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It seems that the saying ‘no crime goes unpunished’, isn’t always the case, or at least in Thomas Taylor’s situation anyway. A U.S. Connecticut native, Thomas Taylor and friends used fake electronic greeting cards to spread serious malware that for four years was used to hijack sensitive financial information from trusting AOL users.

So how did he do it exactly? AOL members first were hit with spammed ecards supposedly sent from either BlueMountain.com or Hallmark.com. However, these bogus ecards contained a little gift for the recipient in the form of a malware payload.

This malicious software was a Trojan horse used to trick users into passing along sensitive info such as banking information, social security numbers, and other personal info by preventing AOL customers from logging into their accounts, and instead inputted their info into bogus sites that the hackers had control of.

Once the hackers had control of all of this sensitive information, they then used it to make fake ATM cards that they could then use to cash out the account completely, or use to buy merchandise like gaming consoles, gift cards, and laptops among others.

Unfortunately, Taylor copped a guilty plea to fraud and identity theft and is apparently avoiding jail time. Instead he was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay restitution to the victims in the amount of 33,714 dollars. I think that for someone involved in such blatant theft of personal information, they should definitely do some jail time and not just be put on probationary discipline.

Fortunately though, they didn’t all get off so easy. The mastermind behind the whole operation, one Michael Dunn managed to land himself seven years of prison time for his efforts in 2008. Too bad they aren’t all given such a sentence, if only for the distress and mental pain they caused their victims.

For myself, I know how tight money can be from week to week and if someone cleaned me out one day, I would be in very dire straits indeed. That sort of distress is unnecessary and people who cause it should be punished appropriately. Probation is just too easy.

There is a new e-card virus currently making the rounds that is targeting your cash and wreaking mayhem on your computer. Experts are calling the virus ’severe’, and it is being disguised as a Hallmark greeting card.

Basically there is an email going around, that in one case even came to someones inbox as an email from ecards@hallmark.com. It says something along the lines of you have received a Hallmark greeting card from a friend, to view it click the attachment, which is named postcard.zip.

However, Hallmark doesn’t have any e-cards that they make you download. This is a virus, and it’s after your money. It’s primary goal is to steal your financial information, like your banking pin number and the like. It has been making it’s way from Eastern Europe, and could just send the greeting card business back to paper cards, it is that bad.

It works by infecting core Window’s files slowly, so that you never even know it’s there, and it’s going to be just about impossible to fix it with your run of the mill anti virus. So what kind of protection efforts are being made?

Well with Hallmark, they never require any downloading of files, nor do they use .exe files. If you get an e-card from Hallmark that asks you to download something, delete it. It’s not genuine and will infect your computer.

Also, with Hallmark, e-cards are always sent from the sender, not from Hallmark itself. So if you receive something from Hallmark itself, or don’t recognize the sender, again it isn’t genuine, and you need to delete it.

They never require the receiver to enter any type of personal info or user names and passwords to retrieve an e card, and all notifications will have a link to the card on Hallmark.com, and a URL to the e card inside the actual email.

Bottom line? Don’t open any e cards from unfamiliar people, and until this threat passes, it is probably best to refrain from getting e cards altogether.

Everyone is using them…Why not you? Why are E-cards so popular in todays digital world? Well, simply because today is a digital world of course! Media is switching to digital right and left, and in the age of convenience, it just makes sense to use an e-card rather than boring old paper ones. Not to mention the killer graphics you can attach to a digital card, that makes them fun and entertaining for their readers!

But let’s talk about specifics on why e-cards have grown into such popularity. First of all, if you are involved in Internet marketing at all, you view e-cards as a way to garner more traffic to your website. This follows along the lines of viral marketing. Attaching your business name or logo to a unique or funny e-card, means there is a great chance it will get forwarded along and go viral!

It’s easy to spread the love. Not only is it easy to go viral with your customer base, it’s just easier to send an e-card to loved ones. Not to mention, during holidays you get to bypass the huge post office rush, and rest secure in the knowledge that YOUR greeting card is reaching it’s recipient in time! Neener, neener, neener!

It’s also a winner with the Eco friendly folks intent on ‘going green’ in today’s polluted and misused world. Not only do e-cards save trees, fuel, and paper, they also reduce the waste that is created printing out large quantities of paper cards. Environmental groups are all gung ho for them for this very reason!

Not to mention the fact, that it’s just downright more convenient all around. Who actually WANTS to go to the store just to pick up a greeting card, and then have to purchase postage and perhaps visit the dreaded post office? Definitely not I! You?

So save yourself some trouble, stop resisting, and just jump on the e-card bandwagon already. I promise, tree’s will thank you!

Nowadays, with the number of people still having unprotected sex it’s pretty darn easy to pick up an STD with out ever knowing it. And guess what? If your partner never mentions it, you might never find out! Now tell me, wouldn’t that be something you’d like to know, if your partner had a bad case of herpes and just didn’t tell you?

