Websites to Avoid: sitehound

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Installment #29 - I was Adopted and have 5 Siblings I've Never Met

I was given up at birth for adoption. Born August 1958, my new parents brought me home on Halloween 1958! About 20 years ago, I needed medical information, so I got what I could from the agency, Catholic Charities, in Jacksonville, Florida. To my astonishment, I discovered that my Portuguese birth mother had 5 other children - I had 4 older half-brothers and a younger half-sister! The guys were born in 1951, 1952, and twins in 1954. The girl was born in 1960.

It's unknown if they ever knew anything about me - back in those days, adoption wasn't as widely accepted and open as it is now. Sure, I'm curious as to what they look like, but I hesitate constantly as to whether or not I should try to locate them because I fear disrupting or upsetting their lives. I'm sure I don't have the same attitude or feelings about our mother as they do.

So, when I googled 'adoptees' I checked ten websites and found them all to be as safe as can be. Here are my results:

GOOD:

If you know any of them, please notify me, not them! Thanks. It will be up to me as to whether I inform them of my existence or not.

Probably not.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Installment #24 - Electronic greetings - Ecards

I have concluded:

MOST ECARD sites are NOT SAFE!!!!!

When I first started using the Internet a lot, and started making a lot of online friends, I loved to send ecards. I'll bet I sent at least 25 or 30 a week, especially on holidays. Little did I know, they are extremely dangerous. After all, they are free and have to pay the bills somehow!

Needless to say, I very rarely ever send ecards anymore, much less do I like to open them when they are sent to me. It's unfortunate because they were such an effective way of sending emotions across the Web.

I do have an alternative, however, that, so far, I can recommend with confidence - that is, use your email provider. Some of them offer their own ecards and lots of cute little bells and whistles. Personally, I love Incredimail - I can use smileys, and animations, and sounds and more. I've been using Incredimail for over 4 years, and so far, I have had no problems - knock on wood!

As for my research results, they are indeed sad! Out of 30 I checked on, only 10 were okay to use. Two of them, 123greetings.com and lavacards.com are EXTREMELY dangerous - even if you receive one from those sites, DO NOT open it! Delete it immediately and inform the sender, if you know who it was, NOT to use that site anymore and offer one of these "Good" ones as an alternative.

NOTE: Just because these ecard sites are okay today, does not mean they will be okay tomorrow! A few of the bad greeting web sites listed here were my favorites and now send questionable spam, or pass along/sell your email/sign-up information, or use dangerous invasive third party cookies, or sneak spyware and/or viruses in your computer. Always check with SiteAdvisor, WOT (Firefox), or Sitehound before you use any site! I use all three!

Here are the results:
GOOD:

BAD:

2000greetings.com
talkintoons.com
123greetings.com
bluemountain.com
greetingsnecards.com
free-e-cards-online.com
ecardfunny.com
care2.com
100free-ecards.com
funny-ecards.com
hipstercards.com
wickedmoon.com
evite.com
all4love.net
riversongs.com
e-cards.com
greet2k.com
ecardica.com
lavacards.com
ecard4all.com

Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

The Internet has become a part of life - of the world's estimated 6.7 billion people, 24.7% of them use the Internet - that's over 1.6 billion people - and boy, does that excite the "cyber-creeps!"

But, adware and spyware are not the only things that can make a website "bad." Websites need to be checked on several issues - excessive or potentially dangerous spam, the integrity of the site's downloads, their use or abuse of third party tracking cookies, reports of malware, browser exploits, phishing, scams, or bad shopping experiences, and, of course, virus infections.

I rely a lot on Siteadvisor (by McAfee) - SA can either be used online (my preference) or downloaded. WOT (Web of Trust) and Finjan Secure Browsing are browser add-ons available as free downloads. I use all three!

However, word of mouth and personal experience are equally vital. That is why my blog/website is one of many vehicles of precaution you need to use faithfully.

Protect your Computer!

Even though you may have security software installed (free or not) and regularly run them, never let your guard down and "click" without thinking!

Be sure to use a firewall, anti-virus protection, anti-spyware, and system optimizers and/or cleaners - and defrag your PC on a regular basis!

Update these programs weekly, if not more! New infections surface every day!

(NOTE: Personally, I use Avira anti-virus, Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareGuard, Advanced System Optimizer, Ccleaner, IOBit Security, Diskeeper Lite defragmenter, and Windows Firewall & Windows Defender (Microsoft) - and, of course, my browser is Firefox with AdBlock and Finjan enabled!)

Websites to Avoid

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Installment #29 - I was Adopted and have 5 Siblings I've Never Met

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Installment #24 - Electronic greetings - Ecards

Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

Protect your Computer!

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