Taken from a larger piece in the Irish Times about a retreat of a group of Syrian Rebels:

“Diplomatic sources also say the “Free Syrian Army” is a name disparate local militias adopt without co-ordinating action or putting themselves under the command of Col Riad al-Assad, a defector based in Turkey who proclaimed the founding of the Free Syrian Army last year. He is said to have an office and a fax machine but no staff or troops.”

That’s correct, with a small office and a fax machine, even you can claim to lead a rebel army, even if you have no staff or troops.

A small reminder that even for the entrepreneur currently working out of the laundry room, sometimes having the right presentation can make you appear a lot larger than you actually are.

For the whole story from the Irish Times: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0302/1224312635542.html

Showing at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art from Mar 2nd to June 23, 2012 will be the exhibition “FAX”. It is a traveling exhibition curated by João Ribas, and co-organized by The Drawing Center, New York, and Independent Curators International (ICI), New York.

From the exhibition’s page:

“FAX invites a multigenerational group of artists, architects, designers, scientists, filmmakers and writers to reconceive of the fax machine as a thinking and drawing tool. Participants transmit their fax-based work via the venues’ working fax lines through the duration of the exhibition’s tour. Faxes by nearly 100 participants sent to the initial showing of FAX at The Drawing Center form the core of the exhibition, with each institution inviting additional participants to submit works, which will then be archived with The Drawing Center’s collection to create an evolving document of all participants. The accumulation of information-received in real time, in the exhibition space-includes drawings and texts, and the inevitable junk faxes and errors of transmission, creating an ongoing cumulative project.”

It brings to mind a lot to think about, from methods of communications to how messages get sent and interpreted.

As well there’s an interview from KCPW with Aaron Moulton, the Senior Curator of Exhibitions.

According to the interview, they’ve also hired broadcast fax companies to send out 1,000,000 faxes to English speaking fax numbers with the Arthur Schopenhauer quote “In order to understand what is true you must also understand what is not true.” – interesting to imagine the size and scope of such a project, and would be interesting to see any fax replies they’ve received from it.

A good stop for anyone near Salt Lake City in the next few months!

The official exhibition page: http://www.utahmoca.org/fax/

UMOCA Senior Curator of Exhibitions Interview with KCPW: http://kcpw.org/blog/cityviews/2012-02-29/cityviews-3112-the-abbey-collectionfax/

Curator’s Page on the Exhibition: http://joaoribas.blogspot.com/2009/09/fax.html

FAX artbook from the exhibition: http://www.artbook.com/9780942324389.html

Featured in City Weekly: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/event-113463-utah-museum-of-conte.html

As told by the Tampa Bay Business Journal in “Pinellas congressman uses fax to pressure postmaster”, a recent victory for St. Petersburg, Florida happened when the local congressman faxed the postmaster general to keep the local postmark.

A good example that in a world where bureaucracy and email are becoming overloaded, sometimes the clearest way to get a message through is to use a different form of communication.

For the entire story, see http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/morning-edition/2012/03/pinellas-congressman-faxes-postmaster.html

As tax season arrives, so do new scams.

The IRS is currently warning tax filers of a series of fax & email scams directed at them.

People are receiving faxes and emails that claim to be from the IRS that detail either a change in their tax returns or some sort of additional refund.

With that email or fax is also a link or internet website that then tries to either exploit the user’s computer maliciously, attempt to have the user sign up for some sort of promotional offer, attempt to get personal information from the user, or attempt to sell refund or credit schemes.

The majority of current scams appear to be directed at recent credits in educational tax credit legislation.

The IRS claims that they do not “initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information.”

For More on This Story:

• IRS – The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or any social media tools to request personal or financial information
• IRS – IRS Releases the “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams for 2012
• IRS – Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center
• Washington Post – IRS Warns of New Tax Scam
• Daily Comet – IRS Issues Tax Scam Warning
• WFMZ News – IRS Warns of Rampant Email, Fax Scams Targeting Tax Filers

With yet another reminder of the need to separate the use of business and personal activities, a Wichita City Council member is currently facing a state ethics charge over e-mails.

Kansas state law prohibits the use of public equipment to advocate or campaign for any public office. This includes the use of computers, emails, and fax machines.

