Buying a Verifiable Degree Online – Is It Legal?

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from someone asking me if the website Verifiabledegree.com was legitimate or not. So I decided to check the site out and see what it was all about. I almost fell off my chair when I saw the load of hogwash on this site and the lies they are trying to sell, so I thought it would be a good idea, not only to discuss the content of this specific website, but also buying university degrees in general.

At first glance this website should already give you loads of warning signs. On the main page there is not only this cheesy image of a girl studying (no offence to the girl in the photo), but the site is poorly designed with several parts overlapping each other. If these guys were really serious about making a good impression they would have spent more time on the design of this website:

So they say their degrees are:

• Reliable, legal and official: That would be a no-brainer. Who wants an unreliable, illegal and unofficial degree?
• Secure: What does that mean? Will they send it to you in a fireproof safe?
• Confidential: So does that mean you can't show your degree to anyone, because it is confidential?
• Registered: Another no-brainer, what is the use of an unregistered degree, if there is such a thing anyway.
• Recognised: Any degree can be recognised it all depends on by whom. It will bring you no joy if it is only recognised by the guy who will pay you $1 an hour.

On their main page they also have the following text in an image:

Now this is very odd, especially if you take into account the importance of having your website crawled by the search engines. Everyone wants to rank high on Google, Yahoo and Bing, but you can't do this if you put all your important keyword rich text in an image. They either do not now how to optimise their website for search engines or they do not want to be found by them. So lets take a look at what they are saying here. You can get a degree from ANY university worldwide, within DAYS! Well I can already tell you about a dozen universities who will never hand out degrees like candy. So this is just a downright lie. How in the world can something like this be legal and above board? As a matter of fact, I can't see how anyone in his/her right state of mind can believe in junk like this. I think you have a better chance of losing weight with one of those ridiculous weight-loss pills than getting a legal university degree through these guys.

Lets take a look at the first paragraph on their "About" page:

"We help you purchase a university degree online. You can get a university degree very quickly that is verifiable, legal, accredited, and registered. You don’t need to attend any college or university, don’t need to do any coursework or assignments, and pass any examination."  

No coursework, assignments or exams? That sounds too good to be true... wait a minute it is too good to be true. If it was really possible to obtain a verifiable, legal, accredited and registered university degree, just by paying a couple of bucks (okay, maybe a couple hundred), why is there still so many conventional universities in business where you actually study and write exams? Big names like Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, etc. would have been obsolete by now if this was for real.

At the bottom of the main page they also have the following "About Us" statement:

"For 20 years, Verifiabledegree.com continues its mission to help individuals build their dreams by providing degrees that are fast, authentic, verifiable. reliable, and 100% legitimate. With over 100 linkages to accredited universities worldwide, it gives hope to those who want to upgrade lifestyle, change career, build confidence, and create a better future"

Over 100 linkages to accredited universities worldwide? I thought you guys said I could get a degree from ANY university in the world? According to some sources on the web there are over 9,000 universities world-wide, so over 100 linkages is cutting it a bit short.

They also have a Reputation page where the picture becomes more clear about who these guys really are. According to this page, instant degrees review have said some nice things about them. Who is instant degrees review? Well, they link the text "instant degrees review" with the Wikipedia page for Bachelor of Fine Arts, so much for linking to the page of the reviewer. One interesting piece of text on this page is the following two sentences:

"The instant degrees review will also tell you that confidentiality is guaranteed by the institutions offering the instant degrees. It is also a legally binding on your part never to reveal the link between the institution providing you the instant degree and the name of the institution from which you graduate."

Right, so that is where the confidentiality part comes in. You are not allowed to say that you bought a degree from University ABC through Verifiabledegree.com. Who in this world will ever be so dumb to buy a degree and then spill the beans about the source of the degree during a job interview. Someone as dumb as that should not even be allowed to buy a degree. By the way, what is a legally binding? Is it some sort of glue only sold by lawyers?

On their FAQ page you will find more inconsistencies about their services, for example:

Q: Do I have the right to know the name of the university where I got the accredited online degree?

A: Based on the confidential agreement with the university, we cannot release the name of the university or college to you. However, we guarantee that the degree is authentic, accredited, verifiable and legal. This is also to protect the privacy of our existing customers. We are 100% confident that our service is extremely secured.

