iPhone 4 In Malaysia - Free iPhone 4

On Thursday night, the iPhone 4 was launched at separate events by DiGi Telecommunications Bhd and Maxis Bhd.

The iPhone 4 which was launched in the US in June this year is a major redesign of all previous models and has more features than its recent predecessors, the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

The crowd at the launch

At the launch night, free iPhone 4s were given to the winners of the lucky draws. This is one of the ways you can get a free iPhone - participate in lucky draws on product launching events.

However, for those of you who are interested in purchasing the new iPhone 4, you can obtain free iPhone 4 information here - the Maxis Plan and here is the Digi plan.

Please post your comments.

Google Now Gives Free Phone Calls

Skype, Google and many other services have been offering free computer-to-computer calling for years. However, Google has now gone a step further - offering free computer to phone service.

Google Inc. has now added a feature on its Gmail service that allows users to call any phone directly from their computers. Starting today, Americans can call any phone right from Gmail and Google is working on making this service available globally.

Users can call any phone in the US and Canada for free while calls to Britain, France, Germany, China, Japan and many other countries will be billed as low as 2 cents per minute.

People also will be able to receive calls on their PC if they obtain a free phone number from Google or already have one.

Please post your comments.

New BlackBerry Torch Malaysia - Review & Price

RIM (Research In Motion Ltd., the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry) and AT&T introduced the latest BlackBerry yesterday morning - the BlackBerry Torch 9800. This is the first BlackBerry to run on the BlackBerry OS 6 and it is also RIM's first slider keyboard phone.

This new phone combines a touch-screen interface with a slide-out version of Blackberry's signature Qwerty keyboard.

The Black Berry Torch and its new operating system is predicted to assist BlackBerry to retain, if not increase, its market share. According to technology pundits, this phone was launched to neutralise the Apple iPhone's increasing popularity and the onslaught from other new generation smartphones.

Although the combination of the touch screen and a physical keyboard gives us the best of both worlds, but some commentators are disappointed that it has a lower resolution screen. Whilst the display is sufficiently clear for one to read text and view media but it is pale in comparison to high resolution screens on the iPhone and other smartphones such as the Samsung Vibrant.

Further, its 624MHz processor feels relatively underpowered in contrast to the latest smartphones available.

Having said all the above, I believe this phone will still be popular with existing BlackBerry users as they generally want a phone mainly for office use and are not the type to use their phone as a gaming or multimedia device for entertainment.

The BlackBerry Torch will cost $199 in the US.

We, however, do not as yet know when this phone will be available here or how much it would sell for in Malaysia.

Please post your comment.

Facebook Reaches Milestone 500 Million Users

The number of people using the Facebook has reached half a billion. This means one in every 14 people in the world has signed up to the social-networking website.

With 500 million active users, is undisputedly the the world's largest and popular social networking website.

"As of Wednesday (July 21) morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them," Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, said.

Inside Facebook headquarters

Zuckerberg added that the number of Facebook users doubled in the past year. Its users hit the 250 million mark in July 2009.

To celebrate the new milestone, the Facebook is launching a new application called Facebook Stories where members can share their stories and read hundreds of others, categorised by themes and locations around the world.

Facebook, founded in February, is now a privately held company and has its headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

According to research, the number of Facebook users in Malaysia surpassed the 1 million mark sometime in March last year. And Checkfacebook.com, a website that tracks data reported from Facebook's advertising tool, says Malaysia has now over 7.5 million Facebook users.

Please post your comments.

Singaporean Online Casanova Cheats Malaysian Women

This is the latest story about cyber cassanovas preying on women:

He is neither good looking nor young, but this sweet-talking Casanova has managed to cheat at least seven women of nearly RM400,000.

The 41-year-old Singaporean, known as Dennis Lim, has a habit of preying on women through the social networking website, ahmoi.com.

That’s him!: Chong and Qi Qi checking out a picture of Lim at the department chief’s office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

One of his victims, Qi Qi, lost RM294,662 within the seven months of their “friendship.”

“I was not really attracted to him. He was really aggressive and he made the first move online,” said the 34-year-old businesswoman from Penang, who sought the help of MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong at his office yesterday.

