hertenberger.co.za

iBurst has been my only reasonably-priced option for access to the Internet from home. I’ve been a customer for some time and have, until recently, been happy with the levels of service provided. But my patience is starting to wear a bit thin.

A few months ago, internal system changes at first resulted in my daily usage reports not being sent on a regular basis. Not too huge a problem, until a change to the company’s billing system created a discrepancy in the actual amount of bandwidth consumed versus the reported amount used. Some interaction with the call centre resolved that. Usage reports came back up, only to falter a short time later. A promise of free bandwidth to make up for the inconvenience could not be held by the customer call centre. No problem: just provide the paid service.

But the biggest annoyance that I’ve been trying to deal with in the past month is the inability of the self-service login to function. At first, its failure was explained away as a result of an upgrade to the site certificate. That should take a few minutes. I gave the service more than 24 hours. More than two weeks later, I still cannot login.

I consider the invitation to call a human being to boost my bandwidth ridiculous and of no use whatsoever: like I explained in my Screamer rant, I am unwilling to telephone someone to interact with a company that bills itself as an Internet service provider. If that procedure involved a fast interaction, I might even consider talking to a human being. But to have to provide personal details each time I want to spend ZAR 50 on a bandwidth booster is just not worth the effort.

Hoping to get more information and assistance, I tried iBurst’s once-responsive Twitter account. No help there. And to think that a the Talk to us feature on the dysfunctional website would actually elicit some kind of response is a pipe dream. Like all other interaction features of this nature, messages seem to end up directly in the trash can. Talk to the hand would be a more appropriate heading for this service.

Bad service. An unresponsive company. Time to check out whether I have an alternative provider I can take my business to. iBurst seems to have lost the plot…

By providing your logon credentials to this version of the ABSA banking site you’re likely to reduce your banking charges quite significantly. Once the scum behind the email address onirekedouglasdale@webmail.co.za gets hold of your logon details, there’ll be little in the way of cash left in your account to charge banking fees on…

Documenting these scams is a bit boring, since they all rely on the same mechanisms: an end-user’s blind trust in technology, the promise of quick and easy transactions and an ability to dupe many people by showing them something that looks just like the real thing. I add this one here simply because it adds another twist to the usual provide your password routine. Played through, the spoof site indicates that an RVN (one-time password) has been sent to the user and that that message may, or may not, arrive due to an apparent system congestion.

The obvious play is that the RVN is never sent, requiring the user to click on a link to the actual ABSA site to retrieve a valid RVN.

I assume onirekedouglasdale@webmail.co.za next sends an email to the user requesting confirmation of the true RVN. Since an RVN is valid for a reasonable time period and because the user has already been duped once into providing personal data, it’s no stretch to believe that the RVN may well be sent to the scammer.

Like most modern scamming methods, the fake website looks like the real thing. A few things to notice: the address indicated in the browser is http://207.204.1.180/log/, not https://ib.absa.co.za/ib/ib.jsp. The image for some embedded content in the logon button indicates that something is amiss.

The message at the bottom right indicates system downtime scheduled for November 2009, most likely the time the real ABSA site was initially scraped and deployed for the fakery.

The site is not yet marked as a scam in Firefox, but has been reported to ABSA. Regardless of whether or not this site is blocked, continued vigilance is an absolute key in online system use. The sophistication of such enterprises is on the increase. Take care, check at least twice before entering anything into any website and as always, contact the organization if you have any doubts.

One way of verifying the veracity of the site is to initially enter incorrect logon credentials on purpose. Since a fake website can’t tell you whether or not your user name and password isn’t valid, the lack of an error message is one indication that may be used as a protective measure.

The replacement schedule for existing number plates that cars bear in the Gauteng Provice has been published, along with the specification of the new number plates. Nothing much changes in the way the number plates look – the familiar blue on white design with the GP logo stays, though the number format changes to accommodate roughly 200 million registrations. The existing three letter, three digit scheme accommodated only 9 million variations. Differences to the letter colouring occur for governmental vehicles (red), those with personalized plates (green) and vehicles used for public transport (black).

In addition to the change in the letter/number sequence, the new plates will be metallic and will include a 2D barcode as well as an RFID chip. The purpose of the RFID chip is touted as a means of preventing illegally obtained plates from being attached to a vehicle. In my opinion, this is a secondary reason: toll roads and chip readers (already installed on the general highway system surrounding Johannesburg) will be able to utilize information from the RFID chip to charge for road usage and of course to ensure fines for speeding are allocated correctly.

