FBI: Email Scam Nets $214 Million in 14 Months

If you will check the spam folder in your e-mail account than you will know that why these e-mails known as spam’s and why your e-mail service provider is dropping these e-mails in spam folder, but in present you can easily find few fraud e-mails (e-mails which make fake promises) in inbox folder. Recently, the nonprofit National White Collar Crime Center and the Internet Crime Complaint Center with a joint effort of FBI release a report on the basis of calculation from Oct 1, 2013 to Dec 1, 2014.

In e-mail scams fake invoices delivered to different business that deals with international suppliers, asking for the payment of millions of dollars by wire transfer. According to recent reports of research team, “The victims love to use wire transfer payments method for money transaction to foreign banks, which can be transferred many times, but they tend to disperse faster”. Most of the American and Asian banks, which are located in Hong Kong or China, are the most preferred commonly reported last destination for more than 80 per cent fraudulent transfers.

Data in reports: 

As per the reports of National White Collar Crime Center and the Internet Crime Complaint Center in an association of FBI, “All of the scams has claimed more than 1,198 US victims and 928 victims in other countries has witness the these kinds of scams and U.S. firms have lost more than $179 million in total. According to FBI, “We believe that the number of victims and the total loss in dollar will continue to increase”.

In general if you will analyze your spam folder, so over there you will find few of the e-mails are promising or taking about reward, job of senior level in premium companies, lucky draw and more. Some of us are lucky because we know that these e-mails are fraud whereas; some of us believe in those e-mails and start to follow their instructions.

In other version of scheme, some of the businesses which work on international level of with international clients and suppliers are contacted through fax, phone, email or post asking for payments. These e-mails are spoofed and they seems like genuine and authentic as they are coming from reliable or legitimate supplier and fax or phone requests also appears authentic and genuine. Whereas; in other version e-mail accounts of high level management executives compromised form criminals for requesting a wire transfer through fake promises regarding to business opportunity and they include the instructions to reply or send funds on urgent basis.

However; the third version of fraud schemes involves the hacking of an employee's e-mail account, which sends the duplicate or fake invoices to suppliers or vendors.

According to task force of FBI, “Now it’s time when vulnerable businesses should avoid using free e-mails for executives or official accounts and they should exercise caution for posting the company information on social media or on public websites. You can also include additional security steps like; or digital signatures and two-step verification process.

Microsoft Office 2016 Will Be Released Later This Year

Microsoft on 22nd January announced that their next major version of the Microsoft office, which has been at the most named as Office 2016, will be available to the users from later this year. According to Microsoft’s Office general manager, Julia White, the company is hoping to share more on office 2016 in the forthcoming months, but still the new office will be having the essence of comprehensive Office experience that every user is familiar from long time and will best suited for a desktop with mouse and keyboard. She also reported that the company is hoping to make Office 2016 officially available during the second half of the year.

This is great news for all those who are not happy with Windows 10 because Windows 2016 is on its way and it is expected that in 2015 new version of windows will appear in the market. It is expected that in new version will be more touch and mobile optimized version, which will provide extra features in Excel, PowerPoint¸ Word, OneNote and Outlook.

As far as the features are concerned, the company has not released any information pertaining to the same, but according to market sources, the office 2016 will comprise of a Clippy like helper and a darker theme. Even though the company has been making some changes in the UI tweaks and other feature additions, but the look and the feel of the new office will be similar to that of office 2013. The main change that is expected from the new office is its touch-optimization for suiting Windows 10, which has been mainly designed to suit the apps for tablets and phones. In the next Microsoft’s operating system, finger friendly versions of Excel, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint and Outlook will be available.

When the preview can be expected? 

In the next few weeks, the company is expected to preview the office for their latest operating system. According to the sources from the company, the final version of the office will be released later this year. Even though the functionality and UI are expected to be very much similar to that of the earlier versions in iPad, but the company has been working on combining the touch modes and inking to take the complete advantage of some of unique areas of Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. A new Outlook mail app is also expected to be available on Windows 10 and various devices like tablets, desktops and even phones.

According to officials, “We will have many more features to share on Office 2016, as we have tried to make it friendlier and the new suite will remain the comprehensive Office experience for professional as well as personal use. We are expecting that by the second half of 2015, Office 2016 will be available”. So the company has pretty much a lot of upgrades for either existing office users. All the office apps will be automatically available on the phones having Windows 10.

Research Aims To Improve Lithium-Based Batteries

In recent reports, researcher’s claims that they have find the way to improve the performance of lithium-ion based batteries, which can be main discovery for the smartphones and laptop manufactures because now they can get the freedom from major disadvantage of laptops and smartphones as they have very less battery backup.

A simple research clear the complex science, which is related to formation of dendrites and these dendrites are the main reason which can make the lithium-ion batteries to fail, but now with this discovery these batteries can be safer, longer-lasting and can be recharged in within few minutes instead of hours as it was earlier.

The dendrites are able to form different kind of electrodes that may continue to grow until they cause an internal short circuit, which are the main reason behind the failure and possible fire of batteries. All the batteries have two electrodes, which know as a cathode and an anode, separated by an insulating polymer, which is known as separator.

All the dendrites grow in needlelike small shapes, which may breach the separating barrier by destroying the operation or full battery. In present, teams of researchers are using the numerical modeling to find the ways to understand the dendrites and to find the better way to design more effective separators. According to R. Edwin García, who is an associate professor in Purdue University and working for materials engineering department, “Presently, we are experimenting to define the fundamental technique behind these complex objects as well as science, so that in collaboration with experimentalists our team can make better batteries that do not have same problem”.

This simulations is also explains that how sometimes dendrites detach from battery electrodes and they convert into floating deposits, which can be dangerous scenario as in this situation battery can catch a fire.

