Showing posts with label consulting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consulting. Show all posts
Friday, April 20, 2007
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How to Answer: Who sent me that email?

With roughly 2 billion Internet users at the start of 2007, it can be difficult to determine who is actually sending an email, and from what country. Spam operators often use sophisticated software, server misrepresentation and other techniques to conceal their identity. Companies that spam often hire a third party company to do their mass mailing, and receive all the complaints. Individuals or small groups of spammers use any means available to send bulk email to as many recipients as possible (millions) and not be identified. A recent trend of spammers is to use "zombie" PCs, which are virus-infected PCs, where an average Internet user unknowlingly sends spam from his own system. The latest estimates put email spam at over 90 billion emails being sent daily. This amounts to over 80% of all emails in the world on any given day. Others send less volume but single out their victims by emailing lottery emails, Nigeria 419 scams and prize offers. Many unsuspecting Internet users initiate contact with criminals via chat rooms and dating websites. Once the relationship scam starts, it can be difficult to know that the individual claiming to live in Paris is truly writing from Ghana. Below we offer some options and general advice.

1. If it's spam, don't reply.

If the email is plain spam, never reply to the sender. Sending an email asking to be taken off their list, or telling the spammer exactly what you think, will only verify your email account as active. The spammer will then send more spam, and may sell your address to other spammers resulting in an overload of spam.

2. Who sent that email, and from where?

Tracing the IP address and routing will usually provide some basic information on the sender, depending on what, if any, efforts are employed to conceal the sender's identity. Many sites offer this service. Perhaps one of the best is Visualware's Email Tracker Pro. The software offers a free 15 day trial to test the program. After the trial period the user has the option to buy a license $29.95. We found this program to be reliable and current, i.e. Visualware regularly updates global server information which helps tracking. To trace an email received, you will need the IP address of the email message, and to do that you will need to examine the Internet header of the mail message. For more information on how to view the header of an email message recieved, ReadNotify offers good visual instructions.

3. Knowing the Limitations

Tracing the IP address from an email received, even if using a reliable software such as Email Tracker Pro, and when the sender makes no attempt to conceal his identity, may not provide all the information you're looking for. Remember, IP addresses are from servers and servers can be and usually are physically apart from the Internet user. For example, an author of an email in Tennessee sending email via AOL, may be labeled as Virginia given the location of AOL's servers. In fact, the geographical distance can be much greater than that, at times, even in a different country. Some users in England, for example, use IP address from servers in France, therefore an IP trace could indicate the user is in a different country. A woman sending emails from rural Russia, 400 miles from Moscow, may still show up as being located in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Knowing the limitations enables the user to use the IP and email tracing tools available as tools, not as conclusive location data.

4. Professional Services Available

Depending on the importance of confirming a sender's location, some professional options are available. Some international background check companies employ some of the same software available to law enforcement and federal agencies determined to track the sender of an email message. Wymoo International is one firm that specializes in confirming physical location of individuals and businesses around the world. The background check group usually conducts traces on email samples provided by clients, but also can verify results with physical visits and public records.

Technology is changing rapidly. As technology makes it easier to trace the senders of email messages, so too does the technology to conceal a sender's identity. We'll return to this topic soon with the changing methods to see who is behind the email.

Best of luck,

A. Hathaway
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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Basics of security and protecting yourself online

Internet security, identity theft and fraud have become major issues recently as more people globally obtain access to the Internet. With the decrease in barriers to entry, i.e. lower webhosting costs, widespread highspeed and wireless Internet access, and website contruction software that truly enables anyone to create a website, the online players and number of new websites are increasing exponentially. With this increase comes a flood of new websites from countries around the world with various languages and business and regulatory environments. The question for the Internet user becomes, which of these websites can be trusted when making online purchases and revealing personal information to an unknown party?

Online fraud in auctions, advance fee fraud and romance scams, lottery and phishing emails, credit card and identity theft totalled well over $2B USD in 2006. The number is expected to increase in 2007 despite efforts to curb the trend. Criminals carry out the operations from countries all over the world, but many work from Internet cafes in corrupt countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. The truth is, however, nearly all countries in the world have criminals involved in this new crime. It is estimated that over 60% of all Internet users express privacy and trust concerns when shopping or providing personal information over the web, or over 1 billion people worldwide. How can you protect yourself from this growing crime? We provide some safety tips.

Search the Web for reviews, posts and information.