Wait a minute, we just learned that you are not allowed to reveal the link between the institution providing the instant degree and the name of the institution from which you graduated, but how on earth can you do that if you don't even know from which university you graduated. Just imagine what your degree certificate will look like. "From the University of .... um... we can really say. This is to certify that .....". Yeah, that is going to help a lot to get that job you always wanted. Employers will never notice this, right?

Q: What makes you different from other university online degree services?

A: We had been in business for more than 20 years and we became online in 2000. Thousands of our customers had acquired their accredited online degree through us. We provide transcript, student records, reference letter, appreciation letter, acceptance letter and graduation letter. In addition, we can also offer lawyer certification and notarization (no lawyer will be that dumb if the paper is diploma mill). If you want, we can also provide graduation grown and hood for your graduation from our list of universities. We can also provide several public universities degree for you (extra fees may apply). Please check out if other providers can do this.

This is where the site starts to sound like a 419 scammer. Just read the answer again. We became online in 2000, who speaks like that? We provide transcript, sounds like some indigenous tribal leader. Why would you need a lawyer to certify and notarize an original, legitimate degree certificate, that is already adequately valid in its own right? If you need a lawyer to certify it, then there must be something wrong with it. "(no lawyer will be that dumb if the paper is diploma mill)", there they go with that tribal tone again. But they are right, no lawyer will be that dumb, only one who bought his/her law degree.

Last, but not least, they can provide your graduation grown (or perhaps hey meant gown) and hood that matches the colours of the so-called university where you apparently graduated. Why would you want something like this? The answer is simple, so that you can take a bunch of fake photos in your graduation gown and hood. Can't you see what these swindlers are doing, they are cooking up fake academic records. All these records do not matter anyway. Employers don't give a damn about your student records, acceptance, appreciation or any reference letter for that matter, they are only interested in your qualification and a valid, legitimate, original certificate to prove that you obtained it in an honest way. Do you really think your graduation gown is going to convince your employer that you deserve that promotion? For all we know you could have worn that gown in your high school Batman play.

On their Reasons To Get Degrees page, found under the Services section of the website, that makes no logical sense anyway, they also make the following claims:

• Free verification? Isn't that the purpose of the official degree certificate issued by the university?
• Perfect supporting documents: The cooked up stuff I mentioned earlier.
• Not a diploma mill? According to Wikipedia a diploma mill "is an unaccredited higher education institution that offers bogus academic degrees and diplomas for a fee". This site fits that description perfectly.
• You do not sell life experience degrees, but you make the following statement on the very same page: "To get instant degrees, people are required to sign a work experience declaration. Using a credit system, it is then converted into a degree. A network of legally established colleges and universities are involved in the process of issuing instant degrees and this service has grown massively over the last decade." So you just call it work experience, same difference.
• Not a scam? Why would you want to make such a statement? If you offer honest and legitimate services there is no need to convince people that you are not a scam. It is normally a sign of a scam when people go to great lengths to convince you to the contrary.
• No bad reputation and no negative news? Well, you don't have a good reputation or any positive news either. If they have been in the business for over 20 years, why haven't I heard about them before?

So what about ordering and payment options? On their Shipping and Payment FAQ page they have the following interesting questions and answers:

Q: What is your payment scheme?

A: We accept one-time fee only. We don’t ask for additional fees.

Anyone will expect to pay in advance to obtain a degree, so why the need for a question like this? Are they trying to tell us that this is Advance Fee Fraud?

Q: Where do you accept payments if we get your degree online?

A: We accept these payments from

• Western Union
• Alertpay (in special occasion)

Do I need to say any more. There is a reason why some pages sounded like a 419 scammer. Western Union is a very popular payment method used by scammers.

Q: Do you accept credit cards?

A: Yes, we do. If you get your degree online, it is even better to use your credit card for fast service.

That is the last thing you should do. Do you also get that sense of eagerness from these guys to get their hands on your credit card information?

When we move on to the ordering page itself, you will notice that it is not SSL encrypted. This means your personal and credit card information will be transmitted over an insecure connection. If this was really legitimate company, they would have gone through the trouble of purchasing an SSL certificate so that you can (1) verify that they are safe to buy from and (2) that your information will be encrypted during the transaction. It is very important to note, that being in the possession of a valid SSL certificate, does not make the vendor necessarily absolutely trustworthy, but the absence of one on a site where you need to enter sensitive information, tells you that they are not concerned about the safety of your information.

