Tag Archives: internet security

We let them in: Malware scams

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How many times have you received a phone call from some random number that is actually a computerized voice on the other end of the line? "Hello. This is Visa." That's normally when I just hang up.

I get them often enough that now I tend not to even answer the landline during my workday. I just let it go through to the answering machine… and the scammer always hangs up before it gets to the recording part of the message.

But on the odd occasion when I have picked up the phone, there have been times when I have gotten a real person on the other end of the line. Normally, they start by saying that they're from Microsoft and that they've detected a problem with my computer.

And this is when I tend to have a little fun.

"Well, that's interesting. Why would Microsoft be calling me when I have a Mac?" I don't have a Mac, but the person on the other end of the line doesn't know that.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm from Mac." And yes, I really did have some scammer try to tell me this at one point. It was beyond laughable.

"Oh… Then you might be able to help me with my Linux machine." And I was having so much fun sending that scammer around in circles.

But in the end, I got bored. "Look, dude, I know you're some asshole trying to get into my system. You can try all you'd like. It's not going to happen." Then I hung up.

The persistent bugger kept trying to call back. I'd pick up the phone and instantly hang up. But after the sixth call within a span of 15 minutes (not an exaggeration… I was counting, because I was getting ready to put in a formal complaint with my phone company and have the number blocked), I decided to let it go through to the answering machine. While my voice was giving the instructions about leaving a message, the prick on the other end of the line was shouting in his thick foreign accent: "Ma'am, you need to listen to me. There really is something wrong with your computer." And he hung up as soon as the beep indicated that the answering machine was recording the message.

The gull of some people. Yet, there are enough people who fall for the scam to make it worth their while.

Today, I want to talk about the malware scams, because all of these phone calls are about trying to deposit some malware onto your machine, so they can do damage later.

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We let them in: The login scams

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I've known about the various scams that exist within the internet and telecommunications realm for years.

You have the ransom scam, where you receive an email stating that they have some photographic evidence of you doing something dodgy and they want to be paid in bitcoin.

There are the phone scammers, who pretend that they are Microsoft or some other company, and want remote access to your computer. These scams are also known as malware scams. (I'll come back to malware scams in a future post, because unfortunately a friend of mine fell prey to this scam in 2021, and it cost her dearly.)

But you also get the txt/email login scams where you receive a txt message (or email... or some other notice) saying that there are some unusual transactions on your account, asking that you click the link to verify. (My own husband fell prey to one of these a few months ago.)

All of these scams are fishing for the person who is trusting and doesn't know any differently. We want to believe the best in people, and the scammers are out there to take advantage of that. And it seems like technology has given con artists new ways to be inventive with their scamming. And the scammers are smart.

Today, I want to discuss the login scams, mainly because it was this type of scam that my husband fell prey to a few months ago. It could have been easily avoided if he had been paying attention—which he wasn't—but there are other steps that you can take to protect your systems even if you are duped by the login scams.

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Facebook has changed in a BIG way… Update your security settings!

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Are you a Facebook users? Because if you are, you have likely noticed a significant number of changes to the platform during recent months. The user interface has had a massive overhaul. The way you interact in groups has changed, with tagging of posts and "featured" posts now available. Facebook has become heavily intertwined with other social media sites, like Instagram (both platforms owned by Meta). Public pages are now being treated as though they were profiles of their own. And the list goes on.

All of these changes are things that you can see; they're on the surface. But it's the stuff that's under the hood that can open up our accounts to external attacks if we're not careful.

Today, I'm going to highlight some of the security features hiding in the backend of the site (the parts that we don't often dive into) and show you some of the things that you might want to do to protect your accounts.

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