Because fraud is so rampant on ebay, many ebay sellers are requiring their buyers to confirm their address so that they will be covered by ebay and Paypal’s Seller Protection Policy. But what does this mean? This is ebay and Paypal’s way of verifying your identity. The system they have built covers the seller in the event of fraud and they buyer gets some other benefits too.

So how as an ebay buyer do you do this? Generally, you add your bank account to Paypal, Paypal sends you two small deposits, and you then report back the deposits. It is not full proof but it must have good enough success for ebay to support it.

As an ebay Seller, I have had Paypal tell me that someone fraudulently stole one of my buyer’s account to buy something from me. When this happens, I am liable and Paypal will always reverse the transaction taking the money out of my account but since I shipped it to the address given in Paypal and they had a confirmed address, they covered it and did not take the funds from me.

Had I not followed ebay and Paypal’s rules and the buyer’s address was not confirmed, they would have taken the money from me end of story. Im pretty sure if you add your bank account to Paypal as a buyer, you get coverage in the even that the seller is fraudulent.

As a buyer or seller, you will run across someone who will try to rip you off. If you are going to sell or buy on ebay, please read ebay’s policies before buying or selling anything. Many people jump right in and get ripped off right away. Others who are more cautious, get through without ever getting ripped off because of ebay’s policy.

Just got back from crippling a customer’s HP Pavilion computer after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3. I talked to HP and they know about this issue and is working on it.

If you install Service Pack 3 on an HP computer and your computer will not start follow these steps. When the computer reboots, you will get a black screen asking if you want to try to boot Windows normally (which will not work if you try) or in Safe Mode. It will say this has happened because of a recent hardware change/failure or software problem. Just use the arrow key to highlight any of the Safe Mode options, hit enter and wait for your computer to boot into safe mode. If you do not get this screen, hitting F8 while your computer is booting should do the trick. Once the computer starts in Safe Mode, (it will look different but it is ok) go to your Control Panel, Add Remove Programs, and finally click Windows XP Service pack 3 so that it uninstalls. Once you click it, it should ask if you want to uninstall but if not, highlight it and click the uninstall button at the top.

Of coarse be sure to read the date when you read this because all 500GB hard drives might be this price by then but $69.99 for a 500 GB Seagate is phenomenal. This is the cheapest price for a hard drive I have ever seen. Go to ZipZoomFly.com As usual, Seagate helps us out by driving the base cost of gigs per dollar down in hard drives.

It is not your fault and it is easy to do, but getting you identity stolen via a fake email is a serious issue. Unfortunately, we live in a world where their people are evil and prey upon the good and unsuspecting. Most people may know by now but if you have not heard, you can get fake or spoofed emails from a spammer that leads to a fake financial institution or some other scheme in an attempt to steal your personal information or gain access to your bank account. To help prevent yourself from getting your identity stolen, I have compiled a simple list of rules to follow.

• Assume all from anyone you don’t know is bogus and fake
• Assume all email from any financial institution is fake
• Do not click any links in email

On another note, you should turn off the html preview in email so you don’t get a virus but that is a story for another day.

If you receive an email from you bank or financial institution, it could be real but there is a good chance it is fake. Usually, they will say your account is about to be canceled and to click a link to fix or update your information. The email will look just like it was from you bank and the link will take you to a site that looks just like you bank but it is not. when you log in, they phishing is done. You just gave your username and password to your bank and now they are free to drain your account. Some really bad and obvious links will ask you to update your information while asking for your name, address, drivers license number, birthday, and social. Sadly, do not trust anything of this nature from your email. If there is a problem with your bank, go directly to their web site by typing the web address in your browser. Obviously, if there is a problem, your financial institution will tell you.

If you think you are a victim of identity theft, here are some steps as they are found on the ftc.gov website.

