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This morning I received an interesting email which was apparently a Customer Service Message from Lloyds Tsb Bank or so it may seemed.

Suspicious I am always and curious as well, I had a hunch it was a scam and decided to prove myself right. So entering the internet banking login page given in the email, I compared it with the actual Llyods TSB Bank’s official website.

Can you tell the difference?

The one of the left is the scam website. My heart goes out to the Llyods customers who had been tricked.

What’s the difference? The difference is subtle and even the tech savvy may not be able to notice it.

Well from the basic screen appearance, there is NO difference in the page design and layout – they are identical. However there are two differences to pay special attention to, the first is the page address and the other is the lock icon at the bottom of the page. Compare these details again with the two screen shots above.

The scam website has some long and suspicious page address. On inspecting the domain’s whois entry, you find it is just another name bought off a registrar. Anyone including you and I can do it but Llyods has their own and manage their own. First discrepancy is revealed.

The lock icon at the bottom of the page refers to that the page you are currently on is secured by SSL(Secure Socket Layer) or in layman terms, the site is secured and is safe to use. I will not bore you with these security details here. Second discrepancy is revealed.

So what happens when you enter your userid and password and hit the enter button? Anyone care to hazard a guess? Bingo! To the gentlemen in the far left corner – You go to a dead page. Why that’s interesting, I thought it would lead me on to see my banking details. NOPE! This point in time you should go call up Llyods and tell them what has happened and quickly either freeze your account or change its account credentials asap.

My theory as to what has happened is that the scam website calls the user to enter his online banking details(userid and password) and redirects him to a non-existent web page on purpose to give the impression the website is currently unavailable. Most people will think of it this way and just try again an hour later or so.

In actual fact, there is a page called login.php that is accessed once the submit button is hit. This page would most probably insert the user’s user id and password into some sort of database or file and then redirect the user to a non-existent page. All this happens in a blink of an eye.

I am able to theorize such matters because I’ve had over 5 years of web developing experience and the mechanism used in this situation is actually very simple to developed – no rocket science required.

How to be safe? Always enter confidential information via secured websites (find the lock icon). In this case, don’t for convenience sake click on a link you received in an email. Matters such as banking should be done directly with the bank’s website – enter the online banking website from the bank’s main page. Lastly, if you’re like me, NOT a Llyods TSB customer, you should know that the email was a scam already.

Sebastian out.
PS: It was sneaky of them to launch this scam on a Saturday.

I’m satisfied that I’ve completed every section of my new online presence except the current work section. I’ve been at the creative forge for the whole week and I can relax for now at last. Thank you readers for dropping by, more articles will be coming.

The weekend draws near which marks the end of my second week at work. I’m satisfied that it was productive and fruitful and look forward to a relaxing weekend.

Elliott has started his leave and has been partying frequently with the Nightlife.sg folks, good stuff bro. I have to add for the record that I am NOT satisfied that I’ve been missing out on so many parties and events back home. Hope to be able to catch up with you and Kenneth soon. Nana if you’re reading this, go back home with me lar!

I had a long day today, was at a focus group in the morning, a meeting in the afternoon and met up with my buddy, but I like it. Why? Well firstly I went back to Myo and tried their Jacket Potato with Tuna, ahh – it was simply delicious!

Here is a shot of the place with Paul who is also an intern.

The second reason is because my Gigaworks arrived! Notice how the blue light from its power indicator complements the blue online of my Microsoft Habu laser mouse.

The bass is better, the treble is better, the audio clarity is more significant and there is no static noises when you change volume levels. For a under £40 2.0 speaker system, I really think its value for money and will recommend it to anyone who wants a cheap and powerhouse system.

I don’t like to post unhappy matters on my blog but tragedy falls upon the sports entertainment industry today as the death of Chris Benoit comes to light. Its NOT another WWE angle, his death is real and I’m sadden by the lost of a man of talent. Chris aka the Rabid Wolverine was known for signature moves such as the Tripple German Suplex and the Crippler Crossface.

Authories have classified Chris’s death as homicide and are investigating this matter. Found dead in his home with his wife Nancy and 4 year old son, the Benoit will be missed and remembered by many. Yes Dad, we saw Benoit when he came to Singapore to perform and now he’s gone.

Rest in Peace Chris Benoit.

Went to this place for lunch along Waterloo Street near Central Station. It has was rather different from other sandwich shops in the UK. Instead of going up to the counter the tell the staff what sandwich you want, you make the sandwich yourself. I believe its a New York concept (correct me if I’m wrong) offering a wide selection of fillings, vegetable toppings and sauces. oh you can also just choose Jacket Potatoes and Salads too. I’m so gonna try those enormous Jacket Potatoes tomorrow.

After work I though of going back there for a quick bite to accompany my growling stomache as I walked home, guess what, it was CLOSED. I guess it opens for the lunch time crowd only.

Okay enough for one night, hitting the sacks now.

Update 11 Nov 07 from one of my readers iheartMYO, MYO is actually an Australian concept. Cheers mate.

Well folks, I spent the evening after work finishing the web folio section of the site. It can be viewed either by clicking on the folio link above or here. The web folio section lists all the major projects I’ve under taken since I started web designing. It includes competitions I’ve entered as well. Please don’t copy my designs but I think it’s pointless for me to say it right? Blogs are for all to read and should not be restricted.

The next section I will aim to finish is the graphics folio. That is on my to-do list for tomorrow.

I received a gift today from Ross. Ross is a fellow intern working with me on the same team. He gave me something I wanted for a long time already – Warcraft III Reign of Chaos. Gheez Sebaz, that’s ancient. I know I know, people like Kenneth will go like ‘huh?’ or ‘three drops of water’. Well it is something long overdue by my repetitive procrastination to go out and buy it, Thanks Ross, this is much appreciated. Does anyone wanna play Battle.net with me now?

It was also unfortunate that my trusty pair of speakers from Creative died on me. The left side no longer outputs any form of audio. It took me 30mins to dump it and now I welcome the Creative Gigaworks. It is a kickass 2.0 speaker system but still cannot beat Clarence’s godlike 5.1 speakers from Logitech which was just replaced recently thanks to warranty, good one there mate.

I hear Kenneth has gone for reservist, oh well Ken, it will be over before you know it. Elliott is taking two weeks leave, chill dude. Rest, relax and continue keeping things sexy like you always do.

Ah at last, Sentinel is up and running managing my humble blog. It still has a couple of bugs which I will have to sort out over next week.

Okay, as the title was saying, it is the dawn of a new beginning. Why? There are several reasons. Firstly, Sebastian has started blogging! Omg I hear the cheers.

Secondly, my internship with JPMorgan has begun and I’ve settling in pretty well into their Asset Wealth Management group.

Thirdly, coinciding with my internship, I have moved to Glasgow Scotland which will be my new home for the next 3 months. I’m current staying in Blackfriars, a student hall by UNITE which kicks Victoria Hall’s ass in every aspect.

Forthly, this may sound lame but as a Chinese it may take awhile to get use to. I shall not cook rice for the next 3 months as my rice cooker is in self storage in Manchester.

Well that’s the first few stories I have to share with you all about my new beginnings. Stay tuned to Bazcreate Studios for future updates.

Welcome to Sentinel almighty Sebastian. This is your virgin post by your trusty content manager. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! Please note that I can tolerate all forms of verbal abuses from your godlike English.