It’s an issue that frequently comes up, and demonstrates the need that most people need to have an online fax service for those times when faxes need to be used.

For More on This Issue:

KWCH.com – Wichita City Councilman facing ethics complaint over emails

Kansas.com – Wichita City Council member O’Donnell to face state ethics charge over e-mails

Windows XP Still Dominant OS

In news from the world of operating systems, Windows XP is still the dominant operating system on the market, with market share just over 47% 6 and a half years after its successor Windows Vista and 2 1/2 years after the next successor were released.

While it’s been losing steady market share (although seeing a small increase in January of 2012) to Windows 7 (which has the ability to emulate Windows XP), XP is likely to remain a dominant operating system for some time to come.

Support for XP is expected to end April of 2014, however Microsoft has been relatively regular in pushing that date back, and as XP remains as a major operating system, it is likely that it will still be supported in order to ensure that bugs and viruses in the system are properly patched to preserve the reputation of Microsoft.

For more on Windows XP Market Share:

• Cnet News – Windows XP still hanging on as dominant OS
• Neowin – Report: Windows XP Share Went Up in January 2012

Windows Vista and 7 Support Extended to 2017 and 2020

Microsoft has also extended its support for Windows Vista to 2017 and Windows 7 to 2020.

An interesting move as the official release for Windows 8 is likely in the very near future, expected for sometime this fall, it’s an interesting to note how far back support is being extended for existing product.

Seattle Time – Consumer support extended for Windows 7, Vista

ZDNet – Microsoft extends support for Vista and Windows 7

Network World – Microsoft Extends Windows 7, Vista Support to 10 Years

CBS 21 News recently put out a travel scam warning that should be repeated.

Airfare, vacations, summer rentals, and vacation rentals are what appear to be the primary focus on this summer’s travel season.

Scammers frequent online classified ads locations such as forums and craigslist, as well as send out spam emails and junk faxes to advertise the perfect vacation at the perfect price.

The problem is – all too frequently these “perfect” vacations turn out to be complete scams.

There are usually two reasons scammers will advertise these offers – the first being to get people to wire them money – either as a deposit or for full payment on a vacation that does not even exist. Sadly, too many people respond to this and send money to complete strangers on the idea of a deal without having any idea where their money is really going.

The second type of scam that happens with this method is that the people offering the scams are looking for personal information – either credit card numbers and birth dates, or are just trying to confirm if a fax number or email address is actually in use. Many times an unsubscribe number will be used to get information about which fax numbers are valid, and which have actual faxes at them. This information is then packaged and sold to other marketers who use it to send even more information and marketing material.

Whenever booking a vacation, it’s best to make sure you do the research before fully booking the trip. Get to know the person you’re booking the vacation through, and if possible use credit cards as it is perceived that they offer better protection in case your personal information is stolen, or the information is use to purchase a trip that never exists.

For dealing with complaints about trips such as these, information can be registered with the Attorney General at www.attorneygeneral.gov, or through their Bureau of Consumer Protection at 1-800-441-2555.

More on Junk Faxes and dealing with nuisance faxes can be found on our page about Junk Faxes.

Interesting FCC documents recently filed showing the process of the FEC going after a junk fax broadcaster, the FCC is currently attempting to find a software training company liable of sending 27 junk faxes to advertise its business, in an unrelated but similar situation, they are also doing the same for an employee benefits group for 97 junk faxes.

The cost? the FEC is currently looking for $432,000, or $16,000 per junk fax for the software training company, the maximum for that type of violation. On a relative note, the employee benefits group is getting off a little easier on a per-junk-fax basis, with a total fine of $603,000, or $6,216 per junk fax – based on $4,500 per junk fax, and $10,000 per junk fax after a request had been made to stop sending the faxes.

Details of the claim include the FEC’s position that the company was cited for previous junk faxing before being fined. The company’s response to the citation that is was no longer in business, however according to the FEC, there was a link between the individual(s) behind the company and a similarly named company that resurfaced in the FEC’s junk fax complaint line soon after.

The release from the FEC is a good read for as a warning for anyone considering using a broadcast fax service.

