I saw a new App from Experian where you can access your credit report from your phone. Has anyone tried this? I already have an account with freecreditreport.com so I downloaded it, but I am too paranoid to enter my personal information.
check the webpage and support info on the app, if everything links back to the official experian websites should be ok...
not too many hackers with the balls to imitate big credit bearu names, lol
thats federal time there.
also browse google and see if there are any mentions from experian theirself about a release of a mobile app.
I would probably stay away from that app.... I don't know if that app is legit. I checked google and didn't find anything about it. I also went to the source experian.com and didn't find any info. Now I'm not saying it's bogus, but just suggesting that you stay away from it until confirmed that it's the real deal.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Looks a lot like their new iPhone app. I wouldn't worry about it.
I have been advised to not use freecreditreport.com, I have been told to instead use annualcreditreport.com
This below is from militaryonesource
Thanks to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), every U.S. citizen is entitled to a free credit report once a year from each of the three main credit reporting bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. There are three ways to order your credit reports: online, by phone, and through the mail.
To order your credit report online, go to www.annualcreditreport.com. This centralized Web site sponsored by the three main credit bureaus allows you to order all three reports and view them instantly online.
To order your report over the phone, call 1-877-322-8228. Your credit report will be mailed to you within 15 days.
To order a report by mail, you will need to fill out an annual credit report request form. Go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/requestformfinal.pdf to find a copy of this form online. Then mail the form to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Due to security reasons, www.annualcreditreport.com does not work from overseas. If you're stationed or deployed outside the U.S., you can print the form to order your report by mail at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/include/requestformfinal.pdf.
When you get your reports, look them over carefully. If there's anything you don't understand, call the credit bureau for an explanation. The reports include a lot of information and you may need some help interpreting them the first time you see them. Federal law requires that the bureaus make this help available to you. Here is the contact information for each of the three main credit bureaus:
Equifax Credit Information Services
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374
Telephone: 1-800-685-1111
Fax: 1-404-612-2993
www.equifax.com
Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013
Telephone: 1-888-397-3742
www.experian.com
Trans Union Corporation
Consumer Relations Center
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
Telephone: 1-800-916-8800
www.transunion.com
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Also it is probably best if you order only 1 report every 4 months so this way you can check your credit 3 times per year instead doing all 3 and having to wait another year for free reports. This is even recommended in the Frequently Asked Questions section.
Actually, you want to monitor your report. It is a good way to keep an eye on things. I use freecreditreport.com which is actually Experian.com and love it. I started using it at regular price which was around 15 a month, then I called and said I wanted to cancel, I couldn't afford it. They dropped in 50% now I pay 7 bucks. I pull a free one once or twice a month. It's quite essential to monitor your report. Don't listen to people who don't know how important it is.
jzero88 said:
Actually, you want to monitor your report. It is a good way to keep an eye on things. I use freecreditreport.com which is actually Experian.com and love it. I started using it at regular price which was around 15 a month, then I called and said I wanted to cancel, I couldn't afford it. They dropped in 50% now I pay 7 bucks. I pull a free one once or twice a month. It's quite essential to monitor your report. Don't listen to people who don't know how important it is.
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"free"creditreport.com is fine to use as long as you know going in that it's not necessarily "free" (you have to sign up for credit monitoring services that charge). The only source for true free credit reports is the once-a-year annualcreditreport.com site.
I personally use creditkarma.com, it's free, you get a score calculated by your TransUnion credit report, and targeted credit card and loan offers even. Has a bunch of tools to help you manage your finances and credit too.
Thanks for the replies. I didn't find any mention of an Android app on the freecreditreport.com website. Doesn't mean it isn't legit, but you can never be too cautious.
Related
Edited - problem solved for now. Just bought more bandwidth. Hopefully, that will last.
How long do you have and what is the next level of bandwidth cost?
Just tell me about another free server and how I can transfer all my crap there. I don't know how long I have. I just got their notice.
Just thought I'd throw this out there but it sounds you should sell some add space. It is a great site and the traffic is only going to increase, especially once you get all the "how too's" posted. Then you'll get return "business". You could finally make a little $ for your time and effort. Good job, keep up the good work. In the meantime, I'll figure out how to make a donation using paypal and hope others follow my example.
