I just sold my Gateway M675 laptop on eBay a second time (after writing a long blog post about my experiences).  This time I added a Buy It Now price so it ended a lot sooner.  This sale was to an account that was created today and didn’t have any selling/buying history.  I did a google search for the phone number listed and it didn’t return any results.  I also did a google search for the address and it looks like the address is the address of the Quality Hotel Times Square (157 W 47th St, New York, NY  10036).  I just tried calling the phone number and it has been disconnected.  This is starting to get really frustrating.  I’m beginning to lose faith in mainkind and eBay.

After I report it to eBay I think I’ll call the hotel to see if someone by that name is staying there.  It’ll be an interesting experiment.  I think I’ll have to see if I can restrict the auction so no user account without any purchasing/selling history can bid on it.

Does anyone have any tips for preventing this kind of thing when selling items on eBay?

If you were interested in purchasing my laptop today is your lucky day.  It has been relisted due to the winning bidder’s account getting hijacked by someone wanting me to ship the laptop to Nigeria.  It is a really decent laptop and should make a great home/office computer for someone.

Item #150170879691 - “GATEWAY M675 P4 HT 2.6GHZ 2GB 80GB CDRW 17″ WIRELESS“ - Start Date/Time:  10/11/2007 @ 12:30PM EST (9:30AM PDT)

<rant>I’m really tired of all the scammers out there sending out spoof e-mails from banks, eBay, PayPal, etc.  I’m tired of all the spammers sending out junk e-mail trying to send me billions of dollars because someone in Nigeria has died.  Luckily ExchangeDefender can take care of the symptoms of the spam problem.  However, the source of the problem still exists.  It would be awesome if there was some way to magically find all of the scammers to lock them up and throw away the key.</rant>

There are other people (example1, example2, example3) that were asking about this same scam on eBay over a year ago (as early as 08/15/2006).  In fact, they even listed the same shipping address as the one sent to me.  You would think the police would eventually shut this guy down.

The address listed was:
Adeyemi .A. Bolarinwa
No 12 Dikat House
Ring Road, Ibadan
Oyo State, Nigeria  23402

Here are some things that should raise some red flags about the e-mail screenshots that I posted below:

1. The buyer wants the seller to ship the item to an alternate mailing address.  This should raise a red flag in your mind (especially if it is an address in Nigeria). 
   TIP: Only ship to the shipping address listed by PayPal/eBay as the buyer’s address.  Also, usually only verified PayPal addresses give you protection when selling items on eBay.  I would also recommend trying to independently verify the buyer’s contact information (i.e. if their phone number is listed in the white pages you can type it into google and it will give you their home address).  Make sure you also use a reputable shipping company and be sure to get a tracking number.  Insurance might also be a good idea but I’m not sure if it protects against fraud or only shipping damages.
2. The e-mail address in the e-mail messages is a fake e-mail address (i.e. on the PayPal e-mail the e-mail address ends in @officeemail.net instead of @paypal.com which is a big red flag).
   TIP: The e-mail addresses should always end in @paypal.com or @ebay.com.  You should also be careful because the from address in e-mail messages is easy to spoof.  If you get an e-mail that you think is a spoof (even if you aren’t 100% sure) please forward the e-mail message to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com right away.
3. Official e-mail messages from eBay and PayPal will also usually have corresponding messages that show-up on their website after you login to your account but these messages didn’t show up there for me.
   TIP: Don’t click on the website links in the e-mail but open your web browser and manually type in http://www.paypal.com or http://www.ebay.com instead.  One way accounts get hijacked is by tricking people into going to a website that looks like the real website but instead captures your login credentials and sends it to the scammer.  If they start asking you for personal information (i.e. social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc.) that should definately raise a red flag in your mind.  If you think it is a spoof e-mail (or website) please report it to eBay or PayPal right away.
   TIP: PayPal and eBay will never ask you for your personal information in an e-mail message.  If you get an e-mail that you think is a spoof (even if you aren’t 100% sure) please forward the e-mail message to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com right away.
4. They try to make it sound like the payment has already been sent and ask you to ship out the item right away.  However, in my case the e-mail didn’t list the correct payment amount and when I signed in to PayPal there were no notices of any payments or pending payments sent.
   TIP: Never ship the item out without confirming that the payment has been received and has cleared the bank.  Be sure to login to PayPal by manually typing the address into your web browser and verify that the money is there before shipping your item.

