Firetrust Ltd blogs

Intelligence Not Included

chris — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:36:06 +1300

Throughout November 2008 we received some 30 odd purchases of our Benign software through a single affiliate. Affiliate programs like ours give sellers a percentage of each sale, so people with their own website can promote products and earn a commission.

The proof is in the chocolate

chris — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:22:25 +1300

We've been getting really great responses since we said we would again take trade for MailWasher Pro

So as I have a holiday tomorrow, giving that nice long weekend and a stomach full of chocolate I thought I'd share some things we've seen this week.

Very special thanks to Dane from Switzerland, yummy chocolate as well as being the first person to send something in.

Firetrust now takes trade

chris — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:10 +1300

Back when MailWasher Pro was just called MailWasher, which we only took voluntary donations for, we also used to receive all sorts of great gifts.

New Firetrust Support Forums

chris — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:41:59 +1200

Over the last several years we have hosted all our forums with www.castlecops.com It has been a great partnership for us, we’ve made a lot of friends, and myself especially have enjoyed watching CastleCops grow over the years into a massive community. The commitment and drive behind CastleCops really made it a benchmark for other security related websites, and the community built has been absolutely tremendous in assisting not only each other, but to help us better understand our customers.

Google Insights

chris — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:40:08 +1200

Google Insights (Beta) is a new tool from Google allowing you to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories and time frames.

The flexibility and functionality it gives will draw significant increases in deployment of marketing strategies, further understanding of target demographics, and give analysts a comparative view on user search patterns.

Contextual advertising

chris — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:00:48 +1200

I do enjoy the benefits of contextual advertising. Read an article about laptops, see advertising on laptops and their associated products. It has its limits of course, as I don't want my privacy being invaded to serve these adverts either.

Perhaps though, in this case, things have been taken too far. Taken from the Sydney Morning Herald today.

Buying Refurbished consoles

chris — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:57:12 +1200

Buying Refurbished consoles, such as Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3 is relatively common. Though they are indeed second hand and most likely recently repaired, they are still cheaper. You may be able to save somewhere between $100 - $150. Not a bad bargain especially if you’re like me, who dresses like a hobo and tries to buy everything on the cheap.

ScamChecker now has WhoIs lookups and maps

chris — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:48:12 +1200

ScamChecker is a site I've been working on to help people recognise scam websites, at present specifically those that are trying to sell goods that don't exist or selling fakes.

eBay fined for fakes

chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:14:45 +1200

I deal a lot in my day with websites and/or people that are dealing with fake goods. It's through these fake goods too that people are being scammed over and over, either by not receiving any items ordered or by thinking they were actually going to receive the genuine article.

So I do get a sense of perverse pleasure in reading things like this.

NZ Banks see the light

chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:19:55 +1200

In June 2007 the New Bankers Association presented a new Code of Practice that tried to shift liability to consumers. I cannot really express it any other way other than to say it was a piece of crap.

Massive TradeMe scam uncovered

chris — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:57:46 +1200

Here in New Zealand we don't like to use eBay, the most popular auction website is instead TradeMe. And unfortunately things like this are happening far too often.

DoppelMe

chris — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:08:29 +1200

As part of the ScamChecker website I have been building, I wanted to convey the sense of scamminess of a website through using images of common stereotypes.

SiteHound for Firefox 3

chris — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:47:40 +1200

We have posted a new version of SiteHound for Firefox 3 which is due for official launch on the 17th of June.

Unfortunately we have not yet managed to solve one bug impacting Firefox 3 on Windows Vista, but we are working on that, and hope to have it resolved soon.

You do not need to uninstall SiteHound first, and so you can install the new version over the old.

Edited for Firefox 3.0.1

ScamChecker launched

chris — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:09:06 +1200

The last few months of my life has been deeply involved in maintaining a list and replying to questions about websites that are selling counterfeit goods, or taking orders for goods and not sending any items.

See this post for more information on that

Internet Brand Justice

chris — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:49:11 +1200

To start things off, we need to make this very clear. Firetrust Limited, producers of awesome software MailWasher, do not and have never owned these domain names.

Don't drop the fake palmolive soap

chris — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:28:25 +1200

Cleanliness is next to godliness, which is next to your cell mate Bubba who fancies a good time.

For a long time people have been scammed by websites selling goods that don't exist, and the problem is so large it's staggering. Counterfeit goods are the greatest bait, and whether people think the goods are the real deal or not, it's the price that sucks in the victims. We aren't talking a fistful of dollars here either, we are talking scams operating in the millions.

AskNerd

chris — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:22:39 +1200

Many of us who aren’t particularly computer literate will from time to time turn to our nerdly friends for help and advice. But we do so on the basis that these Dungeons and Dragons playing uber geeks will provide us with advice we can trust. But following this trend of asking nerdly friends to stop playing with each others Broadswords, and give us a bit of assistance, a website that offers advice written by nerds for regular folk is actually a really good idea. Better yet

Kubuntastic

chris — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:23:31 +1200

So after having many headaches with my laptop, and several ongoing arguments with Windows XP, I’ve finally given up Windows on the laptop and now run Linux. Kubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) to be more precise, I did start with Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), but only had that installed a few days before the newer version was released.

From a God to a Pig

chris — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:11:21 +1200

After receiving a less than flattering email accusing me of a grandiose image of myself, I have now received this from "Rose".

A reminder to stop using ORDB blacklist

chris — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:55:57 +1200

As you may or may not know, the RBL service known ORDB was discontinued in late 2006.