For Indian Mobile Networks

In India there are more than 50 core mobile customers and now a days the number of telemarketing calls you receive everyday is keeps on increasing. And its frustrating when one receives such calls throughout the day.

So here is the process to get one’s mobile number in the national ‘Do Not Disturb’ directory and avoid receiving the bothersome telemarketing calls…

First thing to do – Register your mobile number in the National Do Not Call Registry.

To stop unwanted calls in Airtel: Airtel postpaid and prepaid mobile users sms ‘START DND’ to 121 and broadband and landline customers call 121.

To stop unwanted calls on Vodafone: You need to send a sms ACT DND to 111.

To block calls from Reliance: Visit here and fill up a form to register to dnd.

Stop Calls on Idea Callular: Call up 1909 to register to DND or sms START DND to 1909 . For un-listing /de-activating DND send STOP DND to 1909.

Tata Indicom: http://www.tatatele.in/dnd/DNDAction.do use this link to activate DND.

Tata Docomo: Simply sms START DND to 1909 (toll free). In case you want to de-register yourself, send sms STOP DND to 1909.

BSNL: Visit their Provider Customer Preference Registry (PCPR)website. You can also access their Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). Call Toll-free number 1909 and follow the IVRS instructions for registering / de-registering. Alternatively you can also send sms to 1909 with keywords START DND. It will be registered. For de-registering sms STOP DND and it will be de-rgistered.

Visa / MasterCard FRAUD

Just a heads up for everyone regarding the latest in Visa fraud. Royal Bank received this communication about the newest scam. This is happening in the Midwest right now and moving.

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want.

Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it.

This information is worth reading.

By understanding how the VISA & MasterCard telephone Credit Card Scam works, you’ll be better prepared to protect yourself.

The scam works like this:

Person calling says – ‘This is (name), and I’m calling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge number is 12460, Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I’m calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which was issued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Device for $497.99 from a marketing company based in Arizona ?’ When you say ‘No’, the caller continues with, ‘Then we will be issuing a credit to your account. This is a company we have been watching and the charges range from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to (gives you your address), is that correct?’ You say ‘yes’.

The caller continues – ‘I will be starting a Fraud Investigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask for Security. You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then gives you a 6 digit number. ‘Do you need me to read it again?’

Here’s the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works – The caller then says, ‘I need to verify you are in possession of your card’. He’ll ask you to ‘turn your card over and look for some numbers’. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the last 3 are the Security Numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are the numbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the last 3 numbers to him. After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he’ll say, ‘That is correct, I just needed to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?’

After you say no, the caller then thanks you and states, ‘Don’t hesitate to call back if you do’, and hangs up. You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called back. Within 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we were glad we did! The REAL VISA Security Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card. We made a real fraud report and closed the VISA account. VISA is reissuing us a new number.

What the scammers want is the 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don’t give it to them. Instead, tell them you’ll call VISA or Master Card directly for verification of their conversation.

The real VISA told us that they will never ask for anything on the card as they already know the information since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you’re receiving a credit; however, by the time you get your statement you’ll see charges for purchases you didn’t make, and by then it’s almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.

What makes this more remarkable is that this appears to be a very active scam, and evidently quite successful.

Pass this on to all your family and friends.

FACEBOOK – an important message to all my Facebook contacts.

ATTENTION!!!

Important: … All those who use Facebook either for business or entertainment, Here’s how to properly configure your Facebook to your advantage:

Status:

1. Have you noticed that the updates and recent news that will appear on Facebook arealways the same people, no matter how great your friends list?
2. Have you noticed that when you post a message, photo or link, the comments alwayscome from the same circle of friends?
3. Will the rest of your friends do not use more than Facebook?

The Problem:

Due to new updates, a large part of your contact list can not see anything you post on Facebook. From now Facebook has a configuration in which it only show your posts to people who have recently interacted with you in the last 2 weeks.

So for a person to be visible to all your friends, you should leave a comment directly to each of them and vice versa! This is impossible for most people and especially for those who have huge lists of friends.

The Solution:

1. One the initial page, click on ”Most Recent” then click the arrow to the right and select “Edit Options”.
2. Click on ”Show publications” and change the setting to “All his friends and pages”.

Result: Made this change in the configuration, you can see the publications of all your friendsagain, but they can not see yet!

Note:
INVISIBLE still ongoing for most of your list!
To re-establish contact and becoming visible again have to pass these instructions to all your contacts.

Greetings!

Look at what happened from 1998 until 2008.

In just ten years it has grown and grown. Watch the pieces come together as they are sent up from Earth.