Additional Information:

• eBay Spoof Tutorial
• PayPal Security Center:
  • PayPal Online Safety Essentials
  • PayPal Phishing Guide
  • PayPal Identity Theft Guide

Fake PayPal E-mail:

Fake E-mail From Buyer:

Fake eBay E-mail:

I’m selling my old laptop and accessories on eBay this week.  The laptop has some minor cosmetic damage on the outside of it (scratches here and there) but it is in good working order.  I wiped it out using DBAN and restored it back to the original factory configuration.  I also downloaded the latest updates and installed some free AntiVirus/AntiSpyware software.  It would make a great laptop for someone who doesn’t plan on upgrading to Windows Vista anytime soon (Gateway won’t release updated drivers for it).

• Gateway M675 Laptop
• Verizon National Broadband Wireless PC5740 Laptop PCMCIA Card + Carrying Case
• Echo Indigo DJ Laptop PCMCIA Audio Card

There was an interesting article posted on the AutoPatcher.com Blog today that talks about the history and future of AutoPatcher.  They talk about the Blaster worm which spread like wildfire across the Internet and rendered many computers unusable until the infection was removed.  Here is a short excerpt from the AutoPatcher.com Blog:

We will be working on a web-oriented solution which we hope will give use two great benefits: easier and more efficient upgrades and easier “all-in-one” creation. Since I’m in the middle of exams, I will probably start coding in about a week from today. Although we can’t really provide an estimate on when the next AutoPatcher will be available, we will do our best to have everything ready (and above all Microsoft-free) just in time for an October release.

One of my experiences with the Blaster worm:

I remember the days of the Blaster worm well since I had to clean many computers infected with it (as well as some similar ones).  I remember one instance very well.  At the time some of the colleges around here were huge breeding grounds for computer viruses upon the arrival of new students.  My girlfriend (at that time) needed to have Windows XP reloaded on her computer.  I think it was because it was infected with the Blaster worm but I can’t remember for sure.  I grabbed the Windows XP SP1 CD, reformatted the hard drive, and reinstalled Windows.  Installing Windows XP SP2, all of the latest security updates, and Anti-Virus software were my top priorities after installing Windows.  However, I learned a lesson the hard way that day.  As those of you in the IT industry know Windows XP SP1 didn’t include the built-in firewall.  That important security feature came as part of the SP2 release.  The tiny problem was that I had left the network cable plugged into the computer when reinstalling Windows on a network with thousands of laptops owned by college kids.  Needless to say, a bunch of these computers didn’t have the latest security updates or current Anti-Virus programs installed which resulted in a bunch of computers on the network becoming infected.  Since I had the network cable plugged-in it didn’t take long for the fresh install of Windows XP SP1 to get infected with the Blaster worm even though I started installing SP2 almost immediately after reinstalling Windows.  To make a short story longer, I ended up reformatting the computer and reinstalling Windows XP again.  This time I was sure to unplug the network cable and install SP2 before plugging it back into the network.  That day I learned an important lesson:  install the latest security updates before connecting the computer to a network, especially one that you don’t manage yourself.  This is where I think AutoPatcher comes in really handy.  It allows you to get almost all of the latest security updates installed before connecting to the Internet.  Of course, now I usually slipstream SP2 into the Windows XP CD but AutoPatcher is still very useful because there have been a lot of updates released since SP2 came out. 

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is targeted to be released in the first quarter of 2008.  Since the Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 engineering efforts are aligned they are also targeting the first quarter of 2008 for their release date.

Here is an excerpt talking about what changes SP1 includes:

In addition to updates we’ve previously released, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues we’ve identified via customer feedback, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards.  SP1 also makes additional improvements to the IT administration experience.  We didn’t design SP1 as a vehicle for releasing new features; however, some existing components do gain enhanced functionality in SP1.

See Also:

• Announcing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta - Windows Vista Team Blog
• Windows Server 2008 Timing Update - Windows Server Division Weblog
• Windows Vista SP1 white paper

A tech community called Lunarsoft had a talk with a member of the Microsoft Team and found out the reason behind why AutoPatcher received the takedown notice. They also have another story about all the talk of why AutoPatcher got their takedown notice and people wanting to help.

More can be read at http://lunarsoft.net

read more | digg story

Other related Lunarsoft articles:

• AutoPatcher project receives takedown notice - Aug. 30
• [Exclusive] The reason behind the AutoPatcher takedown notice - Aug. 30
• More trouble for AutoPatcher and other projects? - Aug. 31
• AutoPatcher Ray of Hope? - Sept. 2

I just saw on the AutoPatcher Blog that Microsoft sent them a takedown notice requiring them to remove the download page from their website.  For those of you who don’t know what AutoPatcher is it is basically a compilation of Windows updates released since the most recent service pack.  On August 20th, 2007 they announced that they now had AutoPatcher releases for Microsoft Office XP/2003/2007 in addition to the standard Windows updates.

The nice thing about AutoPatcher was that it was a great time saver for computer technicians who work on multiple computers for clients.  It has saved me countless hours when updating computers for clients, which translates into increased savings and adds value to my services.  I still occasionally run into new clients who are still running Windows XP SP1 and even a few that don’t even have SP1 installed.  Even with all of the updates bundled into one file that you can download and burn onto a CD or DVD it still usually takes 1-2 hours to install all of the service packs and recommended updates.  That is without downloading the updates from the Internet on every single PC.  If I had to download all the updates from the Internet and the client was on dial-up it would take all night.  Even on high speed Internet it usually takes a little while to download the few hundred MBs of updates released since Windows XP SP2.  It is especially inefficient use of your time if you are onsite at a client’s office or house.

The other nice timesaving feature of AutoPatcher was the automated installer that installed all the patches one after another without prompting.  I would just select all the updates I wanted to install, click on start, and then work on something else for an hour or two and let it finish.  Microsoft Update basically does the same thing but it takes a lot longer since it needs to download the updates from the Internet before it installs them.

I must say I’m going to miss AutoPatcher and I hope Microsoft reconsiders their actions.  However, I was expecting this to happen for quite awhile and I doubt Microsoft will change it’s mind.  At least I have most of the latest AutoPatcher releases burned to a DVD and I will probably keep using them until they become obsolete.

I setup a brand new Dell Dimension E520 for one of my clients a few months ago.  It was running Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.  I got everything setup without a hitch until I tried to install AVG Free.  After I installed AVG I kept getting the following error when the computer started up as well as when I tried to double-click on the desktop icon to start AVG:

avgwb.dat - Application Error
The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000022). Click OK to terminate the application.

I tried all kinds of things to try to troubleshoot the issue.  I uninstalled AVG and reinstalled it.  I right-clicked on the AVG icon and selected “Run as administrator” which prevented the error from coming up but wasn’t a permanent solution.  I contacted Dell technical support because it was a brand new computer and I figured the problem was caused by something Dell did when they configured UAC in Vista.  I even purchased AVG Anti-Malware Edition and contacted Grisoft’s technical support team (the free version doesn’t come with technical support).  However, nothing I tried seem to help.  I finally decided that I needed to find a temporary solution and revisit the problem after Grisoft’s technical support team had more time to analyze the problem.  Since the problem seemed to be a security related issue caused by UAC in Windows Vista I temporarily disabled the UAC.  That temporarily “fixed” the problem and got AVG working until I could find the cause of the problem and fix it.

The Grisoft technical support team never did find a solution for me and Dell wasn’t much help at all.  Apparently they were all as baffled as I was.  When I was looking at the computer again today I noticed that the AVG error was coming up again.  It looked like someone had enabled UAC since the last time I looked at the computer so I decided to take another crack at the issue.  When I figured out the solution I decided to post it on my blog to help other people troubleshoot similar problems and hopefully save them some of the frustration I experienced.

The Solution:

I already knew the problem had something to with the avgcc.exe program not being granted the proper security permissions to run.  I did a little more research on the Internet and decided to use Dependency Walker to try to figure out what files avgcc.exe was having trouble accessing.

1. I downloaded Dependency Walker and extracted it.
2. I ran Dependency Walker and opened the “C:\program files\Grisoft\AVG7\avgcc.exe” file with it.
3. At the bottom of the screen it told me there was an access denied error when trying to load the “C:\windows\system32\mfc71.dll” file it was dependant on.
4. I opened Windows Explorer and browsed to the MFC71.DLL file, right-clicked on it, and selected properties.
5. Then I clicked on the Security tab.  It gave me a UAC security warning about changing the permissions of system files and I clicked Continue.
6. I added the Everyone group and gave it Read/Execute access to the file.
7. I tested AVG and it was working just fine after that.
8. I went back in to check the settings of some similar files and it looked like the previous permissions had been correct.
9. I removed the Everyone group and tested AVG.  It still seemed to be working ok so I rebooted to double-check and everything came up just fine.

Conclusion:

It looks like the permissions for the MFC71.DLL file got corrupted somehow.  I don’t know if it was something wrong with Dell’s original setup or what caused the problem.  I haven’t ran into this problem on any other Dell computers running Vista yet.  If you have ran into the same problem before please post a comment and let me know.  I’d really appreciate the feedback.  Thanks!

Commencing at midnight, August 15th, 2007 we will start relaying mail using the two new subnets announced a few weeks ago. We have also provided a helpful guide to setting up IP restrictions with Exchange 2003. It is also recommended that you enforce IP restrictions on your firewall depending on your network topology.

For the entire blog post please visit the Own Web Now Blog.

A couple important Windows Vista updates were released recently to fix various performance issues.  There is more information, as well as links to download the updates, on David Overton’s Blog.  You must be running genuine Microsoft Windows to be able to download and install the updates.

See KB938194 and KB938979 for more information.