Social Engineering - Getting You & Your Information To Part Ways

While considering a post regarding the next phase of inventive ways people seek to cause you to part ways with sensitive data using technology, I received 5 emails featuring the some old ways (with some new twists). In the interest of education, I thought I'd review some of them:

The IRS now uses email! - This email actually says it comes from Internal Revenue Service [service@irs.gov], which is really deceptive. The link, however, goes to a Russian domain - dozor.liptesk.ru. This is, as far as I know, a pretty new scam.




After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that
you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $192.81.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 2-3 days in order to
process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here


Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time.
Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.


Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

The "but I've never won anything!" email -
Received this from Maris Marisq [MarisqMarisqw@web.de]

Subject: WINNING NOTIFICATION (Have also see "2006-2007 USA GREEN CARD VISA LOTTERY AGENCY (CONGRATULATIONS!!!"))

This is to inform you that your Email Address attached to a has won the prize Sum of Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros (450,000.00) Euros, in an Email Loteria Shop Award program held in the-Espaia.Do contact the Details below for your claim agency Contact

PROMOTION DATE: 31 October 2007
REFERENCE NUMBER:NES/0601/44/07
BATCH NUMBER:16/612/ACS
LUCKY NO:10/23/44/72/80

Your full Names:
Telephone:

Chalet Financial Services
Mr.Jaime Sanchez
Tel:+34692473683
Contact Email:infosgasl@aim.com

Congratulations!
Please note that you will be required to pay for the issuance of your legal back up and legalization of certificate of deposit document in court,All winnings must be claimed not later than 14 days the age of 18 is automatically,


Sincerely yours,
Mrs.Hana Maris
Winning Co -ordinator

I've referenced this scam in the past - but it still out there.

Now when did I open that Chase account?
The email sender is Chase Financial Services [smccs@chaseonlines.chase.com], but directs you elsewhere for "service."

Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-Path: root@plesk-unix.guetali.fr
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 30 Oct 2007 11:58:22.0362 (UTC) FILETIME=[2B72FFA0:01C81AEC]

, We recently reviewed your account, and we suspect an unauthorized ATM based transaction. Therefore as a preventive measure we will temporary limit your access to sensitive Chase features. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please login to your Chase Online Banking and verify your identity to prevent deactivation. SERVICE: Chase Online Banking. What you need to do: - Go to: Chase Online Banking '>https://chaseonline.chase.com/ - Login to Online Banking. Thanks for your patience. Sincerely, Chase Online Centre **************************************************************************** For any inquiries, contact Customer Service. ****************************************************************************

Investment opportunities at my beck and call -
This one came from

COMPLIMENT! VISION FOR INVESTMENT.

Attention: Sir/Madam,

I have a transaction of mutual benefits, which I would like to share with you, hoping this might interest you. I am Dr. Raymond Olechev. Account Director with UK-Austria Alliance Investment Services. We are interested in going into partnership with you to work with us, to help us establish a medium of investment of lodgement fund in the production of goods, services and in returns make further profit.

There has been a proper availability of investment funding with us by an investor to support the achievement of this vision. The investor faced with cumbersome problem of unstable investment environment in their country which is crippling businesses has consulted with us to see how he could make proper investment with his fund. Hence, we employ that you assist us to bring this to reality as you get good yield of money (i.e. profit) in the investment.

A consult with the investor to invest the sum of 35Million United States Dollars in partnership with you of which commission in % will be paid to you for successfully assisting us getting this fund to you, our firm and investment of the fund with you in all profit made.

If you are interested, please reply instantly and forward your telephone number so we can discuss and I shall provide you with the details of getting this investment funding to you to aid this vision.

Thank you.
Dr. RAYMOND OLECHEV
Reply to my personal email address;

RaymondOlechev@hotmail.com

---

Play Movie Mash-up and win BIG prizes!

Google's Answer to Facebook's Platform - Open Social

TechCrunch reports today that Google's new social networking thrust is to be "a set of common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any social networks (called “hosts”) that choose to participate."

The APIs cover three areas - profile data, friends, and activities - and are intended to be open, so that they will be usable potentially with any social network, unlike Facebook's platform.

Will Google succeed? Hard to say, but its strategy has a unique advantage to it, in that it allows Google to provide its platform to partners (salesforce.com, LinkedIn, and Ning, to name a couple) who have to date not had this functionality, and were potentially at a disadvantage to Facebook.

Rounding up a team of competitors to compete against Facebook seems like a winning strategy (I'm a LinkedIn user and Facebook user, but far prefer LinkedIn). But the future of social networking is, by and large, still anyone's guess.

