ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW AND VALUABLE

New scams and ways to create them, then thwart them keeps everyone on their toes. If you haven't heard of "pharming" you'll learn why it's important to know about it. Then there are new product combinations such as binocular with a camera. For the drivers in your household, check out Roadwise software.

PHISHING, PHARMING, PHOOEY

By now the word phishing and all its scam connotations is pretty much in the computer/technology lexicon. According to a Gartner report published in mid-May, there have been 1.8 million reported scams in the United States. Over half resulted in the fraudulent use of credit cards or other financial data. More than 57 million Americans have received phishing e-mails, and phishing has accounted for $1.2 billion annually in credit card scams,

Phishing artists hook unwary internet users one by one into compromising their personal data. But that's small fry as phishers leave their ponds for bigger waters. The latest cyberswindle, is dubbed "pharming," wherby the con men go after entire land masses of computer users.

A pharmers plot is to redirect many, many users legitimate commercial websites they intended to visit and lead them to malicious ones that simulate real ones. The malicious ones, made without a company's awareness or permission, will look the same as a genuine site. But when users enter their login name and password, the information is captured by criminals. Phishers have to approach their targets one by one. Pharmers can scoop up many victims in a single pass

The larger result of pharming is called DNS poisoning, DNA stands for Domain Name System which translates web and e-mail addresses into numerical strings, acting as a sort of telephone directory for the internet. If a DNS directory is "poisoned" -- altered to contain false information regarding which web address is associated with what numeric string -- users can be silently shuttled to a bogus website even if they type in the correct URL.

Unfortunately pharmers have honed their craft, and improved their lure. "The first pharming sites were relatively easy to spot: they were filled with typos, grammatical errors and skewed URLs," noted Richi Jennings, leader of the anti-spam practice at Ferris Research Inc., an email market research firm. "Recently, the attacks have become more difficult to discern because the fraudulent sites closely resemble legitimate Web sites.. To keep up with the latest information on pharming, put the word in your search engine; you'll be amazed and what turns up. And it changes daily as more scams are uncovered and reported. Pharming has so many potential branches for swindlers to travel that it almost makes it mandatory to go back to telephones and faxes for communicaiting.

CAMERA BINOCULARS

Now your binoculars can multi-task as they include a camera piggy-backed on to them. "The idea of camera-binoculars makes obvious, satisfying sense; as hybrid gadgets go, they rank right up there with the clock radio and the toaster oven," says David Pogue in the New York Times. "You should be warned, though, that the majority of digital binoculars sold through catalogs in the $50 to $80 range are no-name models that take camera-phone-quality 640-by-480-pixel photos."

Fortunately, better ones are now on the market from reliable manufacturers. Still the technology is young. There are the Bushnell Instant Replay and Compact Instant Replay, the Celestron VistaPix and the Meade CaptureView CV-4 - in the $160 to $425 range that do what they are advertised to do..

While the binoculars retain their high ratings, the camaras are lacking. Photo resolution is fairly low: two or three megapixels, suitable for 8-by-10 prints at best. Several digital camera features are missing, too, including optical zoom, rechargeable batteries and flash (not that a flash would be useful at 100 feet). These are fixed-focus cameras, too.

Unfortunately, photo quality on some models is unacceptable because the images are blurred or not close enough to the subject. All four models are ruggedly built and offer 8X magnification. All four let you turn on the camera portion independently (the binoculars always work). All four take AA or AAA batteries, and their juice is quickly used up so you always have to take extra batteries. You can show the pictures on a TV and transfer them to a Windows computer. Search for "camera-binoculars" to locate websites and reviews of the products.

COMPUTER BASED DRIVER REACTION TEST

If you have elderly parents, or other relatives, who insist on driving when their sharpness faculties diminish, here's a software program that may help them realize that they could pose a road hazard to others and to themselves. "Roadwise Review" is offered through the AAA Motor Club and it could be yours, theirs, and everyone else's best investment in safety.

But it's not only for the elderly, its remarkable testing system should and could, be used by everyone. The makers suggest that the test be taken every year and the results marked and compared.

The tests are designed to check a person's functional abilities; they have nothing to do with driving skills. They identify specific impairments that may pose a risk in many common driving situations. The results are private…only the person taking the test needs to see the results. Some tests can be accomplished with a partner, but it's not essential.

After loading the program on a PC from a CD ROM drive, a narrator and his wife, lead you through the program while you click on the menus to continue through the tests. The tests are impressive. A visual filed test is similar to one given by an opthamologist.to test peripheral vision. How quickly can you spot a car or truck appearing at different places on your screen?

Other tests are for leg strength, head/neck flexibility, high-contrast visual acuity, visualizing missing information, visual searching, and working memory. It will take about 30 –45 minutes to complete the test. If your results indicate an area that requires checking, the program will tell you what to look for and how to try to improve it. It will recommend when to see a physician about a condition.

The program costs $5.00 for members, $15.00 for non-members from your AAA office or from www.aaa.com.

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Dona Meilach is the author of over 85 books with 10 on computers. Her latest book, just out, is TEAPOTS: MAKERS & COLLECTORS. Other computer organizations interested in running this column should contact the author. The column is also available as a free E-zine. Subscribe DCC: Contact dmeilach@msn.com. Dona’s Computer Capers may also be found at http://www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard.