Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company’s website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the “From Field” can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving. Also keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.

A great way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand corner of your computer screen. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

Finally, follow the golden rule. Never, ever, click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.

The first way that you can speed up your computer is by adding additional memory. One of the reasons why computers tend to be cheap whenever you purchase them at the store is because they skimp a little bit on the amount of memory that they install. They may use big numbers in order to try and impress you but the fact is, most computers are deficient in the amount of memory that they really need to run smoothly. Purchase a chip of memory and install it or have someone install it for you and you would be surprised at how much faster your computer becomes.

The second thing that you can do to speed up your computer is to have it cleaned of any spyware or viruses that may exist on it. Although many of these programs show themselves through pop-up windows or browser hijacking, many of them may run silently in the background. Whenever you have many different spyware programs, which often people do, they all run at the same time in it’s tends to grind your system to a halt. The easiest way to redeem this problem is to clean your system by means of an anti-spyware program. Not only will your computer run faster, you will be more secure whenever you are using it.

Finally, we have a very easy way to speed up your computer that is often overlooked by many individuals. This is by cleaning up errors that exists in the Windows registry. Although most people are not comfortable with tampering with this particular part of the computer, errors that compile inside the registry are often guilty of slowing down your system. Fortunately, you do not have to take care of this yourself. There are plenty of programs that can be downloaded and installed in order to scan your registry on a regular basis and keep it clean as a whistle. Not only will this help to speed up your computer, it will also get rid of those annoying pop ups, error messages and system crashes.

Although it may take a little bit of work on your part, these three easy ways to speed up your computer can make it better than new.

Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) October 6, 2008 — ShopRMall.com, an Internet shopping portal that offers direct links, coupons, and special offers for over 1,000 name brand and specialty stores is proud to announce that Ranking.com ranks ShopRMall.com #2 in the category of Shopping/Retailers/Virtual_Malls and gives ShopRMall.com a traffic ranking of #11,250 among all sites on the Internet.

Ranking.com calculates the online popularity of the top one million websites in the world and is a trusted source of market research. Since 1998 Ranking.com has performed market research upon a statistically, geographically and demographically significant number of Internet surfers. By recording these surfers’ web site visits, Ranking.com calculates the ranking of the top 1,000,000 (growing every month) most visited websites and provides the results to surfers absolutely free.

Online Stores in ShopRMall.com include The Apple Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fingerhut, JCPenney, Overstock.com, Staples, Amazon.com, Bowflex, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Brookstone.

In 1999, Eric J. Katowitz, a professional multi-platform engineer and graphic designer with Cire Web Site Design & Hosting, and Mitch Webb, a marketing sales consultant and information architect at Cire Computer Productions, Inc., launched ShopRMall.com to provide greater visibility to their web design and web hosting customers. The online shopping mall became an immediate success with the number of visitors growing exponentially every year.

Online merchants who host their web site with Cire Web Site Design & Hosting are automatically added, for free, to the stores in ShopRMall.com ‘s online shopping mall. Merchants not hosted by Cire Web Site Design & Hosting can add their business to ShopRMall.com for $159.95 per year. However, for the up coming holiday season, ShopRMall.com has reduced the price to be listed in their online shopping mall to $79.95. Businesses wishing to be added to ShopRMall.com can lock in the sale price for up to 5 years.

ShopRMall.com and Cire Web Site Design & Hosting are owned by Cire Computer Productions, Inc., an e-commerce technology, SEO, and interactive services provider. Cire has been providing affordable web design services and web hosting since 1996. They have a proven track record and longevity.

Cire Web Site Design & Hosting can handle every aspect of your web site design and development. Beginning with a thorough understanding of your objectives, they will map out your site from initial deployment to a fully featured realization of your Internet vision. They will work with you to gather your content and then highlight your message using the latest in web development tools and publishing techniques. Cire Web Site Design & Hosting will deliver a cost effective, customized, professionally designed web site which will delight you and your customers.

Recent web sites designed by Cire Web Site Design & Hosting include HYTORC Pro providing the best HYTORC Products and Services, Got Love Life? which offers love and relationship advise, and T. Rose Corp makers of WEED WAND Magic Herbicide Weed Killer Gardening Tool and the HandsFree Hair Dryer Holder.

