Below, I have provided some pointers to keep in mind when utilizing the Internet and accessing your e-mail account:

• Are The Links The Same? – Whenever you get an e-mail from a friend (especially if it’s an HTML-based e-mail), prior to clicking a link, make sure that the URL in the body of the e-mail matches the link at the bottom of your browser / e-mail client. To see if the link matches without activating it, please hover your mouse cursor over the link to preview the actual link where it will take you.
• If It’s Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is – Often, especially if you are signed up with numerous websites, you may occasionally get an e-mail (that you are not subscribed to) with an offer that is too good to refuse (e.g. “A Free Trip to The Bahamas”). These e-mails are designed to get your attention and to gain the most gullible users as possible. These links (that will most likely ask for your credit card information and SSN) are dangerous, even though it may look harmless.
• The Typical “One Link” E-mail – You may have seen in your Inbox messages (if they have not already been sent to your Spam box), an e-mail with just one link in the body of the e-mail without any explanation what it’s to. These “one link” e-mails are also sent to a large group of people (most likely the sender’s entire contact list). Do not click the one link, because the more than likely, the same issue will happen to you, and the one link will be sent to all of your e-mail contacts as well.

Please be sure to keep these three anti-spamming hints and tips in mind, so that you can get the most out of your Internet experience.

Spam, of course.

Some people are reporting receiving emails that contain a simple line of text announcing the death of Jong-Il, which was likely copied from a reputable news source. The emails comes with an attachment named brief_introduction_of_kim_jong_il.pdf.pdf. Others are seeing an email with the attachment Kim_Jong_il_s_death_affects_N._Korea_s_nuclear_programs.doc, once opened it unleashes backdoor-opening malware to your system, which has the capability of connecting to servers for further directions.

The BBB offers the following advice:

1. Don’t let your curiosity get the better of you. If you want the latest, go to the homepage of a reputable news organization and read about Kim’s death there.
2. Don’t open any email attachments or click on any links.
3. Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, and run a complete system scan if you have opened anything suspicious.

As with any email: if you don’t know the sender, or you suspect it of being malicious… it probably is.

Dave’s Answer:
It wouldn’t be Internet, it wouldn’t be social media, if there weren’t trolls, cranky folk and spammers floating around in the pool too, so unfortunately it’s a fact of life, even in the new universe of Google Plus. I don’t know how they creep in, actually, but as soon as millions of users showed up, well, then the people that hide under rocks appeared too.
Fortunately the Google Plus team knows that there are going to be spammy and inappropriate comments left, and that there are also going to be comments people leave that you’ll want to delete but won’t want to necessarily report as abusive or spammy. Two different scenarios, right?
The problem is that the controls to edit your comment stream appear in one area but not another, and they’re hidden unless you know where to look for them.
Let’s dig in…
I posted a question to Google Plus about trips and weather, and the first [planted, Scott's not normally this abusive, just so you know] comment is rather troublesome:

The problem is that while this mini-window is great if you’re in Gmail or otherwise using a different Google tool, you can’t make any changes to the comment stream. What you can do as a handy shortcut, though, is scroll to the bottom of the mini-window:

Click on “View all mentions of my name” and you’ll see the same post and comments, but in the main Window rather than just the mini-window:

Now things get interesting because if you move the cursor to the lower right side of the comment you don’t like, some additional icons magically appear:

The flag icon lets you report a comment as abusive:

Once you’ve done that — if appropriate — then you can remove the comment from the discussion entirely (needless to say, they’re two different things, to match the two scenarios mentioned earlier) by clicking on the “X” icon:

Click on the “X” and you’ll be asked to confirm that’s what you want to do:

Really want to delete it? Then click on “Delete”. It won’t notify the author that it’s been deleted, but if they go back and review the discussion, they’re obviously going to know that their comment has mysteriously vanished.
Finally, the feedback that Google+ shows you:

Once it’s “crossed out” then you can be sure that the comment won’t appear for anyone else and, if you reload the discussion, it’ll vanish for you too.
Hope that helps you manage the discussion and mark as abusive all those annoying spammers!

Comments

Well done, hackers. Well done.

Although a hack like this might seem innocuous–even trivial–to some, it’s can actually be debilitating. Especially to a solo business owner who has limited infrastructure in certain spots.

As painful as this experience was, it was also an eye-opener and a blessing in disguise in some ways. I moved my professional email “on domain”–if you need my new email, send me a DM on Twitter or a private messages on Facebook and I’ll share it there. That was long overdue. And, a few days later, after numerous emails and submissions to Google, I thankfully recovered the account.