Another very important note from these filings is the easy way that the identity of the sender was able to be confirmed by confirming the transmissions from the carrier – an important note for any legal issues involved with transmitting messages and confirming the identity of the sender and the receiver – as the identity of a fax sender can be confirmed much easier than email or other electronic communication can.

For the entire FEC release, see http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0223/FCC-12-23A1.pdf and http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0229/FCC-12-24A1.pdf

Posted on Linkedin, RingCentral is looking for a new sales executive in the Denver area.

Previous sales success and a knowledge of technology will likely help

http://www.linkedin.com/jobs/jobs-Sales-Account-Executive-2612618

Through a series of fraudulent faxes, it appears that Wells Fargo has been scammed out of $2.1 Million by wiring money to a Hong Kong bank.

From documents released, it appears that money was wired from a Catholic Healthcare West account at Wells Fargo to a “Tektil Trading UK Limited” in Hong Kong.

The interesting thing about the situation is that the account had a number attempts in over a number of days, some involving the potential sale of securities.

Over these days, as well as later on, there were a number of other attempts to move the money through a wire, however they failed as the receiving account either did not exist, or the the transaction involved selling securities, which would have taken more time and authorization.

Wells Fargo has reimbursed the company’s account, and is currently working with law enforcement to recover the money from the fraudulent faxers.

It appears that the signature to authorize the wire came from the scammers copying it from a document that was publicly posted online by the Healthcare group. Another reminder of the importance of keeping documents especially with signatures off of pages on the internet.

For more on this story:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2012/02/27/wells-fargo-bank-gives-scammer-three-tries/

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/02/28/2248877/wells-fargo-scammed-out-of-21.html

http://www.finextra.com/news/fullstory.aspx?newsitemid=23476

In another interesting quirk of electronic security, there has recently been a number of situations where fax spam had an “unregister” link that led to a website focused on loading the visiting PC with malware.

As listed on email security matters, the author visited the site only to find that his PC’s security watchdog programs were finding the unsubscribe page was listed as malicious with a Trojan downloader listed on the page.

One has to question if there really was a business offer in the first place, or if it was purely meant to be a fax sent just to irritate the receiver enough to try to unsubscribe from the list…

A good reminder to always have a program running to monitor sites for malware, but also be careful when visiting any site that you’ve been “suggested” you look at.

Email Security Matters – Infected by Papered Fax

Hyphenet – ‘Unsubscribe URL’ in Fax Spam Leads to Malicious Website

Following a string of acquisitions focusing on cloud based and international service providers, J2 Global, Inc. (owner of online faxing services eFax, MyFax, as well as other cloud based services) recently announced that it will be acquiring Australian based Zintel Communications.

Zintel offers a number of products to business and personal customers such as email faxing, voice mail, and business bundles based on reducing telecommunication costs to businesses and personal customers.

For more on J2 Global’s acquisition of Zintel Communications:

• J2 Global – Official Press Release – J2 Global Acquires Australia-based Zintel Communications
• RTT News – J2 Global Acquires Zintel Communications; Terms Not Disclosed
• SocialTech.com – J2 Global Buys Australian Voice Services Firm
• ITBriefing.net – J2 Global Acquires Australia-based Zintel Communications

As reported by the Khaleej Times in an article called “Anger on the Rise” consisting of a list of annoyances that are common in the world today, “75 per cent of workers become angry when a colleague leaves the printer/fax machine empty of paper.”

While it’s inconsiderate, it’s also a potential liability in an office environment – frequently a fax machine will receive a fax but save it in memory until the fax is filled with a paper. If the power goes out, on some machines the fax can be lost from memory – even though the fax has already sent out a confirmation confirming the the message has been received – in some cases, this means that a legal transmission or otherwise important document is lost, resulting in potential liability to a company in some cases.

So when using your office equipment, don’t be “that person.”

For the whole article from the Khaleej Times, see http://www.khaleejtimes.com/wknd/wknd_article.asp?xfile=/data/wkndtopstories/2012/March/wkndtopstories_March3.xml&section=wkndtopstories&col=

Xerox has recently announced a sale on some of their all-in-one printers, including the WorkCentre 3210, Phaser 3300MFP, WorkCentre 3550, and Phaser 3635MFP.

