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Free pope book offer via e-mail is a scam

Scammers try to profit from anything and everything. Now, shortly after the death of Pope John Paul II, a new scam has surfaced, aimed at Roman Catholics.

The scam is perpetuated through e-mail, according to SophosLabs PLC in London, which analyzes spam (unsolicited e-mails sent en masse, usually enticing recipients to buy a product). You receive an offer of a free book about the pope - if you follow a link enclosed in the e-mail you receive. By clicking on the link, you are continuously redirected to other spam sites with "free" offers.

Following the link also confirms your e-mail address for the spammers, who will then inundate your account with other junk e-mail. If you try to take advantage of one of the offers you receive, you could end up having your personal and financial information stolen.

To keep from getting scammed - and spammed - the Federal Trade Commission recommends not replying to the message or any other suspect message, or clicking on any links, as well as not downloading or opening any attachments contained within the message.

Groups of Michael Moore fans, stay-at-home moms, Dungeons & Dragons players and pug owners face a choice this month: Should their organizers pay a monthly fee to stay with Meetup.com?

The Web site, best known for bringing together supporters of Howard Dean during last year's presidential election, is instituting a $19 monthly fee for new groups. Current groups can pay a $9 monthly rate at least through the end of the year.

Meetup quoted Bob Dylan to explain the fees: "You gotta serve somebody." Its site also said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

The formerly free service brings like-minded people together by letting visitors pick an interest, like speaking Japanese, then enter a ZIP code to see if there's an event at a coffee shop, bar or other nearby venue.

It happens all the time: You read an entry in an encyclopedia or other reputable source and think, "That's not right" or "They forgot this!"

Microsoft Corp.'s Encarta encyclopedia is testing a system that lets everyone be an editor, at least in theory. Readers can suggest edits or additions to entries, although the changes are vetted by editors before they reach the page.

Encarta is not requiring such novice editors to identify themselves, said Gary Alt, Encarta's editorial director. But it is asking them to reveal the source of their information, if possible, and the editorial staff will check for both factual errors and evidence of bias.

This is in contrast to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which lets anyone instantaneously make changes, even delete entries, regardless of whether that person has any expertise in the subject.

Encarta has added research editors and fact checkers to handle the volume of edits it expects to receive when the system goes live Thursday.

But Alt said the added cost is balanced by the advantage of having a seemingly endless pool of people who may know more about a subject than hired editors ever would - and will offer their expert advice for free.

Encarta entries are available for free though Microsoft's MSN search engine or through a paid service.

America Online and XM Satellite Radio have agreed to market a new Internet radio service that will charge users a fee. XM also will provide programming on AOL Web sites for an expanded free radio service supported by advertising.

Internet radio has been growing as more people get high-speed connections in their homes.

For AOL, a unit of Time Warner, the deal helps promote its free offerings supported by advertising, which are part of its effort to reduce its reliance on the dialup Internet service business. At the same time, it creates a new premium service that adds to AOL's growing roster of fee-based offerings, which include Internet phone services and music downloads.

Several other Internet radio providers, including Yahoo and Real Networks, have offered premium commercial-free radio services, in addition to free services supported by advertising. But AOL has not had a premium service until now.

AOL will add 20 XM stations to the 130 stations it offers on its existing radio service. It also will lift the daily, two-hour limit for the existing Netscape radio offering. The premium service, which likely will cost about $50 a month, will have 70 stations provided by XM. None of the XM stations will have ads. The AOL stations will have ads in the free version but not on the paid service.

Microsoft Corp. will offer video game fans a first peek at the new version of its Xbox game console during a half-hour MTV broadcast, part of a marketing deal.

The softwaremaker will preview the new game system in worldwide broadcasts on May 12 and 13, on various MTV channels.

During the broadcast, Microsoft also plans to show off new enhancements planned for its Xbox Live online video game service.

The half-hour program comes days ahead of a major games conference, E3, during which Microsoft said it will provide industry insiders more details of the game system.

But Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in charge of Xbox marketing, said Microsoft thought it was important that fans got to see the system at "at least the same time, if not before, folks who work in the trades see it."

Microsoft has not yet said when it plans to release the new Xbox.

Readers with questions and comments about tech news of the day can submit them to Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times' Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)

[Last modified April 15, 2005, 11:04:02]