Sorry, I don't have any information for you on a different web hosting service.
How do I "sell" ad space?
Ya, the first day of launch it got 500 people visiting it. It's increasing daily. I basically used up my monthly bandwidth limit in less than a week's time. And my website doesn't even show up on google yet.
Check this out. I found it after a quick google search. There were tons of others but this one was very infirmative and offered several different methods of how to do it. Think about who your perspective clients are and I believe that your site will sell itself. Show them the numbers and make it attractive for those that get in on the ground level. Then as it gets more traffic you can change your method of billing or charge more, or even have some length to your contracts. Check this out:
http://www.websitetoad.com/sell-advertising-space.htm
If this is not appropriate to post this link please delete it.
Just bought more bandwidth. Hopefully, this will last.
goodintentions said:
Just bought more bandwidth. Hopefully, this will last.
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Put up a PayPal donate button on the site. I am sure people will share the love.
nunjabusiness said:
Put up a PayPal donate button on the site. I am sure people will share the love.
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It's there - he's got it at the bottom of "Start Here".
Just donated - that site is a really big help to direct users to the usual questions that come up.
Is there a way to complain to Google at a high level and get a refund for a market purchase? My daughter tried to buy $2.60 worth of "points" for "Pretty Pet Salon" 3 days ago. She brought me the money and I clicked the link, it took me to the market, where I paid and it said it would be downloaded. We've gotten nothing and I emailed the company who told me to go into the app and send a form mail from there with the Google order number and their reference number, both of which were quoted in the same mail. Idiots. This seems like nothing but lazy programming where they don't know how to properly hook up in-app purchases.
I'd like to report this as fraud (non-delivery of goods) and have it charged back. I'll do it via the credit card if I have to but I was hoping the Android Market had a mechanism to file a complaint and dispute the charge.
Anyone know?
Thanks,
Mike
mikeyxda said:
Is there a way to complain to Google at a high level and get a refund for a market purchase? My daughter tried to buy $2.60 worth of "points" for "Pretty Pet Salon" 3 days ago. She brought me the money and I clicked the link, it took me to the market, where I paid and it said it would be downloaded. We've gotten nothing and I emailed the company who told me to go into the app and send a form mail from there with the Google order number and their reference number, both of which were quoted in the same mail. Idiots. This seems like nothing but lazy programming where they don't know how to properly hook up in-app purchases.
I'd like to report this as fraud (non-delivery of goods) and have it charged back. I'll do it via the credit card if I have to but I was hoping the Android Market had a mechanism to file a complaint and dispute the charge.
Anyone know?
Thanks,
Mike
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from the point of view as an android app developer, our google checkout inbox shows all purchases with a long unique random order id number and then the individual's name. it is very easy to cancel an order. it takes one button press on the cancel order button, select from the drop down customer requested and press cancel order. less than 10 seconds, max.
i would prob ask the developer again to cancel your order as its very simple and quick. perhaps you can provide them my directions above if they need help, hah.
in regards to filing a compliant against the developer, i haven't seen any buttons or links in the market for this. i know a 1 star rating always ruins my day, but im a small developer. for a larger developer a 1 star rating might not mean much.
if they are a larger developer, perhaps the link they provide to their web site will allow you to get in contact with somebody who might be more helpful than whoever replied to your last email thru the market.
i did a quick google search and didnt see any avenues for filing a complaint against the developer. perhaps going back thru your credit card company, as each charge is coded for a specific developer, might show google there is an issue with a specific developer.
hope that helps!
Found a Report App link
Hi There,
I was looking for the same, so i landed up here but no one had provided a working link to Report a Fraud App, but i searchd further on Google and came across the following:
oops can't post URL
well here is a workaround
you know bit dot ly right? the link is
bit dot ly slash f3QgsS
Google has contact options for most of their prodcuts on the google.com/support pages i guess, this is indeed a neater format to report to Google
Best Regards,
Karan
I just hope Google puts its foot down on this epidemic...Maybe release a antimalware app or something..or make some strict laws to developers...
