Subject: FREE PINT #2 'Fakes and Frauds on the Net' > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Free Pint 'The Internet Newsletter That Means Business' ISSN 1460-7239 20 November 1997 #2 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Welcome to the second issue of Free Pint. We hope you enjoyed the first issue and found it useful. We've had some great feedback from readers, and a selection can be seen at the end in the 'Letters' section. We are covering a wide range of subjects again in this issue. We kick off with the importance of CAPITALISATION in search engines, and then find out how to spot fakes and frauds on the Net. There are also interesting questions and answers to be found just after the letters. This issue is being sent to twice as many readers as the first and so word is spreading fast. Please do tell your colleagues, friends and family about Free Pint - why not get them to sign up free on our Web site at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ If you missed the first issue, then that is on the Web site also. Thank you for your support, William Hann Editor PS: Readers have commented that Free Pint is much easier to read and use if you print it out first. Some read it on the train, and one even reads it in the bath - with a pen to highlight interesting bits! > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = IN THIS ISSUE TIPS AND TECHNIQUES 'CAPITAL Punishment in Search Engines' FEATURE ARTICLE 'Fakes and Frauds on the Net' LETTERS QUESTIONS ADVERTISERS TFPL, Financial Times Information, Hemmington Scott Publishing, Information Access Company, The Investext Group, Dow Jones Interactive Publishing, Learned Information, RBA Information Services and Riverside Promotions > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = TRAINING COURSES FOR THE INFORMATION PROFESSION TFPL, the premier training organisation in business information, presents the following courses: Researching Global Company Information - 27th November 1997 Internet for Market Research - 28th November 1997 Web-CD-ROM Hybrids.....an update - 1st December 1997 For further details please contact sarah.sheldon@tfpl .com or visit our website: http://www.tfpl.com/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref tf21] TIPS AND TECHNIQUES 'CAPITAL Punishment in Search Engines' by William Hann What a dreadful title for an article, I hear you say. Well, perhaps. The thing is that I have been running a lot of Internet training sessions recently and have been observing how people enter their search terms into search engines. Some enter all words in lower case, some all in UPPER CASE, and some in a MiX oF BotH. One would imagine (and hope) that this would have little bearing on the results presented by the search engines. However, in reality, the CASE you use makes such a profound difference to the effectiveness of your search that I would like to explain some of the problems. A good example which highlights the problems is the seemingly innocent word "next". This word has a variety of meanings depending on the case used. Among other things, it can mean 'being or positioned or living nearest' (Oxford Encyclopaedic Dictionary), the international clothing retailer 'NEXT' (http://www.next.co.uk/), or the software company 'NeXT' (http://www.next.com/) which has been purchased by Apple. I have therefore used this example to examine how different search engines make allowance for CASE. Please read on and find out what you should watch out for in the search engines you use. Links to all of the resources mentioned are listed at the end, including a summary of the search results. Case Sensitive -------------- AltaVista is a great first example of how the results can change due to case sensitivity. In both its Simple and Advanced search modes, searching for 'next' doesn't retrieve any results because the word is considered to be too common. However, 'NeXT' retrieves 13 thousand results, 'NEXT' gets 300 thousand, and 'Next' gets a whopping 100 million pages. With InfoSeek, if you capitalise adjacent words then it takes these as a single name or title. This can cause a number of problems if you are unaware it is doing this, and the engine retrieved totally different results for the four example CASE variations. HotBot ignores capitalisation if search term(s) are in lower case, but does take note of words with 'interesting case' such as 'NeXT' which gets 80 thousand results. All other variations get the same 12 million documents. continued ... > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FINANCIAL TIMES INFORMATION FT Profile - In-depth online service bringing together over 5,000 sources including newspapers, journals, newswires, trade publications, industry and market research, company data, financial statistics, trade tenders and more. FT Discovery - Web-based online service for business end-users. News, politics, industry information, country reports, business opportunities all available for a fixed monthly fee. Tel: +44 (0)171 825 7777 Fax: +44 (0)171 970 0420 email: ftprofile@ft.com web site: www.info.ft.com > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref ft21] ... continued Case Insensitive ---------------- A number of search engines are case insensitive, but some still have traps to watch out for. Lycos and WebCrawler are both case insensitive. Yahoo is the same, but you must remember that if it doesn't find any pages in its index which match your search then it displays AltaVista pages. The latter _is_ case sensitive and so you have to be careful. Some search engines, like Northern Light for example, are case insensitive when searching, but display the results in a different order depending on the case used in the search term(s). The final, and most worrying, example is Excite. When searching for any CASE combination of 'next' you get the reply 'Your search produced no results'. It doesn't tell you why, but helpfully suggests that you may have spelt the