Greetings from SurfSafely.com! Spring has sprung, and with it a few old tricks have sprung up again too. Read on and I'll show you how to stay clear of them. If you enjoy reading this newsletter as much as I do writing it, by all means, pass it on! And as always, if you feel you've received it in error, removal instructions are at the bottom. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this issue: 1. A good traffic report - or is it? 2. Email scams - What's old is new again 3. SurfSafely.com in the news Next month - Will the real you please stand up? The realities of Identity theft. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News and guest articles may be submitted for editorial review to mailto:news@surfsafety.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Traffic report ============== I'm always excited every time I see large increases in traffic at SurfSafely.com and SurfSafety.com. Sometimes it means someone new placed a highly visible link on a high profile site and I begin to receive a good number of click throughs from that site. Sometimes it means I received favorable mention in the press or news media. I'm pleased because it means parents and teachers are getting more involved with the online activities of those in their care. Then again, my joy is often short lived. The single greatest reason for increased traffic is because people are looking for answers to questions resulting from tragedies occurring somewhere in the world where the trail leads to the online activities of the perpetrators. Worse yet is that they are looking for these answers after the fact. I can almost always correlate spikes in traffic to a tragedy somewhere. Most recently were the school shootings in Los Angeles and I always find myself asking the same question; Why did they wait so long? What can I do to wake them up before tragedy shakes them up? The answer is always the same; I'm doing it right now. By writing this newsletter, speaking to groups and organizations, exhibiting at online safety conventions, providing the tools and teaching people how to use those tools. So why is it never enough? It's not enough because one man can do only just so much. Without the help of others in a coordinated effort to educate and empower, progress will continue to be slow. And so I ask you to look deep inside and ask yourself "What can I do to help?" There are many things you can do to help and few involve money. Do you have a web site? Why not place our Family Friendly Search Engine at SurfSafely.com on your web pages? All you have to do is copy and paste your choice of code found at http://surfsafely.com/affiliate.html into your web pages and presto! You're providing a valuable service to every visitor to your web site. Don't have a web site but know someone who does? Tell them! Are you part of a group who could benefit from having me speak at one of your functions? Call me! Want to start something really big? Forward this newsletter to everyone in your address book! Seriously, do it right now, then come back and finish reading. Are you part of the new media? Interview me! Help me get the word out! Help me to PREVENT the next tragedy. No greater reward is there than to receive word that my efforts were not in vein; that someone found my information useful; helped them avert tragedy; brought their family closer together. I want to be able to share GOOD news with you, not just bad. You CAN help me. The real question is - Will you help me? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Email scams =========== I received an excited email from a colleague recently who said "If this is legit, were SET!" What was he so excited about? An offer that seemed too good to be true. Guess what? It was. In fact, it is one of the oldest scams I've ever seen and I can't believe he was ready to fall for it but I have to admit I have not seen it in quite some time. Well, it's back and here's how it works. Individuals will receive a solicitation from an official sounding foreign government or agency, usually from Nigeria. The message will explain how they have tens or hundreds of millions of dollars frozen in accounts in their country and they can not touch those funds without attracting undue attention unless they transfer them to a bank account outside of their own country first. In exchange for you allowing them to transfer all this money into your account they will offer you some percentage of the total, typically 30% or more. The stories behind the money are often so elaborate one may be inclined to say to himself "How could anyone make this stuff up? It must be legit." There's just one big problem with their story. The very act of transferring the funds would in itself draw the undue attention they say they are attempting to avoid. Once contacted they will mail or fax you very official looking documents on which you are asked to disclose banking information they say they need to transfer their funds INTO your account for safe keeping. The reality is they are asking for more information than they need for this purpose. They are asking for enough information to pose as you to your bank and DRAIN your account. Even more alarming is the fact that it may very well BE the government of Nigeria behind the scam. It's no secret they have no money and they'll do anything to get it. The last time this scam came around it was all over the evening news magazines; 60 Minutes, 20/20, Dateline, you name it. They all covered it. Combined, people LOST hundreds of millions. Don't be the next. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it IS a duck. If it sounds to good to be true, it is too good to be true. If you're lucky enough to receive such a message, forward it to uce@ftc.gov with the complete header information and don't give it another thought. Mark my words, if this scam is making a comeback you will again see it covered in the national news media. You saw it here first. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SurfSafely.com in the news ========================== Well, my trip to Singapore was hugely successful! Woof.com has finally put up video footage of the online safety conference at http://woof.mediacorpinteractive.com/events/56k/popup56safesurf.htm Of special note I will draw your attention to the morning panel discussions of day two chaired by such speakers as Stephen Balkam, executive director to the ICRA, Nigel Williams, founder of ChatDanger.com and David Kerr, founder of Internet Watch Foundation, a UK based online crime reporting agency. iParenting.com will be posting an article on April 3rd in which SurfSafely.com is featured. The piece is written by Pam Dillon, and very well written at that. She was gracious enough to give me a preview of the article when it was finished back in early December. Of course I was sworn to secrecy but you can check it out on Tuesday at http://www.iparenting.com/. Very worth while reading. Lastly, completely out of the blue I recently began receiving about 700 new SurfSafely.com search engine submissions a day! Concerned that my index was being randomly spammed I blocked the submissions until I could locate the source. As it turns out, SubmitWolf, a powerful search engine submission software package, has elected SurfSafely.com to be part of their top 1500 search engines to submit to. Unfortunately, it does not allow you to select a category within the SurfSafely.com DIRECTORY to place your listings. But, if you do use SubmitWolf for search engine registration, it does get submitted to the SurfSafely.com main index. And, of course, if it's PICS labeled, it will actually get in. ;-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's news for now. Until next time... Be informed, Be involved, Be well. Sincerely, Mark Brasche ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~