One of the most common words on the web is “free”. Free hosting, free email, free e-commerce … get rich quick, and it’s all free.

You may be tempted to host your web site via one of the “free” services; but I would highly recommend that you do not. As P.T. Barnum is quoted as saying: “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

All of these “entrepreneurs” are out to get something from you and your web site. It usually breaks into one of three categories:

• Banner Advertising – They place a banner ad or link to somewhere else on every one of “your” pages. It doesn’t look professional and you are providing FREE advertisement for someone else. Shouldn’t you be promoting your site?
• Free E-Commerce – You use their hosting or (expensive) credit card services. Variations of this theme typically offer one service for “free” while you pay for the rest. The bottom line is always money out of your pocket into theirs.
• Data Gathering – Every visitor to your site will be scrutinized for “valuable” marketing data, including email addresses to be sold to spammers.

When looking for a place to design & host your web site, remember the old adage: You get what you pay for.

Are you tired of remembering multiple log ins and passwords? Are you tired of filling out forms with your personal or business information? Then let me recommend Roboform. Roboform is actually different programs in one, an online password manager and a automatic form filler. The software makes logging into web sites and completing forms easier, faster, and more secure.

The data Roboform saves is encrypted and you can protected it with a single password. It essentially puts all your passwords and important information in a safe that only you can access.

You can store multiple credit cards, addresses, and identities. Roboform protects your privacy by using individual PassCards. Each PassCard can be protected by its own password that is linked to an identify. This allows you to safely share Roboform with other members of your family. Each member can create their own indentity, store their personal passwords and information, and protect it with a single password. You can also setup multiple identities for yourself, one for home and one for business.

Roboform Features:

• Remembers your passwords and Logs you in automatically.
• Fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
• Encrypts your passwords to achieve complete security.
• Generates random secure passwords to maximize password strength.
• Fights Phishing by entering passwords only on matching web sites.
• Defeats Keyloggers by not using the keyboard to type passwords.
• Backs up your passwords and copies them between computers.
• IE 7 and Vista are fully supported.
• Unlimited Passcards
• Unlimited Identities
• Unlimited sets of Credit Cards, Addresses, etc. in each Identity.
• Unlimited Personalized Custom Fields in each Identity.
• Multiple User Profiles.
• Handles check boxes and radio buttons
• Full Customer Service and Technical Support
• Great tutorial for new user

RoboForm is easy to use, safe and secure. Cire Web Site Design & Hosting highly recommends this software.

An Emerging Market

mCommerce is one of the most exciting ways that vendors can drive revenues and improve profit margins. It will dramatically enhance the customer experience both inside and outside the store. mCommerce applications can provide important assistance in acquiring and retaining customers while reducing the cost to service providers.

mCommerce can help consumers with quicker information access, increased productivity, and more timely responses to inquiries. It will give retailers the ability to service, sell and deliver to consumers anywhere, at anytime. mCommerce will help reduce operating cost and the risks associated with online Marketing. Mobile commerce has grown rapidly in Europe and Asia and it is only time before it dramatically takes off in the United States. One of the main factors contributing to the success mCommerce has experienced in Europe and Asia is directly related to the costs of mCommerce technology compared to the costs of substitute venues.

Mobile Phones

The Mobile phone is a great tool for merchants to diversify sales channels, expand the reach of their business, improve communications, and maximize profits. ShopRMall.com, a shopping portal that offers direct links, coupons, and special offers for online stores, has launched iphone.shoprmall.com, an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the ShopRMall site. The new site includes daily coupons and special offers along with easy access to over 1,000 name brand and specialty stores, all from a familiar iPhone interface.

Nearly all mobile phones, in Japan, have built-in bar-code readers, making it easy for users to scan a bar code from a magazine ad, which launches the phone’s Web browser and delivers the advertiser’s mCommerce storefront.

In the United States, only a small portion of mobile users are using their device for financial services but that number is expected to grow rapidly. mCommerce, is something that companies should not ignore. mCommerce will help them to reduce internal costs, improve relationships with customers, and build brand loyalty. One market leading financial services firm has stated that “early adopters have balances 10 times higher and trading volumes five time higher than average customers”.