She said Lim claimed to be a factory manager and knew how to take advantage of her weakness.

“He used sob stories to get my sympathy.

“For instance, he claimed his stepmother was admitted into ICU; that his ex-boss had delayed his business reimbursements and that he had met with a road accident before Chinese New Year.

“I felt sorry for him and wanted to help,” she said, adding that she allowed Lim to use her credit cards when he visited her in Penang in October last year.

Qi Qi started getting suspicious in March and lodged two police reports in Penang and another two in Singapore.

She later traced Lim’s caller history from a sub-line she started for him, and found six other women in Malaysia whom Lim had cheated for money and sex.

“His modus operandi is to get acquainted with lonely, single women online and then slowly work his way into their pockets with his sob stories,” Qi Qi said, adding that the victims had refused to make police reports against Lim.

Chong urged the other victims to come forward so that he could assist them.

“I will take this case to the Malaysian Interpol and relevant authorities,” he said.
He also reminded women to be wary of meeting strangers online.

Source: The Star

This story is not unlike many other stories such as an online Casanova called "Shafiq" who sweet talks chubby teenage girls into giving him money and then leaving them stranded - read here.

Another story is about Benny. He is young, handsome, suave, smooth and well-dressed and used his charm to swindle women of their money. Read the story here.

Apple's latest iPhone 4 Malaysia - Price & Review

The new Apple iPhone 4.

Apple Inc unveiled the new iPhone 4 in San Francisco yesterday. And Malaysian iPhone fans are raving about it already.

According to news reports, the redesigned iPhone costing US$199 (RM663) is 4 times slimmer than the current iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 apparently has a higher quality screen and longer battery life, video chat via Wi-Fi, and a gyroscope sensor for better gaming.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the iPhone 4 will be available by June 24 in five countries, expanding to 18 by July and 88 by September this year.

Apple is staying a step ahead of rivals like Google Inc in the competitive smartphone market.

Google’s Android operating system used by many brands such as Motorola, HTC, Samsung and Dell poses the biggest threat to Apple's iPhone.

Features

• with the "face time" feature in the iPhone 4 you can make free video calls using Wi-Fi to other iPhone 4 users.
• iPhone 4 has two cameras: One on the front, which focuses on you. And one on the back, which focuses on everything else.
• "retina display" technology on iPhone 4 makes it the sharpest, most vibrant, highest-resolution phone screen ever; four times the pixel count of previous iPhone models.
• iPhone 4 makes multitasking faster - you can switch between 3rd-party apps without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.
• you can take pictures and shoot your own movies in high definition even in low-light environment because of the latest backside illumination sensor and built-in LED light in the iPhone 4

Price

The 16GB model is $199 (RM666) and the 32GB model is $299 (RM1001). Both price are tied to a 2 year contract with AT&T. We do not know what the price will be for the Malaysian market as yet.

The iPhone 4 is currently only available in either Black or White.

Availability

By June 24 - US, France, Germany, UK and Japan

By July - Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

By September - 88 other countries, including Malaysia, I presume.

Please read about iPhone 4 in Malaysia here.

Please post your comments.

Apple Surpasses Microsoft As World's Largest Technology Company

According to news reports, Apple has surpassed Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world by market capitalisation.

Conventional computers, running on Microsoft's Windows operating system and other programs, which once dominated the tech industry are losing market share to Apple's iPhone and its iPad tablet computer.

Market cap is the dollar value of a company's outstanding shares. On Wednesday, Apple Inc.'s shares dropped $1.11 to close at $244.11, making its market cap about $222 billion.

But Microsoft Corp.'s stock fell $1.06, or 4.1 percent, to close at $25.01, for market cap of about $219 billion.

Will this be an ongoing trend for Apple or is this only a temporary setback for Microsoft ?

Please post your comments.

Blu-Ray Movies Is A Fast Growing Trend

According to news reports the sale of  Blu-Ray discs are improving as high-definition TVs (HDTV) and  Blu-Ray players getting cheaper. The astute movie pirates also cashing in on this latest trend.They have been anxiously waiting for this since a few years ago.