All have the ability to print, copy, scan, and fax, and start at $199.

The higher end WorkCentre 3550 and Phaser 3635MFP currently have a $50 and $100 trade in rebate on them.

For more, see Xerox’s printer sale page at http://www.direct.xerox.com/shop/xerox-mono-printer-sale

Recently McAfee formed a partnership with Xerox to help develop security systems to address threats against confidential data in the workplace, specifically on Printer, Fax, and Multifunction (Copier) platforms.

Designed for the business level platform, the result will be Xerox’s licensing of McAfee’s technology that is designed to make a layer of security between the core processor and the unit’s system software to be able to detect if malware or viruses are attempting to use system resources. Essentially, the system will use a method of “whitelisting” only certain files to run, ensuring that unknown potentially malicious files are not.

As printers, fax machines, and office copiers are increasingly becoming more and more connected and integrated with a network environment, the importance of securing all devices on a network is becoming even more critical.

This partnership is an interesting move for McAfee as it is moving from its traditional background in PC security into other products based on other hardware systems. For Xerox, it is a win to have a brand such as McAfee building and likely endorsing their security protocols.

For More on Xerox and McAfee’s Program on Printer Security:

ZDNet – Xerox, McAfee team up to develop new data security platform

ZDNet Australia – McAfee, Xerox team up on data security

CBR Online – McAfee, Xerox to collaborate to deliver new data security program

CRN – Xerox Taps McAfee for Printer Security

eWeek.com – McAfee, Xerox Partner on Printer Security

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

A good reminder on Wink News in Fort Meyers Florida that there are a number of cruise contest scams going around.

Recently in Florida, Wink News had their reporters enter into a local cruise contest to see the legitimacy of it.

The only result? a 12 minute long phone message followed by “winners” having to pay out a $100 voucher to book the trip.

Following a series of interviews, Wink News found that there have been a number of incidents with a similar program.

One of the most common scams over fax machines come in the form of cruise contests – a fax will arrive saying that someone has won a cruise, and the scam follows in similar fashion.

For more on Cruise Contest Scams in Fort Meyers Florida, see Wink News – Beware of Cruise Contests

According to the Fay Observer, to get a birthday card sent from the President to someone over 80 years old, the fastest way to do so is through fax.

The quickest way to get the message through is by fax – by sending it to 202-456-2461.

Alternatively, it can be sent through mail to White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C., 20500, or online at http://whitehouse.gov/contact.

All requests should be sent at least 3 months in advance, and Presidential greetings can be sent for events such as weddings or civil unions, a 50th, 60th, or 70th wedding anniversary, retirements after 30 years on the job, people turning 80 or older, and veterans turning 70 or older.

More on Getting a Birthday Card from the President:

Fay Observer – Live Wire: Send fax to get presidential birthday greeting

With a new effort to help citizens avoid the trip to the courthouse, Philadelphia is now letting their citizens contest parking tickets through the internet, email, fax, or regular mail.

Considered a good move by people who work irregular hours or far from courthouse facilities, similar systems have already been implemented by Boston, New York, and San Diego.

For more information on Philadelphia and Contesting Parking Tickets by Fax:

• Newsworks.org – Philly lawmakers offer plan to allow fighting traffic tickets online
• Philadelphia Parking Authority

As quoted from WINK News in Napels, Florida, Deborah Foley and Paul Lietz got a new phone line, and with it a number that was frequently misquoted by the David Lawrence Health Centre in Naples.

At first they contacted the health center and the faxes stopped, however recently they have been deluged with faxes from other health facilities trying to fax the health center, thinking that a residential number is the number they’re trying to reach.

While not as far on the “embarrassing” level as a 2004 incident involving a Canadian bank who kept faxing customer documents to a scrapyard in another country, incidents like this serve as a reminder that good organizations are quick to listen to the “odd” problems coming from the community and fix them.

Looking to fax directly from your iPhone?

There’s an app for that.

Popfax has recently released their iPhone faxing application, integrating their online faxing service with the Apple iOS platform.

Anyone can try the application for 3 days with no obligation to buy, and it’s a good way to keep tabs on communication while on the road.

