Spalding Computer Services

Regular users of the internet will occasionally be targeted by on-line criminals, scammers, call them what you will.

Your email address is a magnet for them. 10 of the most common scams are listed below, but in general the cybercriminal is after one of two things. Your identity and your money. And very often they’ll take both, thank you very much.

1. Phishing

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term “phishing” was made in 1996.

This is one of the most common forms of fraud. You’ll receive an email from what appears to be a trusted source, your bank, an auction site or popular social network asking for account details. There is often a link to a fake website that looks like the real thing. Your bank will never ask you for this information by email and you should never respond to this kind of request from anyone.

2. The Nigerian or 419 scam

You receive an email from what appears to be businessmen or officials from Nigeria or other African country offering to transfer a large sum of money into your bank account to get it out of the country. You’ll be allowed to keep a significant amount of this money, providing you pay a fee to cover transaction and legal costs.

A new slant on an old scam. In the days before email this was done by air mail. Never respond. If you hand over any money you’ll never see it again. Hand over your bank details and the account will magically empty.

I’ve seen these in recent years pretending to be from Iraq, Afghanistan and India, so don’t always expect them to be from Nigeria.

3. Lotteries

This one is simple. If you don’t buy a lottery ticket you can’t possibly win. And there is no such thing as a lottery of email addresses. So your unique email address also can’t possibly win any money.

4. Fake websites and fake goods

A little more difficult to spot. Fake goods sold by what appears to be a UK based company because the domain name ends with .co.uk. Anyone in any country can buy a .co.uk domain name. You could well be dealing with a chinese company selling fake and counterfeit goods. If it’s too good to be true it probably is. Buyer beware. It’s sometimes possible to spot these by the mangled English used on the website or in any correspondence emails but unfortunately in this day and age that’s no guarantee the writer isn’t English. You can do a domain whois lookup to see who owns the domain name, but even that information could be fake.

5. Selling online

If you’re planning to sell items on websites such as Amazon Marketplace or eBay – be careful. Never ship anything until you have the money. Never ship anything to Nigeria, or any other African country. Never give out any account information if requested by email, even if the email appears to have come from eBay or Amazon. Neither of those companies will ask you for this information by email in the course of a transaction. Never deviate from your chosen payment method. A typical scam involves asking you to accept payment via Western Union. Don’t.

Similarly be careful when buying goods on auction sites.

There is plenty of information on both websites about security. Read it.

6. Trojan emails

Trojans are a type of computer virus that can be installed without you realising. You might receive an email in the form of a promotional offer, for example, aimed at getting you to click on a link or open an attachment. These links/attachments will be infected with Trojans that record keyboard strokes and aim to capture passwords and other sensitive information.

Difficult to avoid but again if it’s too good to be true, it probably is and is best avoided. Keep your Anti Virus software up to date.

7. Economy related scams

If you’ve been struggling with debt recently, there’s a good chance you may have received an email from a company claiming to be able to help you. Possibly by buying your debts so you can then pay them a smaller monthly repayment over a longer period. Not possible. No-one can buy someone else’s debt. If you fall for this you will still owe the original lender the full amount and probably be out of pocket by whatever administration fees the scammer asked for. You won’t see them again.

8. Friends in need

The scammer has hacked into an email account and sent out an email to everyone in the address book saying your friend has had his or her wallet stolen and is stranded in a foreign country or hundreds of miles from home. There then comes the plea for a cash hand out to help them get home. You can’t phone them because the mobile was also stolen, or they are stranded in a place where the phones don’t work. But there is a Western Union office nearby. Phone your friend anyway, chances are they’ll be at home. Ignore.

9. Online dating

Almost as old as the Nigerian 419. Scammers create an attractive online profile on a dating website and wait for the punters to make contact. They might pretend to be from the UK and working overseas or say they live overseas. After a few email exchanges they will then either spin some sob story about being injured, or say they really want to meet you somewhere. But surprise, they don’t have enough money and could you please send some over.

Don’t send any money. You won’t see it again and the attractive sounding individual will disappear.

10. Charity or disaster relief

Usually following a natural disaster somewhere in the world. The scammers send out millions of emails purporting to be from a charity organisation. They may ask you to send money somewhere, or ask for your bank details so a transfer can take place. Charities do not tend to ask you for your bank details via email. Check with the Charities Commission first.

Reproduced in full. About the only good thing you can say about this glaringly obvious scam is it’s grammar and spelling are reasonably good.

I once had a desk drawer full of scribbled air mail letters from Nigeria, most written in pencil apparently by young children, offering to swell the contents of my bank account in similar fashion. What this one lacks is the once obligatory “may God bless you and all your family”.
You can’t have everything.

One interesting aspect of this though is the timing.
Less than an hour before this email fell into my spam box I had posted a comment on various social networks about this Estonian ISP and it’s links with cybercriminals.