word incorrectly! Conclusion ---------- Hopefully the examples above have shown how very important CASE is when using certain search engines. The best thing to do is to read the help files and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for the ones you use. That said, you may find your favourite engine won't retrieve anything anyway because your search term is too common. My general advice if you use a variety of engines would be to use lower case. This will often make search engines find all occurences of a word regardless of CASE used in the actual pages. In the 'next' example, it turns out that I may well have been better off just guessing the URL (Internet address) of the company's homepages, which are www.next.co.uk and www.next.com Anyway, I hope I have now justified my title for this article. Successful searching, William Hann Links and Summary of Results ---------------------------- AltaVista - http://altavista.digital.com/ next = 0, NEXT = 300k, Next = 100m, NeXT = 13k HotBot - http://www.hotbot.com/ next + NEXT + Next = 12m (different order), NeXT = 80k InfoSeek - http://www.infoseek.com/ next = 4.5m, NEXT = 92k, Next = 2m, NeXT = 18k Northern Light - http://www.northernlight.com/ next + NEXT + Next + NeXT = 6m (different order) Lycos - http://www.lycos.com/ all = 1.4m WebCrawler - http://webcrawler.com/ all = 180k Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/ all = 1k Excite - http://www.excite.com/ all = 0 > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - William Hann runs the Internet consultancy Willco (http://www.willco.co.uk/) who provide a number of services ranging from Internet training through to Web site creation. He can be contacted via email to w.hann@willco.co.uk > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = If you have any questions, suggestions or letters, then please send them to letters@freepint.co.uk along with your full name and email address. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = HEMMINGTON SCOTT PUBLISHING - www.hemscott.com Is the leading provider to the professional and private investor community of fundamental information on UK quoted companies. The company produces a number of publications, for example Company Guide. In addition HSP distributes electronic data directly to City Institutions and other data vendors for inclusion in their products. The HSP product set is completed by a range of CD-Rom products and a superb Internet site. Contact jsuckling@hemscott.co.uk > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref hs21] If you would like to advertise in Free Pint, please see the notes and special offers at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = INFORMATION ACCESS COMPANY:(www.international.iacnet.com) PRESENTS INSITE PRO, a powerful flat-fee business intelligence solution on the web designed especially for information professionals. INSITE PRO offers access to the most trusted databases in the information industry including PROMT. Providing fast and flexible search options, a single annual subscription fee and easy navigation, you can enjoy unlimited access regardless of how many searches you request or how many articles you download. Further information: iacinfo@iacnet.com > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref ic21] FEATURE ARTICLE 'Fakes and Frauds on the Net' by Simon Linford Most people in business have probably seen one of the 'Nigerian' letters. A huge deal is being put together which would move tens of millions of dollars out of Nigeria. All they need is a foreign bank account, yours, to pass the money through. You hardly need to do anything to make a fortune. A couple of months and several thousand pounds later, this sure-fire opportunity is exposed for what it really is - a complete scam. With the growth of the Internet, a fresh channel has been opened for the rather successful business of persuading the gullible to part with their cash. And as with the Nigerian scams, individuals and companies are falling for the tricks like autumn leaves. Although the Internet is a great way for businesses to make money legitimately, it is also a great way to make it illegitimately as well. The Internet offers several advantages to con artists. One is anonymity, as no one sees you, talks to you, knows who or where you are. A company's web or email address gives away fewer clues than a phone call, letter or fax. The Internet provides a very low cost medium for reaching potential targets everywhere in the world. Also, people seem to lower their guard on the Internet and believe rather more than they ought to, like the nineteen people who sent $3,000 each to Loyola State University to buy non-existent degrees. But alongside the traditional scams which have just migrated onto a new medium, there are some far cleverer ones, where fraudsters are exploiting the technical power of the Internet. The star of the show so far has to be the sexygirls.com case. After a few teasing pictures on the site, tempted surfers were asked to download a special program to look at some of the better ones. Within the viewer however was a clever communications program that disconnected the user from their ISP and reconnected them to a different phone number. From that point on, the user was no longer making a local call to their ISP, but a rather expensive phone call to a premium rate number actually located in Moldova! The website owner and the Moldovan phone company shared both vast profits and the admiration of fraud watchers. continued ... > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = GLOBAL BUSINESS RESEARCH FROM THE INVESTEXT GROUP ****VISIT US ON STAND 167 AT ONLINE INFORMATION 97**** The Investext Group offers the largest electronic collection of investment research, market intelligence and trade association information worldwide. Our Investext, MarkIntel, Pipeline(sm) and Industry Insider databases provide access to over a million research reports from over 500 investment firms, brokerage houses, market research organisations and trade associations worldwide. Access our data collections directly online, on CD-ROM or via the Internet. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref iv21] ... continued It is not just fraudsters who you should be on the look-out for, but companies that aren't really what they make themselves out to be. The Internet is a fast moving environment, with a lot of small under-capitalised companies launching products with short life cycles on borrowed money. Although it is an environment where fortunes can be made, even more are likely to be lost, and if you are being supplied by one of the losers it could be more than a little inconvenient. The market for online payment systems is a good example because it is a market previously dominated by trustworthy and well regulated financial institutions. Internet users seem to assume that the peddlers of online payment systems must be similarly secure and trustworthy but this is not necessarily the case. There is no industry regulator. Claiming that a system is endorsed by a major bank is no guarantee either - all it probably means is that the transactions end up at the bank, not that the bank has checked the system that gets them there. There are a number of things to be aware of when considering the integrity of anyone doing business on the Internet. Look at the website in detail: A valid business website should say a lot about what the company really is, where it is based, and who is running it. Companies who are offering a service are usually not scared to say who their customers are. If they don't give any details about their customers they probably don't have any. Do business with companies you know and trust: Know who and where the companies are. It's easier to have a dispute with a company in Manchester than one in Panama. You cannot necessarily tell from the web address where a company is based so ask, and get independent evidence of the company's validity. Don't believe endorsements from financial institutions in respect of payment systems: Ask the bank whether the service provider can be trusted with your transactions. Get references and ask for a balance sheet - you will be shown them if they tell the right story. Know that unsolicited email violates computer etiquette and is often used by con artists: It also violates most agreements for Internet service. Report 'spamming', as unsolicited email is called, to your online or Internet service provider. Guard your financial information: Don't give out your bank account number, credit card number, social security number or any personal or company information until you are sure of the legitimacy of the other party, and the reason for them needing the information. Even with partial information a fraudster can cause trouble. Deal with companies in preference to individuals: If things go wrong, it is marginally easier to take action against companies than individuals (provided the company still exists of course). Don't be swayed by a flashy website: A flashy website does not say anything about the authority of the company behind it. Websites are essentially advertisements, but they are not regulated in the same way as those in other media. Don't assume that anything they say is true, however good it looks. Overall, the best advice to avoid any pitfalls is to apply the same standards of business control to online dealings as you would in conventional media. So when you receive an email from a representative of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation, asking to transfer $100m to your company account, as part of a completely risk free export transaction, just hit the delete key! Simon Linford > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The author is a director of Coconut Software, an Internet software development company based in Jersey. The company has produced two proprietary products: WebSecure, which is a comprehensive access security system for webservers, and WebSign, which protects web pages from internal or external tampering. The company also makes its programming expertise available to web design companies, doing work that ranges from producing simple CGI scripts, through bespoke C or Java programs, to full scale database and payment integration projects. More details of Coconut's products and services can be found at www.coconut.co.uk. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = We welcome your feedback on any section in Free Pint. Therefore, please send your comments or suggestions to letters@freepint.co.uk along with your full name and email address. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = DOW JONES INTERACTIVE PUBLISHING http://djinteractive.com provides fast, easy and timely access to 3800 reliable and authoritative business publications, including exclusive coverage of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswires; plus a vast collection of market and broker research, company financials and share price histories. Research a market sector like telecommunications, energy or healthcare, a specific country or geographic area, the emerging markets, a company, personality or topical issue. Email solutions@dowjones.co.uk for your free trial. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref dj21] LETTERS What a great response we got to the first issue. Here a couple of letters we received. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'Thanks for sending the first issue of freepint. I think you have done a grand job with this. It will be a great help to me and I shall spread the news about freepint. Congratulations to all contributors. Sincerely, Robert E. Armbrust' armbrustrobert@hotmail.com http:www.hotmail.com continued ... > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Dan Wagner to open Online Information 97 Chief Executive Officer of The Dialog Corporation is to deliver this year's Opening Address at Online Information 97. Under the heading "Online Industry in Context", the morning session of this year's conference will analyse the rise of the Internet as the potential market for professional information services. Other speakers in this session include Bill Bass of Forrester Research Inc, Tim Andrews, Dow Jones Interactive, Ben Tomkins, Broadview Associations and Jeffrey S Galt, The Dialog Corporation. For further details visit www.online-information.com > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref li21] ... continued 'Dear FREE PINT Team, Thank you for the first of many more well drawn FREE PINTS to come! Yours aye, Dougal Paterson.' Resident British Consular Warden - Pampanga The Philippines. dougalp@mail.ang.sequel.net > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you have something you would like to say (whether it be good or bad), then please send it to letters@freepint.co.uk including your full name and email address. Please note, letters may be edited for content or length, and we cannot guarantee a reply. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = INTERNET SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS RBA Information Services runs regular courses on finding business information on the Internet. Our next scheduled workshop is: Business Information on the Internet 26th November Venue: Aston University, Birmingham Full details from training@rba.co.uk or http://www.rba.co.uk/ > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref rb21] QUESTIONS We had a number of questions relating to resources mentioned in the first issue. Here are three of the most popular questions, with answers for the first two from Karen Blakeman (author of the Feature Article in the first issue). > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q1: I'm new to the Web and am confused by the all the different search tools. In particular, is Metacrawler different from Webcrawler? Does Webcrawler search across 6 search engines in the way that Metacrawler does? A1. Yes, it is very confusing but the two tools that you mention are different in the way that they work. Webcrawler (http://webcrawler.com/) is a search engine in its own right. It tends to be more consumer orientated in its coverage than the other search engines, but it can be excellent for finding basic, background information on a subject. Metacrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com/)is really just a front end - albeit a very sophisticated one - to Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, Infoseek and Webcrawler. You just type in your terms once and it automatically runs the search through those engines. It then removes any duplicates and presents you with a combined list. The disadvantage of Metacrawler is that you cannot use the more advanced features of the individual search engines. Nevertheless, a lot of people use Metacrawler as their first choice when searching the Web. If nothing sensible comes up, then they move onto the individual search tools. continued ... > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Promotional gifts supplied by Riverside Promotions Tel: 01784 454785 Fax: 01784 466157 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =[adref rp21] ... continued Q2. Why do I sometimes get completely different results from a search engine when I re-run *exactly* the same search within just a few minutes? It's driving me mad! P.S. I usually use AltaVista A2. This behaviour of AltaVista has puzzled (and irritated) many people for quite a while. We only discovered the reason a couple of weeks ago ourselves on the Search Engine Watch site (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/). It seems that when AltaVista is busy, it may not carry out a complete search. It allows only so much time for each search and then displays the results found up to that point, regardless of whether or not it has looked across its entire database. If you repeat the search, even a few minutes later, AltaVista may not be so busy and will carry out a complete search. Hence the different results. > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Please send questions for Free Pint to letters@freepint.co.uk including your full name and email address. Please note, questions may be edited for content or length, and we cannot guarantee a reply. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Did you enjoy Free Pint and find it useful? If so, then please try to tell at least two other people or forward the entire newsletter to them. Our aim is to double to number of subscribers again by the next issue, and we can't do that without your help. If you visit one of our sponsors then please don't forget to tell them that you saw them in Free Pint. See you in two weeks! William Hann, Editor (c) Willco 1997 http://www.freepint.co.uk/ ISSN: 1460-7239 > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free email newsletter for anyone who uses the Internet to get information for their work in any business or organisation. The newsletter is written by professionals who share how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet. More details about subscribing, contributing or advertising can be found on the Web at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ Please note: The newsletter is published by the information consultancy Willco (http://www.willco.co.uk/), and the publishers will NEVER make the subscriber list available to any other company or organisation. The opinions, advice, products and services offered herein are the sole responsibility of the contributors. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the publication, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. This publication may be freely copied and/or distributed in its entirety. However, individual sections MAY NOT be copied and/or distributed without the prior written agreement of the publishers. All rights reserved. > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =