3 Common Social Media Network 'Threats' to Avoid

Online social media network sites have experienced an extraordinary growth in popularity over the last few years. The growth in social media use has captured the attention of not only enthusiastic users but also cyber criminals as well. It was inevitable that internet predators would gravitate towards social sites due to the sheer number of users these sites attract. This criminal element commonly targets innocent site participants with various types' of scams looking for money, personal ID information or to even install spyware or malware.

Here are 3 of the most common scams people using social media sites need to be aware of to better protect themselves against these internet predators.

Shortening (Hiding) Links

Shortening links is an acceptable, expected and encouraged practice on most social sites to 'dress up' rather long links being sent in short messages. This is well and good however shortened links also actually 'hide' the ultimate destination to where you are being redirected. By inadvertently landing on a 'forbidden' site you could easily have unwanted malware installed on your computer. Treat these links like you would suspicious email and only open those that come from a source with which you are already familiar.

'Fun' Questionnaires

How many times have you come across short quizzes sent to you that will tell you things about yourself, friends, or even love life? All you need to do is to 'register' by leaving your contact information including your cell phone number in order to receive your answers and even a prize. Well many times the 'prize' is really a 'surprise' when you have a billing for a subscription you had unknowingly signed up for on your phone. The best approach with these questionnaires is to simply ignore them!

Personal ID Theft

Information 'trawling' or phishing has been around for a while online. Most of us are use to seeing it come through in suspicious emails that require sensitive information in order to complete a transaction. Well those damn cyber criminals have now taken their methods and adapted them to online social media sites. Ever seen a message that says 'someone is looking for you' and then instructs you to click on a link to see who it may be? When the link takes you to one of the login pages of a popular social network you are then required to sign in, DO NOT! By doing so you may be giving a stranger complete access to your account and no telling what they will do with that!

Online social media network sites have grown in popularity and as a result have also become the targets for cyber criminals as well. With the tremendous increase in social media use the online criminal element has spotted an opportunity to target large masses fairly easily. They tend to favor the use of scams which work quite efficiently for them when dealing with large masses of people. 3 of the most commonly used scams to which people using social media sites are exposed are mentioned above. The danger such schemes like these pose to the innocent is magnified when people are unaware of their existence until it is too late. In this case however to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed! It is therefore hoped that this 'heads-up' will help neutralize any efforts and all intentions of this rather creepy online element.

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. To learn more about safely using social media network sites and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques simply visit: http://blogbrawn.com/

Remove Data Protection - Easiest Data Protection Removal Out There

If you're taking the time to read this, it's probably because you are having some second thoughts about data protection. The truth is you are right to be a bit concerned, because it isn't a real antivirus program, it is actually malware. If you have already loaded it on to your computer, you are in a bit of trouble. It is actually quite difficult to remove this virus. With legitimate software, removal would be easy, but since it is a virus, you won't be able to just uninstall it. It digs in too deep for that.

The malicious code burrows deep into your system and infects important system files. It seeks out credit card information, email addresses and other personal information you might have on your computer that can be sold. All this activity slows down your pc and congests your internet bandwidth. Because it digs in so deep, data protection removal can be a labor intensive task.

The ideal situation is to never be infected, it you aren't infected by it, you won't have to delete data protection. The difficult thing about that is that so many routine activities on the internet can lead to an attack. Browsing infected websites could result in your browser getting hijacked, using Adobe software without data protection protection could also get you in trouble, as Adobe utilities seem to have an inherent vulnerability, p2p software is also quite dangerous, as it exposes you to several unprotected users.

When you are first infected, you'll be hit by an endless stream of pop-ups that alert you to a supposed data protection infection, they will tell you that you need to install a certain utility to correct the problem. The utility is the real malware, and when you install it, your real problems will begin.

If you're pretty handy with a computer, you might try to get rid of data protection by deleting it from your pc one file at time. There will be some.Exe,.Bat,.Dll, and.Lnk files associated with it, they should be removed, be careful not to delete something that you aren't sure is related to the data protection. You also need to remove any entries associated to the data protection in the registry, particularly in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE AND HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder.

A much more user friendly, less time consuming and yes, more effective way to remove data protection is to use a virus removal tool. It can do in minutes what a man would take hours to do. It is faster and more thorough. It will also keep you protected from other problems of the same nature after.

Tired of viruses infecting your computer? Want to surf the web with the peace of mind that your computer is safe and secure? Get your free scan from the top Data Protection removal.

Jim Marshall is an expert computer technician with fifteen years of experience in the industry. Since his own computer was destroyed by malicious software, he has been studying antispyware, adware, and malware systems for years. His website details the comprehensive results of this research, ranking the best antispyware and antivirus programs available.

http://www.spyware-fix.net