Tag Archives: eMail

tip : 6 obvious ways to spot a phishing eMail

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Not all phishing* attempts are easy to spot, but today I came across one that has some very obvious examples of what to beware of :

* FYI : phishing = an attempt to lure you into giving some unreliable source your private info of your credit card and/or bank account (internet criminals are ‘fishing’ for your secure info this way…)

1- OSX Mail.app has indicated it thinks this is “Junk Mail”

(though Mail.app isn’t 100% reliable on its suggestions of Junk Mail, it’s a good indication you should have a thorough second look)

2- the sender of the eMail is not sending from a reliable and/or known eMail address

a “.ORG”-eMail address will 100% not be something used by a bank

3- you are not the sole recipient of this eMail and/or your personal eMail address is not listed

if this were such strictly confidential info as is claimed, why would any bank send it to anyone else but you personally ? (furthermore : banks do not contact you on things like this though eMail, because of security reasons…)

4- you are not personally addressed in the text of the eMail, and neither is it indicated what the payment was for and to whom it would have been made

if this where an eMail form your bank or payment service to inform you on anything personal, why wouldn’t they inform you what it’s about straight away ?

5- the weblink-URL that’s included does not link to the website that is listed in its name, but to some completely different website

if you do a mouse-over on the URL in the eMail, a completely different URL is appears in a yellow highlighted line – now that’s about the best indication you could get that you’re being mislead !

6- if you lookup the actual domain that this eMail was sent from and is (re)directing to in WhoIs?, it gives registrant info that does not seem like any bank of payment service you know (especially the fact that it was created just a few days ago makes this extremely suspicious)

you can find info on the registrant of any website on WhoIs? :

http://www.whois.com/whois/

try that with the domain used in this example and you’ll see info that is really suspicious :

A- a registrant eMail address that is on Hotmail…

B- a registrant street address that can not be found in Google Maps…

C- a registration creation date that is just a few days ago…

fixed : switching the language of the spelling check in iOS5, iOS6, iOS7, iOS8, iOS9, iOS10, iOS11 & iOS12

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Question :

Is it possible to (quickly) switch the language of the spelling check while I’m writing a message on my iPhone ?

Answer :

Yes !

It’s really simple :

1- make sure you have installed multiple languages / multiple keyboards on your iPhone or iPad : Go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> (International) Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard…

…and select your desired languages from the list (then exit the Settings-app)

2- you have now installed not only the keyboard for each language, but also the spelling check… and it’s now available in any text or message you type (including SMS)

3- to switch the language of the spelling check, just tap on the globe-key next to the space-bar : when tap it, the space-bar will (only for a quick second) display the name of the keyboard you’re using… but… the language of the active keyboard layout is also the language of the active spelling check…

😉

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fixed : add Emoji emoticons to your iOS keyboard

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Question :

How do I add ‘picture’ emoticons (like smileys 😉 ) to my iPhone and iPad texts and messages ?

Answer :

In iOS 5 and above, Apple has added a ‘picture language’ called “Emoji” which includes smileys, smiley-esques and mini clip-art like flags, fireworks, balloons, thumbs-up, etc.

Best of all : it’s FREE !

Activating Emoji on your iPhone/iPad  is simple :

1- make sure you are running the latest version of iOS (at least iOS 5 or newer)

2- Go to Settings –>General –> Keyboard –> International Keyboards –> Add New Keyboard…

3- choose “Emoji” from the list and exit the Settings-app

Done !

To use the Emoji-smileys in your texts and messages :

Whenever the keyboard appears, you will see a globe-key next to the left of the space-bar. If you tap the globe-key, you will get the emoticons-‘keyboard’. This is more like tabbed pages of emotions than a regular keyboard ; the tabs from left to right are :

globe-tab : return to a standard keyboard (so more of a key than a tab actually…)

clock-tab : here you can find all emoticons you’ve recently used

smiley-tab : the real emotions ; all smileys, faces, heart, hand signs, etc.

flower-tab : plants & animals

bell-tab : seasonal (like X-mas & Halloween),  party, communication tech, sports, clothing and food & drinks

car-tab : travel, transportation & flags

punctuation-tab : signs, zodiac signs, clock-times & trademarks

backspace-tab : ‘backward delete’-key to delete mistyped emoticons (so not an actual tab, but a key also)

Note that the Emoji-keyboard layout is not a regular keyboard layout, which means it does not include a space-bar or a return-key ; to use those you will have to (temporarily) switch back to your regular keyboard using the globe-key

FYI : this feature is not available for iOS4 ; if you are on a iPhone 3G and can not upgrade to iOS you should either stick with using text-based emoticons or buy, download & install one of the Emoji-apps that are available in the App Store.