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Spare a thought for Winweb who are experiencing a problem with mistaken identity and a malware program that carries a similar name to their business. I’ve known Stefan Töpfer for a couple of years now. We first spoke December 2005 and I met him February 2006 when I was visiting in London. We’ve maintained a business connection ever since and you may have noticed a recent post about a business competition – it was through Stefan that my connection took place. Rather than rewrite what he says, I’ll share with you his dilemma.

Dear All,

In the past week a malware program has surfaced, which calls itself WinWeb Security (winwebsecurity.com – don’t click on any links on this website). It has, of course, nothing to do with us. If you Google ‘WinWeb Security’ you will get a picture of what is going on, that is only the public side of it. Please see my post:

http://www.sme-blog.com/comments/winwebsecuritycom-more-facts

and WinWeb’s Statement recently:

http://www.winweb.com/latest-news/winweb-winwebcom-vs-winweb-security-winwebsecuritycom

Despite the fact that we have been providing free support to anyone (1000′s) who contacted us, we have sometimes been falsely accused of being winweb security, which we are not; this is still causing real damage to our reputation, due to the name association.

I wonder if you would be willing to help us to set the record straight with your readers and maybe forward this to some of your other blogger contacts to do the same. I have provided WHOIS lookups in my posts, that should be one of the most helpful ways to show people what is what, and hopefully stop them associating us with this menace.

I’m sorry about the bulk email, but I have to react fast. If you can help – I thank you very much for your support, I of cause do understand if you do not what to get involved.

Kind regards

Stefan.

Poor Stefan and his staff. So if you have heard of Winweb please know they are not connected to winweb security.

Have you had a problem with a domain or business name that is similar to yours and has this caused problems for you? I would love to hear about them here. I think it’s important to put people straight on incorrect assumptions wherever possible. What do you think?

mistaken identity, malware, similar domain, winweb

Tags: Business Operations, Warnings by Kathie Thomas
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I was at a breakfast a few weeks ago and the speaker was talking about the benefits of networking and the right and wrong ways.  She opened up for questions at the end of the session and someone from the back asked a question I’d never even considered before.  “What if people don’t want to connect and are avoiding your calls?’” The speaker told the person asking the question that it might be simply a case of the other person being busy.

I was surprised when the question was asked. I’m no wallflower and it just doesn’t occur to me that someone might be avoiding me , however, I realised that for some the fear of someone rejecting them could be very real.   So I want to encourage you here, if that’s you, please consider that people do get busy and often networking, or follow up (very few people do follow up) isn’t foremost in their agenda. Other things are.

You can do simple things to make the process easier for yourself:

• Send an email introducing yourself and reminding them of where you met and when (do this a few days later, not a few weeks). You could also suggest that you will give them a call in a few days.
• If you don’t hear back from them in 2 or 3 days, you could elect to ring them and ask them if they got your email and just continue any conversation you might have had when you met.  I always write on the back of their business cards anything relevant so I’m reminded of a topic I can continue.
• If they don’t answer the phone but you can leave a message, simply say you’re ringing as promised in your email to them a couple of days ago.
• Then let it sit for awhile.  If you come across emails (not jokes or warning messages) or media articles that might relate to that person, simply forward them on, saying that that article reminded you of them.

You may get pleasantly surprised with a return phone call or return email.  And have their details close to hand so you can grab it quickly if they do ring which will save you from being tongue-tied.

Networking isn’t as fearful as some might think and once you’ve done it a few times and discovered that no-one is going to bite your head off or something worse, then you should be set to establish a pattern of regular networking and follow up.  And if someone doesn’t respond, don’t worry – it’s their loss, especially if you had something of value for them.

networking, follow up, fear, relationship building

Tags: Networking by Kathie Thomas
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I’m thrilled to share with you information on Business ’09 where some lucky business owner will win £10,000 and you don’t have to be in the UK to be eligible. Judges from various countries have been selected to assist with the process and I am representing Australia.