Herm Anderson appears to be building a bridge in Estonia.
——————————————-

From: herrn.anderson@hotmail.com
Subject: details of western union
Date: 27 August 2009 10:46:31 BST
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Reply-To: william.anthony72@yahoo.com

I just sent the payment via Western Union in your name as I do not have your
account details correctly. I also want you to have the payment information
below:

Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN): 583-859-1945
Amount Sent: $270,000 USD
Text Question: for what
Answer: project

You can go to any Western Union location right now and pick up the cash
quick. I hope that you have a Western Union card / Promo code? You will
need this to collect the funds from any Western Union agent location. I am
already on my way to join my team in completing the unfinished bridge
construction project in estonia. We may leave town tomorrow and I couldn’t
go without dropping the payment information with you. We may spend 2 to 3
months there before the job would be completely finished. Remember that if
you do not claim the money before 9 days, they will call back the money to
my card. And if you do not have the Western Union card / Promo code, you
cannot pick up the cash. I may not be around to reply any of your emails
now, but I will talk to you as soon as I return.

If you do not have a Western Union Promo Code, you have to contact the
western union agent details below as i was told that the agent can
immediately arrange that for you,they will process and create a Western
Union card/Promo Card for you immediately and also send you a copy of the
voucher of the payment that I made upon request, via email.

Contact the office below for your Western Union card:
Contact Person: Anthony William
Email: wumtcardagent@finanzieltduk-uk.com

Send the below details to him
pick the money on time
Your Full Name:
MTCN number: (as above)
Telephone:
Address: (including state and zip code)

As soon as the office gets the above information, they will use the
credentials to create your Western Union card right away without any delay
if you do not have the Western Union card . Note that you will have to
purchase the Western Union Promo code. That is all to it. I hope to talk to
you as soon as we are back on the errand or call it project.

A cosy corner table in a cafe, a large steaming latte and someone tapping away on a laptop hooked up to the free wifi.

This is a common scene all over the world. I’ve done this myself in some unlikely places, including a double decker bus at the foot of a glacier and a scruffy looking outdoor cafe on a dusty street in The Gambia, as well as various Apple Stores, beach bars and bookshop cafes around the world.

But is this coming to an end. Will the globe trotting freelance writer have to find some other way to update the blog or file a story? Perhaps even revert to pen, paper and a stamp.

The lure of a cosy cafe with good coffee away from the distractions of domestic chores or the office chatter is strong. Many good books and travel articles have been written in cafes and bars by writers who prefer to be “Location Independent”.

With the current economic climate the true penny pincher virtually moves in for the day, with tea bags and lunch box. Draining electricity and eliminating the need to pay for internet access at home.

Where cafe owners used to encourage the regular business, potential customers are now being driven away when they can’t find a free table.

Unsurprisingly many smaller cafe owners are now putting time limits on laptop use, locks on outlets or outright laptop bans. But some cafe owners have expanded their business by adding more outlets. An ideal situation if they can afford it, as cafes are a popular place for business meetings and interviews.

Where does all this leave the globe trotting travel writer. It’s usually easy enough to stop at a cafe for a quick drink and a blog update, but that may soon be coming to an end. Perhaps it is time to relearn the art of putting pen to paper?

As web developers well know, one of the biggest problems we face is making websites work properly and consistently in all browsers.

Where the site works as desired in Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Opera it very often exhibits quirks or problems in Internet Explorer. And IE 6 in particular. Unfortunately the most popular web browser on the planet, in all versions, actually sucks. And all versions prior to IE8 suck big time in the standards department. Here we must state that IE8 is actually a reasonable browser. It’s not as good as any of the others but compared to what has gone before it’s not too bad.

But if you are still using IE6 then Shame on You. And shame on any company or organisation that refuses to upgrade.

You can blow the whistle on IE6 Offenders here where you will find a list of organisations that have already been “reported”.

That list contains some surprising names including our own NHS and several global financial institutions. Quite possibly including your own bank, and maybe your own employers. Or maybe your own company.

Do the right thing, help kill Internet Explorer 6. Even Microsoft won’t really mind if you do.

And it would really help us web developers if you used a proper web browser like Firefox, or Safari, or even Chrome, which Google is developing at a rapid pace.
That would save us a lot of time and frustration.

Thank you.

If like me you run out of screen real estate while working then this will help. Especially if you happen to have a spare computer lying around.

For me it was simple. Two Apple Mac laptops and a 21″ flat screen monitor on the desk controlled with one keyboard and mouse.

Using external monitors to gain screen space is common enough especially if you use a laptop as a desktop computer. Plug in the external monitor and the Mac detects it and extends your desktop. Select the arrangement of the screens, external to the left or right, and whether you want to mirror the desktop or spread yourself across both screens and away you go.

But suppose that still isn’t enough, these days you may want your social networks open in a browser so you can keep up with all your friends. Have a Twitter client running, Instant Messaging and Skype all take up valuable screen space.

The answer is another screen. But most computers be they desktop or laptop will only support one extra screen. So here is where that spare one comes in.

With me it’s my elderly but still perfectly serviceable 15″ G4 Powerbook running Leopard, alongside a 15″ MacBookPro.

How to do it?

Get a copy of Abyssoft’s free Teleport application and install it on both machines.

Set up is almost automatic but there is a fairly comprehensive FAQ in the disc image. And if both Macs are logged in to the same .mac (mobile.me) account, encryption is enabled by default.

