Fraudsters are trying to obtain credit card numbers from CompuServe members and at least one Irish member has fallen victim to the scam, writes Gerry Byrne. The fraudsters send official-looking email to members, possibly choosing numberic IDs close to those used for trial memberships in order to reach naive users. They claim to be CompuServe staff correcting a billing problem and ask for name, address and credit card details - the information needed for credit card fraud. This is a typical Internet scam, but using a CompuServe email address lends credibility to the message. CompuServe is aware of the problem and says it is trying to track down the culprits. It seeks credit card information on signup screens, but not by email. Anyone who has answered such an email is advised to change their cards.
Home And Away: Ireland On-Line has introduced international roaming for Irish ISP customers, who will now be able to access IOL in all the leading international business destinations at local node rates. The Flyer Service package also includes UK and US phone modem adapters, membership card and connection booklet, all the necessary software and one hour's free roaming per month. Access is through Infonet and carries a £50 set up fee and £25 monthly charge.
Money Where Mouth Is: Oracle will pay $1 million to the first person - including anyone at Microsoft - who can demonstrate that SQL Server 7.0 is not 100 times slower than the Oracle database when running a standard business query against a large database. The challenge (details are at www.oracle.com/challenge) pits Oracle8i against Microsoft's new SQL Server 7.0 database and is based on a single database query: "How much of last year's revenue was shipped nationally vs. internationally?" Meanwhile, Oracle has declared its support for XML and plans to integrate it into its Internet platform to facilitate the integration of information stored in databases.
Case Stays Open: Microsoft is to ask for a dismissal of the ongoing US government antitrust suit against it in the wake of last week's announcement that AOL is to acquire Netscape. Microsoft vice-president for corporate affairs Bill Neukom said he would move for dismissal once the cross-examination of government witnesses was completed. Government antitrust officials rejected the suggestion.
Sun's Orbit: America Online and Sun Microsystems have entered into a strategic alliance to accelerate the growth of e-commerce, and to use Sun's Java to develop selected Internet devices that will help Internet users access AOL.
Sap's Ready To Run: Sun Has announced a new Unix package for the SAP Ready-to-Run R/3 program, offering pre-installed, pre-configured software which gives customers in the middle market a pre-configured SAP R/3 setup for streamlined implementation. It says this also reduces the operational costs of SAP R/3 with tools to automate administration.
No Point: PointCast, the pioneer of push technology, is to pull the plug on its service for the Macintosh at the end of the year. "We're focusing our efforts on the PC client because it represents almost 99 per cent of our viewer base," PointCast said.
In Brief...John McGowan is to be the new General Manager of Intel Ireland following the retirement of Frank McCabe. . .The Censorware Project welcomed last week's decision that the use of blocking software in public libraries in the US was unconstitutional. . . Norkom Technologies, a consultancy and research company specialising in business intelligence was formally launched in Dublin last week. . . IT Solutions received awards from the UK publication Call Centre Focus and the Irish Call Centre Awards selection committee for its new call centre simulator software product - Simone. . . Software Paths, the business and IT training consultancy, has been appointed as a Lotus Business Partner in Ireland. . .Dublin-based management consultants, Invest-Tech Limited have released Exl-Plan, a new range of software which compiles pro-forma financial projections for business plans, strategy development and budgets.