When people come across such situation they straight away think that their account has been hacked. But its not the case always.

There are many services built around Twitter and most of them use Twitter API for log in or authentication purpose. While using such services, be careful while you share your Twitter ID and Password. Read the policy properly. Recently I saw a service which required my Twitter ID and Password, to let me use their service. With curiosity I read their policy page. There they had clearly mentioned that, they will periodically use our Twitter account to Tweet about their service, for promotional purpose!

After reading this policy, I started searching for the policy page of “Instantly Increase your Twitter Followers” kind of services. And found that many of them had the same policy. After reading this policy, I started noticing those automated, promotional tweets from some peoples or tweeples account. Most of them never know that their Twitter account is being used by others.

If the service you are using is intentionally evil, then they will not let you remove yourself from that service. In such case, use your Twitter account settings > Connections tab page to disallow any of these services from using your account. And change your password, for more security.

The above image is just an example and it doesn’t showcase any fraud or scam companies that are trying to misuse your Twitter a/c.
Of course, not all services that use Twitter API for authentication are bad. Most of these services respect users privacy, but some services are misusing this facility. So do not hesitate to kick them off, from accessing your account.

Even worst cases, have you shared your Twitter username and password with any service, which do not use Twitter API for authentication? If yes, then first change your password without fail and never give your username and password again.

Twitter allows only trusted parties to use their API, but still no system is 100% perfect, so no exception to Twitter.

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Always use less characters in the tweet that you want people to re-tweet. Do not expect people to rephrase the sentence and tweet it for you. If you are using a long URL in your tweet, then it will get shortened and the number of characters will get reduced automatically. But when you are tweeting the shortened URL or when you are tweeting only the plain text, always make sure that you use less words, interesting and conveying words. If you cover the whole 140 characters then how will your followers or others re-tweet your tweet? [ Here I am talking about only those tweets, to which you expect or ask a Re-Tweet ]

Recently Darren Rowse released his e-book and offered it for 25% less price, for some time. And announced it on twitter. He had used almost all the 140 characters. I found that the offer was very valuable, so wanted to re-tweet it, only to find that I was exceeding the word limit!

I could have shortened it myself, but still wanted to inform Darren that, his other followers might be willing to re-tweet it and that he should rephrase it with less number of words. Darren immediately rectified it and sent another tweet, with less and effective words. This also reminds me of “The Power of Less” ( Choosing only the essential ). Removing the unwanted things or less useful thing and using only the most wanted things.

After seeing Darren indirectly agreeing to the fact that “Tweets which are originally less than 140 characters tend to receive more re-tweets”, I started experimenting with it. We know that it’s a mere common sense, but twitter is a new phenomenon and we need to experiment before coming to any conclusion. (Experiment atleast before publishing the post on the blog )

So I started asking for re-tweets once in a week or once in two week. I use to phrase the tweet with full 140 characters and would receive re-tweets only by friends with whom I chat most of the time in twitter. They never mind taking the pain of re-phrasing the sentence for me and retweeting it. But when I asked for the re-tweet on some other days, which had 100 or less characters, many people re-tweeted it. I had never seen those guys on twitter till then. I started following them after getting those re-tweet!

Remember, it may not make much of a difference for people with less number of followers, but for people with lot of followers, following this one simple technique will drastically increase the number of re-tweets.

Some other things to keep in mind are:
1. You need to give before you ask: Retweet interesting things of others, before asking for a re-tweet. If you give before asking, people will be glad to help you.
2. Ask for retweet only when you have really good piece of thing to share. Because many people wouldn’t like to recommend anything which they think will not bring value to their followers as well as to their recommendation.
3. And remember, twitter is not just about sharing links and marketing. Ofcourse it’s a very good marketing tool. But use it wisely. Provide great value to all your followers. Do not just try to sell them some thing. If you do so, one day you will end up with no followers (or just some boots following you), who will not provide value to your links or anything that you tweet.
Be genuine, be real, help people, involve in the discussion. Tweet the links or retweet only when you find the links interesting or when you think that it might interest your followers.