By searching Google and Yahoo for the company or website name, chances are excellent you can find reviews or at least comments from other users and customers. If not, try searching the Rip Off Report to see if the company has had a history of complaints. Sill no information? Try using Yahoo Answers to ask if anyone has any information on the site. If after these attempts little or no information is known about the site, chances are the website is new or a very small operation. In other words, the risk is higher as the company or website has yet to establish its brand and online reputation. Next, a look at the actual site.

Look for privacy policies and privacy associations.

The first step when judging an unknown website should be viewing its privacy policy. If the site has no privacy policy, consider it a questionable operation and move on. Reading the entire privacy policy and legal verbage isn't necessay, but do scan the document to see if the site or company appears to take privacy matters seriously. Truste is a non-profit group which offers its website seal to those sites which comply with their strict standards. If the website in question has this seal, chances are the website and or company takes the matter seriously with adequate steps to inform site visitors and protect your private information.

Check for security seals on the site like Hacker Safe.

If a website has a major security seal such as ScanAlert's Hacker Safe seal, visitors to that site know that the company or website has taken steps to protect users and customers from credit card fraud and identity theft. Although there are no guarantees, there is no comparison between a site with such a security seal and one without this safeguard. The Hacker Safe seal indicates the site is scanned daily to ensure the site meets strict security standards of secure website design and server applications.

Demand site encryption for personal information.

To protect personal information trasmission, such as credit card payments or home telephone and address data, a well designed and safe Internet website should have SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption of at least 128 bit. What does this mean? This indicates the website uses technology which ecrypts your personal data when being trasmitted from the website to its servers, and is therefore extremely difficult to intercept or steal. A major company offering this service is VeriSign and having the seal indicates that the site, or portions of the site are encrypted. There are many competitors, however, and as long as the yellow lock shows on the bottom right hand side of the browser, visitors to a website know that such a site page is being encrypted.

A website example of how it all looks and works.

Wymoo International makes a good case presentation of how all these elements come together to protect website visitors and customers. These same principles that a website is properly designed and maintained, however, can and should be applied to other websites when the choice is being made to do business via a website, or even to supply basic personal information. From viewing Wymoo's home page, we see on the bottom left hand corner the Hacker Safe and Truste seals. By clicking on either seal, visitors and potential customers can verify that the site is in current compliance with each online security group. On Wymoo's Free Quote page, visitors again see the Hacker Safe and Truste seals, but on the bottom right of the browser, there is the yellow lock indicating the page is encrypted. Also on the page are links to the privacy and data security policy. This is a good example of what to look for in quality e-commerce websites.

Lastly, there is no way to ensure 100% safety while shopping or providing personal information on the Internet. There are many steps you can take to judge whether or not the website is legitimate and offers protection from identity theft and credit card fraud. Research the company or website reputation on Yahoo and Google. Look for security and privacy seals such as HackerSafe and Truste. Check for website encryption (the yellow lock) on pages where you submit your private information. Lastly, make payments with a major credit card. In the event of fraud, your credit card company may reverse the charge.

Play it safe,

A. Hathaway
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Saturday, April 14, 2007
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A Summary of the Crime, and How to Avoid it.

Kidnapping in Latin America, or express kidnapping, remains a prominent and serious problem in many countries from Mexico to Argentina. The popularity of the crime among criminals first gained popularity in Colombia and was used in conjuction with operations of drug lords, and other extortion and terrorist groups. With the widespread use among professional drug and crime families, the practice of kidnapping began to spread to ordinary street criminals in the hopes of obtaining the same large rewards, at a relatively low cost. The trade then made its way from Colombia to countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. While the crime has been on the decrease in Colombia, other countries such as Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico have recently experienced a sizeable increase in cases. Argentina reports of kidnappings have remained relatively stable, primarily in and around Buenos Aires. Peru has also struggled to eliminate the crime. To date, kidnapping remains a serious threat to Latin America's residents, business persons and foreign tourists.

What is kidnapping or express kidnapping? Generally speaking, individuals of wealth are targeted for abduction and quick release upon payment. In one scenario, a victim may be taken from his or her home in an affluent neighborhood and kept for months until a large ransom can be paid for the victim's release. In some cases, body parts, especially ears, may be mailed to the abductee's family to terrorize those to make payment. Although safe release is the bargain made to those who pay ransom, only about 65% are actually released unharmed. Some victims are even murdered, regardless of the ransom. In an express kidnapping, a tourist or business person may be approached on the street, forced into a vehicle and taken to an ATM machine, where he or she is told to withdrawal money. These "express" kidnappings usually see the victim released without serious injury upon the withdrawal.

