Here are some of the sites we have completed over the last month or so.

• Cleaners Auckland – Maintenance, content and SEO
• Natural Arena – Natural products site with members area, forum and more
• Kiwidotcom – Transfer existing site to WordPress
• Airbarn – Old html site to WordPress
• Kiwi Rock Climbing – Take an old site and move it into WordPress
• Toptrail – exciting new activity in Northland, built on WordPress
• Moorings Northland – Old static site to WordPress
• Bed of Roses – lovely B&B in Kerikeri, they can update themselves via WordPress
• Window Tint Levin – new business using WordPress as CMS
• Energy Vessels – Whangarei Shipyard build specialty Vessels
• GPS Fleet Management – for tracking anything
• Mid North Motor Inn – Kaikohe Accommodation, another conversion
• JustWorkout – Auckland Gym updated template

As you can see we are utilising WordPress for many of our sites now. It’s ease of use and stability make it an ideal platform for people to build their web presence on.

Here is the email

From: ir3refundfiles@ird.govt.nz

Subject Due to our latest update you are eligible for a refund

Dear Sir/Madam,

You are receiving this e-mail with reference to our latest database update on February 5, 2012.

Due to our most up-to-date calculations, Inland Revenue updated his database system to a more accurate structure. As a result, you are eligible to get a refund of 184,56 $NZD.

Please download IR3-e-file_FORM-759784123157 attached to this e-mail, complete the form with your personal information in less than 48 hours and allow up to 24 hours to update the data into our database.

Your records are securely encrypted through a secure 128 bit socket to our servers and will NOT be shared.

Reference number: 76178256192/2012nzr.

E-mail officially sent by Ross Hughson.

Inland Revenue – IR3_e-file refund form . html

As you can see it is “from” an IRD email address, ir3refundfiles@ird.govt.nz, to make it look more legitimate. It also give a real sounding name and a refernce number.

What could go wrong?

Well the HTML file that is attached will be the bit that bites. It will either redirect you to a phishing website or gather your data then and there and report it back.

Don’t open these kinds of things, if in doubt, give them a ring.

With this latest email (I received 2 today, even though I am not in the US) they use the threat of a complaint against your company to get you to click on a link in the email.

Here is a copy of the email

RE: Case # 18558568
2011/12/20

Hello,

The Better Business Bureau has been filed the above-referenced complaint from one of your clients on the subject of their dealings with you.
The detailed information about the consumer’s concern is presented in enclosed document.
Please give attention to this matter and let us know about your opinion.
We encourage you to open the ATTACHED REPORT to reply this complaint.

We look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely yours,

Louis Gerald

Dispute Counselor
Better Business Bureau

So again, it is a case of being careful when something like this appears in your mailbox. Don’t panic and click the link to see what the issue is, if in doubt hover over the link and it will tell you in the status bar of your email program the real link that it will take you to.

If it looks in any way suspicious, leave it alone.

In this instance it appears to be a phishing scam by trying to trick you to click on an apparent document link that takes to to a webpage.

Other known reports of this (here) talk of zip files being delivered to entice people to run the included .exe file (similar to the UPS scams)

This appears to a bit cleverer as it takes you to a website rather than the hassle of unzipping and running the executable.

The organisation mentioned does not send out these emails and so you can delete with impunity.

Here is the message:

Anz Bank

We’d like to inform you that your Secure Messages Center has 1 new message.

Please login to your Online Banking and visit the Secure Message Center section in order to
read the message.

Log On to Online Banking.

(The Message Center contains only important information about your account and online banking.)

Copyright Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ABN 11 005 357 522, 1996-2011.
ANZ’s colour blue is a trade mark of ANZ.

The log on link goes to http:// nogueirametalurgica . com . br/www . anz . com/index . php

This is a typical ploy where they hide the link to a hacked website. Here they have placed a site that looks the same as the target (This time ANZ) and hope that you do not look at the link that appears in the URL section of your browser.

Whenever you get a dodgy email, you can often just hover over the link in the email, and the email program will show you the link that you will be taken to.

If it is anything like this, then stay away

Deepweb

on Google+

Google has released Pages for Google +

Google+’s Pages are similar to Facebook Pages and allow Brands such as companies, organisations, local businesses, celebrities and other entities to create a presence on Google+

Previously there had been a lot of criticism of Google for not allowing these from the start of Google+. To the point that the “Real Names” policy caused the deletion of some profiles that are now essentially what Google+ Pages is meant for.

