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Warning Computer Scam: Fake Telephone Calls
If you receive a call from a person reporting to be a computer technician working for Microsoft or Windows, and they tell you have a problem with your computer or that you have a virus infection hang up and DO NOT proceed.
I wrote about this in December 2011 and the calls have started again, if you receive one hang up and DO NOT proceed.
The Call is a hoax from a company probably in India that has got hold of list of English people living in France, they tell you to do lots of things and to look at lots of different files on the computer to scare you into thinking there is a problem. They say they need to access the computer remotely to fix the problem, this is where the scam cuts in, they access the computer plant a virus then want credit card details to fix the problem.
They are not associated with Microsoft or any other legitimate company, they are looking to get access to computers and or credit card details. |
Myths about cables.
Whether or not to buy an expensive HDMI cable is one of the most contentious subjects on the internet. Many web sites and magazines sing the praises of more expensive cables, heralding how they can do remarkable things, such as boosting flesh tones. The same argument is often used for computer cables such as USB, E-SATA and DVI cables.
I have always been skeptical about the benefits of more expensive cables as they all transfer digital signals, the very nature of digital is that it is binary or in normal speak ON or OFF. That means things like interference do not affect the transfer of digital information so there is absolutely no difference in a cable costing 1 euro or 100 euros – all digital cables are equal.
If the cable is analogue and used to transfer sound i.e. on your home stereo, then yes there is a small benefit from buying better cables, or cables with gold connectors.
Shop online its cheaper (Amazon is a good place) and do not be taken in by a shop assistant telling you their 79 euro HDMI cable is the only one your TV will use or it will make your HD picture better – its not true. There are different versions of HDMI (1.0 to 1.4) so you should look for version 1.4.
Hacked web sites and stolen passwords.
As many of you might have read in the news or seen on TV, two very well-known web sites Linkedin and Lastfm were hacked and users passwords stolen.
Many people have reported getting email messages from Linkedin.com saying there account is at risk and they should change their password. However many people receiving these messages have never signed up, if you are one of these people just delete the message. If you try to reset the password then you could be signing up for anything – a linkedin account, spam or simply giving data to a hacker.
Creating a secure password is simple, NEVER use a single word, like a name, a football team or your favourite colour as its extremely easy for somebody to guess/hack. It's very easy to make a secure password simply by adding a number or a symbol this makes the password extremely hard.
Example: (this is only an example please do not use the word password)
password (easy to guess),
passw0rd (in this example the o has been substituted for a zero),
pas$word (in this example an s has been substituted for a dollar symbol),
pas$w0rd (using a combination of both makes for an extremely secure password that no one is going to guess or hack.)
There is an ever increasing risk of passwords that are used online being hacked, the most usual form of hacking is a brute force attack in other words a hacker keeps trying combinations of different letters until they manage to find the password, by substituting numbers and symbols you make this process of hacking almost impossible.