A good start is to only download reputable apps and make sure the developer is easily contactable and documented.
Not having or using a credit card helps too.
With Google clearly having the information and power of Big Brother, I'm sure they will take care of it one way or another.
Grant Barker said:
A good start is to only download reputable apps and make sure the developer is easily contactable and documented.
Not having or using a credit card helps too.
With Google clearly having the information and power of Big Brother, I'm sure they will take care of it one way or another.
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+1 to that... I don't download apps unless for one, I see good reviews, and more importantly, that I can easily contact the dev if I run into any unusual activity after using their app.
Google usually removes malware apps and removes the developer from the Android Developer Program.. I doubt people would continuously pay the 25 dollar registration fee over and over just to release malware.. Time will run is course and malware will exit the Market, but I can guarantee you you'll always find malware outside of the Market, especially within those Chinese Markets that offer Market apps "for free/ at a discount".. they're usually infected.
$25 is a minimal fee when you look at the big picture, like how much information can be pulled from a smartphone, and the sheer number of people that use them. If the benefits outweight the cost to the malware devs, im sure they'll keep paying the $25 to keep their feet in the door.
stubby210 said:
$25 is a minimal fee when you look at the big picture, like how much information can be pulled from a smartphone, and the sheer number of people that use them. If the benefits outweight the cost to the malware devs, im sure they'll keep paying the $25 to keep their feet in the door.
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Still doubt it. Hopefully they'll soon enough stay out of the Market and target the 3rd party vendors, like Slideme. Not saying they should, but they need to get the hell out of the Market.
Yesterday I was in the car, on my way to symphonic band rehearsal. My phone buzzed with a text message. Not all that unusual of an occurrence. But a very unusual message:
From: 578277
Message: "We added Stacia's Pizza to your FiveStars account! You're 10 pts from a $15 off next purchase. Register at FiveStars for 5 free points! (txt OFF to unsubscribe)"
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There are two creepy aspects to this. One, I've never heard of FiveStars, and thus have no account. Two, the message arrived just as we drove past -- indeed -- a Stacia's Pizza.
Some Googling doesn't reveal much. Yes, they exist (www.fivestarscard.com) and they got some press about funding in August. Curiously, I'm unable to find any other reports of people receiving unsolicited FiveStars text messages as they drove past merchants.
I'm rather annoyed by all this. Some app on my phone must be leaking location information and my phone number without my knowledge. If this is a harbinger of the future, then I will become one very cranky person.
You are not alone, but in my case I'm getting:
Your entry last night has won! Blah blah target reward card blah blah 1000 dollar gift card blah blah claim your prize.
A root call blocker could be of use to you... I have a spam blocked on my Miui Rom personally.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Victor from FiveStars here!
SteveRiley said:
Yesterday I was in the car, on my way to symphonic band rehearsal. My phone buzzed with a text message. Not all that unusual of an occurrence. But a very unusual message:
There are two creepy aspects to this. One, I've never heard of FiveStars, and thus have no account. Two, the message arrived just as we drove past -- indeed -- a Stacia's Pizza.
Some Googling doesn't reveal much. Yes, they exist and they got some press about funding in August. Curiously, I'm unable to find any other reports of people receiving unsolicited FiveStars text messages as they drove past merchants.
I'm rather annoyed by all this. Some app on my phone must be leaking location information and my phone number without my knowledge. If this is a harbinger of the future, then I will become one very cranky person.
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Hey Steve,
I'm actually the founder and CEO of FiveStars! I also happen to love flashing new roms onto my galaxy so I'm on this forum all of the time.
What you described is actually a coincidence -- we actually have no way of knowing where you are! We provide loyalty cards for small businesses, so for example Stacia's Pizza uses us to manage their Buy 10 Get 1 free program so you don't have to carry around a bunch of paper punch cards. They must have enrolled you when you ordered a pizza from them at some point, but the usual text message was delayed (you're supposed to get it right away, so these creepy scenarios don't happen).
Hope that helps! Our goal is to get you more free stuff without having to carry around all of that paper anymore.
