Sprint website reveals personal customer information
Sprint’s website features a “Check Upgrade Eligibility” link that might reveal your personal information to anyone with your phone number and billing zip code. Simply enter your information here and see if your information has been compromised. This is just one more reason you should not use Sprint as a wireless provider.
Google AdSense banning users from participation
Google AdSense banned me from participation in their program last summer. The resons to me are not clear but there seems to be a number of other people in the same boat. Appearntly I was banned for “fraudulent clicks” which translates into the same IP or computer system clicking on ads published by an AdSense account.
If you create an AdSense account at a public WiFi spot or a public network and someone else accesses your ads from the same network then you may appear to be generating “fradulent clicks” to Google and it wont be long until they ban you even if you did not intentionally click your ad’s. So what can someone do once they are banned from use of Google AdSense. Well according to Google they will not reinstate any previously banned accounts. Well I am banned and I plan to try and get unbanned from the program. I will be posting about it here to keep anyone interested up to date on my progress.
Google’s adress
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
phone: (650) 253-0000
fax: (650) 253-0001
I plan to call them this week and see what I can find out. If any of my readers have encountered this problem and have any insight on how to correct this issue please feel free to send it to tips@timmatheson.com
Cellphone carriers charging for WNPP
WNPP (Wireless Number Pooling Portability) AKA LNP (Local Number Portability) is an FCC regulation that requires cellular providers to allow for anyone to take their number with them to another carrier as long as the number doesn’t cross zip codes or change telephone exchanges. (e.g. 262-555-1212 could not be ported to 715-555-1212 really your just porting the last four of your number) so if you move because your carrier doesn’t cover your newly found home and decide to keep your number it is likely to be long distance for incoming local callers. This should be especially considered by anyone using their cell phone for business.
Keep your debit card pin private
Entering your debit card pin number is a great security feature to prevent fraud. However it is not even required by most stores. This is useful and troubling at the same time. I have been in situations where someone is right behind me and I don’t want to enter it in front of them. The solution is simple choose the “credit” option when prompted by the magstripe terminal. When you’re using credit no pin is required and this will work at any self serve or swipe it yourself payment terminal. For other places where the merchant swipes the card simply answer credit when they ask “debit or credit?” and you wont need your pin number. This method also comes in handy when sending the kids out for some milk or any situation where they ask for a pin just say “run it as credit”.
McDonalds charging a “dine-in tax”
I heard a rumor that McDonalds charges a dine-in tax to its customers who eat in the restaurant. I had to see for myself, so I called four McDonalds in four different states and asked them about it. To my surprise every one of them confirmed they did have such a charge.
I try not to eat at McDonalds as much as possible because of health reasons but I am anxious to see if anyone out there has a receipt from their dine-in experience. I would love to see what they are actually calling this alleged tax. I am not even sure they can call it a tax unless the U.S. Government is actually levying this tax. If any of my readers have any information on this please comment.
U.S. Cellular shuns Google sms search then promotes it
As a former U.S. Cellular employee I experienced first hand the shady business practices U.S. Cellular uses against their customer base. I worked for the carrier for about 8 months through a reseller agent program. Often I looked for ways to get people to want to sign up for service to earn some commission and move some handsets.
How to get charges lifted from your cellphone bill
Ok this is a tip I have used for years to reduce my cell phone bill. Actually I haven’t had to put it into practice much since I left a certain unnamed PCS provider.
In short you just waste their time on the phone untill it costs them money then reap the benifits.