HDTVs - LCDs, Plasma and now LED screens are very much cheaper now compared to its introduction several years ago. A 42-inch branded LCD now sells at approximately RM2,500 per unit. This would cost about RM8,000 about 5 years ago.

Blu-Ray players are also cheap these days. Players are now sold as low as RM500 compared to RM2,000 few years ago.

Many legitimate and illegitimate video shops are already having a special section just for Blu-Ray titles. 

An original Blu-Ray disc is priced at between RM89 and RM169 while the pirated  Blu-Ray discs are sold at between RM30 and RM40. This is still comparatively more costly to paying RM19 to RM39 for original DVDs, and RM5 to RM10 for pirated DVDs.

The home movie trend is going Blu-Ray. Many movie studios have already announced the release of new films on Blu-Ray, and old titles being remastered into Blu-Ray format.

Please post your comments.

Why I Won't Buy An iPad

This is a podcast by Cory Doctorow published in Boing Boing on why he wouldn't buy a iPad and why he think we shouldn't either.

What do you think ? Please post your comments.

Malaysian Men Buying Lingerie Online

The pic is for illustration only

The above picture shows a man trying on a bra he bought online. According to a report in the Star, more Malaysian men are purchasing exotic and sexy ladies undergarments online.

Apparently men prefer to purchase such items online because they are embarrassed to buy such clothing for their wives or girlfriends in normal shops.

The report says that some of the purchasers are even from places like Felda settlements, because they have no easy access to regular shops selling such clothing.

An online lingerie shop owner says another reason people buy online is because of the variety of merchandise - there are many designs to choose from, such as satin slips, corsets, two-piece sets and even those that come with whips. Some of these designs are not readily available in Malaysian shops, especially the more exotic ones.

Lingerie corsets are apparently one of the hottest-selling lingerie and customers are demanding for more corset designs, such as those with lace and leather.

Please post your comments.

Should You Get An iPad Now ?

Flowchart from Dutchcowboys

According to an article in the Seattle Times, Apple iPad is not really worth its hype. The iPad is basically just an extra-large iPod Touch.

Apparently software and media companies are especially excited about the iPad's debut as they are hoping to sell millions of apps and subscriptions at higher prices than they could for the iPhone.

The newspaper advises against impulse purchase of the iPad because it expects the price to eventually fall. As the price of the iPad settles so will its apps market.

If you wait a little, Apple's competitors will release similar devices that may have better features at competitive prices. Also, wait and see if the iPad will be a really useful device that will replace current PCs and laptops.

Anyway, Apple says its delaying the international release of the iPad by a month because of high demand. Yes, the iPad was supposed to be available in Malaysia sometime late March, but now, Malaysians will have to wait until the end of May. I think its just a marketing gimmick by Apple to get people all hyped up about the iPad.

So, don't be impatient. Getting an iPad is not the most important thing in the world. The iPad can wait because tablet computers it will eventually get better and cheaper...

Please post your comments.

Penang Adult Entertainment Retailer Uses Facebook To Market Products

A retailer of adult entertainment, including toys, DVDs and stimulants in Penang, has gone hi tech and uses Facebook to market its products.

The retailer has apparently distributed flyers written in Chinese listing its Face­book site to residents of a housing estate.

Police are trying to locate the retailer based on the details in the flyers. If caught, the seller could be charged under Section 292 of the Penal Code for distributing offensive items or under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 for selling obscene materials online.
Please post your comments.

TM's New High Speed Broadband Service

Review: Telekom Malaysia's (TM) latest super high speed broadband (HSBB) 5Mbps, 10Mbps or 20Mbps connection to the Internet.

Telekom Malaysia's UniFi comes in 3 packages.

Residential packages

• 5Mbps (RM149 per month), 10Mbps (RM199 per month) or 20Mbps (RM249 per month)

• Subscribers must sign a contract for 2 years.

• Each package comes with a Dect (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) phone, a set-top box for IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), Streamyxzone ID for wireless web access, and a 2GB e-mail box.
  