This is the International Space Station (ISS) Assembly diagram, piece by piece.

I had no idea the Space Station had grown to this size.

This is really cool!!!

Click here to see the flash presentation.

The first thing you have to keep in mind to prevent identity theft is the power your personal information gives the thief.

A thief can use your social security number, credit card number, password, PIN, etc. to make transactions under your name, which can cost you both hard-earned money and a lot of time trying to fix the damage. So, don’t give them that power.

1. Keep Important Documents Safe and Secure: Never allow anybody to fix your wallet, purse, or bag where you have IDs, bank statements, credit cards, and other important documents to prevent identity theft. You shouldn’t be complacent, even with those close to you. Studies show that in around 26% of identity theft cases, victims knew the perpetrators.

2. Properly Dispose Important Documents: Shred or tear up receipts, personal applications, bank or credit card statements and scatter them among different waste bins to prevent identity theft. Better yet, burn them before throwing them away. Do not leave transaction receipts behind after making a purchase to prevent identity theft. Never leave your receipt at the ATM machine.

3. Do Not Giving Out Personal Info Over the Phone: Never give your account details and other similar information to someone who calls you asking for it. To prevent identity theft, ask to ring them back, or bother to see them personally at their office before giving out any details. Better yet, to prevent identity theft, give out details only if you initiated contact.<

4. Bringing Only IDs You Need: It’s easier to keep track of your IDs on a daily basis if your wallet only has current ones or those that you actually use for transactions during the week. To prevent identity theft, leave IDs you don’t particularly need at home, locked up in a safe place.

5. Fill Out Only the Last Four Digits at the Bank: Did you know that writing only the last four digits of your bank account number when filling up deposit or withdrawal forms will suffice? The teller can take care of the rest. Also, to prevent identity theft, tear up any transaction slips you want to discard, and toss them in the bin. Do not leave them on the counter.

6. Be Constantly Aware of Your Surroundings: During a purchase, make sure your credit or debit card is handed right back to you after a transaction. Cup your free hand over the hand that is punching in your PIN, especially at an ATM machine.

7. Stay Informed!: Take time to research the latest modus operandi of identity thieves. You should be especially concerned if you use the Internet to make financial transactions. To prevent identity theft, you will have to be on your guard against web spoofing (using a replica of a trusted site to manipulate your transaction) and bogus e-mail.

Heed these tips and you can easily prevent identity theft from occurring.

The next time you want to open a new bank account, forget the heavy load of documents that one has to take along. An ‘Aadhaar’ number is all that you will need…

A recent notification issued by the Finance Ministry has recognised Aadhaar number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as an “officially valid document” to satisfy the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for opening bank accounts, a statement released by the Authority said.

This notification is expected to promote the financial inclusion of the poor and the hitherto excluded by making it possible for them to easily establish their identity and open bank accounts, it said.

The UIDAI is facilitating opening of bank accounts for the residents at the time of enrollment for Aadhaar through partner banks and acceptance of Aadhaar as a valid KYC will make the process seamless.

Official sources said the move by the government will give a big boost to the popularity of the ‘Aadhaar’ project and will also enable those outside the banking arena to have an account of their own. The process has already been implemented in some of the banks. The new forms for opening an account will have a column for writing in the unique number.

A 12-digit exclusive number ‘Aadhaar’ is being issued by the government to act as an unique identification for citizens which is linked to the resident’s demographic and biometric information.

They can utilise the number for identification purpose anywhere in India and access a host of benefits and services.

Beware! Your PC is not safe. Even a routine Internet search, especially for a hot topic, might lead your computer into the hands of hackers.

Not just dubious online advertisements and leading or attractive download offers, experts feel that usual search queries could expose your system to cyber criminals.

According to experts, in a testimony to the rising threat posed by cyber criminals, many Internet search results on latest skirmishes in the Korean peninsula led the users to links of malwares and fake anti-virus software.

Trend Micro, a leading network antivirus and internet content security software and services provider, in the wake of exchange of fire between North and South Koreas, found that some internet search results on the topic itself were hacked.

”…Within several hours of the cross-border incident, search results related to the subject of the clash, had been poisoned by scammers. Hijacks were detected for both English and Korean languages,” Trend Micro said.

The firm noted that the hijacked search results routed users to fake URLs, that directed users to download fake anti-virus applications which were infected by viruses.

Fake ActiveX control or a Flash Player update, were used to convince internet users that their computers have been infected by viruses.

Last week, North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells on a South Korean island, killing four persons and triggering an exchange of fire, as southern armed forces went on their highest state of alert.