If you have any other small or big tips, that you have observed or experimented with twitter, then please share it with all of us..

You can follow me @technotip

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If you are ready to delete all the cache, history and cookies then you can simply goto Tools menu –> Options –> Privacy –> click on clear now button, now select cache and then hit on clear Private Data now button. This should solve the problem.
Other things to try, if the above tips doesn’t work.
1. Try to reinstall the browser software.
2. Upgrade the software.
3. Check for any other 3rd party plugin’s which may be conflicting with the .css file.
4. See the browser settings and set it to default settings, when nothing else works.
5. At last, if nothing works, report it to the FireFox team.

And make sure, you also comment below this article

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I don’t know about its accuracy. We got a 33.41$ per month. hmm..now that’s not bad, considering the amount of time I spend on twitter. This number will go high over time, if we get more number of followers and if we participate in twitter actively.

It also seems to take into consideration, how many people we are following. So I don’t know how accurate this tool can be!

As Twittad deals with advertising on users Twitter profile, whatsyourtweetworth.com helps Twittads publishers to get a rough estimation of how much money they can expect from their twitter profile in the auction.

I wonder, what would happen if they manage to get advertisers who can pay such price to advertise on a single page i.e., Twitter profile pages.

Actually we are not writing to analyze its accuracy, but we just wanted to share with you all that such a tool also exists.

Are your tweets too costly? Follow me and drop me a line @technotip

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Now a days you might have seen bloggers around the world announcing twitter contests, wherein the person who want to participate in the contest has to follow the blogger and tweet one of the message to his followers, like:

#200giveaway Just entered the Technotip.org $200 giveaway contest. You can win by following @technotip and retweet. http://xr.com/giveaway

Ever wondered how they track your tweets?
There are two methods widely used to track them.
Hash tags and Search.

Search is simple and most of you know about it. If not, then use Tweetag to search for any keyword being discussed by twitter members. To easy the job Tweetag itself tracks and displays the 40 most frequent topics being discussed on Twitter.

What is a #Hashtag?
Tweeples using “#“signs in front of “Keywords” or “Groups” and “Locations“ [This works almost similar to the tags in flickr and other services.]
For Example: recently Thin Air Summit held a conference and called their Hashtag #TAS08 for Thin Air Summit 2008.

These so called # groups are called “Hashtags“ .

Hashtags by definition are used to create real time track records of creating groups on twitter. Placing the # sign in front of keywords or targeted groups, makes it easier to track all conversations in the twitter time line via search.
The hashtag (#hashtag) provides a way for a tweet to be directed at a group and disseminated to people in that group.

Now assume that you have created a (hashtag)group #Google. If you search for keyword Google, you will get thousands of results. But if you search for #Google, you will get the messages of your group only. So this is a big advantage in tracking the tweets of your group.

I recommend using either one tag at the very beginning or at the very end in most cases and try not to put tags in the middle of the tweet – for easy and accurate tracking.

And the popular services that help you to track hashtagged tweets are hashtags.org and twittgroups.

To get started:
Follow @hashtags on Twitter. They will follow you back automatically, and your hashtags will be tracked in Hashtags.org

Its a good feature in twitter, but if used extensively it will surly spoil the twitter environment, by making it look spamy. And some spammers can also take advantage of it, by using some automated scripts(which work using twitter API) to post frequent hashtagged tweets.

You can follow us on twitter @technotip.

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Open a notepad. Save it as ILOVEU.bat (any name with file extension .bat), now copy and paste below codes into the notepad and save it again..

As soon as someone clicks on this .bat file, these below popup’s will be displayed..

Other options that you can use along with the shutdown command are :
To shutdown computer -> “shutdown -s”
To restart computer -> “shutdown -r”
To logoff computer -> “shutdown -l”
To halt a restart/shutdown –> “shutdown -a”
You can use all these commands directly in DOS prompt or in a script.

You can add some more features to this notepad by reading the help topics in your dos prompt.