A hilarious part of the ordering page is the section where you can choose your grades to be shown on your academic transcripts. From an A+ to an F. Who would want to buy a degree with an F on all of the transcripts? I would rather study and aim for a C than paying money to get an F. The choice of grades do not affect the price of the degree, so whether you choose an A+ or an F, you still pay the same amount and that's perhaps the most ridiculous part of this site. So what about the price. According to their site an Honorary Doctorate degree, with all the fake transcripts, gown, hood, etc. will cost $1190. That is a lot of money for an F, but hey look on the bright side, the graduation cap comes in different sizes, so you are sure to find a cap that will fit.

The link to the Contact page is www.verifiabledegree.com/get-degree-online. On any conventional website, you would have seen the word “contact” somewhere in that link, but this link has absolutely no connection to a contact page (most of the linking structure on this website makes no sense at all). So whoever designed this website... must be a retard. The contact page only has a simple contact form. There is not even an e-mail address and for a company, who has been in business for 20 years, I find it a bit odd that they do not have a physical address or a telephone number listed on this page. This means, they do not want to be found and what kind of people do not want to be found, the kind who wants to take your money and run away.

As expected the WHOIS information for this domain is protected by whoisprivacyprotect.com, so I had a feeling in my gut that it would have been a waste of time looking up the WHOIS information.

So we had a look at this website and I think it is clear that these people are a bunch of crooks. But what about buying university degrees in general. I think it is just unethical and dishonest. Don't you think it is unfair to hold the same title as someone else, who studied 5 years and paid thousands of dollars to obtain the degree through blood, sweat and tears, while you only had to pay $1190, did not even open a book and got your qualification within two weeks? Sure, $1190 is a lot of money, but it is nothing compared to the amount of money you need to complete a 5 year study course. Just imagine how poor the quality of our workforce would be if everyone could buy a degree, wouldn't that beat the whole purpose of a formal education. The whole idea behind a degree is not that piece of paper, but it is to educate yourself in a specific area and to lay a proper foundation so that you are qualified to follow a specific career. Of course nothing replaces experience, but without the education, you can't expect to get very far.

Apart from being dishonest and unethical, just think about the dangers of appointing unqualified people in important posts. Strangely enough, Verifiabledegree.com does not sell any medical, aviation, emergency service or military related degrees, but they do sell degrees in engineering, law and accounting. These are very professional fields of work, with a lot of responsibilities. Imagine a structural engineer with a purchased degree, assigned to the construction of 10 story building or a large bridge, or an accountant with a purchased degree assigned to the finances of a large corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange. What about a lawyer with a purchased degree assigned to defend an innocent person accused of murder and facing the death penalty? Just think about the chaos if we let unqualified people do the jobs of people who took years of studies and experience to develop and hone their skills. And who said it all stops when you get your degree, most professional careers require continual professional development, to stay ahead of your game. How do you expect someone with a purchased degree to do continual professional development without the foundation of a proper education? It is practically impossible.

The reality is, people do buy fake degrees, unqualified people are placed in positions due to things like affirmative action and employment equity. In South Africa we have first hand experience of people who have the necessary qualifications (not really sure how they got them), but they can't do the job and even worse, people appointed in certain positions of responsibility without any formal education, but that is not the subject of this discussion. You can't honestly buy a degree, you have to earn it through hard work and perseverance. This is how it always was and how it always will be until the end of time, it is as simple as that.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.

What's New at Cyber Top Cops?

First of all, may 2013 be a prosperous year for all of you. Yes, the holidays are coming to an end (for some the holidays already ended) and for most people it will be back to work and school very soon. Although I had a great vacation I also had a very busy one. In between the relaxation and quality time with family and friends, I also spent some time working on new projects here at Cyber Top Cops. I am really exited about these projects because I believe they will make us more effective in the battle against cyber crime. So lets take a look at what is new at Cyber Top Cops

SHPAMEE Project

Although this is not a new project, I have made some improvements to it. These improvements were mainly made behind the scenes, so you won't really notice anything different, but I have upgraded our scam example publishing tool which makes it possible for me to process scam examples quicker and easier.

