Well today’s the last day I’m blogging here as moneypenny, come to think of it, today’s Digitalmoneyworlds last post too.

From tomorrow I’ll be blogging on business, startups, money, online scams and a whole lot else. So come to the launch party and let me know what you think.

Its been great to monefy you and I look forward to your comments and debates on www.wisequeen.com

see you soon

Moneypenny

I have really enjoyed my short sojourn here as your Moneypenny on DMW and thankyou to those who wrote in with your appreciation and comments, and humour and especially big thanks to those that I helped to avoid money scams. Usefulness is a personal goal of mine that many bloggers share. Fear not I ‘ll be covering more of the same about all kinds of money on www.wisequeen.com

with more un-common sense, money issues, business, startups and life advice

along with my new wineblog which beat Dr Vino this week in ratings!!! We are on our way people! hang on tight for the journey of your life.

My un-common sense blog on biz advice, finance, money of all kinds, and the rules of life, launches on August 1st and you can click now for a taster www.wisequeen.com Come to the launch party, you’re invited.

Please leave any comments, questions or donations to my paypal account for my new startup. I’ll be entertaining you here till then.

Moneypenny.

As well as accessing the information held by credit agencies on you, banks also store a lot of their own info and recently the safety of this info has come under the spotlight.

Last year a large UK bank was fined £1 million for carelessly failing to safeguard customer info when a member of staff’s laptop was stolen. The theft was pretty routine what angered the officials however, was the fact that the info held on the computer was not even encrypted to prevent Joe Soap in the street accessing it.

A few months later the banking commisioner named and shamed 12 major banks and the post office for carelessly dumping personal information on their clients, in bin bags on the pavements outside their premises. For the majority of people who shred their statements and personal info, this seems a rather blatant breech of trust.

The law states that banks and anyone else who keeps personal info on you are obliged to store it safely and safeguard against the theft of it.

The FSA Financial Services Authority have inspection teams now, as do major banks.

So what do you think about this digital money world readers? Are you using online payment systems in the hope that they handle your info more securely than banks. Do they?

Let us know what you think send us a comment

Moneypenny

(Digital Money World) I remembered when the Monetary Authority of Singapore has given a time-line to the local banks (and even global banks that operates within the MAS frame like Standard Chartered, Citibank) to implement 2FA security feature, not many people know what 2FA really was, and how useful it is as a second level of deterrent to hacking or even identity thefts such as social engineering.

2FA Devices. Singaporeans should find them really familiar - Taken with my HTC Diamond

Read more

Ok anyone visiting digital money world recently would have noticed we have been discussing moneybookers scams Reading the comments on these posts is essential reading. So heres the latest to arrive in my box. Is it real or not?

Well here’s an email that seems to come from moneybookers advising me that someone has attempted to log in to my account. It’s an account, I’m about to close, as it has no funds and never will do. However, it would be more convincing if this was not a non-return email, but instead you got a person when you replied to this security update.

My advice that you should never click on a link, but rather, type moneybookers straight into your browser window, still stands.

Read this 

Fake moneybookers scam ?

Security update

Monday, 30 June, 2008 10:21 PM

From:

“MoneyBookers” <security@moneybookers.com>

Add sender to Contacts

To:

d@b5media.com

Attention!   Dear Member Moneybookers,We recently noticed one or more attempts to log in to your moneybookers account from a foreign IP address.. If you recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you did not initiate the log ins, please visit moneybookers as soon as possible to verify your identity:   https://www.moneybookers.com/app/login.plVerify your identity is a security measure that will ensure that you are the only person with access to the account. Thanks for your patience as we work together to protect your account. Sincerely, Moneybookers 2008 Moneybookers Security Reminders Protect Your Password Moneybookers and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone asks for your password by phone moneybookers.com, refuse and immediately report this to security@moneybookers.com.Please do not reply to this email.This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.For assistance, log in to your moneybookers account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any moneybookers page. The capitals matter Let us remind you that the capitalized letters matter for the password, it has to have at least 6 characters and contain at least one number or a special character like ‘-’.     Registered in England and Wales under Company No 4260907. Registered office: C3 Cairngorm House, Meridian Gate, 203 Marsh Wall, London E14 9YT. None of the information contained in this website constitutes, nor should be construed as Financial Advice.

What do you think,Is this real? Comments please. We reached 120 comments on digital money world for the month of June so thanks to all who commented on my posts and by so doing, helped others to be safer online. yours in money, Moneypenny

 A new application on facebook  from Moneybookers which is based in the U.K. was launched, Moneybookers is one of the largest money transfer services online with over 4.6 million worldwide customers.

