's server. So I switched the Internet connection off for the last time and I shut down the computer.Right now as I'm writing this, I don't have a computer at home because I gave it to a technician to reformat the hard drive and try to save as many files as possible.

I'm writing this from another computer and I'm really worried that none of my files will be saved... that will mean months of work down the drain!I have since learned that my antivirus and anti-spyware software would not protect me against the Trojan threat. I needed a firewall to protect me, and make sure my computer was invisible online.Please, don't let this happen to you! Install a firewall on your computer so you can make your IP address invisible to hackers.As I'm finishing this article two weeks after the virus attack, my Norton Firewall is working at full force. Every time a hacker tries to send Trojan files to my hard drive behind my back, a window in the bottom right corner pops us notifying me of the dangerous executable files being blocked from entering my hard drive.I lost over 90% of my files but I've learned my lesson the hard way.? You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the copyright and the source box are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.Courtesy of: http://www.thesuccessmaze.com.

With the lowest membership prices around, you can't afford NOT to take advantage of their services!Website: http://www.myfreemp3s.com.

Every time you use downloaded or otherwise shared files, including Freeware, Shareware or p2p sharing programs, you stand the risk of unknowingly infecting your computer with Spyware. Even confirmed virus free music files, films and computer programs can have Spyware stowaways. Once inside your computer, they will hide, monitor all your actions and promptly start telling your secrets to anyone willing to listen.Contrary to most viruses the Spywares actually make an effort not to be observed. Since they won't cause obvious harm such as deleting important files or shutting down your computer, they can thrive in your PC for years without you noticing, sending out massive amounts of information about all your online habits.At a first glance, you might find this annoying but essentially harmless. Why not let the companies send me promotional material about things I am actually interested in? Spyware is however far from harmless, since the infiltration by Spyware not only let the companies know about your latest online search, but also much more private matters such as credit card details, online purchases of medicine and your private e-mail correspondence with family, friends and business partners.

There are even examples of how this massive gathering of personal information has led to an overall loss of privacy and stolen identities. In the computerized world of today it is not hard to imagine the amount of damage and personal suffering the fraudulent use of a persons' identity can cause.It is obvious to anyone that we must start combating the Spyware programs, but the best way of doing this is not to panic and pull the plug on your PC, never go online again and keep five feet away from all Freeware. There is a much better solution: http://www.supportcave.com.

Spammers can make money if only one person of the thousands of people they send sexually explicit emails to clicks on their ad and pays for their service. Do everything you can to keep those emails from ever reaching your inbox. If you have allowed your children to have their own email accounts, filtering spam is the best way to ensure inappropriate images never become accessible to them through email. A quick list of things you can do to eliminate spam includes:? Only give your email address out to people you know and trust. Do not put your personal email address down for every mailing list or website that asks for it.

Many free email services exist now ? set up a free account with one of them and use that to sign up for mailing lists.? Never click on any links in spam and if at all possible, avoid ever opening the email. Both of these actions confirms to spammers that you actively use your email account and you will likely start to receive more spam.? Purchase and use a spam filter. Many come packaged with a porn filter as well as other features that will help keep inappropriate content off of your computer screen.Be careful what you download. This should be a universal precaution you take by now each and every time you download something off the internet. Viruses, spyware, and pornography can very easily be hidden in the files that you download ? prevention in this case is much easier than fixing the problem after the files have already made their way onto your hard drive.

Only download files from sources that you trust, and if you ever have a question as to whether something contains a virus or pornography, do NOT download it.Use a search engine to find websites. Pornographers use domain names that are similar to popular websites or brands in hopes that people will type in the address incorrectly and end up at their pornography site. I knew a child that wanted to look up codes for his favorite video game, so he typed in the name of the game and ".com." He had the presence of mind to close the browser and tell his parents, but was still exposed to the material. One of the best ways to avoid this is searching for the address in Google. Then you can preview the results in a text-only format before clicking on the link to go to the page.

Many of the popular search engines have a built-in porn filter that you can adjust to control the type of content you don't want to appear in the search results. Others even offer "for kids" versions of their search engines that only return pages deemed appropriate for children.Use filtering software that includes a porn filter. No matter how careful you are about the sites you visit, chances are good that someday you will accidentally come across a porn site. A porn filter will help ensure that inappropriate material is blocked when you or someone in your family stumbles across a pornographic website. The parents of the boy who stumbled across pornography while looking for his favorite Nintendo game quickly installed a porn filter to make sure their son was protected in the future.Avoid pornography offline.

Porn was around long before the internet. Carry around your own internal porn filter and avoid places that you know will have inappropriate images, movies, or books displayed. If your children are with you, be extra cautious of where they are in the store. If you think there is a chance that they may be able to access inappropriate material while you are shopping, let the store manager know of your concerns. Likely, you are not the only one who is worried about the issue, and real changes can come about from one person simply speaking up.Take the appropriate precautions now to avoid pornography.

If you or someone you know has a problem with pornography use or addiction, seek professional help. Pornography problems not only affect the individual viewing the picture but everyone who interacts with that person..

Alexa's data come from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users; however, this is not large enough to accurately determine the rankings of sites with fewer than roughly 1,000 total monthly visitors. Generally, Traffic Rankings of 100,000+ should be regarded as not reliable because the amount of data we receive is not statistically significant. Conversely, the more traffic a site receives (the closer it gets to the number 1 position), the more reliable its Traffic Ranking becomes. Learn more about Alexa at Alexa Rank..