As the crime has propagated, the fear itself may be used alone. In recent years, victims have received a call that a family member has been abducted. The victim may even hear the family member crying out for help. He or she is then instructed to deposit money to an account for the loved one's safe release. The situation can be real but at other times, the "kidnapper" is only using the phone to conduct the crime, and the claimed abductee is never actually abducted or in harm's way. Hence, the fear alone of kidnapping in Latin America has become a widespread and serious problem.

How to avoid this horrible crime? Avoid taking unregistered taxis, and taxis off the street at night in cities like Mexico City, Bogota, Caracas, Sao Paul, Rio and Buenos Aires. Use safe "sitio" taxis or take taxis from restuarants and hotels, whenever possible. Avoid the green beatle taxis in Mexico City at night. Avoid wondering the streets of Caracas, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City at night. Dress down, and understand the risks of flaunting wealth in the form of cars, clothing and jewelry in Latin America. By doing so, you increase your chances of becoming a victim. If you receive a call that a loved one has been abducted, and the caller requests a ransom, first, cooperate and inform the caller you are going to get the money and make the deposit. Second, hang up the phone and contact that loved one to confirm that he or she has indeed been kidnapped. Lastly, if someone other than a police officer approaches you on the street and attempts to force you into a vehicle, or force you to walk in any direction, fight like hell to escape and yell for assistance.

If on business or soon to be traveling in Latin America and wish to obtain additional information, contact Cinnamond Global, an international consulting firm specializing in Latin America, or Wymoo International for confidential background checks, and Kroll, also for advisory and background checks in any of these countries. For more reading, visit ERRI's page on the subject.

The future of the kidnapping trade depends largely on Latin America's ability to fight widespread corruption among police ranks, and to overhaul its corrupt and inefficient legal systems. Fixing those problems from Mexico to Argentina, however, is no easy solution. While these economies remain in the developing stage, crime and poverty - and kidnapping - will remain a real threat. Until the future arrives, exercise extra caution.

Be safe,

A. Hathaway
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
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Investment Opportunities - How to Enter the Game

Since the arrival of Colombus, Cortes and the subsequent invasion of the conquistadors, Latin America has suffered a difficult past and struggled to establish an open and fair democracy with modern economic policies. Cortes and his men in 1518 led the destruction of Mexico's Aztec Empire, followed by Pizarro's brutal annihilation of the Incan Empire in modern day Peru. A similar course of events in Brazil, and other Latin America countries completed the change in history. Unfortunately, nearly 500 years later, corruption and inequality are widespread, arguably as a direct result from the conquest, its poor leadership from the Spanish, the slow healing wounds from the conquest, and the reluctance of the European blood to share the wealth.

In 2007, Latin America shows some promising signs of change, both in economics and government reforms. With this slow social change, comes a rather rapid economic and market change with potential opportunity for foreign investors. First, let's sort out the good from the bad in terms of economic and investment - based mainly on leadership and the division within Latin America of left and right, or closed and open economies. Major countries with less prospects include Ecuador, Venuezuela, and Paraguay. While those countries in Latin America with a wide margin for growth are Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico.

How to enter this market, diversify your investment, and take part in the growth? Without expanding your business into Latin America, international investors have the opportunity to purchase these shares directly via an ETF (exchange traded fund). We recommend the iShares MSCI Brazil Fund (EWZ) which has a 3 year annualized return of 46.25%. Or, for Mexico, the iShares MSCI Mexico Fund (EWW) with a 3 year annnualized return of 40.15%. Clear signs that indeed the Latin American markets are emerging, and moving at a good pace. For a more diversified and simple approach to enter these markets, iShares offers the Latin America 40 Fund covering several countries and sectors.

Interested in a more direct investment, or expanding your operations into Latin America? We offer some general advice. Make every effort to establish relationships or offices in one or more of Latin America's major cities: Mexico City, Bogota, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires or Santiago. It's safe to say that nearly all of the action is here. Learn the language, hire someone who knows the culture and the language, or hire an outside consultant such as Cinnamond Global to screen opportunity and liason with the foreign business. Be skeptical and approach offers with caution in this market with slack regulation. Understand the risk-reward relationship. Lastly, when dealing with a small or medium-sized firm in Latin America, and especially when dealing primarily with an individual, get a professional background check from a firm like Wymoo who can validate the company and contacts.

Buena suerte,

A. Hathaway
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