Category: News & Trends

Posted on

AdWords Password Protection

You must guard your Google account login especially if you are using AdWords as if it is your bank login ID. It is a good idea to even change your password every month in Google to protect yourself.

Personally I feel that after having a previous client have their AdWords account hijacked several weeks ago that Google is wrong to force users to have one master Google login. If someone gets a hold of your Google master account, they can wreak havoc in so many areas now that Google has required it’s use across it applications.

If there was one thing that I could tell Google, I would say let AdWords have it’s own login and even if the user email is the same allow for AdWords to have its own password different from the Google account login.

The client who we know who had been hijacked had been fooled into revealing their login and password from a phishing email sent as a Google AdWords correspondence. It is so very important to know that for PayPal and now Google AdWords that you must never login by clicking a link in an email or send your password plus login together in an email. I say PayPal as well as it has long been known that PayPal has been a target for phishing campaigns. As for AdWords, phishing is new for them, just this last week I have received over 15 emails supposedly from Google to login from a link in an email. So my suggestion is to very carefully guard your login and change your password for Google with a degree of regularity. You must actively work to keep yourself safe from AdWords bandits.

Posted on

Our Blog Has a New Name

Our new blog name is The Web Authority. We’re retiring our Web-World Watch name over the next several weeks. In addition to a new name, we have a new focus, a new look coming, and great new content already planned.

so, stay posted as we change our URLs, our feed address, and in general change our message and look to be more valuable to your and your business needs.

Posted on

AdWords Hijack What You Can Do

Just how could someone hijack your Google AdWords account without you knowing? How can they get your Google account email address and then password in order to change the password to lock you out? It appears that visiting a website with a virus or responding to one of the AdWords phishing emails that has gone out recently may allow bandits to compromise your system and your account.

First and foremost, don’t ever click links you get in emails from Google AdWords or even PayPal. Take any action requested by logging into your account with your browser to assure that you are really going to the site you intend to be visiting.

Second, make sure that you are using Internet Explorer 7 and have the phishing filter enabled. This will let your browser help you to know when a website is pretending to be a site that it is not.

Third, periodically change your passwords and look to use a secure password of a combination of numbers and letters.

Fourth, be careful of the sites you visit and routinely check your computer for malware. It appears that there is a bug out there that is downloaded from a malware site masquerading as a legitimate website and the bug seeks out your AdWords information and mails it to a bot for fraudulent use. It will keep you locked out of Google properties so you cannot access www.Google.com or even AdWords to check on your account.

Don’t think it could happen to you? Well it just happened to one of our previous clients and they got hit in one day for $10,000 of clicks to their American Express. Google is investigating and shut down their account in one day, but the absolute aggravation of communication of the issue, concerns about charges, not being able to get into your account, shutting down their legitimate business account for the period to resolve the issue, and why it would happen to you, is just something you simply do not want to experience.

Posted on

A Parent’s Review of the Outspark Fiesta Game

My kids who are 11 have found this game and are loving it, but from a parent’s point of view is it a good game for kids? If you click my post title you will go to the Outspark game page. My kids like the game called Fiesta.

One thing that you should be aware of is that you will need to help them download it as they will be asked if they are above 13 years old. Hmm, well you’ll have to decide if you can handle that issue or not yourself. My kids equate it with Runescape but with hugely better graphics.

The game is actually quite entertaining and the graphics are really quite advanced. I find that this game will be best for 11 to 15 year olds and may bore older children or be too advanced and complex for younger children.

In Fiesta you can do quests, can fight mushrooms, get pets like dragons, the graphics are manga-like and so very cool. There is chat available and bad words are blocked out with stars – Thanks Outspark. Fiesta has new features added all the time. When you first log in, the control panel shows you what is new so you can know what to check out each time you log in. The kids have not seen any special events like on Runescape, but that doesn’t mean that come a holiday they won’t be there.

The very best thing is that you can go to different worlds and fight different creatures. From a parent’s viewpoint the kids cannot fight people just funny creature-like things such as slime, blue crabs and mushrooms. There is fighting, but no graphic people oriented violence.

The ability to travel worlds, earn experience points from doing quests and fighting creatures, and you can buy things. My kids have not learned to buy things yet, but they love the quests.

There are four levels of cash; bronze silver, gold and gem. You get money from selling things that you have made as an artisan or from killing a creature and taking their holdings. If you have a younger child or one who has not played before on Runescape, you may want to check it our for yourself first, but if your child is already playing Runescape this is another game clone and you should be fine allowing its use. As always, download a game or watch the play for the first 30 minutes before you decide to let it stay in your house.