Introduction To e-Currencies
What Are e-Currencies?
e-Currencies are a digital currency that you can use on the internet to buy and sell goods, services and products. It is exactly the same as normal money, but in a digital form. The most popular form of e-Currency is e-Gold. http://www.e-gold.com
e-Gold has been around since 1996. All funds are 100% backed by real gold stored at various high security vaults around the world. That means that for every cent you have in your account, there is the physical gold equivalent in a vault. e-Gold is denominated in Grams. You have so many grams of gold in your account. How much this works out to be in US Dollars, Great British Pound or the Australian Dollar depends on the current value of gold. You can find out the price of gold at http://www.kitco.com
Because the price of gold fluctuates during the week, the value of the gold you have in your account can and will change (more noticeable when you have $100 plus), but the amount of gold you have will not change. You will see how world events affect the price of gold. Although e-Gold is the monopoly of e-Currencies, (and the favourite of the ponzi admins) there are many others out there. Some are even better than e-Gold, but for one reason or another, haven’t become as successful.
Here is a list of some other popular e-Currencies.
Funding your e-Currency account
Funding your e-Currency account is very easy. You can use a bank wire, money order, use your credit card or send a cheque (check). Your account will usually be funded within 48 hours. Choosing the right exchanger is crucial as there are many scams out there. Recommended exchangers are:
You should also be very careful of any exchanges involving PayPal and MoneyBookers. In fact, I would say don’t do any exchanges with them. Neither of them will allow you to exchange to e-Gold, and if they find out that you have, then they will close your account and you may not be refunded.
The other danger with PayPal is that transactions are easily reversible. So if someone buys e-gold from you, and they send you PayPal, once you have sent them the e-Gold they may reverse the transaction. Advantages of e-Currencies
e-Currencies have many advantages over normal currencies on the internet. The biggest being the anonymity it provides over any other currency because all you are is a number. You don’t have to provide any contact details if you don’t want. Note that it is probably in your best interests to provide some means of contact, if you get locked out of your account, then most e-currencies will contact you via telephone or snail mail.
I update my site at least once a week (usually several times a week). In fact, I am currently working on an incredible new opportunity, as well as expanding on the current information, so check back often!.
Also, there become legal issues if
you start using a real currency to do your investing.
e-Currencies are simple and easy to use, whilst providing the anonymity that
many people require on the internet. Some governments are greatly concerned
about this (such as the Australian government) and have restricted or banned
many of the Australian exchangers, requiring them to apply for a license to
conduct such exchanges.
There is also a growing concern over the new Patriot Act that America has passed, since a small part of this Act seems to target e-currencies. In the future, it may be a requirement to submit several forms of ID before you can open an account. If this happens, wave goodbye to the HYIP arena.
Safety Precautions when using e-Currencies
This is one of the most important
parts of this whole guide… make sure you take notice of this section, correct
use of internet security could save your wealth & health!!
Unfortunately, because of the anonymity of e-Currencies and the lack of
knowledge of some of it’s users, e-Currencies have attracted a large number of
low life hackers, crackers and programmers who all have one aim: To break into
your account and steal all your money.
To say that your account was 'hacked' wouldn't be true, unless the person got into your account by actually hacking the e-currency website. Most of the time its the user being careless with their pass phrase.
Unfortunately stolen funds happens on a regular basis, and is a daily occurrence. However, taking a few simple safety precautions you could virtually eliminate any chance of having your e-currency account compromised. I, for example, have never been ‘hacked’ in the past 4 years of using an e-currency.
Never click on a link provided in an email that asks you to login.It will be a fake login page and it will record your pass phrase and your account will be compromised… this practice is known as ‘phishing’ (more details on this later)
Don’t use Microsoft Internet Explorer. Use Opera or Firefox to surf the internet.
When entering a spend page, make sure it is an actual spend page located on the e-currency server. Simply right click and get the page properties. If it’s not on a secure server don’t enter your information, your pass phrase will be recorded and your account emptied.
It goes without saying, but never download any programs that you don’t trust. They could have Trojans, key loggers and all sorts of spy ware that monitor your online activities and can easily result in your account being hacked.
If the login and spend page of an e-Currency has an SRK feature (where you click the letters instead of typing it in) then make use of this. If you have a key logger on your computer, then another person can easily pick up your pass phrase and empty your account.
Don't use the same pass phrase on your e-Currency account with any other internet account. It should be a random and unique string of letters, numbers and symbols, and at least 15 characters long. Eg. Bue8hDb^d(3@3 – you can use the free online password generator at TechZoom for ultra-secure passwords.