Elaboration of Trends: Consumer Service Outsourcing

An article in today's New York Times "Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math" by Steve Lohr describes a nascent trend in outsourcing - outsourcing to individual consumers, rather than to corporate America.

Those of you who have traveled in the Middle East will recognize this personal service trend as having its roots in people from the Subcontinent working in countries and sending remittances home. The internet has eliminated the need for travel, allowing individuals to work directly from their homes.

This new spin on an old trend is likely to continue, but will probably also even further erode the economic imbalances that make it so advantageous. Just as Bangalore has seen Silicon Valley style wage escalation due to the demand for outsourced services, so will this trend eliminate some of the cross-border arbitrage opportunity.

However, it still remains to be seen whether offshore tutors can improve their own lot and the math and science scores of American and British citizens! Hopefully they can create a win for both economies...

Skype Mobile Phone

What a banner year for mobile phones - huge leaps forward. Here's the next watershed event...Skype's new mobile phone.

As WiMax, hotspots, city area networks, and personal networks proliferate, it isn't hard to imagine a time in the not so distant future where the high-priced infrastructure of the cellular provider will be either supplemented or mirrored by a web of open WiFi connections.

As always, we're looking for these advancements to bring handset and service prices in line.

Contract Sales and Fund Raising Resources - A Staffer In Disguise

Sales is tough. So is fund raising. At some point, most startups consider the use of contract sales people, or freelance sales people who work for commission only.

Not only are sales and fund raising hard, but they are also quite important because they are two ways to finance your business. So there is a strong urge to consider contract/freelance agents, especially if they are commission only resources; they supplement your existing efforts, and they don't cost you anything unless they do their job, right?

Well, the money you pay a commission only sales resource is really only part of their cost (many people want an upfront retainer...). So, as you're considering contract sales people, think about other, related costs:

- Management time - As with any sales person, you need to direct a freelancer's efforts, ensure that they are focused and getting the information they need.

- Training time - No sales person can just drop in to a new company/product and be immediately effective. They need to be trained on the product, drilled in the messaging, instructed on policy, etc.

- Risks/Impact on Market Perception - In the case that things don't work out, and sometimes even if they do, a salesperson can have a negative impact on perceptions of your company in the market. This is true of inhouse sales folk as well, to be fair.

- Related costs - While you and your lean and mean team might be comfortable doing things on a shoestring, outside sales people probably will not be. They will want a brochure, case studies, white papers, a scripted and fool-proof demo, business cards, etc. They may disagree with your messaging, may want to update your web site, may point out gaps in your product offering. All arguably important insights, but not necessarily always what you need. So if you have to spend $20,000 to get assorted sales support in place, you need to add that in to the cost of the sales resource.

The final cost is what you pay your resource - percentage based commissions of 3%-10% are pretty common, if your commission is to a partner organization or an industry luminary, it is likely to be higher.

All in all, weigh the total costs & risks against the total possible benefits, and enter into this kind of work with eyes open. You'll get better results.

Running the Distance

I saw this video, and it reminded me of something a Senior VP of Marketing once told me, when I was first starting out with startups. I had been working around the clock, and looked really ragged. He said "It's not a sprint you know, it's a marathon."

Many of the things you hear from more experienced folk you may be inclined to scoff at. I recall thinking, "I can sleep when I'm old!" or some nonsense like that.

But these little aphorisms have a way of proving themselves true over time.

So as you push yourself harder and harder, working to make your business succeed, remember something. YOU are the most valuable asset of your business. While you need to put yourself through high-pressure situations, work until all hours of the night, you also need to take care of yourself so that you'll last the seven or so years it takes on average to build a successful business.

It's an important point that is often missed. Here are a few suggestions:
- Invest time in the people in your life who are supportive
- Exercise 3 times a week
- Get enough sleep in general (you may have to do a few all nighters...)
- Eat a balanced diet
- Take vitamins
- Drink water
- Give yourself 10 minutes a day to do something you love (I keep a guitar by my desk)

Maybe most important, remember this, an aphorism a CEO I worked for once told me. "When you are starting something new, sometimes there is simply nothing to do." If you know you've called all the folks you need to call, if you've done all your work, and you are just starting at the wall, go release some stress doing something you love.

Sometimes coming back to your work with a fresh mind is just what is needed to succeed.

Oh, and remember to watch your step as you cross the finish line!

Visual Voice Mail!

There are not that many products that get me going, I can almost always talk myself out of purchases.

But I recently tried out a Visual Voice Mail service by Got Voice (I'm sure there are others?) and I really like it. It isn't super sexy, but it delivers an mp3 file and the text of your callers voice mail to you via email.

