Have you ever been sent a text message with a link? Be careful! Identity Theft Expert and Consultant Robert Siciliano says it could be an ID theft scam known as “smishing.”
The term “smishing” refers to winning a fake prize. A link often appears in the body of an email or phone text telling you to “click here” for your prize. If you click on the infected link, it downloads malware, which compromises your device.
If you click on the infected link, the downloaded software allows a “bad guy” to remotely control your phone -- from anywhere in the world. That scammer can even use your phone to access your banking information and even monitor ambient sounds around you.
How do you avoid “smishing”? Robert says:
1) Protect your cell phone and computer with anti-malware products, such as McAfee
2) Avoid clicking on links you are not familiar with.
On “Anderson,” Robert shares the top 10 identity theft scams to watch out for. Along with “smishing” another top scam is disguised phone calls.
A “bad guy” will use your social networking page, such as Facebook, to retrieve personal information from you before placing a call to a victim’s family member or friend, asking for money.
Robert also reveals that a thief can easily change a caller ID. Just because the caller ID says it’s your friend, it doesn’t mean it is.
How do you avoid the disguised phone call scam? Robert recommends turning on privacy settings on your Facebook account.
Robert urges you to never trust a caller ID -- thieves can easily change their numbers to make it seem like a friend or family number. Never reveal personal information on your Facebook page.
“Skimming” is a credit and debit card scam in which crooks tamper with debit-card processing equipment at the point of sale -- inserting a tiny device into the store equipment that enables them to read the magnetic strip as it is swiped.
Tami Nealy, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at LifeLock, says the best way to avoid skimming is to be vigilant at the gas station pump, or wherever you use your debit card. Look for anything out of place. Any wires exposed? Tape evident? Hardware loose?
Justin Bieber's sound isn't the only thing that's changing as he grows up. The 18-year-old, who recently released the slower jam "Boyfriend," is transforming more every day from the little guy fans met on YouTube in 2007 into ... a very rich man, albeit still with perfect hair. As Bieber reveals in a new interview with GQ, he's even (shock of all shocks!) tried alcohol before, although of course he's under the legal drinking age of both the U.S., where it's 21, and his native country of Canada, where it's 19. But, as Bieber insists, he doesn't get wasted. "For me, it's just like, I like to be in control of myself," he tells the magazine. "I mean, I've had a beer, like, before … but I never get out of control." (GQ writer Drew Magary tried to entice Bieber to meet him at an adult venue such as a bar or a strip club for the interview, but his handlers nixed those ideas and opted for a recording studio instead.)
More Photos from Justin Bieber's GQ Photo Shoot
The Biebs has also learned to be disciplined when talking with the media. He rarely says much about his famous girlfriend Selena Gomez, 19, who's been spotted with him on the red carpet, vacationing in exotic locales, visiting his hometown in Ontario, Canada, and dining out at their favorite restaurant, IHOP. Unfortunately, Bieber remains mum on her in the interview. He did, however, talk about another brunette beauty — Kim Kardashian, who he became friends with after posing alongside her for an Elle photo shoot in 2010. "People say she doesn't do anything; she actually does do stuff," Bieber says in defense of the much-maligned reality star. "She works hard." Bieber's had his own share of haters, and he seems to know it. "I mean, I keep my guard up a lot, because you know, you can't trust anyone in this business," he notes. "That's what's sad. You can't trust anybody. I learned the hard way."
Michael Fassbender's Sexy GQ Cover Shoot
Peggy Sirota/GQWhile statements like that make Bieber sound like a true showbiz veteran, his career has been relatively short. His new album Believe, which comes out June 19, is his third full-length collection of songs, after 2010's My World 2.0 and November's holiday album Under the Mistletoe. However, no one is more approving of the Bieber archives than Bieber himself. "I've never made a bad song," the teen declares. He's so serious about his work, that a producer even says Bieber doesn't get his feelings hurt while recording tracks, he "hurts feelings"!
Kendra Wilkinson has always been open about her body, but it seems like lately, her assets are giving her trouble.
"I think my right butt cheek is bigger than my left butt cheek," the Kendra star tweeted Tuesday to her 1.8 million Twitter followers.
PHOTOS: Winter's sexiest beach bodies
"Oh and my right boob is sooo much bigger than my left boob. I'm so off. Lolol," she added in another tweet.