I also learned a number of other important lessons that I wanted to share with you today. I wouldn’t wish this experience on my worst enemy. But, hacking happens. And, if it happens to you, keep the following tips/lessons in mind:

Act quickly

I didn’t recover my account as quickly as I would have liked, but I’ve heard of others that have recovered their Gmail accounts within a day or two when they acted decisively. Submit your form to Google. They’ll ask you a bunch of impossible questions to determine if you’re the correct account owner. Answer those as best you can. But, cover off on that step quickly. Then, just make sure to follow the money. Most hackers are after money. If you have Paypal accounts or other bank accounts linked to that email, find those accounts and change your passwords ASAP. Shut off all connections with your money.

Go hosted, if you can

Gmail’s great. It’s the most popular email platform for a reason. But, it’s not without its limitations. Chiefly, if you get hacked you are at Google’s mercy. There’s no 1-800 number to call (for most people). No human to reach. Just a blind submission form. And, they may or may not get back to you with answers. If you’re a business owner, that’s not the answer you want to hear. So, it really leaves you with no choice but to go hosted. That way, you have access to real people when things turn south. People who can deliver answers in real time.

Communicate via other social networks

Once you’ve taken steps to unhack the hack, you need to start thinking about communications. Chances are people are sending emails to your Gmail address and expecting a reply. Only thing is:  You don’t have access so they’ll never receive a reply. That’s an issue. So, you need to take immediate steps to resolve that. Post a note on the social networks you’re active on with this information and the new email address you’re now using (for me this was Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). Even consider using a mass text message for key clients and colleagues. You need to get the correct email address to key people as soon as you can to ensure a gap in business communications.

Ask for help

Now is not the time to be stubborn. Ask for help from your friends and family. Chances are, there’s someone who can help you with the hack. And there are certainly people who can help spread the word about your new email address. In my case, my email angel was Patrick Rhone.

Change your passwords–regularly

Learned this one the hard way, but it bears stating here. Make a calendar reminder to reset your passwords each month/every other month. It’s something I’ve put off in the past, but you can believe it’s going to be a priority going forward. It might be a huge pain-in-the-ass, but it’s worth it. I can attest.

What about you? Have you been hacked on Gmail or other platforms? What tips or lessons do you have to share?

Comments

The spammer, or spambot, includes hyperlink in the comment with the aim of increasing the linked site’s search engine rank or gaining visitors by internet users clicking on the link (although we have also had spam comments where the spammer has included no link and just the name of their company or product that is being “promoted”). The comments tend to be positive in nature and praising the quality of our writing, but they are just being nice to improve the chance that we’ll publish it and their link.

The way that Web Analytics World works doesn’t allow for profile spam (not posting but creating a user profile which features a link to the site) but we do get our share of comment spam. I’ve grouped it into three types:

Single post – the most common one for us
Multiple – adds comments against a range of blog posts all pointing to a single site, or more often linking to all manner of sites from car maintenance to concert tickets
Serial – hadn’t seen this one a lot on Web Analytics World until early summer when a spammer/bot decided that our readers would really appreciate links to gaining false identification documents! ….and now the same comment regularly appears in our spam catcher.

I’m surprised that spam comments still happen, given the advances in technology on sites and search engines. What’s even more surprising is that some businesses actually pay for this “service”! On occasion the companies are unaware that their internet marketer has included comment spamming under the activity of improving traffic. There are others that see this as a valid tactic so if you allow user comments you should have a plan for handling spammers.

Approaches to spam comments

You shall not pass! – Not allowing any comments is a drastic step to take and it cuts out the opportunity for user interaction however this can be a suitable approach for older posts or if you provide a discussion area on your site and it will reduce the time you spend on moderation.
Everything in moderation – Manually approving comments before they are published on your site and spot checking older comments (when you allow users to log in and edit what they’ve written) are all time intensive but do help to protect the integrity of your site.
“There’s an app for that” – User registration, CAPTCHA anti-spam plug ins, no-follow links, blacklisting IPs, URLs or keywords, auto-moderation on comments with 2 or more links. Isn’t technology great? Just be sure to monitor your comments once you’ve activated any automated tools as you may find the number of valid comments drops through false positives or an unfriendly/time consuming posting process.

What do we do?