It is likely that the cost of operating a vehicle on the highways of Johannesburg and surrounds will become a very expensive affair in future, not least of which is the requirement of having old number plates replaced at a cost to the vehicle owner in line with specified expiration dates.

The new plates will have a validity period of five years, after which they will have to be renewed once again.

Ciao!

Florida Road, Durban.

Highly recommended – consistent and much the same after all these years…

This year’s Rooiberg Eco Ride has a new format and something that every cycle race should have: a relaxing ride on single tracks through the bush with brunch and high tea served! Obviously, the Eco Ride is no race. It’s a three day tour of 160km through the Rooiberg in Limpopo’s Waterberg at a relaxed pace.

The tag line It’s not a race, it’s a ride appeals to me and I’ve submitted my entry. Day one sees a late start on a 30km ride including a stop for sundowners (probably non-alcoholic – the only downside). Early Sunday for a start on 70km, stopping for brunch and tea, and day three finishes the event off with a 60km ride. Though the distances will require some training on my part prior to heading up to the Waterberg, the fact that there’s no pressure on finishing within a set time should make this a great outing. I’ll probably take the camera along to snap a few pictures along the way…

The Eco Ride takes place in late April and the entry cost does not include accommodation. A curious prerequisite for the ride is that all mountain bikes have to be fitted with tubeless tires. Before getting the Anthem, I rode on goo-filled tubes for ages without a single stop due to a puncture. I’m not certain I agree with the fact that tubeless tires reduce the chance of punctures, and carrying a spare tube is a good idea even when riding tubeless. How strictly this rule will be enforced remains to be seen.

Entries are limited and the official website can be found here.

It’s been another busy year. Here’s wishing you all a great 2010!

A great outing is the Montecasino Bird Park – that should be combined with the Jozi-Eye, which provides a 150m high platform from which to view our fine city. Weather-permitting, the helium-filled balloon flies daily from 08h00 to 20h00 and is winched back down after spending about 15 minutes aloft.

The circular platform carries up to 30 passengers at once – on our morning flight, there was hardly anyone else around and the wind blew the balloon around a bit every now and again.

With clear skies, the view is stunning and well worth it.

With three big South African banks already the target of online phishing scams I’ve come across in my spam mail, Standard Bank rounds out the collection of four banks whose customers are requested to log in and update personal details.

Of the four scam sites I’ve seen, the spoof of the ABSA Internet banking site is without doubt the most convincing, with only the URL a giveaway. For the rest, it looks identical and would fool a vast majority of unwary users. The fake Standard Bank runs a close second, though some careless HTML breaks some of the design and damages some of the graphics on the site. For the rest, it looks very convincing.

The ridiculous URL, http://www.tigerbasketball.org/templates/madeyourweb/signonmenu.htm, relates in no way to Standard Bank and may indicate how brazen and confident scammers are becoming – it takes only a few victims to make a phishing attack worthwhile.

Attempting to dupe Internet banking users out of their account numbers, PIN numbers and passwords seems to have become the latest hotbed of criminal activity. The attempt to catch unsuspecting FNB customers seemed amateurish – the fake website looked just that: fake, and unlikely to be taken seriously. The ABSA scam had me convinced after I had a look at the exact replica of the actual ABSA Internet banking site hosted at an obviously wrong location. In that case, the URL was the only giveaway.

Now, I’ve received a request to log on to a fake Nedbank Internet banking site. Scammers are taking advantage of the fact that Nedbank has indicated that some changes will be made to the official site and that additional services will be offered soon. The fake site lives at this URL: http://netbankonlinebanking.9hz.com and looks similar to the actual site.

Curiously, Nedbank refers to its own Internet banking service as Netbank, which I don’t fully understand. In any case, at first glance the fake website is quite convincing and mimics the style and layout of the actual site very well. All it takes is the entry of the Profile ID, PIN and password – don’t simply click on links and enter any details before you haven’t verified that you’re on the site you’re intending to be.

Call the institution if you suspect that something is awry and check the URL carefully before you do anything.  At the time of writing, Firefox doesn’t yet block the URL as one that is dubious.