Cyber Criminal Profiles

This new project is a visible enhancement to the SHPAMEE Project. Although it is still in it's baby shoes, I believe this will add a lot of value to the spam examples we publish on our site in the future. The main idea behind this project was to get all the information collected about a cyber criminal during an investigation, out to the public. The main focus of this project is 419 scams at the moment, but the infrastructure of this project allows us to do much more than just 419 scammers. It is not really a project completely on its own, but it is rather tightly integrated into the SHPAMEE Project. At the bottom of each e-mail example you will see a heading “Related Cyber Criminal Profiles”. The system uses keywords from the e-mail example and searches the Cyber Criminal Profile database for cyber criminals that could possibly be related to the specific e-mail example on display. For an example of how this works, visit the following spam example page:

http://www.cybertopcops.com/419-scam-xig-precious-stones-ltd-business-opportunity-scam.php

When you click on one of the profile links, it will take you to a profile page for that specific cyber criminal. It will highlight all similarities between the cyber criminal and the example page, in red, so that you can see why this cyber criminal was flagged as a related cyber criminal for that specific spam example.

In the spam example mentioned above you will find Mrs Kwesi Jane as the first related cyber criminal. At the bottom of the cyber criminal profile page you will find a cross reference back to the spam example and any other spam example the cyber criminal might be linked to, as well as a list of other cyber criminals related to the one on display. When you click on any of these related cyber criminal links, it will take you to the related cyber criminal's page where the similarities between the current cyber criminal and the related cyber criminal will be highlighted.

The database is almost non-existent, with only 4 active profiles at the moment. These 4 initial profiles were used to test the functionality of the system and now that the infrastructure is in place for more cyber criminal profiles, we can expand the database over time. A 419 scam example only tells you so much about the cyber criminal involved, but the new Cyber Criminal Profile system allows us to tell you so much more about a specific scam, not just about the main peanut in the packet, but also about everyone else involved in a scam (or at least every other alias used by a scammer). Who knows what kind of links this system will identify when we add more profiles to the database?

Malware Sample Database

Most of my time went into this project. Over the years we have collected hundreds of malware samples, submitted by members of the public through our Malware Sample Upload Form as well as samples collected from spam e-mails and links reported through our Malware Site Report Form. But working through these samples and links was quite a tedious task, so I developed a system to make my life easier and at the same time provide feedback about the samples we have analysed so far. The malware sample information pages provide very basic information about the sample and which malware scanners you can use to remove it from your system, but I will add more information to these pages as time goes by.

This database is not just about a bunch of information pages. Visitors can also upload files to compare it to our database and if no match is not found, you can submit the sample for further analysis. I have also added an RSS feed, to keep interested parties up to date when we add new samples to our database. This feed can also be a great way for visitors to get some feedback about a malware sample submitted for analysis.

A lot of effort went into these projects and I really hope it will serve the Internet community well. I would like to see these projects as work in progress, because I am never done with them, every now and then I get an idea to expand or enhance a project or sometimes I just find a way to do the same thing, only better and more effective. But to make these projects more effective we need the help of the Internet community. We need you to report cyber crime!

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.

Are You Utilising Your Internet Security Suite To Its Full Potential?

A lot of people have Internet security suites installed on their computers, but many people have no idea how much protection their Internet security suite really can offer. For long it has been the perception that an Internet security suite is basically an anti-virus combined with a spam filter and a firewall. That's true, these are the basic components of an Internet security suite, but as time went by, security software vendors had to develop additional, value added tools, in an attempt to stay ahead of the cyber criminals. Most people only rely on the automatic features that are enabled by default, mostly those running in the background, but some Internet security suites have a wide variety of useful tools, just lying around without ever being used. In this article I will highlight those tools in a couple of popular Internet security suites to make you aware that your Internet security suite can do so much more.

I will start off with my favourite Internet security suite, namely avast! Internet Security.

avast! Internet Security

avast! has a great feature called the Sandbox component. This allows you to run suspicious programs in a virtual environment, sandboxing the program completely and preventing it from making any changes to your computer. This is useful for testing out software from unknown vendors, because a program, that is for instance not digitally signed, is not necessarily a malicious program, but you have the comfort of testing it in a protected environment before allowing it access to your system. The Sandbox component automatically kicks in when avast! identifies a suspicious program, but you can use this feature on any executable file by right-clicking the file and choosing “Run in sandbox” from the context menu.