Vic
While I may be willing to accept that FiveStars has no knowlege of my presence, I'm unwilling to accept -- for the moment -- that my experience was purely a coincidence. I am not a customer of the pizza shop in question, so I'm unsure how they would have obtained my phone number. Furthermore, as a rule I don't join loyalty programs because the value they provide is not worth the information I must trade.
I will admit that I recently flashed a new build of JB on my G2, and when I was passing the pizza shop, I had not yet gone through my usual procedures of removing or otherwise blocking the various anti-privacy mechanisms that plague Android. See my post from a few months ago for some examples.
Just tell your service provider to block the number.
estabien said:
You are not alone, but in my case I'm getting:
Your entry last night has won! Blah blah target reward card blah blah 1000 dollar gift card blah blah claim your prize.
A root call blocker could be of use to you... I have a spam blocked on my Miui Rom personally.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bet if you remove MIUI you will not need a spam blocker.
victorsho said:
Hey Steve,
I'm actually the founder and CEO of FiveStars! I also happen to love flashing new roms onto my galaxy so I'm on this forum all of the time.
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Heh! That's quite a post count you have there, Vic.
...for example Stacia's Pizza uses us to manage their Buy 10 Get 1 free program so you don't have to carry around a bunch of paper punch cards. They must have enrolled you when you ordered a pizza from them at some point...
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If a place I spent money with enrolled me in a "program' (or spamgram, if you will...) of their own accord, what they'd get from me is an earful, but not one more dime.
Hope that helps! Our goal is to get you more free stuff without having to carry around all of that paper anymore.
Vic
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Really? I think your goal is to make money by exploiting and irritating cell subscribers with your unsolicited, unwanted spam. And now you have annoyed xda members with another spam. I'm pretty sure the forum has rules against posting spam. Time to find the report button.
At the time the car passed the pizza place, SoundHound 8 (infinity) was running on my phone (got the paid version on sale for 99 cents). Among others, SoundHound has these permissions:
* Location: coarse (network-based), fine (GPS)
* Network: full access
* Phone: read status and identity
I hardly use it; I forgot that I had accidentally started it several hours prior.
According to the imminently useful Logging Test App, SoundHound includes adware and logging blobs from:
* Google AdMob/AdSense
* Millennial
* Mobclix
Yes, even the paid version appears to spy on you.
<conjecture>
Given the permissions SoundHound has, it could report my phone number and location to these ad services. I would have to run a network sniffer to be sure. The pizza place could be purchasing such data from these services, which might include real-time location reports. The pizza place could randomly choose a nearby phone and push an ad for a loyalty program.
</conjecture>
I will admit I have no visibility into whether the above actually happened. I will, though, stop by the pizza place to ensure that they have no record of my phone number, to rule out that possibility. I've had the number for 12 years, and before then it was unassigned according to T-Mobile.
Whenever my automated system finds an Android App Review online it sends an email to the developer telling the link to the review.
Each day I get between 5 - 10 thank you mails from both large app companies and indie developers, which I guess is a good indicator that it's a great tool in order to be able to take advantage of the review in their marketing. (I know how hard it is to be seen with a good app)
The question is, how do I monetize that service?
You have to pardon me if I sound desperate, but I actually am desperate and starting to worry about my ability to provide for my family.
Do you have an idea on how I could either monetize the service, or give it away to someone who can actually afford running it?
There are three main problems with it:
- Donations doesn't work (noone evidently donates anyway, so that went down the drain)
- Advertising, might have worked but there are far too few visitors.
- Most dev's have an invalid email address specified for their account at google play, which makes them not receive the notice from the service,
They can however subscribe for reviews of a certain package name, but how the heck could they when they don't even know the service exists?
I feel so stupid for having these great ideas and realize them, just to later find out that the only thing I've gained is more time away from my kids. I am honestly starting to loose all energy for the creation process of apps, web sites and services, just due to the fact that I can't even reach out enough to make anything out of it. And I can't afford advertising the services/apps/whatever crap I've made. Which even might be an indicator that I should stop trying, but I can't really do that either since I struggle to even afford the food for the month, yeah it's gotten that bad, and I hate sounding this pathetic.