Similarly to Facebook Pages, you can add your brief business information and start using Google+ to share information.

There are some key things to note with these Pages

• Google+ Pages can’t add others to their circles (or follow / friend) until those people have added the brand page to their circles (to try and stop spamming)
• As a follow on from the first point, it is more difficult to promote your page without having a personal Google+ account to promote the Page, the more people in your personal account circles the better.
• The profile information is limited, if you want to get more information out there, use links to your website or use the post facility to add them into your stream
• Your personal Google+ profile is your administrator account, you can switch between the two and post as the respective accounts.
• It is important to do the Google+ Direct Connect (this puts you in the running to have the ability to be found on Google Search by adding “+” at the start of your name like a keyword)

It would have been nice to have a connection between your Google Places listing and your Page, I hope this is integrated as this would be a sensible way to combine these common things (maps, business details etc)

It is also a new kid on the block. There are no Apps like in Facebook to add other functionality like E-Commerce, but I expect this will be added later.

Hangouts (where you can host a video chat session) can be a really novel way of interacting with people following your page. I can see this being really good for video training, Q+A sessions and other mass interactions that are currently done via forums, wiki etc.

Now while I expect the All Blacks to win, I don’t think it will be as easy as some are predicting.

The only way I see the French having achance is if they come out with huge intensity and get over 14 points clear in the first 20 minutes.

Then doubt would come in and spoil the AB’s gameplan.

However, I expect a score of around 25 – 13

Come on NZ, win the tournament playing the best rugby – not just winning rugby, but winning rugby that is entertaining to watch!

However, I have just received one directly and have noticed that although the scam is the same, the wording and formatting are a bit better, more convincing.

Here is the transcript:

Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China and Asia.
On October 17th 2011, We received Tianhua Ltd’s application that they are registering the name ” yourdomain ” as their Internet Keyword and ” yourdomain .cn “?” yourdomain .com.cn ” ?”yourdomain .asia “domain names etc.., they are China and ASIA domain names. But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so we are sending you this email to check. According to the principle in China, your company is the owner of the trademark, In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!

Best Regards,

John
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 136615 29704
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.ygnetworkltd.com

So you can see that the construction of the email is much more professional, but still is  not quite perfect.

Again the point of these emails is to scare people into thinking that their domain name is going to be registered by a Chinese company. All they are wanting is to get you to register the domain name through them (often at an inflated price)

Don’t worry, I have not seen one of these be real yet.

Times are changing in TV land.

While we in NZ still have restrictive broadband limitations in speed and monthly data caps, the world moves ahead in the use of streaming video.

Offerings such as Hulu and Netflix, plus streaming options through other providers such as Amazon mean that video delivered over the internet is dominating internet traffic in those markets.

But even in New Zealand, on demand video is becoming more and more prevalent. MySky allows for easy recording and playback of shows from SkyTV’s plethora of channels and the free to air networks have the OnDemand services where you can catch up on shows you have missed only a day later.

But what this “on demand” method of consuming video (and audio) does, is it puts the control of the content back into the viewers hands.

Apart from live events such as sport, where the “watching it live” component is eminently important, most other forms of TV or movies can be consumed at the viewers leisure. No more checking the TV guide and planning your life around when a particular show is on, just watch it when you like.

Imagine a world where you can pick and choose all of the shows you want to watch with no reliance on date and time.

What impact could this have on the different parts of the ecosystem?

Producers of Content: Major producers might be more selective of what content they invest in and so the number of productions might reduce in size (possibly better funded). Independent producers of content such as the Twit Network may be encouraged to produce more content to fill the gaps left my changed in major network production.

Advertisers: Much improved analytics and viewer statistics will allow for much more targeted advertising. Ads for lower rating shows will reflect those lower ratings and advertisers can get a real idea as to the viewership of their ad portfolio.

Consumers: Fringe shows (from the current model) will become even more marginalised until they disappear. Niche shows will be created by nimble producers focussed on fanatical audiences. The only scheduled shows will be live events.

I like this future as it enables true choice for the consumer and a better experience.

Matt Cutts released one of his Webmaster videos discussing this and while there is not much in it (to the point he said not to change it if you already have underscores), that if you are starting a new site, dashes are the way to go.