The SafeZone desktop environment is another underrated feature of avast! Internet Security. It works basically the same as the Sandbox, but in a broader context, it not only protects the browser, but creates a complete virtual desktop environment where you can conduct online transactions safely and privately.

The last feature I would like to mention for avast! Internet Security is the Site Blocking feature. So, what makes this feature worth mentioning? Basically the ability to block sites based on specific keywords. This can be utilised as a small parental control tool, by blocking not only specific inappropriate sites, but sites containing certain keywords in their URL's. This is in no way a replacement for a comprehensive parental control tool, but if you don't have parental control tools on your computer, this tool may come in very handy.

Outpost Security Suite Pro

Outpost Security Suite Pro may not have the virtual environments of avast!, but it has a great tool that protects sensitive information from being transferred from your computer, over an insecure connection. It is called the ID Block feature. This is a handy little tool, but you need to use it very carefully. The idea behind this tool is to remove parts of your sensitive information before transmitting it over an insecure connection. This means the ID Block feature will not interfere when you are entering credit card information on a secure page, that uses SSL encryption to transfer your information over the Web. So how does it actually work? You need to add your sensitive information to the ID Block feature so that it can know what to look for. You will not enter your complete credit card number or social security number for instance, only a significant portion of it, so that the ID Block feature can replace that part with asterisks (*), when the information is transferred over an insecure connection like e-mail, unencrypted web pages or an instant messaging program, that doesn't use SSL to encrypt your information. You can also use the ID Block to protect parts of your passwords, so that you never enter them inadvertently on an unencrypted page.

Outpost Security Suite Pro also has a site blocker called the Site and Ads Blocker. Apart from blocking websites as a whole, you can also block unwanted elements on a web page. The site blocker can also be used as a parental control tool, just like the Site Blocking feature of avast!

Perhaps the most underused tool of Outpost Security Suite Pro is the File & Folder Lock. This tool prevents any other program from modifying, deleting, moving or renaming a specific file or folder, so it basically works like a read-only file or folder, the only difference is you can't remove the lock if you don't know the master password of the security suite. This is a very useful feature for files and folders containing important information that is seldom or never changed. This can also be applied to important program and system files to prevent malware from patching them with malicious code.

Kaspersky Internet Security

It has been a while since I reviewed Kaspersky Internet Security, but the latest version seems to have two new features.

The first one is the Safe Money mode, it works basically like avast!'s SafeZone component, but not as a separate virtual environment but it is a special secure mode inside your browser.

The second new feature is the Secure Keyboard, a virtual keyboard you can use on banking and shopping sites when you have to enter credit card, banking or other sensitive information. This prevents key loggers from stealing important information because they monitor the keys being pressed on your physical keyboard and since you are not using it in these cases, you are no longer exposed the dangers posed by these spyware programs.

Kaspersky Labs was one of the first security software vendors to introduce an integrated parental control tool in their Internet security suite. Although it is not the most comprehensive parental control tool, it has enough features to help the parent perform most parental controlling tasks, like exercising control over applications, games and websites used by your children and blocking, limiting or logging your children’s communications, as well as blocking the transfer of private data, such as phone or credit card numbers.

There are many other good Internet security suites that I did not discuss here, but you should be able to identify a certain pattern here. Most Internet security suites have additional features that include some virtual environment where you can conduct online transactions safely, an identity theft protection feature and some form of web filtering feature. The message I'm trying to get across here is to pay attention to the additional features of your Internet security suite, you paid for this stuff, so why not use it? Don't wait until something bad happens, use all the security tools at your disposal, better be safe than sorry.

If you need any help with the features discussed in this article, feel free to leave a comment on the blog, or e-mail me with your questions.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.

MailWasher PRO, Spam Filter and Spam Reporting Tool

If you are one of those people who often report spam to anti-spam organisations like SpamCop, KnuJon and Cyber Top Cops, I bet you always wished you had a tool that can combat spam and report it to anti-spam organisations at the same time. Well, you can stop wishing because such a tool has been available for quite some time now and it is called MailWasher PRO. In this article I will give step by step instructions on how to use MailWasher and how to configure it so that you can filter and report spam more efficiently.