At Web Analytics World we use a mixed approach with human moderation and technology. We use Askimet to catch comment and trackback spam and all comments are approved by the team before they are published on the site. The downside on this is that comments don’t instantly appear, but if it is a genuine and valid comment it will be published.

We may alter our tactic in the future but so far we’re happy with how it’s working. How about you? – We’re keen to hear about your experience with comment spam and any hints or tips that you can share with our readers.
Comments

Google will now no more be posting the interim message ‘Reported To Be Closed’ about a business on its place page, a practice that it had been following so far. Rather, from now onwards it will first review every such news that will come to its knowledge. Then, after getting sure about the authenticity of the information, only then will Google report the business to be ‘Closed’. Google said, “As promised, we’ve recently made a change to our process of displaying when a business has been reported to be closed on its place page. More specifically, we have removed the interim notification about a report having been made so that a listing will only be updated after it has been reviewed by Google and we believe the change to be accurate. ”

Google believes that doing away with the ‘Reported To Be Closed’ information will reduce the scope for the display of any inaccurate information. The search engine has said that they know the importance of accurate listings on Google Maps for many businesses, and that they will do all they can to fight spam and abuse. It also has apologized to both businesses and users for the problems they had to face due to the spam labeling. Google said, “we’re committed to making sure that users and potential customers continue to have the most up-to-date and accurate information possible.”

How Google will verify with the business owners still remains to be seen. However, the move has been welcomed by businesses all over the world.

Comments

Dave’s Answer:

I’m a Google Plus old timer, I’ve been on it for weeks now. It’s only been in the last week that I have started to see irrelevant, rude or spammy comments showing up on my notes, and only those that I share with “Public”: One way to avoid spam comments in the first place is to only circle up people you know or trust, then only sharing your notes and discussions with them, of course.

If you do want to toss your ideas into the swirling maelstrom of “Public”, however, you’re inevitably going to see these spammy comments appear, though hopefully we won’t be overrun with them before Google figures out a smarter top-level filtering system.

I recently posted a note on Google Plus myself and when someone with the name “Sunil Gupta” decided it was the perfect place to advertise his affiliate link for some service or other, I actually posted a note saying “I wish I could remove individual comments”. My friend Kee Hinkley set me straight (thanks, Kee!) and that’s where this post comes from.

First off, here’s the note I posted:

Fairly innocuous, certainly no reason for a spammer to add a comment pointing to their service or similar. And yet, not 20 minutes passed before this appeared:

At first I thought perhaps it was a third party site that was tracking G+ feature requests, but I clicked on the link, saw it was some affiliate related ebiz site that I have zero interest in, and realized it was spam, not actually something helpful to the discussion that was already going on.

But how to delete it or mark it as spam? As with Facebook, Google Plus has already trained me to move my cursor to the top right of the “box” that contains the element, but here no little menu magically appeared. Hmmm…

Turns out the trick is to go back to the original note in the discussion and click on the small grey triangle on the top right. A menu appears:

As you would expect, “Report or remove comments” is what we want to deal with the spammy comment from Sunil, and now two links appear adjacent to each comment in the discussion:

The “X” removes the comment, but before I do that, I want to ensure I mark it as spam so that — I hope! — if there are enough spam comments from a G+ account, the account will be shut down. To do that, I click on the flag…

Now I can safely delete the comment if desired, or leave it in the discussion thread, having marked it as spam. It’s up to Google what happens to Sunil’s account now. I kinda hope he’d get an email encouraging him to contribute to discussions rather than just spam them, but as of this early date, I have no idea how the G+ team is processing spam flaggings.

Comments

While this is not the first bulk offer I have received, which is sad, most emails have similar formats. Here are 4 ways to spot a fraudulent email offer and protect yourself from being burned.

1. Is their email address from a legitimate company?

This should be a dead give away. If you have an individual contacting you trying to offer their services and you notice their email is johndoe@gmail.com, then this should be a clear indication that this is NOT a reputable person.

Look for an email that is from a legitimate organization. This way you can research the company if you plan on moving forward with the offer–but tread lightly.

2. Do they give you an SEO ranking?

In the email I was referring to earlier, the individual explained how Search Mojo’s “SEO score is 73%.” He continued with, “we can bring it to 100% by implementing on and off-page factors which will fetch better results in major search engines.”

First of all, how does this “score” process work? Why is Search Mojo 73%? Let me tell you, none of this makes any sense.

If someone comes to you trying to explain that your website has a specific ranking and they can GUARANTEE you specific results, it’s time to delete this email and forget about it. That’s not something you want to mess with.

