Due to that fact that most of the world’s households have at least one computer a great many people have been targeted by computer scams in recent years. In fact, they have cost the public over a billion dollars in 2014. They can come in many forms and range from the obvious to very sophisticated scams.
A lot of these come in the form of bogus emails. There are messages from someone pretending to be a friend or family member in need of money. Usually these are caused by email accounts with weak passwords that allow hackers to access ones email account and contact list. Also there are scam emails that pretend they are from your financial institution looking for you to enter your debit card number and pin number to “verify” this information. Be aware that financial institutions and businesses will never ask you for this information via email.
A new form of computer scam has been the cold call from someone pretending to be a computer technician claiming that your computer is full of viruses. They typically prey on the public’s lack of understanding and coerce the user to allow them remote access to their computer. Once inside they typically generate bogus screens claiming to be viruses and demand money to “clean” them. A lot of times they will secretly setup a password on the computer so that if a user disconnects the phone or refuses to play them money they will be unable to log into their computer.
As these computer scams become more and more prevalent, the public needs to be very aware when online or when someone contacts them for anything. Never give personal information out unless you are certain who it is going to and never allow anyone you do not know access to your computer.
Avoiding Computer Scams
December 1, 2015 by admin • News •
Due to that fact that most of the world’s households have at least one computer a great many people have been targeted by computer scams in recent years. In fact, they have cost the public over a billion dollars in 2014. They can come in many forms and range from the obvious to very sophisticated scams.
A lot of these come in the form of bogus emails. There are messages from someone pretending to be a friend or family member in need of money. Usually these are caused by email accounts with weak passwords that allow hackers to access ones email account and contact list. Also there are scam emails that pretend they are from your financial institution looking for you to enter your debit card number and pin number to “verify” this information. Be aware that financial institutions and businesses will never ask you for this information via email.
A new form of computer scam has been the cold call from someone pretending to be a computer technician claiming that your computer is full of viruses. They typically prey on the public’s lack of understanding and coerce the user to allow them remote access to their computer. Once inside they typically generate bogus screens claiming to be viruses and demand money to “clean” them. A lot of times they will secretly setup a password on the computer so that if a user disconnects the phone or refuses to play them money they will be unable to log into their computer.
As these computer scams become more and more prevalent, the public needs to be very aware when online or when someone contacts them for anything. Never give personal information out unless you are certain who it is going to and never allow anyone you do not know access to your computer.