-
Be sure to checkout “Tips & Tricks” Dear Guest Visitor → Once you register and log-in:
This forum does not automatically send notices of new content. So if, for example, you would like to be notified by mail when Steve posts an update to his blog (or of any other specific activity anywhere else), you need to tell the system what to “Watch” for you. Please checkout the “Tips & Tricks” page for details about that... and other tips!
/Steve. -
Larger Font Styles Guest:
Just a quick heads-up that I've implemented larger font variants of our forum's light and dark page styles. You can select the style of your choice by scrolling to the footer of any page here. This might be more comfortable (it is for me) for those with high-resolution displays where the standard fonts, while permitting a lot of text to fit on the screen, might be uncomfortably small.
(You can permanently dismiss this notification with the “X” at the upper right.)
/Steve.
I attended a lecture by a magician that included information about scams (three card Monty in particular). He stressed that street scammers are different from magicians. They are not out to fool you; they are out to steal your money by whatever means possible and they don't care about you.
James Randi: Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they're going to fool you, and then they do it.
A great memorable quote from the An Honest Liar movie on Quotes.net - James Randi: Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they're going to fool you, and then they do it.
www.quotes.net
When I got the call I asked him which of my computers had the problem. He said it was my Windows computer. I said, "Good. I have three of them what is the computer name." He said it was the one I was using currently. I told him I was using all three and again asked him for the computer name. He gave up.
@Dave I saw James Randi perform live in New Jersey when I was a teenager. An Honest Liar is on my list of movies to watch. If you are interested in magic there is a great documentary about how magicians see the world (no real performances in it though) call Our Magic on Vimeo. Send me a DM if you are interested in viewing it.
Thanks! I'll add it to my list of things to watch one day. Alas, that list never get smaller. https://www.amazon.com/Our-Magic-Johnny-Thompson/dp/B00W8EV3VG https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ourmagic
LOL!! I can't believe I never thought about asking "which computer"! There are 4 - 8 running up to 3 different os's at any given time.
That would just get the scammer going "gold mine"!!
It would be funny to audit them to see how skilled they are at adapting. "I haven't been able to upgrade my Windows 3.1 machine... did you call to help?"
How about this? I don't answer ANY phone calls for which I don't know the caller ID. If it's a scammer and they're stupid enough to leave a message, I wish a silent curse on them as I delete it.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. Ron
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
RonAs we already know, there's nothing actually on the system. They merely aim to trick people into thinking there is. They're only trained on the most prevalent O/S. If enough people switch to whatever O/S and platform, more of the scammers will start to train on it.
There's an old IT adage that goes something like, the largest and most exploitable security hole in any system is.... you got it, the user. It is of course, an *old* (pre-Snowden) adage. But it's why IT departments have shifted much of their focus toward training their users. No system is particularly more or less immune to the style of attack.
BTW, place yourself in the shoes of the person who's coding the logic for the automated dialers. What metrics would trigger the dialer to favor a particular group of numbers? Want less calls, stop doing that. (BTW I do intend to switch cell carriers just to get away from these calls.) Also, many of them are overseas and could give two dead flies about our legal system.
There's an old IT adage that goes something like, the largest and most exploitable security hole in any system is.... you got it, the user. It is of course, an *old* (pre-Snowden) adage. But it's why IT departments have shifted much of their focus toward training their users. No system is particularly more or less immune to the style of attack.
BTW, place yourself in the shoes of the person who's coding the logic for the automated dialers. What metrics would trigger the dialer to favor a particular group of numbers? Want less calls, stop doing that. (BTW I do intend to switch cell carriers just to get away from these calls.) Also, many of them are overseas and could give two dead flies about our legal system.
Clients often ask - What's the best antivirus for my computer? My answer... You! Most folks pause for a few moments as the light bulb brightens (along with additional discussion and education and things to consider in selecting a product to the question as asked).
What's the second best antivirus for your computer?
My answer: a tie between "your self-control" (knowing to say no to almost everything offered) and "a defense in depth." (Running untrusted code in a sandbox, for example.)
Regarding the scam calls, I have found that many of them detect you saying "Hello" & transfer you to a real operator. If you don't recognise the number, pick up & stay silent, the call is terminated. The only downside to this is if it is a caller you do not have the number stored, they will think you are a bit odd, as they have to say "Hello"! Also I use the answering machine to listen to answer the call and see if you have a genuine call and pick up.
I've also had some fun with the scammer-telemarketers. They do get a smidge upset when I keep them on the phone for a long time. ;-)). Some years ago I signed up for a service called Jolly Roger (https://jollyrogertelephone.com ) for $12 a year where they play an automated robot voice to those folks.
This guy really has a sense of humor. They have some great samples to listen to on the website. It's so much fun to listen to some of the calls. Bonus: while they mire those scammers on their system they can't bother others.
This guy really has a sense of humor. They have some great samples to listen to on the website. It's so much fun to listen to some of the calls. Bonus: while they mire those scammers on their system they can't bother others.
I use a service called FixMe.IT. It costs about $30 per month, and it works great. No special setup stuff to do. I've got a page on my web site that links to a customized FixMe.IT page with my logo and everything on it. The customer downloads a small file and runs it, and it gives them a client ID. They give that to me and I can then use it to connect to their computer. It also has the option of installing a persistent client on the pc which I can then use to access that computer whether there is anyone home or not. (It of course requires the customer to give permission by clicking a button, so it's not like I could just install it on whatever I want without customer consent.) There's no special firewall stuff to do and it's really easy to get started. Check out www.techinline.com.
When I started using TeamViewer one of the things I liked about it was that it did not start itself automatically on Windows PCs. Over time, I grew to dislike TeamViewer and gave up on it. The fatal blow (not the only issue) for me was when a remote machine had an old version of the software and TV refused to connect to it for that reason.
Over the past years I have tried most of all and have found ConnectWise to be the best snd most powerful of all. I prefer to use the old from us but they push the cloud-based.
MSP Technology | IT Management Software | ConnectWise
ConnectWise empowers technology service providers to reach their goals faster with award-winning MSP technology and IT management software suite. Get a free trial.
www.connectwise.com
Brian
@MichaelRSorg I know what you mean. I've had the same experience and have had to walk the remote person through an upgrade. I usually use TeamViewer Quick Support rather than the full package on their end so it's not quite as bad. It's a bit of a pain, but I can see some logic in wanting all security updates to be included on both ends.
May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast.
Ron