I hate checking voice mail (Cingular charges me, it takes a long time, and someone always calls when I'm checking a message), so I find it quite relaxing and zen like to get the text of someone's voice mail in my email inbox.

One caveat, although the speech recognition is good, there are a few things that don't get picked up. Second caveat, people don't always actually speak in intelligible sentences...

Marketing Without Scale Behind You

eHarmony, the Colorado Rockies. Not two organizations you'd normally put together in the same sentence. But in the last couple days, both have had some serious problems with load. The Rockies went so far as saying that they may have been attacked. eHarmony simply stated the obvious - "Due to recent membership surges, eHarmony.com is temporarily unavailable. We are currently aware of this problem and are working diligently to improve system speed and efficiency. Please try again in a few minutes. Thank you for your patience. We recognize how frustrating this can be, and truly apologize for the inconvenience. "

Whether simply insufficient capacity to handle the load, or the result of a DOS attack, the message is clearly that whether you are in a more traditional or new fangled business, managing your e-Commerce business is not as easy as it might look.

Customer Relationship Management and Sales Management Software

Every startup needs to manage both sales and support effectively in order to win - and as a result, most startups look at CRM and SFA software at some point. In past lives I've been involved with building the software internally (the "make" option) and buying the software from an outside party, in my case Salesforce.com.

Reviewed this CRM software, FreeCRM.com, recently, upon the suggestion of a client. The company provides a nice demo of the product, which is very similar to Salesforce.com. Given that you can get free access to this hosted product in exchange for looking at banner ads, it is definitely worth consideration.

The fact that the free version lacks SSL and some other features may be deal breakers for you, but this option may suit your organization. At $14.95 a month per user, the paid service (with some of the features the free version lacks, and with no banner ads) is basically just a little more expensive than salesforce.com's product, which runs about $10 per user per month (or $600/year for 5 users).

Sales - "The Good News Is You're Fired"

(parental discretion advised)

If you ever work in a startup, and possibly even if you don't, you will see this clip. You will hear these quotes. You may roll your eyes at first.

But if you are out selling your idea, your product, your service, you will, at some point, find this "tough love" speech inspirational. Because the bottom line in most businesses, unless you are lucky, you have to sell to succeed!

So give yourself a dose of tough love - then get your list of leads and start working. And remember, coffee is closers!

In the Future, Everyone Will Be a Salesperson

Along with your 15 minutes of fame, in the future, you will also be a salesperson. At least, that's what Facebook and Norwalk-based Lemonade, Inc. are counting on. Lemonade allows consumers who normally recommend products to their friends to benefit from the recommendations financially.

In the last couple years, trends like user-generated content (ala YouTube), and crowd-sourcing (getting social networks to do free or cheap work for you...) have caught the media's eye.

"Consumer-generated commerce," at least on the face of things, looks as if it has potential - but the idea that you are benefiting from suggesting a product may undermine some of the value of the referral in the first place.

A potential question is how this is substantially different from "Work At Home, Make $100k+" schemes out there. Other companies in the space, like Skype (with Skype Prime), look even more similar. While these ideas are interesting, their potential market seems more limited than a first pass might suggest.

Hello? It's The Internet Calling...

(thanks to Matt for bringing this story to my attention)

To quote Samuel Jackson, "every time my fingers touch my cell phone bill, I'm Superfly, TNT, I'm the Guns of the Navarone!" Or something like that.

I'm sure most people, like me, stare at the taxes, tariffs and voluminous line item detail on their cell phone bill, and just want to break something. Spending so much money for such spotty service might have, at one time, made sense. But increasingly, it will not.

An article today in Korea's Chosun newspaper lays out moves by some big internet players to get involved, or more involved, in mobile internet telephony.

Internet companies around the globe are pushing hard to enter the telephone calling market. Skype, an international Internet calling company with 220 million subscribers that is owned by online auction site eBay, is reportedly planning to release its own mobile phone later this month or in early November.

Dubbed the "white phone," the device will allow users who are within Wi-Fi service zones to make cheap Internet calls with the press of a button. In areas where Wi-Fi is not available, 3, a wireless operator, will provide service.

Myspace, the world's biggest online social networking site with 110 million members, also announced that it will launch a free Internet calling service in cooperation with Skype. The service will allow Myspace members to call other members free of charge and to landlines using Skype's network. The two companies will reportedly share profits, but detailed contract terms have not been made public. The new calling service will secure new customers and differentiate the company's competitiveness, said Kyle Brinkman, Myspace's vice president of product development.