But despite her willingness to bare it all, the 26-year-old (who is married to NFL free agent Hank Baskett, with whom she shares 2-year-old son Hank Jr.) admits that there have been certain moments where her modest, more conservative side takes over.
"To tell you the truth, whenever I used to pose for Playboy I used to get so, so scared and I used to cover up and I'd be like 'hurry up!'" the former Girls Next Door star said in an interview with news.com.au in October. "I was very proud, but at the same time I never got used to being naked. I never did and I will never do it again."
Wearing a hat perhaps inspired by the movie "Crocodile Dundee," Nicole Richie brought her family on a wildlife adventure in Australia on Tuesday. And, no, they weren't in the Outback. The "Fashion Star" mentor, her rocker-husband, Joel Madden, and their kiddos visited the Toronga Zoo in Sydney, where they got up close and personal with some of the furry residents.
The family was accompanied by a handful of friends for their guided tour. They checked out giraffes, feeding one a carrot, and Richie, 30, played shutterbug, snapping photos throughout the excursion. For the special event, Harlow, 4, fittingly wore an owl T-shirt, while Sparrow, 2, had on a Baltimore Orioles cap — a nod to his father's favorite team.
Meanwhile, Richie's NBC series "Fashion Star" wrapped up last night. She tweeted during the show — apparently from Australia — and when the ultimate decision was made to crown former teacher Kara Laricks the winner, she wrote: "Deciding on a winner was an emotional process for all. #exciting #heartbreaking #FashionStar." Although the show didn't generate big buzz in comparison to other reality competitions on the air recently, NBC announced that it will return for a second season next year.
Richie also has another project on the horizon. It's been announced that she will design a limited edition collection for Macy's that will be part of their in-house Impulse brand, which will debut in stores and online in September. Of course, she also still has her jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960, and women's collection Winter Kate. She also recently launched an eponymous line for QVC.
Early in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 1 win, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra looked the NBA's MVP in the eye and said, "You cannot get tired."
Normally, LeBron James starts the final quarter on the bench, but the coach decided the game was too close, Chris Bosh was out with an injury and, as Spoelstra put it, "We needed him."
James did not get tired. He had 16 points in the fourth quarter alone to help his team run away from the Pacers. The newly minted MVP was unstoppable down the stretch.
But why did it even come to this?
Game 1 was surprisingly close throughout, and the Heat didn't take control until the final minutes. James scored only six points in the first half. He attempted two free throws. It seemed like every play was James hustling the ball up court, slamming on the brakes, peeling back and then throwing it to someone else. That's even what happened leading up to Bosh's injury: James was close enough to the basket to finish or draw a foul, but he deferred and Bosh got hurt underneath the glass. This isn't to say James is responsible for a teammate's injury – he wasn't – but a bull in a china shop shouldn't be so hesitant to, you know, break some things.
That's what's so maddening about James. He's an MVP who isn't always MVP-ish. Even Wade said Sunday, "Sometimes he starts out aggressive, sometimes he don't."
Why?
Lebron James totaled 32 points and 15 rebounds in the Heat's Game 1 victory over the Pacers. (Getty Images)We all know the answer: James wants to be the consummate teammate. But Wade, who is a consummate teammate, is almost always ferocious. "Flash" bolted for the basket from the beginning of Game 1 like a dad who saw his infant about to fall down the stairs. He went to the line 14 times and made 13 of his tries. There's no reason James shouldn't do the same. The calls that went for Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the first round went against him Sunday, so it's not like the referees aren't going to give him the benefit of the doubt. James himself calls the Heat "an attack team," and it shouldn't take a close playoff game and an injury to a teammate for him to attack. Go to the rack, go to the stripe, go to the Finals. Period.
The Pacers deserve credit for hanging so tough. But the Heat had leads of 35 points or more in their first two games against Indiana this season. The Pacers were playing in their first ABC game since 2006. In a home game, after an MVP ceremony which the visitors were forced to watch, the Pacers should have been bulldozed. James should have had plenty of time to "get tired" in the fourth quarter. Bosh's injury put the Heat in a spot, but Miami was losing the entire time the starting center was in the game.
Hibbert said it best of LeBron: "He's like a freight train coming. You can't second-guess. You have to get between him and the basket. You're going to get called for the foul or you're going to get dunked on."