While Moneybookers promotes it as a “social fundraising” application, all of the normal Moneybookers money transfer services will be available inside the application.

The application will expand Moneybookers’ ability to extend their reach by offering their services to the millions of Facebook users. It appears that the fee structure for the Facebook application will match the current Moneybookers fee structure

One drawback that I see is that  logging directly into Moneybookers or PayPal when  sending and/or receiving money is more secure than within Facebook so many may not feel comfortable logging in via another application. Im sure this will open up a whole can of worms as far as the scammers go, as we have already seen on the Fake moneybookers scam ?   which has numerous comments worth reading. What do you think  good or bad, would you use it?

Yours in money,

Moneypenny

I blogged yesterday about the those that have written into me about a fake moneybookers scam.

http://www.bizzia.com/adding-value/

Adding value read this and comment on it if you have suggestions.

These people were scammed because they received an email identical to the moneybookers one and took it as the original, it was actually a faked page which looked identical.

Today I want to talk about online security with moneybookers, pay pal and others.

What should you expect to receive from them?

Rule number one

Any mail you get, first check the address it came from, that’s the first clue. Mark spam as spam and delete it out of your spam folder daily.

Rule number 2

Never click on a link, but rather type the address www.paypal.com or moneybookers.com straight into your browser window. Then you can’t be misdirected. Check the page you are logging into it should look right, dont rush. Never update your details on a form you’re not certain about. These scams continue because people fail to to do this, they know they will catch someone.

Rule number 3

If you don’t have a bank account with that bank or payment company, don’t open the mail. You don’t get an account by accident.

Follow these simple rules everytime and scams will suffer, not you.

Care to comment? share this with everyone you know.

Be safe online, Moneypenny

Well, following on the successful blog off where I and many other b5media bloggers from the business channel and entertainment channel blogged for 24 hours straight, it came to me that, one golden rule of blogging, is to add value.

In other words, to give our readers something that they need to manage their money better, some timely advice that’s hard to find. On this note, I thought back to my recent post on the moneybookers scam, that caught people in its sticky trap, real people who unfortunately lost real money. Here are some of the comments received:

michael | |

No, the car was on nola.com. They also use other websites such as autotrader, cars.com and such. IT IS A SCAM, DO NOT FALL FOR IT! I am highly pissed that they took my money and I have no car and it was all fake. I’m trying to take legal action now towards them. They gave me a vin #, make and model and pictures. What you could do is fake like you are going to buy the car and tell me what web page or email they sent you and the names and address and or numbers. So that way, I may be able to catch them. Once again it is not real. Moneybookers is real, but the thing they have isn’t. Unles you set up an actual account yourself on their website, it isn’t real. Please if there is any info you can give, please feel free to share. I am a Marine and I lost $4,900. Stupid me, GOSH! thanks

alharrison

This same Go***mned thing happened to me a week ago! I agreed to buy a Tenor Saxophone from a guy in Birmingham, UK that left the horn at a moneybookers warehouse in Detroit, MI. long story short, I sent $2500.00 to a Donovan Bratcher (supposed moneybookers.com agent) via Western Union and since then have not been able to contact anyone!! Is there anything I can do? I filed a report with my local police, I filled a report with the FBI and with the Attorney General of my state (IL). Can I do anything else?

Margene | | moneybookers | IP: 97.101.186.189

I had a feeling I was being scammed. Same story… There was a high mile bmw z convertable on auto trader. It was listed at 1190.00. I responded with my name thinking that the car had been mispriced. The seller responded to me with the tone that the sale had been agreed. The car was not nearby as I had thought, but had been sent to a warehouse in another state. The seller was in Scotland and wanted me to send the money to moneybooker so they could complete the transaction…same scam. Thank goodness for this website! I was a cute car…

hey michael i almost just fell for a very similar scam he was asking 4k for a 13k car:
Dear Kevin,
Here you have the VIN# ja3an74k9vy005070 please feel free to run a carfax report to see that everything is OK!
I will try to tell you in few words how the process works through MoneyBookers.
Their primary purpose is to protect buyers and sellers from fraud. MoneyBookers services accept and hold payment from the buyer until the buyer receives and approves the merchandise. Only then do they forward the payment to the seller.
If you are really interested in the purchase please get back to me asap with your full name and shipping address so I can forward them at MoneyBookers in order to open a case and they will guide you through the rest of the process so we can complete this deal successfully and in the best manner !

