After i had taken a review on the blogspot http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal, what shocked me is that among the 29 countries in Asia Pacific, Malaysia got ranked the 5th among those countries as a spam distributor as Philippines ranked top, followed by Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Laos. Besides that, Malaysia also ranked 7thas the propagator of zombie machine, behind China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The survey result has been conducted by Symantec Corp, a security solution vendor.
Spam is actually a mass electronic distribution of unsolicited email which is sent to computer users' email accounts, Usenet groups advertising, promoting or performing actions such as :
The forwarding of email
The advertising or promotion of pornographic web sites
Advertising or promoting unsolicited web sites
The harassment of individuals or groups
The forgery of email headers of your email
The promotion of unsolicited business activities
Furthermore, the survey indicated that 96% of computers in Malaysia are zombie machine which means those PCs have been compromised by hackers and used to trick those computer users to reveal their personal information, such as passwords and credit card number, bank account numbers.
The lack of awareness is the main factor that causing this issue to be happened. Those internet users are not aware to safeguard their personal information plus the widespread use of pirated software which may contained some deadly virus such as Trojan Horse, Worms, and other malicious code. It is suggested to use some combination of antivirus, firewall, and intrusion detection capabilities. Besides that, choosing a more trustable search engine is also an important step to avoid being spam.
A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. Currently, all major browsers (including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7) support RSStechnology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts without actually visiting the blog, which is very useful for low-volume blogs.
Although there are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.
Internal Blogs
Generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage:
employee participation
free discussion of issues
collective intelligence
direct communication between various layers of an organization
a sense of community
Internal blogs may be used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules. Blogs may also allow individuals who otherwise would not have been aware of or invited to participate in a discussion to contribute their expertise.
External Blogs
An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do. In some corporate blogs, all posts go through a review before they're posted. Some corporate blogs, but not all, allow comments to be made to the posts.
External corporate blogs, by their very nature, are biased, though they can also offer a more honest and direct view than traditional communication channels. Nevertheless, they remain public relations tools.
Marketers might expect to have product evangelists or influencers among the audience of an external blog. Once they find them, they may treat them like VIPs, asking them for feedback on exclusive previews, product testing, marketing plans, customer services audits, etc.
Internet auction fraud is a growing epidemic worldwide, as online shopping has grown significantly every year that online shopping has been available. 51,000 cases of internet fraud cases were reported in 2002. In 2006, that number ballooned to 97,000. The numbers are staggering, but everyone can lower their risk by knowing what auction fraud is, how to detect it, and how to prevent falling for it.
Most internet auction fraud cases involve straightforward scams where consumers allegedly win merchandise by being the highest bidder. All sounds good until they send the payment and never receive the merchandise. Sometimes auction fraud cases involve slick descriptions that are presented and worded in a way that most people would miss important details.
That’s what happened of a case being handled by Judge Judy.A woman collected payments of $467 for 2 cell phones and sent 2 pictures of the cell phones instead of the real thing. The scammer defended herself by happily claiming that ‘what you see is what you get’, referring to the quote “you will receive pictures of these 2 cell phones” that was posted in the description along aside the cell phone specs and other information aimed towards selling a real cell phone. Thankfully Judge Judy tends not to fall for simple legalities and the case was over before it even started.
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Following are action to prevent e-auction fraud used by eBay-the largest internet auctioneers to reduce fraud:
1. User identity verification such in IC number, driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, verified eBay user, the voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.
2. Authentication service. It is to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. It difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can detect counterfeits based on subtle detail.
3. Grading services which is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as ‘poor quality’ or ‘mint condition’. Different item have different grading systems. For example, trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, while coins are graded from poor to perfect uncirculated.
4. Feedback forum. It allows buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides user with ability to comment on their experiences with other.
5. Insurance policy. For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten, users are covered up to $200, will with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay user.
6. Escrow services. Both buyers and sellers in a deal are protected with an independent third party. Buyer mails the payment to escrow services which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services s i-Escrow.
7. Non-payment punishment. To protect sellers, a friendly warning for first-time nonpayment. A sterner warning is for second-time offense, with a 30 day suspension for a third offense and an indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.
