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There is a new wave of email “phishing” that is showing up in email mailboxes this spring, unscrupulous scammers are now targeting the American public with email claiming to be from the IRS.

The ingenious fraudsters’ aim is to collect your Social Security number, credit card account information and banking account information. The emails, which look authentic complete with the IRS logo and privacy policy, lure people into providing this information by notifying them of an audit or offering them access to a link to collect their refund. Additionally, the web site that appears bears a striking resemblance to the official IRS web site (even the font type matches) and when people click home, it actually takes them to www.IRS.gov (the real IRS web site).

However, there are some flaws to these thief’s attempts to secure people’s private and personal information. This is what the public should know: In one of the scam emails in the browser or address bar at the top of the page it reads: http://tzk.kozle.pl and the information that is requested, Social Security number, credit card number, banking information (where the refund goes).

The public needs to know that the IRS generally does not communicate with them via email.

“We do not communicate with taxpayers via email. We may send you a letter, we may call you, but we do not send out email,” stated IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis.

In recent weeks up to one hundred complaints a day are reported regarding email scams and the IRS has found twelve web sites operated in eighteen different countries committing this type of fraud or other types of IRS related fraud.

If you get an email from the IRS and if you doubt its authenticity, it is best to call the IRS and verify that they did, in fact send the correspondence. Call the IRS at 1-(800) 829-1040 ask confirm if they are trying to contact you. To report a fraudulent or suspicious email claiming to be from the IRS, call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1 (800) 366-4484. Furthermore, report any cases of identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

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It is now the turn of mobile broadband operators to voice their protests against the proposed net neutrality regulations. The regulations have been facing heavy criticism and heated opposition from broadband providers across the country ever since they were initiated. With recent changes in the outlined proposal, the regulations may be far worse news for mobile operators than they initially thought.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski hopes to put the principles outlined 4 years ago into practice soon. However, some changes in the outlined plans, which will affect mobile broadband providers, are causing an uproar among these operators. The new regulations will encompass mobile and fixed line broadband services and will treat both as equals. Transparency will be required by both in network management systems.

The net neutrality provisions aim at ensuring fair and free information and data flow via internet. With enormous controlling power in their hands, the ISPs can selectively filter data through their channels. Supporters of net neutrality are convinced of the need for these regulations that can prevent this from happening. However, providers have been against such regulations right from the onset because of several operational issues these can cause.

Mobile operators point out that formalization of such restrictions will curb new interests in the industry, and that fresh investments and innovative ideas will be discouraged by severely restrictive market conditions. Further, there is limited broadcast spectrum available for providers to use. Hampered by regulations, there will be a further loss in the full utilisation of the spectrum.

Mobile operators feel that regulations will only hinder free market and competition in the industry, which are by themselves enough to ensure fair practices among providers.

However, if you’re unsure of mobile broadband, or simply want to learn more, refer to a dedicated mobile broadband website for information and advice, and offers such as pay as you go mobile broadband. On Mobile Broadband Genie you’ll find all you need to know on mobile broadband, dongles and laptop packages on their comparison table of mobile broadband service providers.

Hong Kong based Chinese-Canadian businessman Richard Li is the current chairman and executive director of Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group and PCCW Limited. He is the youngest son of Asian tycoon Li Ka-shing, and like his father, Richard Li is one of the Hong Kong’s most innovative and successful entrepreneurs. Due to his sheer perseverance, Richard Li was able to contribute greatly to the advancement of telecommunications in Asia over the past 20 years. In addition, Richard Li was also able to play an integral role in the fight against SARS in Asia. He and his team were able to ease the space decay between quarantined patients, medical volunteers, and families by offering help in terms of communication.

Moreover, Richard Li generously shared some of his experiences as a student to the batch 2008 graduates during Menlo College’s commencement ceremony. The school, in turn, expressed it gratitude in being given the honor to have the communications magnate take part in the activity.