Team of researchers have developed a modeling tool, which helps the battery makers to design better separators, as pores still exist between polymer fibers in the form of separator and due to this the researchers have modeled that hw pore size and different morphology of the same separator can influence the dendrite development process.

As per García, “Our team has found the interesting relationship between the geometry of the separator and the performance of same separators and now we are thinking its first step to improve the separator”. If one can control the dendrites so it could lead towards the longer-lasting and safe usage. In few batteries dendrites are formed by lithium formations, which grow while recharging the batteries, or adding the layers which resemble with tree rings. Because they grow faster, so whenever they exposed in high current for fast recharging so dendrites limit recharging speed.

In the National Science Foundation, work is going on and researchers are putting the every finding of experiment together, the separator, and particles of anode material, so that they can draw conclusion and on the basis of that they can have a complete commercial system.

Lasers Create Surface So Hydrophobic That Water Bounces Off Like a Ball

In the analysis, research and study of hydrophobic surfaces, team of researches and scientists are more focusing modifying the physical nature of different surfaces rather than depending on true and tried method for applying a hydrophobic coating.

In recent experiments the engineers of UCLA created a artificial superomniphobic surface, which repelled all known liquids with the help of modifying a surface and this modified surface was made-up of nano-scopic nails rather than applying any different or special kind of omniphobic coating.

Now the researchers and scientists of the University of Rochester have used the special technique in which they used a lasers to create a special surface, which is more hydrophobic, so that a single droplet of water can bounce multiple times up and down on it in the same way as ball bounce multiple times up and down on earth or any tuff surface. This incredible breakthrough can lead to everything from waterproof electronics to non-stick kitchenware and more.

Super hydrophobic surfaces and coatings have a wide range of different uses, which can vary from simple use to complicated use. It can make the surface safer to drive cars and bikes in wicking rain from a windshield and it can also prevent the rust from compromising the integrity and nature of a structure.

It’s obvious that practical applications are the rare because it can be temporary coatings or can increase the visibility while driving through a storm because water smoothly slides off the glass or rub some Rain-X on your windshield. According to Chunlei Guo, who is professor of optics and also the co-author of the study, “In this experiment it’s clear that this material is very strongly water-repellent, and its real that water is getting bounce, whereas in later stages it lands on surface again and get bounced off again, and then it will roll off from the surface”.

However; Chunlei Guo and Anatoliy Vorobyev, discovered a laser-patterning technology, which etch nanoscopic structures on different surfaces. It’s clear that the surface etched pattern is very hydrophobic, which help the water in bouncing and again it falls back down to the surface.

In the experiment, to create the effect team of researchers used the lasers to etch nanoscale structures for metal surface which repel the water because it is etched in at such a microscopic level and it cannot rub off, so it will never lose the water-resistance. When it comes to scaling up so production of these surfaces, take around sixty minutes to create one by one-inch sliver surface.

Now the team is busy to explain and make it happen that how to apply the laser-patterning technique on other surfaces. Superhydrophobic surfaces are good to keep it dry and clean, but some of the surfaces exhibit self-cleaning properties as experiment showcase that whenever water drops than water slide over the surface and due to that it keep surface clean and away from dust.

In airplane etched these nanostructures surfaces can avoid the dangers of water freezing on the surface of water as well as on the wings.

WhatSim Lets You Use WhatsApp for Free While Roaming Worldwide

We all are aware about the news that now WhatsApp is available for PC or Desktop, whereas; the phone chat app company in an association with Zeromobile has another surprise in store for its regular users, which is WhatSim. According to news reports from tech websites, one of the Italian company has launched a global SIM card for free WhatsApp service known as; WhatSim. This Sim card will allow the users to use service in all over the world without any roaming charges.

Till now to use WhatsApp, internet connection or active data connection on your mobile or Smartphone was essential and while traveling WhatsApp was used to ask that “If you will use service, so you need to pay the additional roaming charges”. WhatsApp is one of the most Smartphone chatting apps and currently it has more than 700 million active users.

Of course it’s not a first time when any company is providing SIM with unlimited WhatsApp use, but the earlier attempts were only for one specific country. In 2014, E-Plus, which is Germany based mobile telecommunications operator was launched the same scheme in an association with WhatsApp. According to company officials, WhatSim has neither monthly payments nor fixed costs and it will never expire.

Operation of WhatSim: 

New WhatSim card will allow you to use access WhatsApp unhindered in more than 150 countries with 400 telecom operators with free roaming. While using WhatSim card, you need to buy the credits for sharing multimedia messages and as well as voice messages, whereas; you need to take special mobile data connection if you want to use location updates, sending and receiving text messages, and contacts services with WhatsApp.

The price for WhatSim is only EUR 10 or $ 11 or Rs. 714.00 and user will get the SIM card with standard worldwide shipping as it cost EUR 5 or $ 5.60 or Rs. 350 and unlimited text messaging for a year. For example Zone 3 has been designated India and users traveling to India will need to get 600 credits for sharing video messages, 150 credits for text messages.

About WhatSim: 

WhatSim is the dream concept of Manuel Zanella, who is CEO and Founder of Italy’s Zeromobile Company. Zeromobile is Italy’s first ever global mobile operator, which provides low-cost roaming. With this additional tech accessory, all the WhatsApp users who love to travel frequently will get a relief because of free roaming charges.

As per the Manuel Zanella, “When it comes to mobile communication, so WhatsApp is the future, but the major disadvantage is that it can work only with data connection. Sometimes while traveling roaming charges are expensive and it’s difficult to find Wi-FI connection in free”.

The more he added in his statement that as I find someone who appreciate the use of WhatsApp, so I tried to figure out how to solve this problem and now WhatSim is an extraordinary opportunity for those who love to use WhatsApp.