Zappos and 6PM customer accounts hacked.

I got an email today from 6PM.com and Zappos (yes, I know I have shoe issue,I'm working on it!) to reset my password, because their database which contains my, as well as millions of others customer information was hacked. Is it legit? Seems like it, I also read it on the New York Observer site as well as Huffington Post.


What to do? Go the the Zappos and/or 6PM.com website, and you will see a CHANGE PASSWORD link. Sign in with your old one and they will email a link to the password change page to the email address on your account.

Here is the email I received from 6PM:

First, the bad news:

We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on 6pm.com, including one or more of the following: your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password).

THE BETTER NEWS:

The database that stores your critical credit card and other payment data was NOT affected or accessed.

SECURITY PRECAUTIONS:

For your protection and to prevent unauthorized access, we have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please follow the instructions below to create a new password.

We also recommend that you change your password on any other web site where you use the same or a similar password. As always, please remember that 6pm.com will never ask you for personal or account information in an e-mail. Please exercise caution if you receive any emails or phone calls that ask for personal information or direct you to a web site where you are asked to provide personal information.

PLEASE CREATE A NEW PASSWORD:

We have expired and reset your password so you can create a new password. Please create a new password by visiting 6pm.com and clicking on the "Create a New Password" link in the upper right corner of the web site and follow the steps from there.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any additional questions about this process, please email us at passwordchange@6pm.com.

WTF Daddy?

This was an email I got from a customer who manages and creates websites. He had a real frisky time with GoDaddy, a domain and web host device, but resolved it after some real bronc riding. He tried to transfer a domain and pay for one year, and they (oops!) accidentally signed him up for two years and then initially refused to correct their own mistake.

As you can see, BUYER BEWARE!!

My client's email to me, posted with his permission.

A friend of mine passed away. Since I managed her website and the domain name was set to expire in February, 2012 with Godaddy, I called Godaddy to move her account into mine and renew it for one year at my expense. I stated specifically that I needed to:

1) Move the account into mine

2) Renew the domain for one year

2) Consolidate it with my other domain names, which means that they would all then be set to renew March 2013

The representative at Godaddy asked for my credit card number, and confirmed that it was valid and matched the one on file, then said the charge would be ca. $24. I asked why it was double the normal yearly fee of $12.17. The representative informed me that he had entered a period of two years. I immediately said, no, I only wanted one year.

It was too late. The rep at Godaddy told us me I would have to either:

1) Cancel the domain name and start over, causing the website to be disabled for several days, or

2) Accept the two year registration, in spite of the mistake made by Godaddy

It was difficult to convince Godaddy that I should not be penalized for an unauthorized credit card charge from their side, as this is, in fact what it was.

Following hours of phone calls and rejections I threatened to call the Better Business Bureau, and only then was issued a refund for the extraneous year. To Godaddy's credit, I received the refund for one year, while the registration of the domain name will remain intact for two years. In fact, I didn't want the domain name to run for longer than year, but considered it an acceptable solution. Godaddy's reasoning as to why they couldn't change the length of the domain name term was that they are not the owners of the .com and .net domains, but rather only the registrar of it and an independent company owns these, and therefore Godaddy cannot change registrations once they are completed. I didn't research why this was so or whether it was actually correct.

Moral of story:

1) Charges made by phone must be reviewed before being finalized

2) Charges made without authorization must be refunded in full with no penalty

3) It IS possible to refund charges without a lapse in service if the billing department uses its resources to the full

4) Although the technical support at Godaddy is usually first rate, their billing department is behind the times in terms of customer service.

THE GREAT ASSASSIN GROUP OF EXHIBITION

Today I got an email from a hired assassin, who told me he( or she) was paid $15,000 to kill me, but if I contacted him, I could pay a FIRST installment of $5,000 and I would get a tape that would identify the person who hired him. Now I checked out the name on the email address (bayinde99@att.net) , Ayinde Bukola, a Nigerian that I found on Facebook as well as a few eDate sites. Seems like a nice kid, likes music, looking for a serious relationship, maybe marriage. It's very likely that his name has been used and his email hacked.