Just type help after you enter the dos prompt ( C:\>help ).

Not recommended:
If you remove the pause statement from above code and put this file in the startup( C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup or C:\Documents and Settings\current user\Start Menu\Programs\Startup ) folder, then your computer will shutdown(automatically) when this file loads at startup.

This article is written to teach you the method to troubleshoot your computer yourself, if someone uses this technique and creates problem in your computer.

Solution:-
Just enter into the dos mode(pre-boot mode, using any bootable disks), and search for any file with .bat extension in Startup folder. And if found, just delete it and restart your computer and it will work normally

These type of files are being sent by some anonymous people in IMs and also as attachments in emails. This could create some irritating problem and you may loose some data on your computer that you have not saved. So be careful when you get a file with .bat file extension. Better not to click on it.

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What I did was, just entered some wrong username and password(to loginto that fake PayPal like website), guess what? Any random, wrong username and password will longinto such websites. The next thing was, it prompted us to enter our Credit Card number. There also I entered some nonsense numbers. And finally it poped up a hearty message saying “Thank you”.

We do not recommend anybody to try what we did with the phishing email link. We did all those things at our own risk.

And as this was our first experience with such phishing email, we just informed about the email and the fake website to PayPal team. And got this reply email from PayPal:

Dear Satish,

Thanks for taking an active role by reporting suspicious-looking
emails.
The email you forwarded to us is a phishing email, and our security
team is working to disable it.

————————-
What is a phishing email?
————————-
Phishing emails attempt to steal your identity and will often ask you to
reveal your password or other personal or financial information. PayPal
will never ask for your password over the phone or in an email and will
always address you by your first and last name.

Take our Fight Phishing Challenge at https://www.paypal.com/fightphishing to learn 5 things you should know about phishing. You’ll also see what we’re doing to help fight fraud
every day.

————————-
You’ve made a difference.
————————-
Every email counts. By forwarding a suspicious-looking email to
spoof@paypal.com, you’ve helped keep yourself and others safe from
identity theft.

Thanks,

The PayPal Team

——————————————————————————–

That email really made me think PayPal as more secure. As the secure feeling was still in my mind, another email was spotted in my email. Now I forwarded it to spoof@paypal.com. Now, this time I got still better reply from PayPal, which was more informative:-

Dear Satish,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

At PayPal, we care about the security of your account. Therefore, we
would like to offer you a number of Security Tips.

The tips will help you protect yourself against various types of
Internet fraud, such as ‘spoofing’ and ‘phishing’: the act of collecting
personal and financial information through fake emails, websites and
phone calls.

Using this sensitive information, the perpetrators will try to commit
identity theft, credit card fraud and various other illegal activities.

So please read the tips below, for your own sake, and in the interest
of all PayPal users.

Emails – Make sure they are sent from PayPal

1. Always check the greeting. We will never address you with Dear
PayPal User or Dear PayPal Member. Instead, we will address you by your
first and last name, or the business name associated with your PayPal
account – except in some automatic responses.

2. Look for strange links. When you’re asked to click on a link in
an e-mail that looks like it’s from PayPal, be extremely cautious.

3. Does the e-mail ask you to enter sensitive information? If it
does, it’s not from us. PayPal will never ask to you enter:
o Bank account numbers
o Credit and debit card numbers
o Drivers license number
o Email addresses
o Your full name

4. Check for attachments. PayPal will never send an attachment or
software update to install on your computer.

5. Take your time, don’t be rushed. Spoof emails can contain a
threat: You must take action, and do it now. If you feel undue
pressure, don’t respond. Simply log in to your account, and check your Resolution Center.

Website pages – make sure that they are hosted by PayPal

1. Check the URL when you log in. When you use the PayPal service,
make sure that the URL at the top of the browser is
https://www.paypal.com/. This means the website is secure. If you see a different URL, close your browser – even if it contains the word
PayPal.

2. Look for the lock. The lock symbol that appears in the bottom
right hand corner of your browser means it is a secure site.

