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:

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. 

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 found a nice surprise in my Inbox this morning.  I went into an e-mail message that contained an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and clicked on the file to preview it like I normally would.  However, I happened to notice that it didn’t say Foxit PDF Preview Handler above the preview window anymore.  I wondered if Adobe had finally included an Outlook 2007 PDF Preview Handler in one of their recent software updates.  I did a little more research and found out that with the release of Adobe Acrobat/Reader 8.1 they did include a PDF Preview Handler for Outlook 2007.  Adobe’s version of the preview handler doesn’t seem to have as many features as the Foxit preview handler but it is still pretty decent.

More information on the Adobe 8.1 update:

• PDF Preview for Outlook 2007 via Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 Update
• PDF Preview Handler included with Adobe Acrobat 8.1
• New features and issues addressed in the Acrobat 8.1 Update - Adobe TechNote KB401730

Download Links:

• Adobe Reader 8.1 Download
• Adobe Acrobat 8.1 Professional/Standard Update 

If you would like to run Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same computer I would highly recommend checking out the following tips from David Overton’s Blog:

• Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system
• How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows
• Information about using 2007 Office suites and programs on a computer that is running another version of Office (Microsoft KB928091)

I just read a blog titled Windows Live Search v2 released.  Since I’m always looking for better ways to find information and accomplish things on my Palm Treo 700w mobile phone I decided to check it out.  I took a few minutes to try it out and I must say that I’m quite impressed with it.  Regardless of whether or not you have tried the previous version, I would highly recommend checking out v2.

Here are a couple things I really like in the Windows Mobile 5 version of the application:

• It is fast!  I think this is due to the fact that it’s not entirely web based.  I’m not even on the Verizon Broadband speeds, out here in Amish country, and I was still impressed with the speed and responsiveness of it.
• Ease of use:  It is really easy to switch from one area of the application to another.  For example, you can quickly look up movies or movie theaters near a particular city and get the showtimes.  After that you can click on a link to get directions or save the movie theater to your contact list.  When you bring up the directions it shows you line by line what turns you need to take.  You can then click on a particular step in the directions to bring up that segment of the map.  After that you can either go back to the list of turns or scroll over to the next/previous step in the directions while staying in the map view.  What is amazing is how quick and seamless it is to switch between different levels of detail in the directions.  I tried out Google Mobile Maps awhile ago and I didn’t find it nearly as user friendly as Windows Live Search maps.
• Previous search memory:  I also like how it remembers the previous locations and search strings you have typed in.  This makes it really easy to make slight modifications to your search results which is a great timesaving feature.  I haven’t found a way to remove specific items from the lists yet though.

Windows Live Search v2 has the following menu options:  Categories, Map, Directions, Traffic, and Movies.  I was a little disappointed that news and weather weren’t included in the application.  However, you can still find that information (and more) by pointing your mobile browser to http://m.live.com.  Hopefully they will integrate some of those features into the application version of Mobile Search later.

Overall I love it so far and I don’t know how I survived without it.  I can’t wait to try it out more this week to get a better feel for it.

More Information:

• Windows Mobile Team Blog 
• To download and install it on your phone visit http://wls.live.com
• If your phone has a browser go to http://m.live.com to start searching
• CNET News.com Review
• myITforum.com 

Take Back Your Life!: Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to Get Organized and Stay Organized - Sally McGhee

There always seems to be those little things that are a minor annoyance but always seem to get put on the back burner.  When I read my e-mail in Microsoft Outlook I usually use the preview pane.  However, after I get done reading the message it doesn’t mark my message as read in the navigation pane until after I click on a different message.  If I forget to do that the little envelope down by the clock doesn’t go away so it still looks like I have new mail even though I already read it all.  I found this tip posted on the Lifehacker: Outlook blog the other day and thought some of you might also find it helpful.

Microsoft Outlook 2007’s default setting is to leave the naggy little “new mail” notification envelope in the taskbar, even if you’ve viewed your last unread email in the reading pane. Luckily it’s easy to stop that madness: In the Tools menu, choose Options, and from the Other tab, hit the Reading Pane button. There you can check off “Mark items as read when viewed in the Reading Pane.”