This kind of "Pay us or we'll kill you" spam has been around for at least about 5 years, most of them originating from Russia. So what do you do if you get this? If they don't address you by name, or know any personal stuff about you, just delete it. If the email contains any info, like your name, address, phone, etc, you should report it to the Police, and the 

Internet Crime Complaint Center:

http://www.ic3.gov/

Here is a snopes article about these types of "hit man" scams:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/hitman.asp

Or you could call:

Here is the email, complete with the logo and pictures of weapons included:

Am very sorry for you my friend, is a pity that this is how your life is going to end as  soon as you don't comply. As you can see there is no need of introducing myself to you because I don't have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL/ASSASSINATE you and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that. Someone you call a friend wants you Dead by all means, and the person have spent a lot of money on this,  the person also came to us and told me that he want you dead and he provided us with your name ,picture and other necessary information's we needed about you. So I sent my boys to track you down and they have carried out the necessary investigation needed for the operation on you, and they have done that but I told them not to kill you that I will like to contact you and see if your life is  Important to you or not since their findings shows that you are innocent. I called my client back and ask him of you email address which I didn't tell him what I wanted to do with it and he gave it to me and I am using it to contact you now. As I am writing to you now my men are monitoring you and they are telling me everything about you. Now do you want to LIVE OR DIE? As someone has paid us the sum of $15,000usd to kill you and we  are willing to tell you that you have to pay us the sum of $5,000usd for the first payment so we can legit your attention so we can forward the tape to you we  shall send it through DHl or FedEx for you to view the video and discussion between both of us okay. Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life, If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my job straight-up. WARNING: DO NOT THINK OF CONTACTING THE POLICE OR EVEN TELL ANYONE BECAUSE I WILL KNOW. REMEMBER, SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL  WANT YOU DEAD! I WILL EXTEND IT TO YOUR FAMILY, IN CASE I NOTICE  SOMETHING FUNNY. DO NOT COME OUT ONCE IT IS 6:16PM UNTIL I MAKE OUT TIME TO SEE YOU AND GIVE YOU THE TAPE OF MY DISCUSSION WITH THE PERSON WHO WANT YOU DEAD AFTER YOU HAVE COMPLIED WITH MY DEMANDS, THEN YOU CAN USE IT TO TAKE ANY LEGAL ACTION.. GOOD LUCK AS I AWAIT YOUR REPLY ATTENTION: IF YOU THINK YOU ARE SMARTER THAN US, YOU CAN GIVE US A TRY DON'T REPLY US BACK AND SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU IN THE NEXT TWO DAYS I PROMISE YOU, YOU WILL BE DEAD. THE GREAT ASSASSIN GROUP OF EXHIBITION...............

What will you get for Hanuka and Chrismas?

If you get an iGift, and are afraid to open the box, call me on New Year's eve!

I will appear on the call in radio show:

Call Kira About Aging! on KSRO 1350 AM, on Dec 31, 2011 from 2-3 PM, with a rebroadcast on January 7 on KNEW 910. 

http://www.callkira.com/page/3/

This is your chance to call in, and ask questions about the new iGift you received. Call with any questions about your Apple products, and listen as I unravel the mystery of life with your iPad, iPhone, iPod and all Macintosh products.

Special! Listeners who call in get a 5 part eBook, Dear Macmama; a collection of articles printed in the Piedmont Post. And listen to the radio show to get 25% of of your first visit for new customers.

Hope for Quicken 7 users and Lion.

There may be hope for Mac Quicken 2007 users. It looks like Intuit is looking to make Quicken 2007 compatible with Lion. The bummer? I already transferred all of my accounts to iBank, which I like fine, so transferring back will be a slight messy task.

 A letter from Intuit...

Dear Quicken Mac Customer: As a fellow Mac fan and customer, I wanted to personally introduce myself, and share some highlights of our Apple-related efforts with you. I recently became General Manager of the Personal Finance Group at Intuit,  responsible for Quicken and Mint.com. Intuit's 25 years of leadership in  personal financial management software makes me excited to lead this team  and I am committed to creating products to help you reach your financial goals. I recognize, however, that we have not always delivered on this promise to Quicken Mac customers. As you may know, Quicken for Mac 2007 does not currently work on  Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). I understand the frustration this may have caused you and have put a team in place to address this issue. I am happy to announce that we will have a solution that makes  Quicken 2007 for Mac "Lion-compatible" by early spring.  There are still details to be worked out, so I ask your continued patience as we  work through these.  In the meantime, you can find more information on our Mac FAQ page. Working toward a Quicken for Mac 2007 solution is just a first step in winning  back your confidence. We are expanding our development team to continue our renewed  focus on personal  finance solutions that suit the needs of our Mac customers.  As we develop solutions, we'll be looking to you and the rest of our  Mac customers for ideas and feedback. I understand we have a way to go, but I wanted to start by communicating  our commitment to Mac and look forward to sharing the details with  you as they emerge. Thank you for your continued loyalty to Quicken. Sincerely, Aaron Forth General Manager, Intuit Personal Finance Group

