As CNET's Greg Sandoval has been reporting, a number of well-known e-tailers have been implicated in marketing schemes that have led to people purchasing services that they were unaware they had signed up for.
Prentiss Cox,
law professor
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee has been investigating these practices, as has Professor Prentiss Cox of the University of Minnesota Law School. Members of the Senate and angry online shoppers have used such terms as "scam," "robbery," and "theft" to describe such practices.
To find out more about how these work, Larry Magid spoke with Cox and CNET's Greg Sandoval.
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To highlight the increased crime during the holidays, security company McAfee has come up with the "12 Scams of Christmas" ranging from bogus electronic greeting cards that deliver malware instead of cheer to fake charities that steal your money and your identity.
In this podcast, McAfee's David Marcus counts down those scams that criminals are using to take some of the cheer out of the holiday season.
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Google's Matthew Papakipos
(Credit: Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Google's Chrome OS PC operating system won't be available until the end of 2010, but the company has unveiled some details as it encourages developers to start creating Web-based software for the operating system.
To find out more, and get a feel how Chrome will affect consumers, I spoke with Matthew Papakipos, Google's chief engineer for Chrome OS.
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In this tough economic period, more people are relying on some type of public assistance. However, getting information about what programs are available can be daunting. And even if you can access the information online, it typically requires going to numerous sites and filling out multiple applications.
The Oakland, Calif.-based Center to Promote HealthCare Access is trying to make the process easier with its new OneEApp service. OneEApp, which stands for One Electronic Application, is designed to provide a one-stop service to help people discover and apply for multiple benefit programs.
The service, according to director Claudia Page, is accessible via the Web, including from kiosks located in emergency rooms, schools, and other public places.
Page talked about OneEApp with Larry Magid.
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Jim Lanzone, CEO of Clicker, wants to help people find video to watch online. The site, which CNET's Rafe Needleman described as "a carefully curated directory of full-length video content, with several extremely nice features and user interface flourishes," is now online.
New site helps users find video content
(Credit: Clicker.com)Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone spoke with Larry Magid about the new service which he says is part search engine,part directory, part wiki (because users will help them edit) and "what the TV Guide of the next generation needs to look like."
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With SafeSearch turned on parents can see these bubbles on the search page
(Credit: Google)Length: 9:33
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If you've ever gotten a pop-up message warning that your PC is infected, it could very well be an advertisement for rogue software that can do a lot of harm and absolutely no good.
Symantec has just issued a report saying that the company has "detected over 250 distinct rogue security software programs." These scams try to convince users that their machine is infected and offer software for purchase that will take care of the problem. But instead of removing security threats, it can create them by installing malicious code that can allow criminals to take over the victim's computer. In addition, a user who provides a credit card number to buy the software is not only out the cost of the software but has just provided credit card information to thieves who can misuse it or sell it to other thieves.
The "security software" often has a legitimate sounding name and may even quotes what appears to be a review from a legitimate source.
In a podcast interview, Symantec Security vice president Vince Weafer warns users not to respond to security messages that they view as pop-ups or on websites, especially if they look like a hard-sell. Instead, rely on legitimate security software. If you have any doubts, Symnatec and other legitimate security companies offer free scanners that can tell you if you have any infections. Also, Microsoft now offers its free Security Essentials that can detect and fix many security threats.
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Tuesday was the biggest Patch Tuesday ever as Microsoft released 13 bulletins for 34 vulnerabilities. But just because Microsoft issues patches, does that mean that users should apply them? Yes, says Ben Greenbaum, senior research manager for Symantec Security.
Greenbaum said that these patches impacted many Microsoft products, including Windows 7 that isn't even out yet.
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Goby CEO Mark Watkins
(Credit: Goby.com)Goby is a new search engine designed to answer the age old question, "what is there to do for fun around here?"
Goby.com is designed specifically to help people find things to do in their leisure time ranging from hiking to biking to finding a good restaurant or bed and breakfast.
Goby CEO Mark Watkins talked with Larry Magid about why his search engine is a better fun finder than general search tools like Google and Bing.
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Phishing attacks have been around for a while and you might think that most people are savvy enough to avoid them. But, as CNET's Elinor Mills discovered, even FBI Director Robert Mueller finds it hard to distinguish a rogue phishing site from a legitimate bank website.
Symantec Internet safety adviser, Marian Merritt
(Credit: Symantec)This week there have been two major phishing stories. One involved e-mail account names and passwords of Hotmail and Gmail users being compromised through a phishing attack and posted on a website. The other (which Mills also wrote about in the story linked above) involved the indictment of 100 people in the U.S. and Egypt and the arrest of 33 more people in the U.S. as part of the largest cyber crime investigation in the U.S.
After writing my blog post on how to avoid becoming a phishing victim, I got a call from Symantec with an invitation to speak with its Internet safety adviser and blogger, Marian Merritt. Without overly pushing her company's products (which actually can help people avoid phishing scams), she talked about the recent arrests, the problem in general and gave some of her own tips on how to avoid being a victim.
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