OneGuyFromBarlick

There is a Government scam website in Aus, surely you have one too. On this site they tell you of the current scams and ask you to lodge complaints.

Pluggy wrote:Yep, If you've got 7, stay with it, at least for the time being. You've until July next year to upgrade.

Wish I'd known this before I upgraded, I've already decided it was a mistake. See previous post.

Yes but this call was a bit more sophisticated than most Liz..... The site they mentioned is banned by Firefox but they will be quicker off the mark than a government website.

We have one Liz but it's only concerned with scams based on mimicking government agency web sites such as those for tax returns and passport renewal. LINK

Stanley, like I've said before the scammers are getting ever more sophisticated. It's still easy to spot the bum ones but the clever ones less so. It's not helped when some of the organisations that provide us with services and products keep using call centres based in distant places - it makes it harder to distinguish the scams if you communicate with them.

A step too far? I'd say so, but at least they tell you what they're up to, and it's effectively free these days.

From Spotify.

The policy says: “With your permission, we may collect information stored on your mobile device, such as contacts, photos, or media files.” It adds: “Depending on the type of device that you use to interact with the service and your settings, we may also collect information about your location based on, for example, your phone’s GPS location or other forms of locating mobile devices.” The new terms of service concludes by telling users: “If you don’t agree with the terms of this privacy policy, then please don’t use the service.”

The connection hasn't gone dead yet....
I got two more calls from the same outfit during the half hour after I posted.....

Stanley, by talking to them you've given the impression you might be a soft touch. Better to always assume if they phone you they are out to scam you. If a caller can't convince me in the first 20 seconds they get cut off. Never give them a chance to get a foot in the door.

That was the trouble Peter, they hooked me as soon as they spoke! It was very clever....
Read this,

“There is a Providence that protects drunken men and idiots”

I wasn't drunk yesterday and so I must have (temporarily?) been an idiot. One thing is certain, I was lucky so I am going to confess all in the hope that you will take notice and avoid the same mistake.
I got a call from Talktalk about my internet connection. They said that the server had reported that my system had been hacked and was feeding faults back to the server which could damage others and so they were going to sever my connection until this had been rectified. Obviously they knew I was a Talk talk customer, had my telephone number and also seemed to be explaining some glitches I have been experiencing lately in my connection.
This was where I made my first mistake because I allowed the call to proceed. What I should have done was thank them for alerting me, rung off and confirmed by calling the Talktalk Technical Support people myself.
They then told me that the hack was coming from the US, they had identified it and could cure the problem online. That was the come-on, they had used the fear of disconnection to disturb me and offered me a solution, I shame to say I fell for it.
They asked me to press Windows key-R on my keyboard but I told them that was no use as I wasn't running Windows so they said that was no problem as it could be done via my browser. I opened Firefox and they asked me to type in scs330.com and open the site. Firefox refused to do it and said it was a suspect download site for malware.
That brought me back to reality and when the next thing I was asked was to pay £3 for the service and refused to detail how I was to do this I told them I suspected they were a phishing scam and rang off.

I talked to a genuine lady from Talktalk later and she told me I had been 'very lucky'. She knew all about the scam, which is a new one, because I was the second client she had spoken to yesterday about this. The first one was on a windows system and typing in scs330.com had unleashed a programme that stole all his data and terminated his connection. When he tried to restart he was locked out of his system. (He did all his banking online....)
This is the aim of the scam, to take control of your data and attempt to empty your accounts. If this fails the secondary target is to get you to pay £3 by credit card and so get the card details, again the account would be emptied.
So, there you are, that was my stupidity. What saved me was the fact I was on Linux so the Widows route didn't work. Then Firefox had saved me because it has up to date security. Then belatedly my brain kicked in and saved me from the old fashioned credit card scam.
I am so ashamed to have been conned like this, I am grateful to Firefox and I am so lucky to have got away with the encounter. Take note and don't get sucked in yourselves. Believe me they were very plausible and hit all the right buttons, I am not normally so gullible....

On a separate matter.... I think I have found out what has been causing some of my problems with the site of late. Can you remember me complaining that if you were partially sighted and used Ctrl-+ to increase text size of the screen many online forms didn't work properly? Now I can see well I have reset the text size to the default setting and I think that most, if not all, of my problems have gone away. As simple as that so far! Try it yourselves and see what happens and you'll realise why I was getting so frustrated.....

Don't be ashamed Stanley, they are getting very clever these days. Mind you, even in the late 1980s we were caught out by a sophisticated distraction scam in Amsterdam and had our passports, money, car keys etc stolen. Until then we would have always said we couldn't be scammed like that, we wouldn't fall for it. It was operated by a clever gang and the police couldn't catch them even though lost of tourists were being hit by the thieves. It's the same with people who think they'd never fall victim to a pickpocket - they don't realise how skilled they are. With the present situation we have to be sceptical about any phone call, email or text message.

One thing is certain Peter, I was aware before but am much more so now!

Stanley wrote:Obviously they knew I was a Talk talk customer, had my telephone number and also seemed to be explaining some glitches I have been experiencing lately in my connection.