Passwords – keep it on PayPal

1. Last but not least, create a unique password for your
PayPal-account. Don’t use this password on any other site and don’t
share it with anyone else.

2. Change your password every month.

If you think you have received a fraudulent email, forward the entire
email, including the header information to spoof@paypal.com and then
delete the email from your mailbox.

Click the “Security Center” link on any PayPal webpage for additional
tips and tools for staying safe online.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us
again.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey
PayPal, an eBay Company
————————————————————————————————–

I was very much happy that PayPal is concerned about its customers.
Now PayPal has taken yet another step to teach its customers, to make them authority of online fraud detection and prevention techniques.

Now you can see an ad on the HomePage of PayPal and which will take you to https://www.paypal-promo.com/safety/ when clicked.

This site is made of flash and its visually appealing and gives full information about online fraud detection and prevention techniques.
It involves “Training Center”, where it tells about online theft and protection measures etc. And next is, it has an “Safety Exam” section where you will be presented with some questions and answers(in the form of options) to test your levels of understanding about online fraud detection and prevention techniques. Next is the “Safely Calculator”, calculates “How safe your PayPal account Is?”, by determining your answers to some of the questions.
And there is also a section called “Safety Products”, which lists some of the safety products developed at PayPal Lab — Take a look at it, they may be for you.

One thing which we never knew and came to know from this website are:
PAYPAL SECURITY KEY
All agents need gadgets. Customers in the US, Germany and Australia can use the PayPal Security Key, a small electronic device that generates a unique security code every 30 seconds.
You use this security code when you log in to your PayPal account, giving you an extra layer of protection against identity theft and account takeover. Hope this feature will be available soon in all countries where PayPal transactions are allowed. And for those who are deprived of this feature presently can make use of one of their Plug-In which offers an array of security features by generating a single-use MasterCard credit card numbers to help keep your financial information’s secure.

In India RelianceMoney demat account holders have been using such Security Key to generate new password for their account every 30 seconds. PayPal taking such measures creates an healthy, secure feeling in its customers.

Update:-
Please do not even click on the suspicious links found in your phishing emails. Because now a days the scripting(script programming) has become so powerful that, if you click on such links, a worm can be placed inside your computer(which may track your activities later). Clicking on such links is just like permitting the script to access your information.

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Go through this article, if you are a computer programmer. You can use this logic to implement in your programs. And by going through this type of tricks your logical thinking ability will be enhanced and you can write better programs with minimum coding. I have already written C, C++ and Java programs implementing such simple mathematical tricks and they have very little coding and many people get stuck in understanding the logic behind those programs, but to their wonder the program will be working fine.

Here is the trick…

9 x 1  =  9

9 x 2  = 18

9 x 3  = 27

9 x 4  = 36

9 x 5  = 45

9 x 6  = 54

9 x 7  = 63

9 x 8  = 72

9 x 9  = 81

9 x 10 = 90

Now observe the results of multiplication… there are 2 digits in the resulting numbers, i.e.,

I         II

———

09 = 0|9

18 = 1|8

27 = 2|7

36 = 3|6

45 = 4|5

54 = 5|4

63 = 6|3

72 = 7|2

81 = 8|1

90 = 9|0

like this it continues till infinity.

Observe the like colors above. The numbers in “blue” color are ascending numbers(arranged from the smallest to the largest number) and the numbers in “gray” are descending numbers(arranged from the largest to the smallest number) and the combination would be the multiplication table for 9, till infinity.

Above mentioned method is easier than:-

9 + 0   =   9

9 + 9   =   18

9 + 18 =    27

9 + 27 =   36

9 + 36 =   45

9 + 45 =   54

9 + 54 =   63

9 + 63 =   72

9 + 72 =   81

9 + 81 =   90

9 + 90 =   99

till infinity.

There are many such mathematical tricks to learn the basics, but I thought multiplication table of 9 is more interesting, so just shared it with you..Please share your knowledge in the comment section and you could be helping a lot of people to get through their school or/and college exams.

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