Remember that cool blue hippo mascot for the company, appropriately named, BlueHippo? Whether you remember it or not, many people got burned. So, just how sleazy could a cool blue hippo get? Really, really, sleazy.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has had it with the company, which offers computers on layaway to those too poor to buy one outright. Buyers put up $99 to $124 in down payments, then make regular payments of $36 to $88. After 13 of these payments, the company says it will send out a computer, while the payments continue until the balance is paid off.

Unfortunately for the friendly folks at BlueHippo, the FTC smelled a scam. People were simply not getting machines, and BlueHippo’s “cancelation policy” required people to send in prepaid money orders first even if their account had enough money to cover the necessary fees–not allowed under FTC consumer protection rules. In 2008, BlueHippo settled with the agency. Under the terms of the deal, BlueHippo would pay up to $5 million into a “consumer restitution pool” to reimburse those who had been burned.

At the time, BlueHippo thought this was a great idea. “The FTC staff was fair and professional, and after months of hard work we have fashioned a deal that satisfies all parties,” said Andrew Campbell, General Counsel of BlueHippo, last year. “We are very excited about this settlement. The FTC is our only national regulator and the country’s most important consumer advocate. We’ve made tremendous progress growing our systems and programs since 2006 and we are very optimistic about our future.”

So, more than a year later, how did the plan turn out? Well, when the FTC files court documents in which it accuses a company of being a “money pit,” it’s safe to say that the government isn’t entirely pleased.
Inside the “money pit”

According to the FTC, the company’s brazen business model continued without interruption after the 2008 settlement. “In fact, in the year following entry of this Court’s Stipulated Final Judgment and Order for a Permanent Injunction, BlueHippo financed—at most—a single computer to the over 35,000 consumers who placed orders for computers that could be financed during the period,” the FTC told a court (PDF) yesterday. In the meantime, the company took in a cool $15 million in payments from consumers, who don’t appear to have received anything in return.

Here’s how bad the situation was: according to an FTC footnote buried in the agency’s new court filing, “the shipment of this [one] computer was most likely in error, rather than a computer that BlueHippo intended to finance.”
Would you buy a computer on layaway from this hippo?

In April 2009, the FTC went back to the court and complained about the continued problematic behavior, seeking further penalties. BlueHippo suddenly started shipping computers. It had moved one machine between April 2008 and April 2009, but after the court filing, it suddenly ordered 4,056 computers.

But this didn’t impress the FTC, either, which points out that 2,594 of the customers who received machines had not even met BlueHippo’s financing criteria. In other words, the glut of orders only showed that BlueHippo’s “haphazard, litigation-driven efforts were not truly reflective of their business practices, but rather an effort to stave off further law enforcement action.”

BlueHippo also failed to do basic things like file the FTC reports it had agreed to as part of the agency’s oversight. In April 2009, a federal judge ordered the company to pay $2,500 a day until the report was filed; it took the company five days, resulting in a $12,500 sanction. But the report didn’t please the judge, who took a look at it and then “imposed an additional daily sanction of $5,000 per day… for BlueHippo’s continued failure to provide responsive information to the FTC.” After another $20,000 in fines, BlueHippo finally turned over the detailed information in question.
Seeing red

The FTC has had it, and today went back to court asking a federal judge for a contempt order against BlueHippo.

“Years of broken promises by BlueHippo have left consumers seeing red,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a statement. “We’re putting companies like this on notice: If you mistreat consumers and thumb your nose at the courts, we will hold you accountable.”

Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.

Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses — the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it’s your reputation that’s stolen.

Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they’ll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites.

Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.

What is this world coming to?

There are growing number of webmasters today that don’t value the significance of backing up their website for both their files and databases. Most of them think that they no longer need to backup their files and left it to chance and good luck. This move poses a great risk to their website.

I know most of you guys can relate to this. I sometimes forgot to backup my own files but now I always allot a time to backup my files. Read this article to know how important it is to back up your files which can save you an arm later.

One reason why there are many webmasters doesn’t back up their Website because they think that it doesn’t pose any instant threat to them. That is until something wrong happened in their hosting server or other unforeseen situations. Most webmasters set this task aside, delayed and sometime consider it as a bother especially if they are busy.

Server breakdowns, hard disk failures, hacking and DDOS attacks are some unexpected accidents that can happen to your website which can result to data wipe out. If that happens and you don’t have any backup of your website then you need to start back from scratch and build your website once again.

Here are 10 Backup Tips that a website owner or webmaster should you should not live without. To make it easier to remember you can summarize it to the word “E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L”

EXPECT – You should always remember that web hosting provider may encounter problems anytime of the day. Even the biggest and the most well known company out there will surely experience some kind of problem which may result to missing files and the like. Your diligence to backup up your files always will pay off once your hosting provider experiences such problem. Usually bad things happen when you least expect it so you should always be ready. This is to minimize also any kind of problem which may arise once you’re hosting company experience such problem.

SCHEDULE – Time management is the key. You can schedule your time so that your backup process will not compete with your busy schedules. Check your schedule and choose a time when it will be most convenient for you to back up. It will be easier for you to backup your files especially when there is no conflict with your busy schedules.

STICK with it – Make it a habit to back up your files. You should stick with your schedule so that you won’t miss the time you set to back up your files. Be patient and diligent with the time you set in your schedule. If something important comes up that you need to attend to then reschedule your task that will work with your schedule. I know how difficult it is to stick with your schedule especially if you are always busy and it really takes a lot of discipline on your side to make it work. Once you get the hang of it, you will not worry always what will happen on your online data every time.

EVALUATE – You can evaluate your backup by simply testing it to another system. A good backup can be easily restored in another system. It can help you determine if the data that you are keeping are what you should really keep.

NO CONTENTMENT– From time to time, you may slip up to not to back up your file because of forgetting it or intentionally missing it. You should not make it into a hobby because you do not want to loose all those important data just because you choose to skip it one time for some unimportant matter.

TRASH – Know which files you need to keep and which one do not. A good rule is, if a file is sitting in your computer or website for more than 5 years without even viewing it in that span of time probably you no longer need it. One important reason why you need to clean and delete those that is no longer important is to make your backup process as short and as efficient as possible. Not only that it can save you valuable resources but it can also save you time backing up your files.

INTUITION – Believe that what you are doing is for a greater purpose. Your backup will surely put a smile on your face when the worst of times comes because you that you didn’t lost your most important files.

AUTOMATE – There are available software and applications today that can make your task easier by automatically backup your files for you. All you need to do is to find one that works with what you need. You should take advantage of existing software and technologies to help you backup or restore your files quickly, safely and more efficient.

LIBERATE – When you frequently back up your files you are freeing yourself from all the worries and problems from unexpected situations. You can feel at ease that you have safe copy of your files somewhere and all you need is to restore it if something goes wrong.