If you think about it further, all they needed was your name and phone number from a directory. They were probably ringing large numbers of people at random and saying they were from Talktalk which probably has millions of subscribers so many of the folk they phone will be targets. You self-selected by confirming for them that you were with Talktalk, not necessarily by saying as much but simply by going along with them at first. The glitches they mentioned will be quite common to a lot of people and they might even have picked up on some that are specific to Talktalk subscribers. They might make thousands of phone calls with only a few successes but the potential profit for them is immense.

Remember my close shave with the `broken a leg' text message? It purported to come from a common first name and would have been sent out to thousands of phones...but I happened to have a close relative with that common name and I was stressed at the time and more vulnerable.

That's where they are so clever..... They find a lure that attracts you immediately. "Your internet connection will be severed today" will get most people going......
All running far better since I brought my page size down a bit. I have the router for fibre and can connect it next Friday. I shall see if connectivity with the server improves after that before doing anything else.

The site is staggering a bit this morning, it won't let me post images but keeps coming up with an error message 'no file name'. I've PMed Mr Fix It (Ian).....
Later at 06:30, cancel that, I tried again and the site has healed itself.... I told you it was staggering!

I suspect one and one are backing the server up in the wee hours Stanley. Make a note of what time of day you have problems. If its during 'normal' hours (ie not at 3-5 AM) It may indicate something else wrong.

Could be true Pluggy. I shall take note.....
Mind you, if all goes well with the change over to fibre today I shall be working under different conditions.....
I came back in as usual at dinnertime to post Shed matters and couldn't get an internet connection. I tried all the usual things but had no joy and decided that perhaps I had been changed over to fibre and my old router didn't like it. So I pulled the old router out and installed the new and god bless us it connected straight away. I checked the speed and straight off I have an 11second ping, 37.5mps down and 1.85 up. Just what they promised and it's not fine tuned itself yet. It does make a difference..... Very happy. All I need to see now is that my TV is talking to it, I'll try it tonight.

Stanley wrote:Could be true Pluggy. I shall take note.....
Mind you, if all goes well with the change over to fibre today I shall be working under different conditions.....

You may be under different conditions but if the server is backing up...

You could be right Kev. I'm still getting the odd strange behaviour, mostly concerned with screen issues but because the connection is faster I can go back one page and try again faster, that seems to cure things.
TV wasn't connected to network last night so I went through the network set up a few times. It took about 30 minutes but I must have got something right in the end because all of a sudden it connected and it's working OK now. I have one programme left on the old Sony HDD recorder and DVD player. If anyone wants it give a shout....
The thing that strikes me now is that the FM3 is behaving like computers do in the adverts...... Instantaneous.

Remember me saying that I suspected some of the issues I was having with the site graphics might be connected with selecting a larger font size? I have now dropped it back another notch and I think it may have cured that part of the problem. I still suspect that the remainder of the problem is down to the age of my keyboard and mouse.... I shll replace them, god knows they have done their share!

£20 of wireless keyboard and mouse delivered today and installed. I shall be interested to see if they affect my staggering.... Worth doing anyway, I hadn't realised how bad the old ones were getting but it's only to be expected they have done a lot of work.....

I hit one small problem with the new keyboard. It's a lot lighter and more compact than the old one and I found that even though it sits on a rubber mat it was tending to move around as I typed so I have put a couple of Pritt pads under the two feet at the back side.... It feels better already, time will tell wether it creeps off them!

Not exactly computer related but. This is the end of an era.

My Skoda Fabia in 2010 just after I put the sign writing on the car when I started working for myself.



The same car today :



As you may have read else where, I'm buying a new car. I received a call today, I can pick it up on Friday. We stripped most of the lettering off in case it reduced its value to webuyanycar, but left 'old' as a joke. The bod did say when I presented it, was it was only a Full service history that would save it from a valuation as scrap and since I stopped having it serviced at the main dealer in 2010, the book hasn't been filled in. Its worth its scrap value to them

If somebody is prepared to buy it from me, I'm open to offers 2004 Skoda Fabia Diesel 1.4 TDI. MOTed until December. runs pretty well, list of electrical faults. You can have it on Friday.

I'll be putting writing on the new car, its been very cost effective advertising.

Good luck with it Pluggy, there are good ones and bad ones but they are much better nowadays, not as many Friday cars.....

I've done my homework with the Dacia. Unlike the cheap cars of old they don't depreciate like the wind (on the contrary, they hold their value exceptionally well), they are reliable and drive well. It just lacks the toys of a typical 2015 car. It uses the running gear and most of the kit from a late 90's Cleo. And its owned by a major 'Western' market car builder. Namely Renault-Nissan. Confidence is high.

In my past I've owned one of the 70's/80's cheap cars, a pre VW Skoda Estelle. Jasper Carrot had it right, they were crap. Their only saving grace is you could buy a fairly recent version for next to nothing. I never owned but did drive on occasion the other mainstay of cheap crap of the day, the infamous Lada Riva - Heavy, Slow,handled like a barge and you spent half your life under the bonnet. The Skoda I'm getting rid of now, is a VW Polo with an unpretentious Marque. it was a fabulous car.

Unfortunately, the call saying the car has arrived comes in the middle of a busy period and I'm working getting rid of the old car round paid work. Its been quiet over the school holidays, everybody is getting their computers ready for going back. Hence me posting this at the unearthly time of 6:52 AM.

06:52 is not unearthly......