Another Facebook related scam. If you receive an email claiming you have been tagged in a photo on Facebook don’t click any links. The link could take you to a site that infects you with malware. Some of the emails have “Faceboook” spelled with 3 o’s.
I personally received one of these emails last week. When I hovered over the link it was to some site not remotely connected to Facebook so I deleted the email.
A new Facebook scam exploits your desire to get a free pair of Oakleys sunglasses. Don’t just blindly click on suspicious links. Remember: if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.
I am not sure what caused me to write about this today. This has been going on since the beginning of the home computer revolution.
I was reading an article about the latest Ubuntu that some pundit had installed on his mother-in-law’s computer. What he said in the article was that she had gotten malware and the best solution was to “nuke it from orbit”. In other words, format the hard drive and start over from scratch.
This is typical in the pundit circles. I assume this is because they don’t actually fix computers for a living. They just write about computers or write about fixing them. Their conclusions are based on a very small sample of situations and experience, at least when compared to someone who makes their living repairing computers every day.
Nuking from orbit is NOT the best option. I can clean up the worst infected computers usually in an hour or less. That is less time than it takes to format and re-install Windows plus all the other software that was on there before. Nuking from orbit is the lazy man’s solution to a malware/virus infection.
So if you should get infected with malware or a virus never let someone tell you your only decent option is to format and re-install. It’s not. Competent computer repair technicians can clean up systems without using that option quite nicely thank you.
As an aside, keep in mind that “pundits” in any industry have a very limited view of the real world. Their sample size is very small. If you want to know how good something is ask the people who make a living repairing whatever it is you are wondering about.
So it appears THE way to spread malware now is by email attachments like the ones I have been posting about. I received another one today about the Delta Airlines tickets I supposedly purchased. The attachment was a zip file and the email said there was a document attached. The zip file had an executable in it that would most likely take you to a site that would infect you. It might infect you directly but I wasn’t going to try it. 😛
Got yet another email. This time it purports to be from UPS and even has a UPS.COM email address. It says they missed a delivery and to click the link to find out about it. Same HTML link that takes you to a web site that infects you.
Well, I just got one of those emails I have been warning you about. It came from a gmail address but tells me to open the attachment (which is actually just a link to a web page) to get information about my order from Intuit. They also have a 900 number to call for questions about the order for only $3.69 a minute! Such a deal. Once again, don’t click on links in emails.
Another scam going around. You get an email from ShopBop to confirm an order you didn’t actually place. It provides a link to check the order which you would be inclined to do to find out what’s going on. The link actually takes you to a site that installs malware on your computer.
This type of email could be set up to look like it came from ANY on-line sales site like Amazon or Buy.com. The bottom line is you should NEVER click on a link in ANY email.
If you want to check order status or even to see if you actually DO have an order with someone, just go to their website manually by typing in their site name (amazon.com, buy.com, shopbop.com) in your browser address bar. If you don’t have a login for the site you couldn’t possibly have placed an order.
I can do remote computer diagnosis and repair now for as little as $20.
New scam going around. Someone calls you saying they are from Microsoft or some other well known computer/software company. They tell you your computer is badly infected and needs to be cleaned and then ask you if you want them to clean it for you. This is a scam and you should hang up immediately!
There is no way anyone can see what’s on your computer remotely unless you run a special program first and then give them permission to access it. These people will try to sell you some useless software and a support contract and probably try to steal info from your system.
Trying out the Windows 8 preview. I HATE it. This could be worse than Vista. Well, unless you use it on a tablet or other touch-screen-enabled device. Then it’s pretty good. On a desktop or laptop it’s horrid though.
5 months later ….. yeah, still hate Windows 8. Windows 8.1 won’t fix anything either. Guess I’ll wait till Windows 9 comes out and see how that is, if Microsoft is still around that is.