Getting started

I was visiting a popular Runescape website that incorporates a stats, skills and other banners facility for use on websites, forums and blogs, I wont mention the name because they were prominently showing a banner that if the services are used you stand a very good chance of you losing your account and real life money, the site was named after a village where people like to cut willows and there is a manor house with chairs that follow you around, hopefully this is enough to give experienced players an indication what the site is and the less experienced (the ones more likely to be fooled by the adverts) wont.

Real world trading was a problem before the GE, fair trade and pking updates and the problem has almost diminished, as a matter of interest I decided to take a look, my computer is protected by virus scanners and spyware scanners (Not Microsoft defender so it does work) and I use Firefox.

I get to the first page and it looks like an OK site nothing major, probably a little better than a 12 year old could make on his BBC electron, They were still advertising gold, I was a little curious how they would transfer it so decided to dig a little deeper, the first thing they ask for is your username and password and ask that you do not change your password after they have been given it, who in their right mind would give out their login details to anyone let alone a company that sell Runescape accounts? well the answer is obviously the very gullible and yes I know there are many out there.

The way they get you the cash is by using your account and doing skills to make cash for you, you leave them with the account for a set amount of time and if you can login after you may have the cash, or they will have your account and credit card details ready to sell to someone else.

They also do quests and train levels for cash.

This sounds OK if you like to take risks, I don't but look at just some of the risks listed here.

You give your account details to a strange company or it could be a 12 year old in the Netherlands*, either way you stand a chance of losing the account.

If it is a company and they have your account details and your credit card details to pay for it you can lose your account and any amount from your card up to and exceeding your credit limit.

If it is a company and they respect your card and do the service requested you get your account back and credit card is not abused you can then play with your new characters skills and all is OK, 10 days later (can be longer) Jagex realise that the IP address the company use is a gold selling company they will ban all accounts that have been trained on that IP address.

Is it worth the risk?

*Age and country picked at random could be any age or country

Link: http://blog.milsom.biz/computers.php/tips/very-scary-information-about-many-of-our

This is a disturbing fact but I never really understood the extent of the problem, I own and run a computer repair company covering Bath and Bristol, UK, I have had a few problems where people are getting strange faults with their computer, little adverts coming up as popups from respectable sites, pron adverts coming up as an internet explorer tool bar as well as strange email accounts being created.

The amount of customers who have an out dated version of Norton Anti-virus and no spyware scanners is very worrying, only recently was I actually made aware of the damage and cost this stuff can cause, I have made a post on my company blog about it, click here to have a look.

People are always reporting of getting accounts hacked swearing that they never gave their password away, I personally don't believe them but the amount of inadequately protected computers makes it quite possibly true.

Spyware can cause your computer to phone a premium rate number, it can intercept keystrokes, it can add things to Internet explorer to take you to a different site than you wanted, spyware can even pretend to be be an anti-spyware program, this is the most common one I have found, its says you are at risk from spyware and shows you a list of threats your computer is contaminated with it states that if you install this software it will remove those threats, you have the option to continue and clear the threats or cancel, either option starts to download the program and installs it, the only way to close it without installation is to use task manager to close the browser.

Half the stuff classed as spyware on the PC Tools website I though was viruses, I think there is a fine line between the classification of these threats, but it doesn't matter they are threats with potential expensive and disastrous consequences.

PC Tools will give you a free scan but will not remove the threats unless you pay, the free scan can be an eye opener.

I use AVG Anti-virus and that has a web site analyser that scan links to sites before I click them, the amount of Runescape hack sites, Runescape cheat sites and Runescape Gold For cash sites that are marked as Risky by that program are phenomenal, I darnt click on them and I am well protected.

You may also be interested to know that Microsoft Internet Explorer has 7 pages of threats associated with it on the PC Tools database of threats, Mozilla Firefox has just 2 entries, what more can I say?

GET FIREFOX NOW

You need anti-virus you need anti-spyware, its not an option you need it and you need it now not next week, there are a few free ones but I trust PC Tools, read my company blog to see why.

Link: http://soldsecure.co.uk

This is the unofficial Sold Secure website, linked from here for my own personal reasons for my own personal gain and probably no interest to anyone else.

Unless you want to purchase the best in security products available or you manufacture Sold Secure approved security products and you want to advertise on our website.

The site is owned by Bristol and Bath Home Computers and any interest in advertising there should be done through the Bristol and Bath Home Computers website available by clicking here.

So for Sold Secure graded security products or to advertise your Sold Secure product please click here.

My name is Steve, I am the Author of Runescapeblog I am also Director of Marked For Life Limited.