With the heat increasing on Web 2.0 companies (and with the recent revelations about eBay's acquisition of Skype), this makes doubly good sense. First, go after a market with fat profit margins. Second, take a basic product whose revenue and profit generation ability is now being questioned and extend it into a lucrative market. Far-fetched? Not when you consider that WiFi is becoming a standard feature for smart phones, and Skype mobile is already out there.

Whether or not these firms succeed, hopefully, the consumer will see better cell phone deals in the new year.

Bubbl 2.0

The New York Times ran an interesting article this morning, centering on the debate about whether we're in another dot-com bubble (see past post for views to the contrary, and yes, bubble in the title is mispelled ala Flickr).

If we are in a bubble economy in this area of software, a couple observations come to mind:

- Duh. Well, I hate to say it, but if you expected to not see cycles like this, especially in an area of our economy which is pretty much an R&D engine, then you may have been a tad naive. Innovation involves throwing a lot of work at the wall, and only a percentage of it sticks. If it doesn't happen now, it will happen.

- Investors move in packs, so whether some folks think they are acting irrationally, if the community decides Web 2.0 is washed up, they will head to the fire exits regardless. Keynes baby, Keynes.

- Investors need to get off the "me-too" bandwagon - if anything is contributing to unrealistic and frothy expectations, it is the state of this industry. Entrepreneurs are told to modify business plans to fit trends investors are looking at, and investors are highly susceptible to gold rush mentality. It didn't happen last time, but VCs need to truly adapt their model - my recommendation is that they look for more of a true specialization, that would be a huge start.

- The most successful firms from the last wave of boom and bust were those who rolled up their sleeves and went back to old school entrepreneurial principles. Revenue is job one. Cash is king, so keep your powder dry. Just because investors stop focusing on this area doesn't mean it is dead - quite the contrary. Might be the healthiest thing for all - and would probably lead to additional rounds of M&A that lead to more consolidated, financially healthier entities.

HTC Tilt (AT&T Wireless) - Mobile Computing Equipment

I demo'ed the new tilt, manufactured by HTC, last night. For Treo users, this would be an even swap in terms of size and weight, with the Treo. For those looking for a first time smartphone, this will probably not let you down. For iPhone users, no, people probably won't stop you on the street and kiss your butt.

Key Features/Issues:

- High price tag. With a new contract, this thing is close to as expensive as an iPhone. Ouch!

- The phone has a sturdy feel, but is definitely bulky. For better size and weight, though, with the same functionality, you'll probably have to go with an iPhone or a Curve. But you will sacrifice on the keyboard.

- Large keyboard, tilting screen = more roomy, accommodating feel.

- 3MP camera - Nice! Beats almost everything out there.

- Windows Mobile. Whether this is good or bad depends on you, but Palm OS is slowly becoming a thorn in my side. Windows Media Player, Office documents, chat, and other familiar apps come in the package.

- No "consumer" video option - Although you can get videos on the Tilt, it will be much more complicated than with the iPhone. So this is definitely more of a "business" device - although having movies you can watch on a long flight is definitely a "business" feature.

- Accessible memory, battery, and SIM. While the iPhone is nice, 8GB isn't what it used to be. Being able to swap out memory cards, deploy a back up battery on a long trip, and shift your SIM to a lighter phone are important options.

Structure of Collaboration: Web 2.0 or Web 3.0?

In tech circles these days, there is a lot of debate about social networking.

A recent Marc Andreesen post sarcastically pokes fun at the idea that there is a bubble out there, and Balmer of Microsoft recently dismissed Web 2.o as a fad. Add Google to the mix. In a story from yesterday's New York Times Google Hints at Social Network Plan (by Miguel Helft), Google execs come out with their opinions. Or rather, they steer a middle course.

But for anyone who has been around the block in a software products firm, especially a startup, in the last 10 years, this all may seem like an echo. There is evidence for the bubble theory, and there is always evidence on the clear sailing theory.

But join me, if you will, in stepping back. For years, software firms have been focusing on automating processes, capturing and structuring data, and managing relationships and security. To use a hackneyed analogy, in order to provide value, software needs to model a sort of highway:
1) A viable vehicle must exist - If I have to build or repair my car every time I want to go somewhere, I am not destined to make many trips

2) A robust road system needs to be in place - If my house and your house are not connected by roads, I can't make the trip. Or if the ride is so bumpy that my car falls apart...or if the road is so crowded I sit in traffic for miles...