MailWasher has quite a unique approach to spam filtering, by getting rid of your spam before you download it with your e-mail client. This saves bandwidth and the time of scanning through the multitude of junk in your inbox to find your good e-mails. Most e-mail clients already have a built-in spam filter (like Mozilla Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook), but MailWasher does not attempt to replace these built-in spam filters, but rather complement them. You should see MailWasher as your first line of defence against spam and your e-mail client's built-in spam filter as a backup for the spam that got past MailWasher.

Where do I get MailWasher? Visit Firetrust.com and download the 30 day trial version of MailWasher PRO. There is also a free version available, but you can only use it with one e-mail account, you won't have a recycle bin for your deleted e-mails and the preview pane is very limited. If these limitations do not bother you, I recommend you download the free version.

Now how does MailWasher work? It is really simple, you open MailWasher before opening your e-mail client, let MailWasher check your e-mails, tell MailWasher which ones are spam and which ones are good and finally, click on the Wash Mail button and let MailWasher do the rest. After “washing” your e-mails, open your e-mail client and download your e-mails from your spam-free e-mail account.

So how exactly do you tell MailWasher which e-mails are good and which ones are bad? Well, each e-mail has a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down icon next to it. If you click the thumbs-up icon, MailWasher will identify the e-mail as good mail and if you click the thumbs-down icon, MailWasher will identify the e-mail as spam. Over time, MailWasher will get better at classifying your e-mails correctly, so you won't have to train MailWasher all the time. If you are not following what I am saying, watch the 60 second MailWasher PRO, quick start video.

One way of improving MailWasher without doing any manual training, is by setting up custom filters under the Spam Tool Settings. To do this follow these steps:

1. Click on Settings.
2. Click on Spam Tools.
3. Click on Filters.
4. Click on Add Filter.
5. Give your filter a name, for example avast! Spam Filter, you may leave the Description field empty.
6. Make sure Filter Type, is set to Spam and that the sentence under Rules reads: Apply filter to e-mails that match Any of the following rules.
7. Click on Add Rule.
8. Change Entire message to 'Subject'.
9. Enter the text *** SPAM *** in the text input box.
10. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the window.

This filter will work great with the anti-spam component of avast! Internet Security. avast! also uses the tag *** PHISHING *** for phishing e-mails, so you can add a second rule by repeating steps 7 – 9 above, and adding the text *** PHISHING *** instead of *** SPAM ***. This should work with any spam filter that modifies the Subject of identified spam e-mails, you just need to change the text, specified in step 8, to the appropriate tag added by your spam filter. For example Kaspersky Internet Security adds the text [!!Spam] to the subject line when it identifies an e-mail as spam, so if you are using Kaspersky Internet Security, replace *** SPAM *** in step 9, with [!!Spam].

This does not necessarily have to correspond to a specific spam tag added by a spam filter, you can also add filters for words found in the subject line, commonly associated with spam, for example: Enlargement, Supplement, Pharmacy, Congratulations, etc. You can even add a couple of other words, that's not appropriate for me to mention in this article, but I think you know what I mean. This will keep vulgar and inappropriate e-mails out of your mailbox and MailWasher will mark them as spam automatically. The possibilities with these custom filters are endless.

The other great thing about MailWasher is its Spam Reporting Tool. That's right you can report spam to SpamCop, KnuJon and Cyber Top Cops all at once. To set up a spam reporting service, follow these steps:

1. Click on Settings.
2. Click on Spam Tools.
3. Click on Spam Reporting.
4. The SpamCop service will already be created, so double-click it to open its settings.
5. Replace the text in the Email to field with your own SpamCop reporting e-mail address. It should be in the format submit.SPAMCOPID@spam.spamcop.net. Replace SPAMCOPID with your unique SpamCop ID.
6. Choose the e-mail account through which MailWasher must send the report.
7. Choose the colour of the report service. This is the colour of the icon that will appear next to the e-mail under the Reporting column.
8. Choose a letter of the alphabet to identify the spam reporting service easily. The letter 's' will already be assigned to the SpamCop Service.
9. Click on the Save button at the bottom of the window.
10. Click on Add Service.
11. Type Cyber Top Cops next to Service name.
12. Type spam@cybertopcops.com next to the Email to field.
13. Leave Email content blank.
14. Repeat steps 6 – 9. Choose the letter 'c' in step 8.
15. Repeat step 10 – 14. Choose the letter 'k' in step 8. Instead of Cyber Top Cops in step 11, type KnuJon and instead of spam@cybertopcops.com in step 12, type KNUJON@COLDRAIN.NET or your unique KnuJon reporting e-mail address.