• Monthly cap on downloads - the 5Mbps package has a 60GB cap, the 10Mbps package has a 90GB cap, and the 20Mbps package has a 120GB cap. *
  

Business packages will cost most more but there will be no download caps.

UniFi is currently available in Shah Alam, Subang Jaya, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar.

The UniFi coverage areas planned for 2010 are:

Bangsar- Residential / Business- Q1 2010
Shah Alam - Residential / Business -Q1 2010
Subang- Residential / Business- Q1 2010
Taman Tun Dr. Ismail - Residential / Business- Q1 2010
Bayan Baru-Business-Q3 2010
Bukit Kemuning-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Bukit Tengah-Business-Q3 2010
Cyberjaya-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Damansara-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Duta-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Kepong -Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Keramat-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
KL International Airport-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Kulim HighTech park-Business-Q3 2010
Lapangan Terbang Subang -Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Melawati-Residential / Business -Q3 2010
Menara TM-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Midah-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Permas-Business-Q3 2010
Petaling Jaya-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Puchong-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Putrajaya-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Seberang Jaya-Business-Q3 2010
Senai-Business-Q3 2010 Skudai-Business-Q3 2010
Sungai Buloh-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Sungai Long-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Telok Panglima Garang –Business-Q3 2010
Wangsa Maju-Residential / Business-Q3 2010
Batu-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Bukit Bintang -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Cheras -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Jln Kebun-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Kelana Jaya -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
KL Central -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Klang-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Kuala Pauh -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Pekeliling-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Saga-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
San Peng -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Selayang-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Sentul -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Serdang -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Setapak -Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Sg. Renggam-Residential / Business-Q4 2010
Taman Petaling -Residential / Business-Q4 2010

More areas nationwide will be covered over the next 2 years.

*LATEST: TM suspends UniFi download cap. So, TM will not impose any download caps for now.

Please post your comment.

New Zealander Buys 2 Ghosts For RM6,644.25 Online

The pic is for illustration only

A male New Zealander from Christchurch bought 2 captured ghosts stored in glass vials from TradeMe, a New Zealand auction website, for $NZ2,830 (RM6,644.25) on Monday night.

Christchurch woman, Avie Woodbury, an exorcist, who listed the ghosts for sale said they had been captured from her house.

The seller said one one the spirits is an old man named Les Graham, who lived in her house during the 1920s, and the other is a powerful and disruptive little girl, which was captured during a ouija board session. The ghosts have allegedly been kept inactive by putting them in holy water which dulls the ghosts' energy.

Apparently all proceeds from the auction will be donated to the SPCA.

Please post your comments.

Online Boyfriend Being Naughty

According to the Star, a 32 year old consultant is now worried that her nude photos taken by her online boyfriend will be posted online.

The consultant got to know the man called, William Bobby Madoff, through Yahoo messenger for almost a year.

Although she has never met this man who is from a foreign country, she had fallen deeply in love with him.

Taking advantage of the situation, William Bobby Madoff persuaded her to pose naked via webcam.

After breaking up with the man, he now threatens to leak the photos on the web.

This is not the only thing about this William Bobby Madoff. In April last year, William told the consultant to expect a package containing valuables such as a mobile phone, a laptop and some jewellery.

Then a week later, someone claiming to be from the billing department called and asked her to pay RM3,880 for delivery of the package.

When she contacted her boyfriend to clarify about this he said he had paid the charges in his country and was unaware of other charges to pay in Malaysia. However, he urged her to pay for the charges.

She has since reported all this to the police.

Please post your comments.

The Apple iPad Malaysia - Price & Review

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Apple has launched its latest creation yesterday - the iPad.

The iPad, which is a tablet computer, supposedly a cross between a smartphone and a laptop will apparently make web browsing, email, photos sharing, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, and reading ebooks, better.

The sleek looking iPad tablet is only 0.5 inch thick and weighs 680 grams featuring a big 9.7 inch LED backlit multi-touch screen.

Despite its looks, most technology observers describe the iPad as just a giant iPhone and are rather disappointed with it - they say many basic features are not available on the iPad.

Here are just a few of the things that the iPad doesn't have:

• No camera: There is no front-facing camera for video conferencing, and there is no back-facing camera for taking pictures.

• No phone calls — Although the iPad supports cellular networks and has a build-in microphone, you cannot make telephone calls or send SMS.

• No multitasking: You cannot run multiple applications simultaneously. Thus you can't, among other things, listen to the online radio while updating your Facebook.

• No HDMI Output: You cannot connect your iPad to your TV or a projector to do presentations.
  

• No USB port: You cannot plug in any other device, such as a thumb drive, into the iPad.

• No flash — As there's no Adobe Flash Player on the iPad, you cannot play flash animations, videos or games on the iPad - yes, you cannot play Facebook games on it.

The iPad tablet comes in 2 versions — with WiFi only or with both WiFi and 3G.
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The price of an iPad starts from US$499 (RM1,697) for WiFi-only models and up to US$829 (RM2,818) for the WiFi- and 3G-enabled 64GB model.Although there is no determined date when the iPad will be available in Malaysia, Apple says the iPad will be available worldwide within 2 months from now - sometime late March, presumably.

Apple's huge brand advantage and its loyal customer base has not discouraged its competitors from introducing their own tablets, many of them running on the Google Android OS:

• HP Slate: Runs on Windows 7

• Asus Eee Tablet: Soon to be reveled, which may run on Google Android

• Notion Ink Tablet: Runs on Google Android
  

• Google/HTC Tablet: Rumors in the market is that Google and HTC are developing a Google tablet to run on Google Android.

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Would you buy an iPad ?

Please post your comments.

Myspace Casanova Targets Chubby Girls

The above pic is for illustrative purposes only

A Malay tabloid reported that a 19 year old Casanova called "Shafiq" is at large sweet talking teenage chubby girls into giving him money and then leaving them stranded.

Shafiq, unemployed, apparently uses social networking website Myspace to seek out his victims. He is known to target only chubby or plump girls between the ages of 18 to early 20s. It is believed that upon persuading the girls to meet him offline, he charms them by giving them a jade necklace charged with black magic spells, to wear.

According to the news report, once the girl wears the jade necklace, she is powerless to resist Shafiq's requests.

Please post your comments.

Google Wave - The Latest Online Communication Tool

According to Google, "a wave" is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Wave is not released to the public yet, but Google has sent out invitations to 100,000 people thus far to test it out prior to it becoming public. As Google Wave is rumored to be the next evolution in online communication, loads of people, mainly techies, are begging to get invites to test this new tool.

Read WSJ's take on Google Wave.

In my opinion, Google Wave is more or less a mashup between MSN (Windows Live) messenger, email, Facebook and Twitter. If it is received well, we might see the early demise of Facebook and Twitter.

Please post your comments.

The New Gutter Post and Gutter Uncensored

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The original gutter post blog hosted using the blogspot subdomain on google's blogger platform has been banned by google sometime in February this year. It then moved to its own hosted site called www.GutterUncensored.com. This site has since been inaccessable.

While there are still people searching for gutter uncensored blogspot, the site owner has kept changing its url attempting to evade detection from the authorities.

The gutterpost which became famous after the expose of Edison Chen's nude pictures, was shut down by google because it violated google terms of service for blogger.

There are so many rumours why the new website Gutter Uncensored was been banned by google and now defunct.

So many sex scandal pics have been exposed by the gutter post and subsequesntly the Gutter Uncensored that it became very popular amongst Malaysians. The site according to Alexa.com, ranked among the the top 35 sites visited by Malaysians.

There were many copycat versions of the gutterpost but none were as successful.

Some say this is the new gutter post.

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Gutter post updates

New: Join this page for gutterpost updates.

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Please post your comments.

Top 5 Internet Scams

Source: Divine Caroline

Internet scams are by no means a recent phenomenon, but certain scams come back again and again. Here are five popular Internet scams that you should be on the lookout for.

