Hello All! As a new school year begins for students, we continue to see the same scams attack people. However because of so much correspondence being done primarily by email, we are seeing a heightened level in scams currently. The core of these scams continue to be the tech support scams & phishing emails.
Most, if not all tech support scams lead you to believe you are dealing with a “Microsoft” or “Windows” representative that must help you now for a nominal fee or they will lock your computer. If you are at the point that you have let them on your computer, you need to schedule a service call because your computer has been compromised and you should not trust anything you do on your computer until it has been cleaned. If you did not let anyone on your computer then you are likely ok.
The next in line in the tech support scam is a webpage that basically locks your computer and tells you to call an 800 number. Typically if your volume is turned up it will sound sirens and loud voices telling you to call now. This is a tricky one. Ultimately a 51/49 scenario, meaning 51% of the time this is simply a webpage trying to trick you into calling, 49% you have an infection driving the scam. Also not a bad idea to go ahead and call for an appointment if you have seen this just as a precaution however more often then not you just clicked a bad link.
Lastly, phishing emails. These are still a problem and likely always will be. Reading your email is definitely a good thing, a great way to stay in touch and stay informed. However if you get an email sent to you by a friend and when you open it there is just a link in it, or broken english and a link, don’t click it. There email has been compromised. Also, as a general rule of thumb, If you receive any emails from your financial institution or social media, you typically are going to be safe to read the email however you should not click any links within the email. This is because if the email appears to look like its from Wells Fargo or Facebook, but in fact is from a scam artist pretending to be said company, you just played directly into their hands. So, long and skinny, read the email but if you are going to login or check your account, NEVER click the link in your email. Always open a fresh browser, type in the companies web address directly into the address bar and press enter. This is the only safe, surefire way to know you are logging directly into your account the safest way possible.
BACKUP! A QUICK NOTE.
Weekly, we at Nerds in a Flash go to customers that are positive they backup only to find out in a disaster scenario such as an infection or a hard drive failure that there backup either wasn’t working properly or in many scenarios their backup never backed up at all. Please don’t let this be you. If you are not 100% certain that your computer is backing up to a cloud or a local device with 100% certainty then please schedule an appointment and have the Nerds make sure you are. On a weekly basis we see people with head in hands because 10-15 years worth the pictures are simply gone or financial data for a business has disappeared forever. Please do not let this be you!
As always, the Nerds are here to save you. If you need Computer repair or IT Support in Austin or in San Antonio, Call 877-250-8575 or you can book online by going to NerdsinaFlash.com and click the “Book Now” button in the upper right hand corner. Cheers!
