Help needed with Cyber Snooping

[Griffin NoName]

Trying to buy an out of print book.... amazon.co.uk cheapest 2nd hand at £140 odd, amazon.com comes down to around £45 but then there's shipping.

So I've discovered the book for £30 incl shipping - and I'm trying to check out whether it's legitimate - nose twitching due to combination of cheapness and non-standard online payment design.

It involves US and Aussie websites (did a DNS check). So, wondering if any of you familiar with them?

The book is at wwww.worldretailstore.com

"Check out" goes to secure.opengroup.com

opengroup has a valid thwarte certificate as far as I can make out. The transaction page (https) is TSL 1.0 RC4 128 bit encryption, etc. but the page looks like it's been knocked up in a garden shed.

There's no nice Internet Explorer padlock. I've checked this out and it seems to indicate information is going to two sources so the SSL calls get screwed. The obvious assumption is the second source would be worldretailstore but can't be certain.

Anyone dealt with these sites? Or prepared to have a look and give an opinion?

[The Meromorph]

Neither of those sites has been reported to Microsoft as a phishing site. (which doesn't mean much except what it says.
Google returns only 1 entry for secure.opengroup.com and that's an internal reference.
Direct access to site displays only a blank page saying "Welcome!". (That exclamation mark tickles a few warning hairs for me).
Google "secure opengroup" and you get a more reassuring set of results, but they're for Opengroup.org, which is definitely a reputable consortium of major players. Search www.opengroup.org for opengroup.com and there are no references.


My conclusion? I don't trust it. I wouldn't give it my credit card info.


Edit. I've reported it to Microsoft as a possible phishing site.

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks !!!!  Good to know that it's not just my nose that twitches 

I traced one of their pages back to yet another site netusa.... which has a thwarte symbol saying click me - on clicking get a blank white page with "see thwarte symbol above" - no symbol... I suppose I should report THEM to thwarte - 

I knew it was all too good to be true.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

OTOH, I have seen some sites that rent generic shopping carts that look... well, not very professional, but nevertheless are legit.

BTW, some credit card companies allow you to create one time use CC numbers if you fear that your info will be sold.

[Griffin NoName]

OTOH, I have seen some sites that rent generic shopping carts that look... well, not very professional, but nevertheless are legit.

Me too, but this one was a lot not just unprofessional, it was like a scrap yard. Of course, the real scams would look very professional 

BTW, some credit card companies allow you to create one time use CC numbers if you fear that your info will be sold.

Interesting. And a P.O. addi    Terrified of identity theft as I hardly use mine any more due to ill health 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

OTOH, I have seen some sites that rent generic shopping carts that look... well, not very professional, but nevertheless are legit.

BTW, some credit card companies allow you to create one time use CC numbers if you fear that your info will be sold.

If you're really worried, they now have "fill and use" debit/'credit' cards.  For a nominal fee (sometimes free) you can purchase a VISA-like card that has as much "credit" as you put into it.

You cannot overspend this thing, the money you put into it IS your "credit" limit.  If there is no money left, there is zero "credit" on it.

[Griffin NoName]

Not that worried; I'd never remember to fill the card up !

Have another different techie semi-cyber problem.

Just upgraded (free - I luv free upgrades) from motorola v3 to v3i.

There is no way to transfer ringtones/sounds from old to new.

(The "manual" says how to but it doesn't work and tech forums confirm there's no way).

I never believe in there is no way, so I've spent hours snooping around on the net.

I can use my PC as an intermediary, but the problem is that ringtones/sounds on the old v3 do not show up on the PC at all despite any number of tricks I've tried.

I've found a splendid piece of softwate "DataPilot" which looks like it would do the trick but costs.

Anyone know of any other software that will recognize old Motorola ringtones? (They are MIDI format but dont show up as MIDI files).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Not that worried; I'd never remember to fill the card up !

Have another different techie semi-cyber problem.

Just upgraded (free - I luv free upgrades) from motorola v3 to v3i.

There is no way to transfer ringtones/sounds from old to new.

(The "manual" says how to but it doesn't work and tech forums confirm there's no way).