8. Appraisal services which use a variety of methods to appraise items. It includes expert assessment of authenticity and condition, and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.
9. Item verification which is a way of confirm he identity and evaluate the condition of an item. Third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purpose. It provides a way of tracking an item if it charges ownership in future.
10. Physical inspection. It can eliminate many problems especially for collectors’ item.
Electronic government or we normally know as e-government (e-gov), is used to refer the use of information and communication technology to provide government services, transactions and interactions with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. E-government is a way for public administration to become more open and transparent, and to reinforce democratic participation.
Malaysia Government launched its own electronic government in year 1996 with the introduction of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). myGovernment Portal (www.gov.my) acts as the one-stop source of Malaysian government information and services for the citizens. It helps to improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement. It also improves to bring convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses.
MyGov portal wins Global ICT Awards at World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2008 which was held at KLCC. Besides, according to the United Nations e-Government readiness index of year 2008, our Malaysian government portal was listed at the 34th place.The ranking was based on two primary indicators which are the state of e-government readiness and the extent of e participation. We can actually claim it is a success for Malaysian wins the ICT awards as well as being ranked in the index.
Up-to-date, its implementation is considered as successful as the number of users of the portal is actually growing. However, there are also barriers that will hinder the progress of e-gov portal, for example, people’s behavior. Most of the Malaysian today, especially the elders who do not have knowledge in IT are still very doubtful on the transactions on the Internet. They feel unsecure with that when they have to make payment or disclose any information on the line. Besides, I feel that language barrier is also concern for the implementation of e-gov. Although there are the two main language which are English and Bahasa Melayu which are used in the portal, we still need to consider the Chinese educated Malaysian. I feel they shouldn’t be neglected. Maybe Government of Malaysia should consider of inserting the Chinese language as the 3rd language.
In order to make sure citizens adopt e-gov in daily life, we must create awareness among them. Government need to let the people know that the existence of government portal in Malaysia.Government also has to make sure the process to log in or usage in the government portal is easy. Besides, the portal will need more information as to educate people of Malaysia to know better of the Government.
Government needs to take care of people needs too. The effectiveness and efficiency in providing services is also essential to make citizens to adopt the e-gov. Due to people convenience, government can actually respond to the people complains on the line. People then don’t have to go through departments just to file their complaints. This will make people feel happier and comfortable with the government. However, when the government servants are attending to the complaints, they will need to be professional either. They will have to be efficient as mentioned in order to satisfy the people.
There are ways to improve the usage of electronic government among the Malaysians and I believe the myGovernment portal will actually grow more popular one day soon, more people of Malaysia will adopt it. God bless the BN government !!!
A pre-paid cash card is like a debit card. It gives consumer ability to purchase the products and services with a card by just swap the card on the counter. Besides, it also can be used to transfer electronic payment in online or offline. So it is a very convenient smart card which is widely and commonly used by everyone to settle payment in ease.
Spending limits are set by the amount of money you load onto the card. When you make a purchase with the pre-paid card, the purchase amount is deducted from the card balance. You can add more money on a regular basis or whenever the money runs low.
There are numerous benefits offer by pre-paid card. Pre-paid card have no credit checks, which means you can get a card without worrying about your credit history. Second, its do not have debt risk. With a prepaid card, you do not worry about you spend too much as you are limited to the amount you put on your card. Third, it is safety because you not need to carry large amount of cash to purchase the products and services. If your card gets lost or stolen, your remaining balance will be transferred across to a new account, and you will receive a replacement card.
Example of prepaid cash card :
Touch 'n go smart card is used by Malaysian for electronic payment system to toll expressway and highway. It is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry that enables consumers to buy dough nut, burger or fast-food from 21 outlets such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’ Donut. It is imitating the success of Hong Kong’s Octopus Card by setting 5 to 10% of the card holders for retail purchase as current target of the company.
Octopus card was launched in Hong Kong on year 1997, September. It is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card to transfer electronic payments in online in offline system. It is widely used in payment system for transportation, supermarkets, fast food restaurant, car parks and other pint of sale application such as service station s and vending machines that have achieved good outcomes. Octopus Card is very popular in Hong Kong.
Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card.
Credit cards with low introductory rates are limited to a fixed term, usually between 6 and 12 months after which a higher rate is charged. As all credit cards assess fees and interest, some customers become so encumbered with their credit debt service that they are driven to bankruptcy.
Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent.
Causes:
Gambling
Gambling is fun and entertaining but if it becomes addictive it'll be hard to stop. This won't become a problem if we spend our spare money for gambling. But borrowing money through our credit cards for gambling will surely lead us to a financial disaster.
Poor money management
Do we really know where our money is going?If we don't have an income and spending budget chances are, we cannot set aside some money for saving and emergency needs.
It is not hard to get a credit card, but we cant misuse it.
Preventions:
Control the spending
Keeps our credit card spending to amounts that we know we can pay off, don't go over-board with unnecessary purchases, and budget how we plan on paying back our charges.
Move your debts
This is by moving debt from a card with higher annual interest rate to a lower interest rate. This can eventually allow you to pay the lower amount of interest and buy more.
We should pay off whatever we can as soon as you can do it, so our balances not grow exponentially as time passes.
Electronic Currency also known as E-cash or E-money, refers to money which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, the electronic currency transaction has to be done by involving the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value system
The use of electronic currency such as Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit has been widespread. EFT refers to the computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically while direct deposit is a banking term used to transfer money.
Electronic currency allows its holder to buy the goods and services that the vastness of the internet offers. For example, people used to buy e-cards (e-cash or A-cash) which is used to buy some special or limited items in the online games. A-Cash is the credit system used by AsiaSoft Passport. AsiaSoft Passport members will be able to use A-Cash to redeem for game cash that are to be used in all games published by AsiaSoft Online. There are thousands of outlets can get to buy e-cards as long as it is a cyber café, stationary shops (like Popular or Star Book Store) even 7-11. http://maple.asiasoftsea.net/cashshop/stores.aspx?&z=/cashshop/stores.aspx
Malaysia is now successfully started a transit of payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system such as Touch n’ Go card which is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card and based on the same type of card. It can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park. User can continue using the card as long as it is pre-loaded with electronic cash. http://www.touchngo.com.my/
Here is a website that can buy & sell E-currecncy, Centre Gold. http://centregold.ca/
I’m pretty sure of those who live in big city nowadays are very familiar with the usage of Touch ‘n Go. It’s almost a necessity especially for those who drive and work in the Kuala Lumpur. You will definitely have to pay if you are using the highways, (ie. PLUS, NKVE, SMART, LDP, SPRINT and etc.) to reach your destination in the shortest time and cut short the distance. It’s easy and fast, but we got to pay. So, there will always have pros and cons.
As it is mentioned in the Touch ‘n Go website, http://www.touchngo.com.myTouch ‘n Go card is an electronic purse can be used in all highways, selected parking sites and theme park. It uses the contactless smartcard technology. User should not have problem using it as long it is pre loaded with electronic card. Besides, the smart card is also applicable in the public transport like Rapid KL, KTM and etc. Card users also get to make payment using the card when u purchase food or stuff in some the participating outlets like Burger King, Caltex convenience stores and etc.
Frankly, till now I have not heard from any of my friends that they are using the smart card to purchase in those stores though the service was introduced in last April. Is it a success? I’m not sure about that. However, I pretty sure it can be carried out successfully in future if the government strongly support and make effort in the smartcard service. If that thing succeeds, it will create a cashless society where everyone is using the smart card. Theft and robbery cases will also reduce tremendously, I guess.
As we know the Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd. is emulating the success of Octopus card which is used in Hong Kong. Octopus card was launched in 1997 and has since grown into a widely used payment system for all public transport, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, on street parking meters, car parks and other point of sale applications. The global award winning Octopus cards are being used by 95% of the population of Hong Kong and are generating 10 million daily transactions. Please visit http://www.octopus.com.hk for more information.
I believe the Touch ‘N Go smart card will bring more convenience and safety to the people in the coming days. I’m hoping for the day to come as I’m quite supportive with the cashless society.