Sincerely,
Andrew

his email is “andrewwk40_1966@msn.com”

the VIN number checks out but then i googled it and it came up on another site

Jun 20, 11:07 PM — Fake moneybookers scam ?

61. USAF Sergeant.. | | craigslist.com | IP: 69.146.184.223Thanks for the warning. I was about to buy a motorcycle that was to good to be true. A 2001 GSX-R 750 for $2,985 dollars. I will be reporting these MTF’s!!!
    Here’s the reply e-mail they sent me:

    ******FAKE*********SCAM*****BELOW!
    Hi,
    the bike is in great condition, has been properly maintained, has never been dropped or abused in any way. It has a clear title and the price I`m selling it for is $2950, which is including all shippings charges.
    I live in Colorado Springs I`m currently working in the UK (London) and I`ll be staying here for the next approximately 7 months, anyway I`m using MoneyBookers services so I can sell this bike without difficulty. I left it at their warehouse before leaving to the UK. They are supervising the entire process from payment, shipping with a 14-day inspection period included, returns (if needed) and refunding.
    If you want to purchase it, let me know and I will explain you how MoneyBookers works and how we can move forward.
    I am waiting your email.
    Thanks

    Jun 9, 9:37 PM — — Fake moneybookers scam ?

i guess this scam has been around for a little while. i was dealing with a “woman” from the u.k. who actually emailed me not more than 15 min.s ago to make sure that i had received all the info from moneybookers regarding the car i was supposed to buy. i was talking with the real moneybookers this morning who told me that the trans. # was bogus and the whole thing was a fraud. still didn’t want to believe it until i read this site. glad i did. i have been saving all correspondents with them and dont know what to do with them. i havent contacted her back to let her know that i know. i’d love to catch her for everyones sake while its all still hot. any advice?I was very honoured to receive mails from people telling them how my writing this had saved them from getting scammed. These are just some of those who have been scammed.

So that’s what I plan to cover more of here, helping our digital money worlders negotiate the pitfalls of investing online.

Read this and share it, you may help someone.

Leave a comment, if you want to share something with digital money world readers.

Moneypenny

So that’s what I plan to cover more of here, helping our digital money worlders negotiate the pitfalls of investing online.

This is a kind of unofficial poll to find out which online payment company is rated best.

These are the criteria:

1. ease of use, functionality and options.

2. service level, charges/cost and market share.

3. security, support and reliability.

4. ethical, regulated and financially sound company.

So which online payment company does these best for you.

Leave a comment and tell us your experience for the benefit of our readers.

Moneypenny

I remember as an investment broker not so long ago, my clients and peers talking about ethical investments. Exercising your ethical choice in investments was becoming mainstream and even clients were talking about it.

Contrast this with the Elliot Spitzer case recently. He didn’t seem to care that prostitution and the crimes always linked with it, where being funded by him. He possibly said - I’m O.k. I’m not hurting anyone.

The IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division then started a probe, initially fearing that Spitzer was the victim of either extortion or identity theft.

Screenshot of the website of Emperors Club VIP showing list of prices for escort services

Image from wiki

North Fork’s report in July 2007 went largely unnoticed until HSBC in the fall filed a report that the transactions were going to QAT International and QAT Consulting Group, which were offshore shell companies operating as a front for the Emperors Club.

Later the IRS contacted the FBI to investigate possible political corruption. The investigation led Federal authorities to link the money transfers to the Emperors Club.

On November 19, 2007, Republican operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI saying that Spitzer “used the service of high-priced call girls” while in Florida.

Spitzer announced on March 12 that he would resign his post as Governor effective March 17, amid threats of his impeachment by state lawmakers.

So what’s happened to the ethics questions we used to ask, like: Was the company involved in mining practices that affected the environment? Did that company operate sweatshops in cheap-labour countries. Was the company involved in money laundering, pornography, tobacco, alcohol etc?

Whilst some of this talk and campaigning has been replaced by the fair trade movement, which when it works, I do applaud, what has happened to our own ethics?

Do we care how that money we got out of an investment was made?

Did it involve a pyramid scheme or scams where someone was robbed of their hard earned money, or was the money got from trading in guns, drugs or people trafficking? These are the questions banks have to ask in the bigger picture, and perhaps we should be asking them too in the smaller picture of our choices.

What do you think? Who does your research about where to put your money or what to invest in?

Does it matter to you what the e company/gold company/ web money/ company you use invests in or derives its profits from? Give us your view under comments

Moneypenny