Change your pass phrase periodically, at least once a month.
Don’t tell anyone your pass phrase.
Make sure no one is looking over your shoulder when typing in your pass phrase.
Never access your account from a public computer (e.g.. Library, internet café, university, school, work, etc.)
One of the best options is to
purchase an old computer (you can pick up old PII’s nowadays for pennies
check out ebay), make sure the hard disk is formatted or buy a new one.
Install your operating system, a firewall, an AV, a spy ware eliminator, and
anti-trojan software, finally install Opera or Fire fox (DO NOT
USE Microsoft IE!). This is all that should be installed on your computer.
Connect your computer up to your home network, make sure it’s password
protected. Now, only use this computer to access your e-currency accounts.
Even if it’s just your main ones, where you store your surplus cash.
Don’t use it to surf the internet, download stuff, don’t install
anything else onto it. Just keep it soley to access your e-currency
accounts. It might sound like overkill, but it will sure beat any nastiest
that these low-life's try to install on your PC.
Following the advice above and using
common sense, you will decrease the chances of having your accounts hacked.
Stealing is a very real problem with e-Currencies, and without taking the proper
safety precautions you may have your money stolen. The
chances are that you won’t get your funds back either because you will need to
get a court order for the company to freeze someone’s account and it will take
months, and also all fraudulent transactions are irreversible.
By installing a firewall, doing regular virus and Trojan checks on your computer you can further reduce the chances of being hacked.
Have a look at the following recommended sites :
http://www.ZoneAlarm.com - effective and free firewall.
http://www.pestpatrol.com - Scans computer for viruses and Trojans.
http://www.anonymizer.com - Anonymizer offer lots of useful computer protection software, from anti spyware to complete anonymous surfing. This is an essential tool for any budding HYIP investor.
http://www.Sophos.com - Free anti-virus scanner
http://www.ShieldsUp.com – check the security of your PC with this online tool.
http://www.kaspersky.com – Anti virus software.
http://www.pcsecurityshield.com - A selection of anti-virus, spam shields and firewalls.
There are a lot of free services out there that will scan for spy ware on your computer. Check out Anonymizer’s free online spy ware scanner.
Phishing
Phishing (pronounced 'fishing') is a
popular and highly effective way internet scammers retrieve your financial
information in order to wipe out your finances. High-tech crooks use spam and
pop-up messages in such a way that you disclose your bank account information,
Social Security number, passwords, credit card numbers, e-gold account
information, and other highly sensitive information.
What these phishers do is send you
an email or pop-up message. These sophisticated messages appear to be from a
business that you deal with and usually states that you need to
"update" your account information. In many cases the message might
threaten you with warnings of account closures if you don't respond. Working on
human emotion and fear these threats are usually successful, and unsuspecting
consumers will follow the instructions by clicking on a link which takes them to
a website that appears to be from the legitimate business. Once the consumer is
on that website they innocently provide their personal information and are on
their merry way. What the consumer doesn't realize is that they've just divulged
personal information to a bogus website which will use that
information to steal their identity, the funds in their bank account, and even
their e-gold accounts. It happens every day to thousands of people around the
globe.
What can you do to protect yourself
from this ever happening to you? First, read the guidelines below that the FTC
(the US consumer protection agency) has established. Once you've done that, take
the "Phishing IQ Test" that Mail Frontier offers at this site to test
how phishing-savvy you are:
http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html
No one wants to experience the horror of online theft, believe me. It's a personal violation you'll never forget. Being a smart IT member encompasses much more than learning which Portal's to invest in. You need to learn how to protect your investments as well.
Tips from the FTC:
- If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click on the link in the message. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link in the message.
- Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s Web site, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.
- Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.
- Use anti-virus software and keep
it up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer
or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus
software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such
unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications
for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current
viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that
updates automatically.
A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Finally, your operating system (like Windows or Linux) may offer free software “patches” to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.
- Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them.
Report suspicious activity to the FTC. If you get spam that is phishing for information, forward it to spam@uce.gov
If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft Web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from ID theft. Visit http://www.ftc.gov/spam to learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam.
Phishing Survey:
http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html
Some other great resources:
http://www.PhishingInfo.org is a comprehensive resource center... did you know that 1 in 6 are now victims of ID theft!!
http://corestreet.com/spoofstick/index.html It's a HUGE pond we're swimming around in, just be careful you don't swallow the wrong bait!
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