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How to Protect your e-gold account - Especially important for HYIP and Autosurf investors.

Copyright 2006 Martin Pavion

HOW TO PROTECT PEOPLE STEALING MONEY FROM YOUR E-GOLD
ACCOUNT

The biggest problem with e-gold is that if somebody steals
funds from your account, it is almost impossible to recover
them! If somebody gets access to your e-gold account then
they can empty it immediately, load your money onto an
anonymous ATM card and have your money in their hands
within minutes.

Copyright 2006 Martin Pavion

HOW TO PROTECT PEOPLE STEALING MONEY FROM YOUR E-GOLD
ACCOUNT

The biggest problem with e-gold is that if somebody steals
funds from your account, it is almost impossible to recover
them! If somebody gets access to your e-gold account then
they can empty it immediately, load your money onto an
anonymous ATM card and have your money in their hands
within minutes. No matter how computer savvy you might be
please read this article - many of my computer-savvy
friends have fallen victim to e-gold theft.

I'll list some of the least obvious tips first because I
hope that veteran computer users will realize early in the
article that they might not have done everything they could
do. Major users of e-gold are people involved in the
Autosurf / HYIP industry so I've written this article with
them in mind. If you use e-gold for other reasons this
article is still highly relevant.

Tip # 1: DON?T TRUST ANY AUTOSURF / HYIP OWNERS!

Nowadays there are many fly-by-night autosurfs, and many of
you will no doubt put a few dollars into them.
Unfortunately it is extremely easy for anybody to set up an
autosurf or HYIP company, to get a few dollars in from
excited new members and then vanish. This article isn't
about how to select autosurf sites that are credible but I
want you to be aware that when you join any autosurf you
are giving the webmaster your email address, e-gold number
and a password to login with.

ALWAYS use a unique email address for every autosurf you
join with. If you don't, then a dishonest autosurf
webmaster might see if your username and password are
useable in other autosurfs, they might test it out with
your e-gold account, or maybe they might try to get into
your emails, eBay or amazon.com account.

Tip # 2: DON?T TRUST INTERNET EXPLORER OR ANY VIRUS
CHECKER!

I?ve got nothing against the software itself. Internet
Explorer might be the best program in the world but the
problem lies with it being the most popular. This means
that every thief who tries to attack your computer will be
trying to find weaknesses in Internet Explorer?s security.
Firefox is an alternative web browser and not only is it
less open to virus attacks but it is also a very reliable
and feature-packed program.

Any page you view when autosurfing may contain a virus or
similar. If you are like me, you probably view the first
sites in the rotation and then leave your computer to surf
without you. Imagine the damage this could do if one or
more viruses infects your computer during this time.

Virus checkers give people a false sense of security.
Certainly they have a lot of uses but it is still possible
that you will get a virus that is not recognized by the
checkers. Sometimes programs that record your keystrokes
aren?t technically viruses and they may slip through the
net.

Despite my warnings about virus checkers it is still a very
good idea to have one. Do regular scans and try to have
the virus checker turned on at all times. Just don?t fall
in to the trap of assuming you can never have a problem
because you have a virus checker already.

Tip # 3: USE COMPLEX PASSWORDS

Unless you are a high profile celebrity or government
high-flyer it?s not likely that a determined group of
thieves will take much time to guess your password. That
said, it?s no extra effort to make your password a little
more complicated.

Don?t use a complete word as a password. Force yourself to
use a password with both numbers and letters in it. The
practice of this will mean that your password will be
harder for somebody to guess. Make sure you avoid the most
obvious passwords of your pet names, mother?s maiden name
or company name.

Tip # 4: USE DIFFERENT PASSWORDS

It?s not possible to know who lies behind every website you
visit. I know of a number of instances where a person has
set up a website as a way of collecting usernames and
passwords from its members and then trying the same
usernames and passwords in popular websites such as eBay,
PayPal and Hotmail.

One clever method that I?ve found is to create a formula
that can create a different but easy-to-remember password
for every site I visit. You could create a simple formula
like this.:

abc + [number of letters in the websites name] +[last 2
letters of the websites name] + XYZ

so if we used this formula for Hotmail PayPal and eBay we?d
have these passwords:

abc7ilXYZ for hotmail abc6alXYZ for paypal abc4ayXYZ for
eBay

If you have a secret formula just for you, then you will
always be able to work out what password you have used for
every website. Anybody who sees the one password you use
on a site will not be able to guess how the formula works
elsewhere.

Tip # 5: AVOID ENTERING PASSWORDS FROM YOUR KEYBOARD

This is the mistake Paul made. Without knowing it, and
without the virus checkers spotting it Paul had a
?keylogger? program hidden on his computer. Every key
press Paul made was recorded and sent to the thief. When
he entered his username and password for Gmail, the thief
was alerted to it immediately.

So how is it possible to stop this happening?

There are a few options for you here:

You can install a ?Password Manager? Program for your
computer. The two best programs are AI Roboform (for the
PC) and 1Passwd (for the Apple Mac). What these programs
do is they store your passwords securely and paste them
into your web browser when you need to. Both program are
also excellent for storing your personal information and
for filling in all manner of online forms. AI Roboform is
extremely useful when traveling as it can be stored
securely on a USB drive and used securely from internet
cafes and shared computers.

If you need to type the password in then enter the letters
in the wrong order. To do this lets assume your password
is 123456 ( a stupid password for sure, but its good for
this example). First we just enter ?234? in the ?password
box?. Using your mouse, click back to the beginning of the
field and type in ?1? and finally click to the end of the
field with your mouse and enter ?56?. The reason for doing
this is because if a secret program is recording your key
presses it will not know that you have used your mouse to
enter letters in the wrong order. The keylogger will get a
record of you entering ?234156? which is obviously far from
what your password is.

Tip # 6 DON?T KEEP YOUR WELCOME EMAILS ONLINE

This tip would have saved my friend Paul a lot of
headaches. He used Gmail and every time he joined a new
website he?d receive an email which welcomed him to the
site and reminded him of his username and password. Paul
kept all of these emails in his Gmail account for
reference. When the thief managed to get Paul?s Gmail
password he must have been delighted to find all that
information. He certainly made a lot of use out of it.

If you receive these kinds of emails, (and you probably do)
get them off the internet! Print them out and store them
in your safe, or use AI Roboform or 1Passwd to keep them
securely stored on your computer. I hope that this article
has been of value to you. Please feel free to contact me
if you have any questions.

----------------------------------------------------
The software I highly recommend in this article can be
found at: Firefox (PC and Mac)
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ AI Roboform (PC)
http://www.roboform.com 1Passwd (Mac)
http://www.1password.net . Martin Pavion is a professional
autosurfer. Currently he is the forum moderator of
12by12daily - a popular and much-loved autosurf website.
Download his free e-book at http://www.12by12dailypro.com .
Otherwise please email me at autosurf@truepot.com as I'll
happily answer any of your questions.

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