Conclusion

mCommerce is here, and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes as familiar as a credit card transaction. It is certainly ready for the online merchant. mCommerce is an emerging market that offers huge opportunities for extending remote purchasing. Retailers should prepare for mCommerce by understanding how it works. This will ensure that their business stays ahead of their competition.

• Your order form should be easily found
• Make it hassle-free to complete.
• Minimize the chances of them getting lost.
• Put a prominent link to your order page from every page on your site.

Make people will feel confident about buying from you. An easy way, to do this, is to offer a money back guarantee. Also, make it easy for your customers to contact someone if they have problems after purchasing.

Additionally, you can add customer testimonials, this will help them feel safe about buying something from a total stranger on the other end of the Internet.

In short, it would be very sad if you marketed and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when they are ready to buy. Eliminate problems and maximize your profits!

1) Do Not Use Splash Pages

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty pictures with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Do Not Use Excessive Banner Advertisements

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valuable content and weave relevant links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3) Have a Simple and Clear Navigation

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. Also, make sure that your visitors can access any major pages from your site from any other page in your site. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4) Avoid Using Music on Your Site

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some music looping over and over on your website. If you insist on adding music, make sure they have some control over it — volume or muting controls would work fine.

Following these rules does not guarantee your site will be a success, but it will give your visitors a much more pleasurable experience.

ShopRMall.com launches what could potentially be a new trend in mobile commerce, a new site that allows shoppers to browse and purchase products directly from their iPhone.

Charlotte, NC, July 17, 2008 — ShopRMall.com, a shopping portal that offers direct links, coupons, and special offers for online stores, has launched iphone.shoprmall.com, an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the ShopRMall.com web site. The new site includes daily coupons and specialoffers along with easy access to over 1,000 name brand and specialty stores, all from a familiar iPhone interface.

Stores in ShopRMall.com include The Apple Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fingerhut, JCPenney, Overstock.com, Staples, Amazon.com, Bowflex, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Brookstone.

This is not ShopRMall.com’s first foray into the mobile realm. In 2001, Eric J. Katowitz, a professional multi-platform engineer and graphic designer with Cire Web Site Design & Hosting, along with his cutting edge team of experts, launched mobile.shoprmall.com for various mobile devices and cell phones, including those running the Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile platforms. That site is a coupons only version that allows users to browse the latest special offers, but not purchase products directly.

ShopRMall.com and Cire Web Site Design & Hosting, owned by Cire Computer Productions, Inc., an e-commerce technology and interactive services provider, offers what could potentially be a new trend in mobile commerce. The keystone of this trend is the ability to allow shoppers to browse and purchase products directly from each merchant’s online shopping web site via their iPhone or iPod Touch.

You can find the full text of the article below, and to see the latest site to spring up from the ShopPocket project view our newest press release here.

ShopRMall.com Miniaturizes for Mobile Shoppers

ShopRMall.com, a web site that offers coupons and special offers for myriad online stores with links on its site, has launched a mobile version of the site, mobile.ShopRMall.com/pda/. The site’s mobile edition presents daily offers with links to e-commerce sites, some of which also are mobile editions of the sites.

Web stores on ShopRMall.com include Dick’s Sporting Goods, Fingerhut, JCPenney, Oriental Trading Company, Overstock.com, Staples, PajamaGram, Newegg, Little Giant Ladder Systems and Bowflex.

ShopRMall.com, operated by Cire Computer Productions Inc., an e-commerce technology and services vendor, represents what potentially could be the beginnings of a trend in m-commerce: E-commerce and m-commerce technology vendors launching m-commerce sites of their own. The model to date has the vendors launching mobile versions of retailer web sites for free and combining them into an online shopping mall setting; vendors then take commissions on sales to recoup their investments. A tangential part of this model, like the one now being used by ShopRMall.com, has the vendors setting up mobile sites that shoppers searching for products on their mobile phones can use as a jumping off point to web stores.

Similarly, wireless telecommunications carriers have begun adding shopping portals, or decks, to their user interfaces. Mobile phone users access the shopping area, which enables them to link to m-commerce sites—either wireless carrier-based versions of sites or Internet-based mobile-enabled sites—of retailers that have commission agreements with the carriers.