I never believe in there is no way, so I've spent hours snooping around on the net.

I can use my PC as an intermediary, but the problem is that ringtones/sounds on the old v3 do not show up on the PC at all despite any number of tricks I've tried.

I've found a splendid piece of softwate "DataPilot" which looks like it would do the trick but costs.

Anyone know of any other software that will recognize old Motorola ringtones? (They are MIDI format but dont show up as MIDI files).

I can personally vouch for DataPilot.  I have purchased 3 versions of it so far, the first one for my Nokia 8xxx phone which I was told (by Nokia) that there was NO WAY to save the phone book.

DataPilot provided software AND a nifty cable.

My 3rd purchased copy of this software did not come with a cable, because V-series of phones use a standard "miniUSB" cable, like you'd use for a sony video camera. I had several of those already.

It does cost money, but the time saved in copying the phone book over is well worth it, in my opinion.

Ask if you want more details.

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks Bob. Very re-assuring re DataPilot.

I transfered my phone book directly - both phones have bluetooth. Worked a treat.

Also, Motorola supply software free with phone which does pretty much everything. EXCEPT recognise their own ringtones !!!

So, DataPilot is kind of an expensive way to JUST get my ringtones across.

Trouble is, I can't find any of them free anywhere, and I feel cross at paying for them again. And some of them don't even exist anywhere else anyway. Some of them, which I have found on the net, are very poor quality compared to my originals too.

What a stupid stupid silly problem.... it's just that I use different tunes for different people calling me; it's a way of life; my brain is trained to react in the appropriate manner to the particular tune... you know, like immediately switch the phone off, or drop everything and answer instantly even if it means missing my favourite tv prog. I don't think my brain can stomach another brain-washing to change the auto-pilot. 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Thanks Bob. Very re-assuring re DataPilot.

I transfered my phone book directly - both phones have bluetooth. Worked a treat.

Also, Motorola supply software free with phone which does pretty much everything. EXCEPT recognise their own ringtones !!!

So, DataPilot is kind of an expensive way to JUST get my ringtones across.

Trouble is, I can't find any of them free anywhere, and I feel cross at paying for them again. And some of them don't even exist anywhere else anyway. Some of them, which I have found on the net, are very poor quality compared to my originals too.

What a stupid stupid silly problem.... it's just that I use different tunes for different people calling me; it's a way of life; my brain is trained to react in the appropriate manner to the particular tune... you know, like immediately switch the phone off, or drop everything and answer instantly even if it means missing my favourite tv prog. I don't think my brain can stomach another brain-washing to change the auto-pilot. 

I have also used DataPilot to put short MP3's into my phone for custom ringtones.

I used MP3's I already own, and used GoldWave (a semi-free audio editor) to clip out just the short bars of the song I wanted to use, and to resample the bit rate from 128bits down to 64bits--more than good enough for a ringtone.

Then, I used DataPilot to transfer from my PC into my phone.

Unfortunately, unless you put the MP3 into the phone yourself, you cannot get it out again-- the phone companies want to rip you off a 2nd time (I used to work for Cingular, and even then, there was no way.)  It's a copyright thing, too, but mostly, it's a revenue thing.

As for the tones in your old phone, they are pretty much trapped in there, unfortunately.  You can delete them with MASTER ERASE, which zeros out your phone to factory settings.

But, I would be really surprised if you could not locate MP3 snippets for your old familiar ringtones on the 'net, or in your or your friend's CD collections.

I use CDEX to rip my CD's into MP3's (a free program).

Lastly, if you're musical, you can compose ringtones yourself, using DataPilot, but I have never tried this--I imagine it's akin to making a MIDI file on a PC.

Good Luck!

[Griffin NoName]

Same phone manufacturer - virtually the same phone - different ringtones on delivery. Bah!

Plus I can't even get out the ringtones I put into the phone myself. Bah!

I really don't have time for this nonsense 

[Griffin NoName]

UPDATE

I got the ringtones eventually from free download sites. It just took a hell of a lot of searching and persistance. Unfortunately two I failed with so I have had to reprogram my brain for those instead. It hasn't really worked yet; stubborn brain.