Now you are properly equipped for the battle against spam, without breaking a sweat. All you need to do now is to mark the appropriate spam reporting services before clicking on Wash Mail. To do this go back to your Inbox in MailWasher, right-click on the column bar with the different headings and select Reporting from the list. When you mark an e-mail as spam, also click on the reporting service icons under the Reporting column. If you followed my instructions correctly you will have 3 icons next to each spam e-mail, where each icon correspond to the colour and letter your chose in steps 7 and 8 above.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.

Should I Use Parental Control and Monitoring Software?

A while ago I wrote an article about Reconciling Parental Control Software with Internet Security Principles. My view on parental control and monitoring software hasn't change much since then and I still feel that monitoring software can pose a huge security risk if not used correctly. However it seems like more and more anti-virus vendors are integrating parental control tools into their Internet security suites and one tend to wonder why.
 

I was viewing a couple of questions on Yahoo! Answers and WikiAnswers the other day and I noticed quite a lot of teenagers asking the question on how to bypass blocking software in order to view porn. I even saw a question from a grandfather for advice on how change his password to prevent his grandson from using his computer for porn, while he is asleep at night. I will agree that this is no new trend, but porn usage among teenagers are an ever increasing problem and the only way to battle it, is to control the way your children and grandchildren are using your computer, their own computer or even the family computer.

Now before I discuss this topic any further, I would like to make it very clear that I'm not trying to tell parents how to raise their children, but I'm merely focussing on the role that computers are playing in our lives and the threats they pose to our children and how we should manage it as part of your parental duties. Parental control and monitoring software are useful tools to control and understand your child's online activities, but it is in no way a substitute for your responsibility as a parent to protect your children from being exposed to inappropriate content. Sure, we cannot lock our children up and never allow them to play outside, so they are going to be exposed to things we don't like, but we need know about those exposures and react to them as quickly as possible. Parental monitoring software is just one of those things that can make it easier for us to with these threats.

For starters I am not a big fan of installing parental monitoring software on a computer that's used to conduct online transactions. The monitoring software could record your credit card number for instance and should someone break into your computer and gain access to the recorded logs, then you will have a lot of trouble. The same principle applies to bank account information, passwords and pins. So if you have to use parental monitoring software, always use it on your child's own computer or on a family computer that's never used to conduct online transactions.

Another thing that's important is to tell your children that everything they do on the computer, is monitored. This creates an open relationship and if they have nothing to hide, then they should not have a problem being monitored. Any family computer should be in a room where there is a lot of traffic, yes sometimes you need your privacy on a computer when you send an e-mail or chat with someone in confidentiality, but as a parent you need to know who your teenager is chatting to, to whom are they sending e-mails and what kind of e-mails are they reading. Online predators often introduce themselves as teenagers and a parental monitoring tool can be the difference between your child meeting an online predator in real life or you putting an end to a relationship that could possibly harm your child. However there should be a good balance between allowing your child to socialize with known friends and family online and denying your child certain activities online when you are not around. Some parents could end up being totally paranoid and deny their children all forms of socialising on the web. But in the end, you remain responsible for who your child socialise with and you need to exercise the necessary control until your child is at an age where you can trust their judgement.

I'd like to get back to the point that you need to be open about the fact that you are monitoring your children's online behaviour. It is not a matter of distrust, but you would want to know when your child has been exposed to inappropriate content. Not every child will necessarily have the confidence to speak to you about something that they saw online, especially not when they think it is their fault and that they will be punished for accidentally stumbling across inappropriate content. But this can also be a sign of a larger underlying problem between a parent and a child, because your child should always feel free to talk to you when he/she is uncertain about something. But you may ask the question, can a child really stumble across inappropriate content by accident? Well there is no rule of thumb here, but the general perception would be that you can't stumble across porn if you weren't looking for it. This is not always true though and there are many exceptions to this perception.