iPhone 4S, yes.

I love it. In spite of the battery issue, yes it's a problem, and the fact that Siri's network does not always work, I still love my iPhone 4S. I have been able to mitigate the battery issues some by reducing the brightness, turning off bluetooth when I am not using it, and disabling some location and notification services (like Time Zone support). Apple still has to come up with a working solution for this, but I still think it's a great machine.


Now as far as the network. I switched from AT&T to Verizon, since Berkeley is a known trouble area for AT&T service. My impressions? I really do miss being able to access the web while on a call, the call quality on the Verizon network is worse and the download speed is slower. But I am hoping that Verizon catches up in all of these areas, because the fact is, I am now able to carry on long conversations. And I can't use the excuse, "Bad connection", when I really want to end a call in which I am snagged. Not you, Mom.

So bottom line, I will stay with Verizon. If AT&T fixes their issues, I may jump back over in a couple of years.

Stay Away from SOS backup!

Yes, I back up religiously. Daily in 3 places. With TIme Machine, SuperDuper (for a cloned backup), and in the cloud to Crash Plan+. I want to tell you about what led me to Crash Plan. 

I was using JungleDisk, and while it was seamless, I found the interface on the web clumsy and annoying. So, in one of my "everything's really going fine, but I'm bored" moods, I decided to shop around for a new online back up plan. Well, SOS got some great reviews from PC users and media, and they came out with a Mac version of their desktop software.

So I bought a 2 year plan, and stated my upload. That's right, I did NOT try it first, I actually bought a subscription. I'm flogging myself just telling you this. I ALWAYS try before I buy. Why I didn't THIS time can be blamed on the fact that my brain is loopy from the watching the new TV we bought. I have SOOO many episodes of Dexter to catch up on, and it's the first time I have had larger than a 20 inch screen. Yes, my name is Cookie, and I have a new addiction.

OMG, so I really deserved the tsuris I went through with this company. Short story? The Mac desktop application SUCKS, with limited ability to choose files to upload, and the organization on the web is dismal. So I looked online at my account to cancel. There is no place to do that. Also, I signed up for 2 years for $119.95, but on my account page it said $149.95. And that's right, no place to change it UNLESS I wanted to upgrade the account.

When I called customer support, and was told that I could NOT speak to an account representative, the ONLY way to cancel was through the support chat window.

So I tried that, and was told I would receive an email in 24-48 hours, but all I got was a "how do you like SOS?" email. I tried the chat again, and same result. Only until I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau did I finally get a refund. I also got a call from a customer service representative named Larry, very nice guy who sounded like someone I would like to go bowling with, but maybe not be in charge of my data(!!), who said, "Things are a mess in the customer service area of this company, and I'm going to clean it up!" When I told him that the representative I spoke to told me there was no way to speak to an account rep by phone, Larry said, "He lied." Great.

Here is the transcript of my support chat with "James Anderson", which I am SURE is not his real name. By the way, my favorite line of the whole chat is, "Sure Marlene" when I went on a (polite) rant about what I don't like about this product. Notice the "like" button at the end.

James Anderson

Support Consultant

James Anderson7:48:30 AM

Hello Marlene Segelstein. How may I help you?

Marlene Segelstein7:48:51 AM

I would like to cancel my account that I signed up for on Saturday.

James Anderson7:49:06 AM

Can I help you with anything else?

Marlene Segelstein7:49:24 AM

No, I just want to cancel my account.

James Anderson7:49:46 AM

While I look in to your accounts, may I know the reason for cancellation ?

Marlene Segelstein7:51:48 AM

A couple of reasons. The Mac software is too limited, and when I signed up online, I

selected the $119.95 membership, and it put my account at the $149.95 one.

