Stay Safe Online – Do’s and Don’ts

Stay Safe Online – Do’s and Don’ts

What do you do if you spill something on your laptop?  Turn it off and bring it to us.  Don’t turn it back on again or you can kill it forever!  We had a client who had spilt water on her Mac laptop, we checked it over for water damage and replaced damaged components – and it’s working again.

Macs are generally quite resilient, but they still have issues sometimes – we had a Mac desktop in – the power button wouldn’t work – we found the source of the problem and fixed it. Even if you have been told the problem is unfixable – we like a challenge so give us a call – at the very least we can retrieve your data for you – and advise on a new computer to suit your needs.

Current Scams:

There’s been an increase in the number of people being tricked into moving money into fraudulent accounts.  Scammers call, text or email pretending to be your bank – saying your money isn’t safe and you need to transfer it to another ‘safe’ account – which isn’t safe at all.  Fraudsters can fake numbers which make it look like the number is real – and they stress the urgency which makes people panic so they don’t think before they act.  They may also have some of your personal details which they have found on the dark web – to make you think the call is legitimate.

Banks will never ask you to move money to different accounts – nor to download any software to protect your money.

We recently received an automated phone call – to the landline – from ‘Amazon’ saying that our Amazon Prime Account had been renewed and to ‘press 1 to cancel it and get a refund’.  I put the phone down – but what would have happened if I had ‘pressed 1’?  I asked Google – who advised that I would have been connected to a bogus Amazon customer service representative who would tell me that the subscription was purchased fraudulently due to a ‘security flaw’ on my computer and they wanted remote access to my computer to fix it.

If you are a regular reader of ‘Stay Safe Online’ you will know that remote access gives scammers remote control of your computer which allows them to steal personal information, including passwords and banking information.
It sounds so easy to just ‘press 1 to cancel’ but you have been warned – this is a scam.

We are also still receiving scam calls purported to be from Microsoft – because you recognise the name – it sounds real but – if you think about it – is it really likely that Microsoft Corporation will call you?

Find details of other recent scams here www.actionfraud.police.uk and on our Facebook page rainford-it -stay safe online and on our blog on our website.  If in doubt – call us – advice is free.

Published in the November edition of the Whitchurch Gossip