Last month I investigated a spam e-mail that places the recipient under the impression that he/she can get free $100 meal coupon at McDonalds. The link in the e-mail has nothing to do with McDonalds, that's only to get your attention and to make you click on the link, but the actual link takes you to a random porn site. What child will pass on the chance of getting a $100 free meal coupon at McDonalds? Most children will click on the link, some out of curiosity and other out of gullibility. Do you really want your children to be exposed to the filth on the Internet without knowing about it? Wouldn't you prefer to speak to your child about what they saw and that the images they saw are wrong? Wouldn't you prefer to be the one to confront your teenage son with the information recorded by the parental monitoring software, instead of his friends telling him that browsing porn sites is acceptable? And this is where the openness comes into play. If your child did not know he/she was being monitored and you confront them with the data from the parental monitoring logs, you will most likely break their trust and end up alienating them rather than teaching them what is right and what is wrong.

I bet the following question comes to mind. If I tell my children that they are being monitored, won't they find another way to view porn, like at a friend's house, a cellphone or at the Internet café? First of all, you should be involved in the choice of your children's friends. Secondly, your child should not visit a friends house where there is no trustworthy adult supervision. Thirdly, a child's phone should only have voice services and no data services (yes I know a lot of people will disagree, but you will have absolutely no control over their online activities if they can browse whatever they want on their phone) and finally, an Internet café is not the place for a child to be on its own. People tend to view the Internet as some virtual world, totally separate from our everyday life. But it is as integrated into our lives as choosing the right food for your child to eat. If you exercise control over the physical things that could hurt your child, why not exercise control over the psychological things that can scar your child for life?

I realise a lot of people have their own opinions on parental control and monitoring software and how to raise a child, but porn is a great danger to our youth these days and it is not just the psychological damages that you should be concerned about, your should also worry about the financial dangers of browsing porn sites. What if your teenager manages to get a hold of your credit card and purchase a subscription to a porn site. You may argue you should not let your credit card lie around for anyone to use. True, but wouldn't you prefer to know when your child is sharing personal information like telephone numbers or your physical address with total strangers? What if your teenage boy uses the family computer to browse hardcore porn sites and infect it with some nasty adware. You don't want your eight year old daughter to be exposed to flashing ads of naked people caused by the junk your teenage son installed on your family computer, now would you? You may argue, I trust my children and they would never do stuff like that. You know your children the best and parental monitoring software is not going to raise your child or make the porn sites go away, but it can be helpful to address an ever increasing problem among our youth before it is too late.

Finally you may ask, what's the use of only monitoring my children's online activities, I also would like to control their access to inappropriate sites. For that you need parental control software. Some programs claim they can monitor and control, but they often tend to do the one better than the other. Certain parental monitoring programs have some form of control over the websites your child can visit, but it is often limited to general blocking features like limiting Internet access during specific times of day. Parental control software, on the other hand, may be good at blocking all kinds of porn sites, but they often suck at monitoring online activities. You, as a parent, need to decide what is the most important to you, simply monitoring your child or exercising control over the sites they visit and when they can use the Internet or specific programs installed on the computer. It all depends on your own unique situation. If you only want to know what your children is doing online, then a monitoring program is best suited for you. If you have a troublesome teenager who can't stay away from porn sites, then you may want to use a more aggressive approach and block access to these sites, by using a parental control program. Personally, I prefer a monitoring program over a control program, mainly because it is harder to bypass a monitoring program, without the parent's knowledge, than a control program. I accept the fact that both can be circumvented by a clever kid, but a monitoring program normally gives the parent a thorough audit trail of the child's online activities and it is easier to spot gaps in the logs of a monitoring program than it is to spot incidents where the control program did not do it's job. Another huge advantage of a monitoring program is that it is easier to tell if your children is responsible when they are online, but with a control program you never really know if your children will stay away from inappropriate sites when you remove the restrictions imposed by the parental control software.

In the end, the big question should not be whether we should use parental control and monitoring software, but ask yourself this question: Do you know what your child is doing online? Remember as a parent you need to be part of every aspect of your child's life and if you don't know what they are doing online, then it is about time that you started taking interest into their online activities.

About the Author
Coenraad is webmaster and founder of Cyber Top Cops, leaders in Internet security, analysers of security software and raising awareness about spam and malicious software.