During his commencement speech, Richard Li spoke about Madonna and how she continuously re-invents herself, thereby ensuring her popularity and success. He deems that the singer’s stature in the music industry is due to her passion for innovation, which, he believes, is also a relevant factor for success in the business world.

RSS subscriptions are a new kind of Web bookmarking that guarantee a return visit. That’s exactly why I think RSS conversion technique is an important topic to discuss. What makes visitors subscribe, how can you make it easier? Are all good questions to consider when offering an RSS feed. Below are a few guidelines I created from my personal experience:

1. Create a “perfect match” content

90% of my search engine traffic is driven through individual posts rather than my home page. Sometimes this can be viewed as a downside to RSS conversions efforts as your best posts are not visible to the surfer. As a blogger, you should make the best of this situation and write clean content with a “perfect match” mentality. “Perfect match” posts are ideal results that surfers might find via search engines. They exhibit 100% relevancy to a search query and serve as a perfect reason to subscribe to your RSS.

2. Create targeted content

Most RSS subscriptions are triggered by content that is relevant to a surfer’s niche and one that is updated frequently. You should make it your goal to select a target audience and create compelling and useful content that can be treated as news or tips and one that can be often returned to.

3. Design an eye-candy of a blog

I often find myself browsing thorough web and bookmarking beautiful web designs so I can return and admire them later. Often I notice that content of a site doesn’t really matter to me as long as it offers good design and usability. When designing your site to target RSS subscribers, you should:

• Create a warm color scheme.
• Clearly distinguish content from the background and/or surroundings
• Use CSS for positioning and styling (you can later change anything you want on the fly)

When picking a blog design, I would stay away from pre-made templates for the following reasons:

• Every one knows a classic template when he sees one
• Using pre-made templates is unprofessional if you are a legitimate institution (Matt Cutts and everyone who is busy is an exception to this rule)
• You don’t have a flexibility that comes you’re your own design

A website is a work of art that can be either admired or dismissed. I strongly believe that a way site is designed influences all types of conversions, as well as RSS conversions.

4. Make your feed visible

I once came upon a site that was extremely well designed and served perfect content. Unfortunately I spent too long looking of a “subscribe to my feed” type of link. I finally found it in the footer mixed in with a copyright notice. When placing a feed link, keep the following in mind:

• Place a link towards the top (few visitors read beyond the fold)
• Indicate what RSS is (you should always dumb-proof your site)
• Place an optional link toward the buttom (for those that read your article beginning to end)
• Distinguish your link from the background

Visibility is a number one approach to conversion.

5. Provide a direct subscription via popular aggregators

Before placing a link on a page, you should research which RSS aggregators are most widely used. Currently I believe that the big three are Bloglines, My Yahoo, and Google reader. This will change over time, but a good way of keeping track of reader popularity is through Feedburner as it allows you to observe circulation of each feed via any RSS aggregator.

6. Pick your feed manager

You have an option of either providing a direct link to your XML file or use service such as Feedburner to manipulate your feed. I prefer Feedburner as it allows my visitors to subscribe using multiple aggregators so I don’t have to worry about popularity of each. It also comes equipped with a few goodies to spice up your feed as well.

7. Submit your feed to RSS directories

I believe it is always useful to make your feed visible on the Web. There are quite a few search engines that spider your feed and deliver search results based exclusively on it’s content (take Google’s Blogsearch for example). To have spiders crawl your feed inside and out, submit it to the following directories:

• Syndic8
• Feedster
• BlogDex
• PopDex
• Blogz
• and many many more

Please keep in mind that six steps outlined above are to be treated as a single approach to increasing RSS conversions. If I had to pick only one out, I would most definitely go with building targeted content. This option will bring you the most relevant traffic over time and with relevancy come conversions. In this game, you must by either extremely pro-active or patient as results vary over time. One thing is for sure: content and visibility still remain top reasons behind any given conversion.

Ignat Drozdov is an SEO working in Washington DC, specializing in new business launches in Europe and Asia. Ignat is also an editor of BlogSEO.