Once activated the additional machine appears in the Teleport preference pane as another screen. Drag it to position it left or right of your main screen and as you move the mouse cursor to the edge of your screen it magically appears on the other machine as if it were attached, in the same way as it does to your external monitor. And you can then type into any applications on that machine with your main keyboard, and drag and drop files between machines.

This works over a wifi or an ethernet network.

And that’s it. Download and set up took me less than 5 minutes.

Moving the computers around and polishing away the several months worth of accumulated dust, crumbs and coffee stains on my desk took a while longer.

If you use Windows then Synergy is a similar application with the added benefit of being able to control Mac and Windows PC’s from one keyboard and mouse.

Sir Paul Kennedy the Governments Communications Commissioner reports that permission was granted for various UK government agencies to intercept phone calls, letters and emails of over 500,000 citizens last year.

That’s 1 in every 78 citizens.

The program targets people in the UK and overseas and according to Sir Paul plays a key role in preventing murders, drug and people smuggling, tax evasion and terrorism.

Some 600 central, local and quasi government bodies are entitled to request permission to intercept data, which is generally limited to who contacted whom, when and where.

Public authorities made 504,073 requests for communications data to communications and internet service providers, slightly fewer than the previous year. Of the 595 errors reported three quarters were attributable to public authorities with the rest down to the service providers. Confusion over interpretation of data is the common cause of these errors, particularly in relation to international time zones and which IP address belongs to which physical street address.

In one case, police investigating a paedophile ring asked an ISP for subscriber information relating to an internet protocol (IP) address, but received the wrong physical address. As a result police arrested a person who was completely innocent.

A recent spate of moans on the web about losing access to information and photographs brings home the dangers inherent in cloud computing.

If you pay for a service then you can reasonably expect it to continue serving up your data until you stop paying. But the freebies, like Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for example, are no place to store the only copies of your precious photographs and videos.

You can pay for a Pro Flickr account but if you forget to renew your subscription you’re locked out of your photo library as Robert Scoble discovered recently.

The same goes for Facebook as Daniel Hayter discovered. Facebook shut his account down when they mistakenly suspected he was spamming the system, and 5 years worth of photos instantly disappeared.

Then there is the news today that Tr.im, the URL shortening service, has closed it’s doors. After December this year none of the links created by Tr.im and archived all over the web will work.

So why has this happened? Money. Or the lack of a viable way for the service to make any. No-one is going to pay for a URL shortening service.

Lessons will have been learned, and some are still to be learned, about the downsides to cloud computing.

Keep local copies, keep backups, and don’t trust other people with your precious data, photographs, videos and audio files.

A recent report by a group of academics known as the “Oxford Internet Institute” suggests a growing number of people are simply not interested in joining the “Digital World”.

An estimated 17 million people over the age 15 in Briton are not using the internet.
Shock-Horror-Probe.

Many over 50′s for example say it would hinder their ability to enjoy the real world. To get on with the activities they value highly. They’re not concerned about missing out on the sheer wealth of information that could be at their fingertips through a few mouse clicks and keystrokes.

“I know a lot of friends, they’re hooked on the damn thing” says one woman.

The destruction of family life as we know it is often cited as a good reason to shun the online world. The loss of personal communication skills is another. We spend too much time Twittering, sending emails, instant messages, and Facebook updates, and not enough time on face to face plain old talking to one another. Even phone calls are in decline in favour of SMS text messages.

Many people have privacy concerns, “”You just have to say your postcode and they know everything about you. I’m just not interested.” says one.

And then there are the self confessed Luddites.
“Computers are like a Rubik’s cube,” a former teacher says. “Once you start to make a mess, and you don’t know what you’re doing, all you do is make a bigger mess.”
So true, so true. PC repair shops thrive on these people.

The UK Government has for some time now been moving more and more services online and encourages citizens to use these facilities. File your tax returns online, pay your council tax, renew your library books, car tax, insurance. Given the governments keenness to cut down on public spending we can expect this trend to grow.

For those determined to stay “offline” life could start to get difficult as government tries to force people to switch by offering more limited alternatives, especially in areas such as health care.

Martha Lane Fox, the governments ‘Digital Inclusion Champion’ says
“I don’t think you can be a proper citizen of our society in the future if you are not engaged online.”

For those determined refuseniks, life is about to get difficult.

Thanks to BBC News Magazine

Local police are advising South Holland car owners to be more careful when leaving cars parked. Don’t leave any valuables in the car. Remove handbags,briefcases,wallets and sat navs.

They then go on to advise removing the tax disc as well.

“Crime reduction officer Pete Tyrrel, of Spalding Police, is warning people not to leave their keys in the car – even if it’s just for a minute or two.
He said: “People have lost their keys and then a couple of weeks later their car is taken.
“Don’t leave anything in the car that thieves might want, such as sat navs, handbags, wallets, tax discs and CDs.”

Now, as I understand it, it is a legal requirement to display a current tax disc on the windscreen of all vehicles.

Are Spalding Police advising motorists to break the law in order to thwart the law breakers?

Warning issued after spate of vehicle thefts – Spalding Today