Well how about an e-card to give you the heads up? Cowardly? Maybe. Does it do the job? Most definitely! A lot of people are uncomfortable bringing up the topic if they have an STD that it’s possible you can contract.

So in defense, they just don’t say anything at all, which leads to whatever they had getting spread around further by you! You can bet your future partners won’t appreciate it, but even worse than that could you imagine finding out you have herpes from the new lady friend you just gave it to?!

So folks now are resorting to anonymous e-cards to break the news to their partners and give them a heads up to go get tested. While it may be slightly insensitive, researchers are saying that it’s more a public health service, and it’s better than never being informed at all!

The e-cards come in a variety of styles you can choose from to pass along the news. Some are flirty some are more serious. You can check them all out at www.inSPOT.org and choose the best fit for your situation.

There is some concern that the site could be abused and people send out prank e-cards, but so far the number of complaints in that regard are very low. Another great feature is that if the card receiver lives within one of the 10 cities the site has teamed up with, the card recipient is then directed to the nearest local testing and treatment location.

So far these e-cards are being seen as a positive way to impact the sexual community and keep folks from spreading the love around indiscriminately. However more testing and research is being done by health officials to see if it could have a real and lasting effect on improving sexual health and awareness.

E card popularity is increasing all the time. So many people are becoming more aware of the environment, and the pollution and degradation of our resources and are starting to come up with little ways that they can ’save the planet’ and cut down on the waste of paper. Electronic cards happen to be a way that they can do that, and have fun too.

With the Internet becoming increasingly pervasive in all areas of personal life and business, it just makes sense to jump on the bandwagon and go electronic. Email is now a preferred method of communication between two people, and it is simple as the click of a button to pop off a funny or heart warming e card to your best friend or your grandma that lives in Kentucky!

Choosing a nice Christmas or holiday e card just takes a few minutes of browsing an online provider, choosing the one that suits you best, and personalizing it a bit if you wish with your own message. Compare that to the old method of driving to the store, spending an hour browsing through the cards, and then paying for postage just to send a holiday greeting, and it’s no wonder ecards are gaining in popularity.

Another draw to ecards, is the ability to personalize it with a short video if you want. Paper cards are great, but which do you think will bring tears to a Grandma’s eyes faster… A paper Christmas card with a photo of little Junior? Or an e card with a short clip of little Junior telling Grandma he loves her and misses her, and to have a Merry Christmas! I know which I’d rather have.

American’s these days are all about convenience and instant gratification. That is what the original paper cards were invented for in the first place, to save time. Fortunately ecards are the perfect way to cater to that need, and are just the new wave technology to eventually make paper cards obsolete. And if you take into account that most ecards are absolutely free to send, what’s not to love about them?

If you’ve been following the news, you know that lately there has been an outbreak of bogus email ecards. These emails claim that you can pick up an ecard at a link included in the email, which actually contains a virus, Trojan, or other harmful software. More and more people are afraid to open any email that claims to be an ecard due to this outbreak of spam email. This article will teach you how to protect yourself from bogus email ecards, and how to identify problematic email before it damages your computer.

The first part of the email that you should carefully examine is the subject line. Most valid ecards will contain the name of the service that sent them, as well as the sender’s name. Bogus email ecards will have a statement like “a classmate has sent you an ecard” “a family member has sent you an ecard” or “x username has sent you an ecard”. If the subject line of the email you receive is very general in nature, it is probably not a valid ecard and you should delete the email without opening it. If an ecard arrives in your inbox from an unknown source, or you are not expecting a card, you should consider deleting it as well.

You should always examine the text of your ecard, as well. Take time to look over the message before clicking on any links. Does the text identify the sender? Is it someone you know? Does it mention the company that has sent the card? Are there glaring grammatical errors, unclear English, or other tip-offs that make you hesitate? If so, don’t open the links and delete the email.

Many bogus email ecards contain a link that connects you to a site where harmful programs are downloaded to your email. If there is a link in your email, hover over it with your mouse to see where it goes. Does it go to a valid ecard site? Beware of links that end with a .exe suffix. This means that the link is an executable program – most likely a virus or Trojan. Valid ecard sites send an email with a link, as well as a code that you can copy and paste onto their website to pick up your card. If your email does not contain such a code, it’s probably not from a valid source.

In general, if you have any hesitation at all, avoid clicking on a link in your email. Instead, delete it without reading. Doing so will help protect your computer from problematic software. If the email is unclear, difficult to read, or from an unfamiliar sender, most likely it is not a real ecard and should be avoided. If it contains a link that ends in .exe, it should be avoided. And if the subject line is overly general and does not contain the name of a known sender, it should be avoided. Following these guidelines will help you to protect yourself from bogus email ecards, and allow you to open cards from friends and loved ones with confidence.