When an All-Star center faces that kind of prisoner's dilemma, the game should be impossible for him. And in the end, it was. James was phenomenal in a fourth quarter that traditionally hasn't belonged to him. He never had to make a clutch shot, which is what everyone is waiting to see in these playoffs, but he was dominant. His defense was suffocating. Danny Granger was held to seven points and didn't seem like he was anywhere on the floor. It just seems strange that James' surge took so long. Even at the end of the third quarter, with the game going back and forth, James false-started on a drive, faded away and shot an airball. The home crowd, all decked out in white MVP headbands to cheer their superstar like 19,000 John McEnroe worshippers, groaned in frustration.
This is the first New York production of the little-known “Orpheus,” composed in 1726, which came to attention when a manuscript was discovered in 1978. The work is no historical curiosity but a beguiling and innovative opera with an unabashedly eclectic score. Though simple, the modern-dress production by the director Rebecca Taichman, with sets and costumes by David Zinn, is at once fanciful and daring. Ms. Taichman draws nuanced and vulnerable performances from a young, attractive cast. Gary Thor Wedow conducts a lively chamber orchestra and also plays virginal in the continuo group of period instruments.
Though the performance was exhilarating and the opera a revelation, what this production signals for the company’s future post-Lincoln Center is hard to say. Tickets are almost gone for the run. But if all four performances sell out, the total attendance will still not equal one sold-out night at the company’s former home, the renovated David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. There will be time for the company and its supporters to grapple with these issues; for now there is a significant production of a Telemann opera to savor.
And who knew? In some circles Telemann is unfairly considered a second-rank composer, though anyone who churned out more than 3,000 works, as Telemann is thought to have done, risks being seen as a production-line operator. While maintaining music directorships at the major churches in Hamburg, Germany, Telemann was also the music director of the Gänsemarkt theater, a position he held from 1722 until the opera house went out of business in 1738. There he presented important operas by other composers, especially Handel. Telemann may have written 50 operas, though only about 9 exist in complete scores. It is possible that “Orpheus” received only a concert performance in Hamburg.
The anonymous libretto is based on a French play translated into German. Telemann also lifted bits of text from French and Italian operas he admired, incorporating the original words. The idea of a trilingual libretto may seem absurd. But in the best sense Telemann’s musical language is a fusion of German, French and Italian Baroque styles. The stylistic and linguistic shifts in “Orpheus” actually lend the opera variety and character. The score, performed here in two acts, is wondrously varied: no Handelian string of da capo arias but a natural flow from recitatives through arias of all shapes and sizes to duets and ensembles.
What drives the drama and brings a startling twist to the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice is the dominant role of Orasia, the Queen of Thrace, who has an obsessive, unrequited love for Orpheus. When the opera opens, Orpheus and Eurydice have just wed. But Orasia commands the stage for the first 20 minutes, venting her frustration and fury.
The soprano Jennifer Rowley holds nothing back in her scenery-chewing, vocally visceral portrayal of Orasia. Her big top notes may be strident, but she inhabits the role, attacks the fiery coloratura passagework and sends steely phrases flying. From the large, efficient handbag that her attendant Ismene carries, Orasia takes a compact mirror and eye makeup to primp herself before trying again to woo Orpheus. The soprano Michelle Areyzaga sang Ismene in the first half but withdrew because of illness and was replaced in the second part by the winning Joanna Ruszala. (Evidently the downsized company’s artistic team had dependable cover singers ready to go.)
Sunil Rajaraman is the co-founder and CEO of Scripted.com, a marketplace for businesses to hire freelance writers. Follow him on Twitter @subes01.
When I talk to my friends who are not currently at startups, or the Silicon Valley, the perception is that VCs and individual investors are throwing around investment dollars like drunken sailors. Outsiders think that there is a bubble, and that any company with two engineers and an idea will get funded (though there is some truth to that in certain cases).
The reality is, competition has never been fiercer for startups, especially at the seed stage, to close a round. The pendulum may have swung for Y-Combinator companies, but not everyone else.
I am a non-technical co-founder of Scripted.com – a marketplace for businesses to hire freelance writers. We recently closed a $1M seed round led by an institution (Crosslink Capital) – I wanted to highlight some of the lessons I learned along the way, and pass along a few tidbits for those of you who may be in the same situation.
Get Ready for an Uphill Battle
Both my co-founder and I are non-technical (even worse, we are MBAs). We both hail from highly quantitative backgrounds, and I worked for one startup previously, but nothing of note. If you are in the same boat as us, get ready for a long, uphill battle. We had a VP of Engineering lined up at the start of our raise, but he was not full-time when we were going around and making our pitches. If you aren’t ready for your raise to take a full 6 months, you should find a plan B ASAP.
Looking back at my inbox, it looks like we received a total of around 120 intros to individual angels and institutions – a little over 10 folks invested in our round. Remember that batting average does not matter when it regards to funding, just results.
Lose Your Pride With Regard to Valuation
Everyone talks about the crazy valuations that YC companies are getting these days, the uncapped notes, and other miscellaneous things we have not seen in previous years. I have unfortunate news for you if you aren’t in YC, or another reputed incubator – you are not going to get those kinds of terms, so check your ego at the door.
Referrals Work, but only if the Right People Refer You In
It goes without saying that the best VCs will not take your meetings unless you get a referral from a strong source. We learned early on that entrepreneurs who have successfully raised or exited companies are the best way to get in the door. We were fortunate enough to put together a really strong advisory board before we went out for our raise, and it helped quite a bit.
We tried a more scattershot approach with regard to referrals very early on in the process, and it did not work. Stay away from people who want equity, or compensation in return for intros. We had one guy who had the audacity to ask us for equity in exchange for an audience with an angel group. I recorded my conversation with him and play it back for my own amusement on occasion.
Traction Matters Much More For You
You need to have traction, and paying customers if you want to complete a seed raise. YC entrepreneurs have a great reputation, rightfully, for being product visionaries. The use case for their seed funding is much different than yours – they receive a lot of seed funding to build product – you will need a lot of seed funding to grow a business. By the time we completed our raise, we were already doing tens of thousands in revenue a month, and it was still an uphill battle.
An age-old question, puzzling everyone from watchers of HBO's much-discussed comedy, Girls, to generations of frustrated moms and dads.
One answer, suggests a series of psychology experiments, is that she isn't seeing that bad boy straight, and biology at least part of the time may be supplying the rose-colored glasses that makes a "sexy cad" look like a "good dad."
"Why do women delude themselves about men who are terrible 'boyfriend' material," asks marketing professor Kristina Durante of the University of Texas at San Antonio, lead author of the forthcoming experiment report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "It's not just that they are attracted to them, but they actually see them as different people."
Why does she say that? In the study, Durante and her University of Minnesota and Singapore Management University colleagues sought to explore psychological observations that women were more attracted to stereotypical masculine faces— symmetrical with strong jaws and sharp cheekbones ("I say Ryan Gosling to students now, because George Clooney is too old for them ," Durante says) — when they were at the most fertile part of the menstrual cycle. Some researchers have suggested hormones such as estrogen peak just then, firing their desire to run off with a good-looking cad.
On a deeper level, some evolutionary psychologists have suggested that the high testorerone levels of swoon-worthy men, responsible for those chiseled good looks and come-hither self-confidence, served as a signal of evolutionary fitness and explained the attraction. But at the same time, Durante says, that high testosterone and enticing faces made these cads less-than-reliable mate material, there to help support the survival of offspring, which is the whole point of evolution. As the study says, "it is unclear why ovulating women would think it wise to pursue relationships with men who might be unfaithful and desert them."
Instead, women should chase after dull dudes who seem likely to do the dishes and change the diapers, Durante says. But you don't have to watch Divorce Court every afternoon to know that doesn't always happen.
How come? In a simple experiment the team first asked 33 college-age women to take part in a study assessing how health affected their taste in men. That was just the cover story for them to take over-the-counter fertility tests revealing where they were on their monthly cycle. At both the high fertility and low fertility points of their cycle, the women were randomly shown a biography and photo of a "sexy man," an award-winning skier and handsome adventurer, or the same for "reliable man," a hard-working average-looking accountant. Then they asked the women how the men would split the work of parenting, (giving baths, cooking, washing bottles etc.) if they had a baby with him.
Good, old Mr. Reliable. The women estimated he would do around 40% of the household work no matter when they were asked. And the ski champ looked similarly helpful to the women when they were asked at low fertility moments. But the women actually estimated Prince Charming would do as much as 53% of the chores when they were ovulating, a statistically significant difference, "and a surprising one," Durante says. The "sexy cad" will be a "good dad" transformed into a caring father through the miracle of ovulation.
Interesting, but the men did look different after all. So the researchers hired "twins." Well actually they hired two male actors to play twins, one a "sexy cad" and the other a "good dad."
