Debwork Websites

Tag: Bad Mojo

  • Site Suspended, Did you pay your invoice?

    Site Suspended, Did you pay your invoice?

    Symptoms:

    1. Instead of your site showing, an image appears “This website is currently under maintenance. Come back later!”
    2. Your URL is being forwarded to http://YOURURL.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

    Diagnosis:  Invoice not paid to Hostgator web host.

    This interesting anonymous graphic slapped on a client’s site last week.

    I am the site admin and I did not put the site under maintenance. It happens to be one of the few sites whose owner does not want WordPress updated for some possibly good reasons.  The site is on WordPress 2.9.2 and at this writing, I am updating websites to 3.5.2. Thus and so I suspected the site could be suspended due to it being hacked. But no… it is simply a bill overdue.

    Dear Hostgator,

    I think you have great service but couldn’t you put a more helpful message on this website? How about adding a gator logo? How about some kind of hint or link to pay the invoice? It would actually resolve the problem faster.

    Thanks,

    Debwork

    In the end, the client paid the bill, the site got restored and all is well …

     

    New Addition: This is what your site looks like on LunarPaqes if you do not pay your hosting bill:

    What you see if you don't pay your LunarPages hosting bill
    A sign that your web hosting bill is overdue.
  • Paypal Phishing

    Paypal Phishing

    I’ve been getting a slew of these Paypal Phishing spam emails. It said I have purchased something.

    Of course the link does NOT go to Paypal.

    If you wonder what is going on in your account – go to the main site, do not log in via an email link.

  • Waste of a good URL

    Waste of a good URL

    Well, it’s my birthday today and when people ask me about the joy of the day and I tell them, they are sorry they asked. It’s like one of those classic Holiday Letters – “Billy broke his arm, our house needs a new roof, and I am having my gallbladder removed while I write this Merry Christmas letter to you.”

    So I decided to stop answering the phone and on a whim checked out the website www.WorstBirthdayEver.com; surely someone has set it up and today it could be quite entertaining. Aha! someone has indeed! They paid for the domain and created that site! “OK! Show me some bad birthdays!”  Unfortunately, they made one post (not even about birthdays) and then abandoned the effort. Well, maybe that is a fitting irony, but what a waste of a good URL! So much so that I’m not even giving them a live link here.

    I did find this slide show of days that make mine seem not so bad. Thanks, HuffPo!

    Huffngton Post slideshowWell, it is the year of the bad flu virus and I have it,

    plus it is Friday,

    plus my tooth broke,

    since I can’t stop coughing I have to wait a week go to the dentist,

    plus no one wants to hear about such things when making a birthday call.
    My sister-in-law said “If I wanted to hear that kind of news, I would have called my mother!” … a glaze falls over the cheering crowd.

    So that’s my story which will be irrelevant in just one little week – but a bad use of url!? That is held up for years – that really stinks.

  • Another example – Facebook Phishing

    Another example – Facebook Phishing

    I previously commented on LinkedIn Phishing and today a very real looking Facebook notification appeared. I worry about you so I thought I’d publish this again.

    How to detect if an email notification is legit or phishing:

    Hover over the link and see where it leads.
    If that doesn’t work just go directly to the site instead of through the email message link.

  • Watch out LinkedIn Spam Phishing

    Watch out LinkedIn Spam Phishing

    I’ve been getting some fake LinkedIn messages lately. How do you know they are fake? Hover over the accept button and see where it leads to. This one does not go to LinkedIn.

    If you can’t tell or don’t want to bother, just go directly to LinkedIn instead of through the email message link – those invitations will be all queued up for you if they are legitimate.