3. Do they give you a valid inbound links count?

This one can be hard to spot if you’ve never done it before. Usually, these phony offers will have you believe that your site has a puny amount of inbound links. However, there is a way to protect yourself.

If you’re curious about the amount of inbound links you have, try using Yahoo Site Explorer to look more in-depth. This will show you the actual amount of links that are linking back to your site.

4. Do they offer a 100% money back guarantee?

Again with the guarantee. If I had a quarter for every time one of these emails threw around the word “guarantee”, I’d be rich. But in this case, my last email said, “we give 100% unconditional money back guarantee.” That’s just outrageous! With an industry that has a very hard time guaranteeing specific results, that’s a pretty outlandish statement.

I know it sounds enticing, and you’re thinking to yourself, “hey, if I don’t get the results I like I can get my money back.” Wrong!

When in doubt–Don’t! If the message seems to good to be true, well, it probably is. If you’re not careful you could end up with an unethical agency that’ll end up not doing any work for you at all or, worse yet, get your site banned from Google.

What types of unsolicited SEO offers have you experienced?

Comments

Although your website has high-quality content, there are, no doubt, sites and landing pages that rank higher in the search results. While this can be frustrating, there are steps you can take to turn the tide on these sites.

A video from the team at SuccessWorks outlines 3 stategies to combat your spammy competition. Here’s the video:

This is what you shouldn’t do:

1. Worry – although this spammy site is ranking above you they might not necessarily be making money. The quality of the site reflects the quality of the company. Consumers aren’t naïve, they wont purchase from website’s that look suspicious.
2. Copy this competitor’s strategy – although it might seem that this is the type of content that Google wants, this isn’t the case. This goes against Google’s best practices.

Here are the 3 tips from the video:

1. Check your data – is the key phrase you are being outranked for really that important to your overall revenue.
2. Review your content – can it be improved? You have probably had your website for a while and become content or blindsided with the content. It might be time to pass it onto external eyes to provide some feedback on how to improve it.
3. Start leveraging social media – this will increase the likelihood of people visiting your site from a variety of sources, not just traditional organic rankings. A good place to start is with a Facebook page, a Twitter profile or a Google Places page.

Do you have any additional tips? If so feel free to share them below.

Check out iNeedHits for more articles by Courtney Mills

The article sheds light on how the Locksmith spam that’s taking place in the Seattle area of USA, especially for the search query of “emergency locksmith Seattle.” Whilst the image depicts searches which are local to Seattle area, however according to the article in the Times the state that only seven local listings were local to the area. According to New York Times’s David Segal, “They are phone banks, typically set up in far-off places, often in other countries. Call them and they’ll dispatch a locksmith. Some are legitimate, but others may all too often do shoddy work and/or charge two or three times the estimate.”

The New York Times elaborately goes on to explain as to how these companies created fake listings by using the name, address or phones numbers or NAP of an already existing entities (like government buildings) altogether to trick Google and get around their local listing guidelines. In addition to that, to improve their rankings they would go on to use local citation and make references to locality.

Honestly, we all know it is nothing new. Google is certainly not full proof. Besides, why are we always so harsh on Google. Agreed it is become the contemporary Yellow Pages. However didn’t the traditional Yellow Pages face similar problems? Of leads which were practically spam too? Didn’t Yellow Pages have pages after pages of leads which were not from the area and forced you to spend ridiculous amounts when you called them? So, it could be questioned as to why such harsh criticism towards Google? Perhaps because, with Google our general perception is to only scan through the results that appear on the first page. Perhaps this explains the growing hostility Google is facing as the number of black hat SEO’s are making every effort to show up on their first page.

When New York Times contacted Google about the locksmith spam issue, Google’s Gabriel Stricker made the following statement, “We’re aware of the gaming practices happening in the locksmith industry — practices which long predate Google and have affected the Yellow Pages for decades. We’ve implemented several measures to combat this issue, including improving our spam-detection algorithms and working with the locksmith industry to find solutions.”

Whilst the Times article does not really unearth a new issue. One can only hope that locals who search for locksmiths amongst other services are made aware of the Bible-faith they have on Google. And on Google’s part, hopefully this will lead to added security measures they will need to take in order to resolve this long on going problem if they wish to maintain their ever growing domination over the search land. The burning question is, will they be able to fight these black-hat practices?

Check out Page Traffic Buzz for more articles by Navneet Kaushal