Stefan Töpfer, who heads up Winweb, first contacted me in December 2005 when he was looking for a team of Virtual Assistants to assist clients on the eastern sideboard of Australia. Co-incidentally, only a few weeks later I was going to be in London so I met him in person where we discussed possible ways of collaborating. We’ve kept in touch ever since and I’ve met up with him when he’s visited Melbourne from time to time. I was delighted when he contacted me about this special event.

Below is the official press release that came out last month.  I will post periodic updates as they come to hand.

London/New York/Brisbane, November 17th., 2008. Today Winweb launches it’s long anticipated ‘Business’09 – Win £10,000‘ campaign for small business and pre-entrepreneurs. The launch coincides with Global Entrepreneurship Week and Enterprise Week 2008. The finalists and winners will be announced during the same events next year.

WinWeb makes it’s own 15th anniversary celebration into a ’start and run your own small business celebration’, honoring individuals and small business owners, who have the courage to turn their dreams into reality.

WinWeb and It’s Supporters & Sponsors have set themselves a Unleash It! Challenge until Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009, to be instrumental and inspire at least 1000 new business startups.

‘We are recognizing the fact that small business makes up to 95 % of all businesses worldwide, generates over 50 % of GDP, a staggering 60 % of all innovations and have a long lasting positive impact on local communities world wide’, says Stefan Töpfer, CEO of WinWeb.

The questions asked in the competition will provide an inside to entrepreneurs thinking prior to and after launching a small business. These findings will be published in a separate report later next year. Especially in these times of economic downturn it is essential to understand the motivation of ‘would be small business owners’, to foster an environment in which small business can flourish.

Encouraging small business owners and budding entrepreneurs with the inside that starting a small business often does not need money, but primarily time, is another way by which the campaign hopes to help in the creation of new small businesses.

WinWeb enlists the help of a high caliber panel chaired by Professor Ian Angell of the London School of Economics(LSE) along with media and small business professionals from Europe, the United States and Australia.

WinWeb encourages media and new media, especially bloggers, to support the campaign and to help make it a success and reach WinWeb’s goal of starting a minimum of a 1000 small business during the next twelve months. The independent panel will report in on the final number of small business startups during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009.

‘If our joint efforts would bring about the creation of only 1000 new small businesses worldwide, and I believe we can start many more, then this campaign will have been a great success for all involved, so we ask for as much support as possible. I would love to see this campaign to go viral, to maximize the benefits to society as a whole. This is our Unleash It! Challenge during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008?, says Stefan Töpfer. Details, on how to get involved, can be found on the campaign website under ‘Support Us.’

Regular updates of the Business’09 Campaign will be available at the two official campaign blogs, the WinWeb Blog and The Small Business Blog and other supporting media and blogs.

Business ’09, Win £10000, business and pre-entrepreneurs, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Enterprise Week 2008

Tags: Business Operations by Kathie Thomas
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For the second time in a month I’ve received a message on my wall at my Facebook page saying that my photo had been seen at a site.  The first time I clicked on it unawares and immediately my antivirus program (Trend Micro) warned me of a problem and wouldn’t let me view the page.  I went to the guy who posted a message on my wall and saw there were heaps of wall messages he’d left within a few minutes – a sure sign something was wrong. I left a message for him to say he had a virus and also sent a personal email to him.

I then removed the wall notice from my Facebook so that no-one else would click on it – important you do that!

This morning one of my clients left a similar message and I immediately contacted her and her VA support to advise that one of them had a virus and it had infected the Facebook profile.

I’ve researched articles on it but haven’t found any fixes – just best to keep your antivirus program updated every single day.

Internet News – Facebook Attack

Now Public – Facebook Virus Attacks Again

Reuters – Koobface Virus

And even UrbanLegend is confirming there is a virus.

Facebook has told members to delete contaminated e-mails and has posted directions at www.facebook.com/security on how to clean infected computers.

I have a free online virus scanner (owned by Trend Micro which is the program that saved me from grief) at my site at http://www.acs-webhosting.com/ in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

Tags: Facebook, Technology, Warnings by Kathie Thomas
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