Before starting my Own business I was a Server Engineer for Specialist Computer Centres, these were at time of leaving the largest independent computer company in the UK and possibly Europe.

I was repairing the larger most important computer for their top customers, Companies such as Zurich, Alliance and Leicester, Next etc.

The computers I was repairing may have been similar to the servers that Runescape run on, they often had thousands of people all retrieving data from them.

I had many bouts of Tonsillitis that made it impossible for me to work, In fact I had so many I learnt how to spell tonsillitis for the sick notes, people who haven't had tonsillitis think its a sore throat, the version I had made me immobile for weeks at a time, in fact in the early stages the doctor was called to my house because I could not possibly walk to the health centre, I was confined to bed for week at a time only moving to answer the call of nature and to hurl.

Pressure at work about my illness and personal problems forced me to leave my job, I then started to use Marked For Life Limited as my main form of income.

I later found that my tonsillitis was caused by a preventative inhaler I used for my asthma, after using the brown inhaler I developed Flu type symptoms within hours and the following day the severe headaches, sore throat and nausea symptoms took effect.

I continued to run my business as my main source of income, I started this blog as a way of sharing my Runescape experiences with others with the intention of having it funded by Google by adds placed on it. As my first payment was due Google decided that I had generated invalid click traffic and refused to pay me, they had no evidence to show me, there is no way they could have showed me because I would never have generated invalid click activity, but Google own the Internet and their decision is law.

You may be aware that I had a serious system crash and my main business computer went down, all my data was backed up but I had to build a new computer just to be able to use the latest supported Microsoft Window operating system "Vista", minimum advertised memory spec for Vista is 500m.

I was looking around and studying all the systems available on the Internet, I found 3 suitable systems and comparing the 3 prices and specifications they all had benefits and drawbacks, one of the 3 I was looking at was one of the companies I have advertised on this blog here
And just for the hell of it this is a link to the other

Although the systems were very good the advertised service was exceptional there was something lacking in all of them that I wanted, either not enough memory, not a big enough hard disk or other little things, I did find a company who did exactly what I wanted at slightly over the price I wanted, I went through the motions of ordering it then found out it would be 19 days before it would be ready for delivery.

Because of this I decided to have a look at my trade suppliers that I had from my previous business building computers, "Bristol Clone Centre", I made a note of everything I needed and bought the components, the price came to a lot less than the other comparable systems.

The parts came the next day and I assembled them, the system was up and running in no time, then came the problem of installing the software that I use, this is ongoing and I don't anticipate ever getting everything I used as it used to be but it is nice to have a clean install.

Although the other companies did their best deal they could and this would be ideal for most people who use the internet, for a little less I got the best value system available, I ended up with a duel core processor, 2 gb memory, 500gb hard disk.

The problems with Dabs Direct and MD Components is that they need to show you what you are getting up front, you want to see what your getting for your money, this is quite right but by demanding information you may well be losing out on great deals, to advertise they must have enough of the product to supply them for a set amount of time (as long as the system is advertised), this may result in the system being obsolete by the time they have exhausted their stock, what may have been a good deal at the time they bought the components may not be the best deal at the time you want to buy.

This had me thinking what do people want from their new computer purchase, this is a checklist that I put together that I was interested in, look at the list and see if your values are the same as mine.

1/ Do you want the best value system at the time of purchase
2/ Do you want the highest spec machine available at the time of purchase
3/ Do you want the latest technologies available at the time of purchase
4/ Would you like to spend a little extra money for a system with greatly increased performance.
5/ Would you like me to stop this list and give you what you want

I have decided to start up my computer business again building bespoke systems for individuals, I will not be using the name Bristol Clone Centre as I was before I will be starting a brand new company.

The way I can deliver the above check list is the way I source my products and conduct the business.

1/ I will purchase the components to order, our supplier supply many companies and stock turnaround is almost daily so guaranteed the latest components available.

2/ I will source the best (Highest spec) products that are economical to buy, If the next level of performance is a lot higher I will purchase that if the price is comparatively small, if there is a great increase in price for the next specification increase I will not purchase it.

3/ See number 1 above

4/ See number 2 above

5/ I will promise to give you the best value product available at a price the other suppliers charge for the minimal systems, your system will be built by an engineer that was qualified to work on IBM and Compaq servers for some of the major players in the UK (My hourly rate was £60 to £120 to these major companies (I wish they paid me that much)), your system will be built at a static sensitive workstation ensuring maximum lifetime of your computer system.

I will be working through the purchasing/ordering system shortly if you are interested please contact us through our current business Marked For Life Limited, our contact details can be found here.