• Try to document and make a record of as much as you can regarding the theft.
• Place a fraud alert on your credit report. Get the info below.
• Notify the companies who own the accounts that have been compromised. If your American Express info was stolen, call American Express immediately
• Close the accounts that have been compromised
• File a complain with the Federal Trade Commission. Use the online complaint form or call 877-ID-THEFT
• File a report with your local police department (in the place that the theft took place)

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Again the steps and more details are from the ftc.gov web site found here

Yes that is right, that thing your kids buy music on is now 5 years old. Introduced today back in 2003, iTunes and iPods have developed and shaped people, Apple as a company, and much more. iTunes has taken the world by storm so much, you will often see references to iTunes in TV shows or animated comedys. With sales rising to the top as the number 1 online music seller, I must say well done Apple. Happy birthday iTunes.

Sometimes you have your hands on the keyboard and it takes extra time to grab the mouse and move to the address bar to type a web site while using Internet explorer. If you are looking for a way to speed up the process, try typing Alt+d. This means hold down the alt key and then press the d key. This will move you to the address bar and you are free to type hopefully making your browsing experience quicker and better.

Given where I live in Southern California, I have decided to learn Spanish. I was horrible at learning the typical way when in high school so I decided to take a different approach. I decided to try Rosetta Stone the, "Fastest Learning Course, Guaranteed. Used by NASA, FBI, 10,000 Schools."

I’ll tell you one thing about learning a language. Unless you are a super brainiac, you will not fully learn any language until you fully immerse yourself in it. You also risk forgetting it if you don’t use it. The traditional way of reading a schoolbook where you read the word and read that it means xyz in English just did not cut it. One of my bilingual friends told me that in order to be successful, you have to know what is being talked about in the foreign language without doing a mental translation of what is spoken in your native language in your head. Rosetta Stone aims to solve this by showing you an image and telling you what it is, building on it, and adding more and more. Overall, I have been really satisfied with Rosetta Stone, I am not fluent in Spanish but I really feel that is because I have not used the program enough. I have only spent a few hours using Rosetta Stone while owning it a few months. Had I used the software every day for the past few months over and over, my dumb head might be speaking Spanish. If you have had trouble learning a language, I strongly suggest trying out Rosetta Stone. The newest version of Rosetta Stone works with Windows or Mac platforms.

Have you ever been poking around your Windows Vista computer, found the Windows Experience Index score and wonder what the heck it is? One thing that might confuse people is that your overall score is the lowest of all the ratings and not an average. For example, you may have a 5.1 for the processor speed, a 4 for ram and a 2 for graphics which is the lowest but your overall score is 2.

The answer is pretty simple. The idea behind rating is to help you out when you install software on your computer and ensure you will know what to expect when you buy and install a video game or utility. In the past, when people bought games, the needed to make sure their video card was good enough, processor was fast enough and so forth. The number system solves this. If you buy a Vista video game rated at a minimum 5, every category in your system should be a 5 or greater otherwise you will possibly have issues. Whether it may be ram, processor, or video, you game will lag because the rating is lower than what is expected. If you buy a game and it’s rating is a 3 and your overall average score is 5, you be able to play the game with no issues.

Hope this helps you understand why this rating system is in your computer. If anything, it is a way to brag to friends when your number is bigger than theirs.

I just want to warn people who are using Windows on their MacBooks with OSX and BootCamp. Don’t use the sleep feature! I have not tried this with XP and please confirm if you have but I have tried this with Vista. Make sure you shut down your computer…

Normally I hit shut down but I recently hit the sleep button, you know the one that looks like the power button in my MacBook Pro and my Vista MacBook went to sleep. Well everything did what it was supposed to do.. Everything went off and the computer turned on to Vista when I  hit the power button.

The only problem was, I could have fried an egg on it! This makes sense to me now since the boot configuration in BootCamp needs to run. So the computer does not really shut off but the fans apparently do.

If anyone has had similar circumstances, please let me know. If I am doing something wrong, please let me know.