For More Information:

Popfax official release on iPhone Application

International Business Times Press Release on Popfax iPhone Application

After opening their Tokyo office only a year previous, J2 Global Inc. has announced that its eFax brand has passed the 10,000 customer mark in Japan, with increasing demand.

eFax has also expanded to have iPhone and Android apps aimed at the Japanese Market.

For more on eFax’s entry and growth in Japan,

J2 Global Official Press Release

Morningstar – eFax® Passes 10,000 Customer Mark in Japan, Grows Network by 45%

AIIM, the “Global Community of Information Professionals” recently released a report on the benefits of removing paper from corporate office processes.

If anything, many of the advancements of the paperless office have moved to more printing and paperwork than less. Quoting a survey run by AIIM, 3/4 of IT professionals say that the first thing they do with PDF based invoices is print them out, with almost 1/6 of them scanning them back into the system, and 1 in 10 printing them out multiple times.

While many of these processes come from the demands of various accounting and legal departments, as opposed to the IT world, it’s important for organizations to remember that the average cost of processing each piece of paper prior to mailing it was estimated at $3.63 per form.

The full report from AIIM can be found at http://www.aiim.org/Research/Industry-Watch/Paper-Free-Capture-2012, while news stories covering the report can be found at readwriteweb.com and cmswire.com.

Canon U.S.A. Inc, recently was awarded seven Winter “Pick” awards from Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) for its imageFORMULA, imageCLASS, and imageRUNNER ADVANCE solutions.

Primarily focusing on two areas – the scanner market with “outstanding scanner” (in their own classes) for the imageFORMULA DR-M160, DR-C125, P-215, and DR-M140, and the area of energy efficiency – with the Canon imageCLASS D550 and imageRUNNER Advance C2020 copy / print / scan / fax units, the Color imageCLASS MF8380Cdw was also recognized as an “Outstanding A4 Color MFP for Small / Home Offices”.

This is a strong showing for Canon, and showcases the strength of its imaging and scanning technology, and important part of all scanners, faxes, and multifunction copier / printer / scanner / fax units.

For more information:

Official press release from Canon U.S.A. Inc

Marketwatch.com News Article on Canon’s Buyer’s Laboratory Awards

Virtual Strategy Magazine Article on Canon Buyers Laboratory Awards

While we don’t want to wade into official positions on legal issues, we feel the need to gently remind the public that faxes are generally considered a communication that has been “received”.

As we are reminded in the case of an owner of a Georgia nursing home who was accused of neglecting to maintain the facility as well as issue bounced cheques, a number of faxes (likely with a copy of the confirmation page) were sent in 2006 and at other times.

Unfortunately for the owner, saying “I didn’t get the message” is difficult when there’s a confirmation page confirming receipt of the message from the received fax machine.

For more information on the story, see the article in the Rome News-Tribune.

J2 Global Inc., owner of online faxing brands such as MyFax and eFax and others has recently announced the acquisition of UK based Zimo Communications Ltd.

Zimo’s background is in voice based services through its Numberstore product, providing non-geographic numbers and online call management tools, and was the FCS Service Provider of the Year for 2008.

For More Information on J2’s Acquisition of Zimo Communications Ltd.:

J2 Global – Official Press Release

Market Watch – J2 Global Acquires Zimo Communications Ltd. and Its Numberstore(TM) Cloud Voice Service

SocialTech.com – j2 Global Buys UK-based Voice Services Firm

The great state if Illinois has an ethics policy that employees “shall not intentionally perform any prohibited political activity during any compensated time. State employees shall not intentionally misappropriate any state property or resources by engaging in prohibited political activity for the benefit of any campaign for elective office or any political organization”

That line appeared to have been potentially crossed when WGFA radio in Watseka checked the D-1 Statements of Organization for 5 Republican candidates for the 106th House district seat to find that the former campaign treasurer for Tom Bennett, one of the republican candidates, had used state time and resources (the office fax machine) to fax in the campaign papers, a fact that was noted with the fax header information showing the time, place, and number that the fax was sent from.