1. Auction fraud. Sure I love cheap stuff on eBay as much as the next guy, but that ’73 Collectors Edition Elvis Plate you’re bidding on might not be that great of a deal. Fake and stolen merchandise aren’t uncommon; even a Certificate of Authenticity doesn’t necessarily mean anything. As eBay Scam Watch puts it, “If a seller is willing to misrepresent a fake item as real, then what is the big deal of throwing in an authentic looking certificate?” Another scam is the “shill” scam: A seller wanting to drive up the price on his auction may bid himself or have his friends bid, just to make you pay more. If you notice a repeat bidder on a seller’s auction history, something’s probably up. One more tip: Never wire money directly to a seller—it’s almost impossible to retrieve the money if your purchase isn’t shipped.

This fortunately is not very widespread in Malaysia as very few Malaysians purchase stuff online. Or I might be wrong ? Has anyone here purchased anything on Lelong.Com or Ebay Malaysia ?

2. Bank fraud. “Phishing scams” are popular email scams. You’ll get an email from your bank warning you that someone has been trying to access your account. They’ll ask you to click on a link and verify your information, so the bank can take care of everything. No matter how legitimate the email looks, banks never email you asking for your information. The email is from a scammer hoping to empty your savings. The most recent scams play off government stimulus checks and EPPICards (for child support payments). Check the National Consumers League’s Internet Fraud Watch for tips to avoid such scams. Similar schemes play off mortgage and credit card debt elimination, with the scammer offering to get rid of your debt for a small fee ($1000-2000) and power of attorney authorizing transactions on your behalf. When this information (and payment) is entrusted to them, you’ll be left with nothing—except that mortgage or credit card bill they still haven’t taken care of.

According to a study, a spammer gets only 1 response per 12,500,000 emails he sends out. Despite the low success rate, scams by spam email is still widespread. We get this a lot in Malaysia as well. I've received spam email from scammers passing themselves off as "Citibank", "HSBC" etc officers asking for my banking details, apparently to "regulate some discrepancies in my account" or offering "special promotions". When in doubt, always call your bank. Note: dont' call the "bank's phone number" as prescribed in the spam email.

3. You’ve won a FREE Xbox fraud. Pretty much any time you’re given something for nothing you should be wary. As charitable as Bill Gates is, Microsoft Corporation is a business and isn’t going to give away thousands of free Xbox’s. The email will read something like this: “Congratulations! You’ve won a FREE Xbox (or iPod, or TiVo, or some other fancy gadget)! All we need is your address and credit card information to pay the $5.99 shipping/handling!” Don’t trust it, or you’ll soon find your credit card maxed-out—and probably five or six more cards you never knew you had.

This is the evergreen "winning something" scam. I can't believe people still fall for this trick. Before the advent of the internet, scammers used to call people's houses directly to operate this scam.

4. Charity fraud. Perhaps the most unfortunate scams in recent years have come in the wake of tragedies like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 tsunami. When such tragedies occur, scammers take advantage of the fact that many people who are willing to help don’t know where to donate their money. Never trust an email asking for charitable contributions before verifying the credibility of the organization. Never open attached images or files, as they may be viruses. And never provide them your personal information. If you want to help, you should preferably donate directly to big-name organizations like the Red Cross or Amnesty International, which always organize direct disaster relief funds.

This is yet another evergreen scam. It is still carried out in real life by "volunteers" approaching random people at restaurants seeking donations for a variety of causes.

5. Murder for hire fraud. One of the most twisted Internet scams it the so-called “hit man scam.” The victim is contacted and told that he/she is to be assassinated or a loved one will be kidnapped, unless the recipient wires several thousand dollars to the sender of the email. In another version the “hit man” claims to be a law enforcement official who has recently discovered the recipient’s information in a captured murderer’s pocket. The recipient is then asked to contact the “authorities” to help with the investigation. Even if you feel someone is really out to get you, if you ever receive one of these emails, contact the police—immediately.

Although I've not heard of this scam done via the internet in Malaysia, I've read that in Kuala Lumpur scammers call the victims direcly claiming to be gangsters, hitmen, court officials etc, asking for "kau tim" money (a settlement sum) to "settle" an alleged matter.

The best way to keep your finances secure is to never give out any personal information unless you’re sure the site is reputable. If you think you’ve received a scam email, report it either to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which also puts out yearly statistics on online fraud, or to the FBI’s Cyber Investigation Team.

Please post your comments.