The fake antivirus variant seen in this attack is detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.SMRY, and that the company was already blocking the sites hosting the malicious files.

The shelling, one of the worst incidents between the two countries in years, is being used by cybercriminals behind fake antivirus malware.

According to research reports, the increase of internet users globally, the spam is also increasing and it continued to grow between January and June 2010, with a brief lull during April.

According to reports, malicious URLs increased from 1.5 billion in January to over 3.5 billion in June.

North America sourced the most malicious URLs, while Asia-Pacific had the most victims of malware infections. The top URLs blocked by Trend Micro were adult websites, as well as sites that hosted malicious variants such as IFRAME code, TROJ_AGENT, and JS_DLOADR.ATF.

All the committees and working groups forming part of the IPv6 Task Force that will oversee the country’s transition to a ‘new’ global web-address protocol are expected to be in place by this month-end.

Deadlines have been set for different stakeholders to prepare themselves for the major change, and a road map spelling out the details of the migration from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was officially released in July.

Version 4 of the protocol, which has so far been dominantly used on the Internet, is made up of a set of numbers that help to identify web addresses, besides facilitating communication from one point to the other.

As the Internet grew phenomenally, the sets of numbers that could be used as digital addresses started getting exhausted, making it imperative that a new and expanded system with the potential for a tremendously larger number of unique addresses be deployed to keep it going.

The world will run out of IPv4 addresses in a matter of months, experts say. (See Hurricane Electric IPv4 Exhaustion Counters)

It is, however, not as if the IPv4 system would be shut down to make way for the new one. Both systems will co-exist; the future will however belong to the IPv6 system which has slowly been gaining global acceptance in recent years. Meanwhile, various techniques will be used to facilitate communication between the two. Isolated IPv6 networks will also have to communicate with each other using the IPv4 networks till they gain ground.

The National IPv6 Deployment Roadmap detailed the creation of the Task Force which was to have several committees and working groups to pave the way for this transition, a major technical challenge for infrastructure and service providers in the country besides the government itself. It will be very difficult, “if not impossible,” to acquire new IPv4 addresses after mid-2012.

The Task Force was to be made up of officials from the Departments of Telecommunications and Information Technology, organisations such as the National Internet Exchange of India, the Education and Research Network and the National Informatics Centre, as well as various other Central and State government departments and agencies, and representatives of telecom and Internet service providers, educational institutions, industry associations, equipment vendors and content providers, software vendors and cable TV industry representatives, apart from the IPv6 Forum.

Though the extent of progress achieved by the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to get themselves ready for the transition seemed to vary, R.M. Agarwal, Deputy Director-General, Telecommunication Engineering Centre, expressed confidence in their being able to meet the December, 2011 deadline.

He told The Hindu that preparatory to the change, the ISPs were also ‘taking care’ of issues like acquiring enough IPv6 address blocks, resources that are apportioned internationally to networks in different regions of the world.

While some of the big ISPs were already in a position to offer IPv6 connectivity, the small and medium ISPs were not prepared for transition “because they are dependent on their upstream larger service providers in the chain,” the report had said. They would follow suit once the large service providers migrated to IPv6. All important Central government Ministries appointed nodal officers to get set for the transition, Mr. Agarwal said. All Central and State government Ministries and Departments, including its public sector units, are expected to switch over to IPv6 by March 2012.

The road map had suggested that a national center of excellence, ‘Indian IPv6 Centre for Innovation,’ be created to take over the activities of the Task Force in the long run. A separate ‘Transition Pipe,’ which will channel traffic from one IPv6 network to another, has been suggested, especially by the ISPs. “The working group concerned will take up this issue with all stakeholders,” Mr. Agarwal said.

US computer-maker Dell made its entry into the highly competitive Indian smartphone market today with the launch of two high-end 3G-enabled handsets, priced at Rs 10,999 and 16,990 respectively.

The company is targeting both high and low-end users with the two smartphones, dubbed XCD28 (Rs 10,999) and XCD35 (Rs 16,990), it said here.

“With today’s launch, we extend (our) pioneering edge to the smartphones market… as starting with the XCD series, we look to offer technology solutions to a much larger audience,” Dell India General Manager Consumer & SMB Mahesh Bhalla said.

“India is one of the fastest growing global markets for mobile devices, as well as personal computers,” Dell Inc Vice-President Worldwide Business Development & Strategy Farooq Butt said.

Other foreign companies that are already present in the Indian smartphone market are HTC, Nokia, Acer and Blackberry, but domestic companies are also trying to corner a slice of the pie through aggressive pricing of models.

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