Can you guess what the car and the road are? Sure you can. But there are more interesting elements to the analogy:

• Driver licensing
• Laws
• Police
• Rest stops
• Maps
• Gas stations
• Geographically dispersed family and friends
• Geographically dispersed business contacts
• Private insurance
• Healthcare
• Phones (and other innovations)

"Wow," you are probably saying to yourself. "What a tangent!" Possibly. But I think the question with regards to Web 2.0 and social networking is not whether it is a fad, but how this trend will give way to the next wave. 7 years ago, the lofty visions of Web 1.0 were stymied by broadband penetration and other factors - but many of these same ideas were bandied about.

Web 2.0 has brought a level of sophistication to distributed personal and professional connections, but the important question is whether this work will only support itself (the future will be very limited), or whether this work (you will note that Google clearly is thinking of social networking's value in relation to its overall mission and portfolio) will support the overall structure of this "highway" and more importantly, my ability to go have Grandma's three bean casserole for Thanksgiving.

Is there a bubble? Probably - there are small bubbles in all markets at some point because of uncertainty. Will the some Web 2.0 companies die an ugly death? Absolutely - if success were guaranteed, every one would be working for a Web 2.0 startup. Will Web 2.0 leave us with valuable contributions to the overall structure of web based computing? Yes.

Cheap & Free Stuff: WiFi Connections on The Move

When you're out and about, which as an entrepreneur you often are, it is often the case that you need a mobile command center. For me, I often go to Starbucks, against my better judgment, I might add. Usually, the place is very noisy, the food is so-so, and the WiFi is $10 a shot, whether you stay for a day or 15 minutes. But at least you know that you can get a seat, an outlet, coffee, and a WiFi connection there every time.

Today, a business contact turned me on to McDonald's...that's right, McDonald's. Evidently, McDonald's gives you 2 hours of internet for $5. Not a bad alternative, especially after breakfast, but before lunch rush.

He also tipped me off to the fact that Panera has free WiFi. Not a bad deal, when you consider that their food is better and healthier, and they have the same basic layout and drink options as a Starbucks.

Contrasting iPhone and gPhone - NY Times

A piece in today's New York Times by Miguel Helft puts rumors of Google's new mobile phone in perspective...

"But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone — and Google’s goals are very different from Apple’s.

"Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens."

If this IS the true goal, capturing advertising revenues from mobile phone users, expect the gPhone to make much less of a splash than the iPhone. But I doubt very highly that this is Google's one true goal - the Google culture is too much of a developer's utopia to churn out technology that simply sells more units.

More likely, Google's engineers are using this initiative to continue to take shots at Microsoft's OS/Office dominance - mobile phones are poised to become a much more ubiquitous "computer" than the PC ever was in the consumer space. Where better to unseat MS Office and Windows than in a space where the dominant operating system is up for grabs?

"In short, Google is not creating a gadget to rival the iPhone, but rather creating software that will be an alternative to Windows Mobile from Microsoft and other operating systems, which are built into phones sold by many manufacturers. And unlike Microsoft, Google is not expected to charge phone makers a licensing fee for the software."

In prior posts, we've talked about location-aware services and other next generation mobile applications - Google no doubt sees that by controlling the phones OS, they can deliver greater value and better results (no pun intended) to the consumer.

Tired of the Treo, Blackberry, AND the iPhone? Maybe This Will Help...

Sprint has announced some interesting new phones - first, the Palm Centro and second, the LG Voyager. Time for a second generation iPhone? Maybe over Thanksgiving.

Overall, as the industry perfects the union of form, features, and content, handset and service costs should come down, and the phone should increasingly be a mass market substitute for the PC.

With many handsets now focusing on WiFi and connection speed features, it will be interesting to see how this shift from the PC unfolds, how the PC manufacturers will react (possibly by just becoming handset makers ala Apple?), and how wireless, cable, and fixed line providers transform themselves in the world of TV on your phone, and triple play in your home?

Is Inflight WiFi...Inflight?

Inc. ran an interesting article last week on another round of "plans" being announced in the airline industry to offer inflight internet access to passengers. While past announcements have not panned out, this is, as far as I know, the first in which major carriers (Virgin, Air Alaska, American) are announcing they will offer coverage.

In addition, AirCell, the vendor to the first airlines offering this service, has FCC approval (and an exclusive). Maybe more interestingly, in 2008, Row44, another vendor, is estimated to begin service. Row44 offers a satellite-based network, as opposed to AirCell's air-to-ground network, which will give it the ability to cover international flights as well.

So now, much as you can use your Jawbone and iPhone to surf, email, and have conference calls at a WiFi-enabled coffee shop, you will be able to make that 6 hour flight more than just a chance to catch up on movies. Just make sure you buy a back up battery for your PDA/laptop...