There was no place to change or cancel it. So I just want to cancel my account and

receive a full refund, please.

James Anderson7:53:19 AM

Can I help you sign up for $119.95 account ? Also cancel $149.95 and refund for the

same

Marlene Segelstein7:53:35 AM

No thank you. Please just cancel my account.

James Anderson7:54:18 AM

ill escalate the case to my accounts manager, he will update the status in the next

24 to 48hrs

Marlene Segelstein7:55:23 AM

Does that mean he will cancel my account? I was told by phone support that this

chat was the only want to do this. Will I get an email confirmation?

James Anderson7:57:27 AM

Yes Marlene, he will send you an email

Marlene Segelstein8:00:01 AM

Please tell your manager that this is not a satisfactory way for customers to

manage their accounts. On the other back up programs I have used, iDrive,

JungleDisk, I was able to cancel online immediately. The website seems set up for

easy in, but not easy out. For consumers that are looking for full features and

control, this does not make for happy campers. I'll look for a confirmation email

within 48 hours.

James Anderson8:00:23 AM

Sure Marlene

Marlene Segelstein8:00:53 AM

Will I also get a full refund?

James Anderson8:01:26 AM

I'm not sure, accounts manager will update you on that

Marlene Segelstein8:03:39 AM

Since I signed up only on Saturday, and the Mac software is limited, I expect a full

refund. I will also let my credit card company know this. Thanks.

James Anderson

Thank you

Like

iDid

I have spent the last few days, since Tuesday's iPhone 4S announcement changing my mind constantly.
No, I won't buy it, it's not enough better than my iPhone 4. 
Yes, I will buy it, Siri looks amazing. 
No, I don't want to give up the ability to access data while on a call. 
The deciding factor? A 10 minute ride home from a day of MacMama work, and a phone call that dropped 3 times. Which is typical on any given 10 minute ride home.  And we barely get a signal in our house, so using my cellphone as a business phone is not possible when I am sitting at my desk. Which of course, sucks. So, Goodbye AT&T.

Because I ordered an iPhone 4S from Verizon.  Actually 2, one for me and one for my husband, who has never quite forgiven me for forcing our family off Verizon and on to AT&T,  back when the Blackberry Bold came out. SO we will be paying a termination fee of $90, and switching our wireless service. And most likely, I will use Square Trade instead of AppleCare or Verizon's insurance, like I did on my other iPhone and iPad.


I spoke to a few salespeople at Verizon who promised to call me back to set stuff up (and did not keep their promises) . So today I called and spoke to  Robert, who was an excellent sales representative. I asked if I could post his direct line on this blog, since he was so thorough and friendly.  I HATE grumpy sales people, and rude customer service reps, and I certainly speak out when I come across them, but this guy is the best. So if you ARE going to get one from Verizon, call him. 


ROBERT: 888-924-7934, EXT. 8186.

iAm.

Yes, I am going to upgrade to the new iPhone that is allegedly being announced this Tuesday. Will I do it right away? And the bigger question, will I leave AT&T?
That depends on a a couple of things. Namely, if it has dual mode CDMA and GSM, I'll switch in a flash (no reference to Adobe). If I have to choose CDMA in order to switch to Verizon, (and actually be able to get a signal in my house), I may have to think about it.
More on that later. Must go walk dog. By the way, at the dog park, I get FABULOUS AT&T service. WTF?!

A Keeper, until...

Yes, the update is, I like the bag. The Eagle Creek Dane that is. I have been using it for about 6 weeks, and I must say, I have not run into a situation where I wished it had more room or more sections. The backpack straps are just fine, and when it is packed well, it actually can stand up like a hard sided briefcase. There are a few things I would like, though.


1. A place for a water bottle on the side.
2. A waist strap to take some of the weight off of my shoulders.
3. Better looking exterior. Yes it's slick, but it's just another black bag among black bags.


So until something else comes along, I'll continue to go between this and my Tom Binh Super Ego.

I like the Binh for looks and style, but the Dane holds more and is more comfortable to wear. Tom Binh has some beautiful (read expensive) bags, and is made in Seattle. So if you are feeling like getting something that will turn some geek heads, and have the cash, check them out at the link above.