Anyway, the link is in my sig called something like 'Android App Reviews' if you wish to have a look in order to give feedback on my question.
Maybe it's just a bad day 'cause I'm not usually this whiny, but even on a good day, the question stands.
Ah.. whatever. You have a good idea, let me know.
Later
very nice idea, perhaps most of your emails mistakenly get weeded out as SPAM. I have an APP published on Google Play with our company gmail address there, but in more than one ocasion we had people trying to contact us and those emails got to the SPAM folder automaticly by mistake and we never saw them.
DarknessWarrior said:
very nice idea, perhaps most of your emails mistakenly get weeded out as SPAM. I have an APP published on Google Play with our company gmail address there, but in more than one ocasion we had people trying to contact us and those emails got to the SPAM folder automaticly by mistake and we never saw them.
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Thanks, actually I was very glad myself when I got an email from my own service once, so yeah I think it's a great idea also.
So yes, one problem is, as you mention that most emails probably ends up marked as spam.
The other problem is money, it's running in a very low priced environment and actually doesn't require much juice to run but I can't afford maintaining it if it doesn't generate enough income to even support itself.
I would consider running it for nothing and I could even spend some personal money just for the satisfaction and appreciation, but given the gravity of the current financial situation in my family I can't do that.
So let's just see what happens, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Cheers
have you tried selling it? For about how much would you be willing to sell it? As i said the idea is pretty awesome and you got it pretty much nailed down. Perhaps with a few tweaks to the search algorithm it could be the next Google for Apps!
have you tried selling it? For about how much would you be willing to sell it?
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- Actually, no I haven't tried selling it yet as I don't have any experience selling these kinds of things, and don't really know where to turn.. So I haven't really thought of for how much I should sell it for,
what do you think something like this could be worth?
Thanks again
Actually i have no idea loool
I would buy it if I had the means.
The value of it probably based on how many views does your site has per day, how many apps does it have categorized, how many it crawls per day... idk.
For example i tried searching it and it seems to have few apps catalogued... my app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rtt3ch.suecaonline) isn't there.
EDIT: About how much do you spend on it a month? If it's not much and you're willing to give it away because can't afford it I wouldn't mind getting it lol, i think i can keep it alive.
If you want to generate income from your site, you have to run your site like a business. The ideas you have in your first post are too linear, especially for a small website with limited exposure (i'm sure you'll know ). Websites and youtube channels grow in exposure and size exponentially. Your site is still in the growth state of a business life cycle (the slowest, most challenging phase of business), so it's best to get as much exposure as possible, which means expanding.
- Try to create some sort of quasi-partnerships with other sites by sharing content or linking to each other. I've noticed you have some links on the side of your site, but try to get in contact with 'bigger names' out there
- Create a youtube channel and start reviewing apps like that. That way you have another avenue of traffic to your site
- Reviews of products may also be an idea.
Hope this helps It's what I can remember from business studies classes >.<
sup MetalDroid, any news?
I'd go with what SammiSaysHello said, you need to run it like a business. Personally I'd make the homepage look more like a professional a sales page and introduce a subscription fee if you want to use it for more then one app. Or even a one time fee for more then one app. I end up logging onto my developer console several times a day so I'd gladly pay a couple bucks a month to have the reviews sent straight to my inbox.. Just my two cents
Hey!
Sorry for not posting an update, I've been having the mother of all flues on and off for the past several weeks now!
sup MetalDroid, any news?
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Well, actually yes. The associated twitter account is growing, and the number of web page visitors is also increasing. Very slowly but I'm still positive about it. I've also, shockingly, had a few interesting partnership/business proposals drop down in my mailbox, so I'm gonna have a look to see what is offered there..
If you want to generate income from your site, you have to run your site like a business.
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I'd go with what SammiSaysHello said, you need to run it like a business
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You're right, that seems like a logical next step. I might add a low subscription fee if you wish to use for more than one app,
that seems like a very good suggestion, I'll have to wait a couple of days though to see how things turn out from some of the email proposals
I've had.
If you're interested I'll keep you updated on what happens, and I'm very grateful for your input,
Cheers