Although the treasurer is no longer “active” with the campaign, and any investigation is remaining confidential until it is done being investigated, it is also unclear how this may affect Mr. Bennett’s campaign.

Overall, it serves as a good reminder to both balance political and work engagements as well as resources, but on the grand scheme of things still isn’t likely near as problematic from a security standpoint as a certain former state governor who used routinely used webmail for official state communications.

For More Information, This Story is Also Covered In:

Pontiac Daily Leader

WJBC – McCoy: Candidate has Campaign Violations

Pantagraph.com

Illinois Review

J2 Global, owner of MyFax, eFax and others, recently announced Q4 earnings as well increased their quarterly dividend to 21c from 20.5c per share.

J2 Global’s 2011 GAAP revenues climbed 29.3% to $330.2 million from 2010’s 255.4 million, while GAAP net earnings per diluted share climbed 34.3% to $2.43 from 2010’s $1.81 per share.

More On J2 Global Q4 Earnings and Quarterly Dividend

J2 Global 2011 and Q4 Earnings Report

Yahoo Finance – J2 Global Increases quarterly dividend by 2.4%

4 Traders – J2 Global Inc: J2 Global Reports Q4 and Year End 2011 Results and Provides 2012 Outlook

Reuters – J2 Global Inc Issues FY 2012 Guidance; Revenue Guidance In Line with Analysts’ Estimates

Traders Huddle – J2 Global Reports Q4 and Year End 2011 Results and Provides 2012 Outlook

For those living in the Los Angeles area, J2 Global, owner of popular online fax brands MyFax, eFax, and others, has recently posted a listing for a director of online marketing at its Los Angeles Headquarters.

See more at the J2 Global Job Posting on Linkedin

As reported by the Shopshire Star, although seeing strong sales numbers, pre-tax profit at Ricoh has declined by 2/3.

On the heels of recent financial data is the option for “redundancy,” primarily for administrative employees at their Telford, New Jersey headquarters, however it has been reported that the Dutch arm of the company has also seen layoffs.

This likely part of Ricoh’s larger plan to shrink its administrative workforce in Japan and the US by 1,600 over 2012 – it is expected that the number will be achieved as at last count the number of applicants for the voluntary program was over 2,300.

Looking at the larger picture, a certain level of administrative attrition was expected, speicifically after it’s 2009 acquisition of Ikon Office Solutions, Inc., which gave it a larger North American salesforce as well as expected redundancies in its own administrative areas.

Ricoh has recently announced a reorganization of its Imaging Systems and Digital Camera business. As well, the manufacturer has been struggling with managing production in regions that have been affected by Thailand’s floods (where production is just resuming) and Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

In a world of laser guided missiles, multi-million dollar fighter jets, and cyber-warfare, there is, apparently still a need for fax based technology in the world of warfare.

As covered by Time magazine’s article “The Navy’s Flying Fax Machine: The Way Back to the Future“, In a recent Navy contract inquiry, there has been a request for a fax machine capable of operation at 10,000 feet, as well as a number of other interesting features, such as ability to operate in a helicopter environment, tested as safe to occupants in an explosive decompression test, and of course operating with plain paper and functionality as a network printer and scanner.

While this isn’t the first time the military has required high end faxing equipment, having in the past purchased fax machines that cost $421,000 with a total price tag of $668,000 once all upgrading had been completed, or the requirement of fax paper that costs $100 a roll.

While we will never truly be told what the purpose of a helicopter based fax machine is, we can speculate. As modelling a business or an organization off of one that is highly successful in it’s own area is often one of the best ways to help an organization succeed, there is no better organization than the U.S. Military when it comes to communications as well as disaster recovery & management.

With that, there are two lessons to be learned for planning an organization’s communications and disaster recovery plans:

1. To observe that the U.S. Military, who has probably spent more time and consideration on communication technology and security, likely has decided that some messages are too important to be communicated over the internet, and that fax technology is still the best way to communicate instantaneously and keep the message “off the web”
2. That the U.S. Military, who has also spent more time preparing for the “unexpected” than any other organization on earth, has likely determined that having multiple methods of communication is the best way to ensure that communications stay intact in the event of a disruption, and that having the ability to operate off of the internet, even from a helicopter, is an important capability.