Author Topic: Consumer news and scams  (Read 230189 times)

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Offline SDQ

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #60 on: June 12, 2012, 02:52:33 pm »
With jokes like this you can tell by the questions which people are just playing along or if they actually think it's a genuine ad.
Valar Morghulis

Offline Pendragon

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #61 on: June 12, 2012, 03:17:54 pm »
Yeah that's funny  :laugh:
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Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #62 on: June 12, 2012, 03:59:18 pm »
I would buy one but I already have one from the Tokyo Olympics, tricky to store!  ;D
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Offline Jas

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #63 on: June 12, 2012, 06:49:23 pm »
can anyone tell me how to stop spam emails I have tried to block them, but they seem to just change their email address. is there a way I can block them for ever???

Offline DaveR

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #64 on: June 12, 2012, 10:04:29 pm »
can anyone tell me how to stop spam emails I have tried to block them, but they seem to just change their email address. is there a way I can block them for ever???
If you use a decent email provider like Gmail, then they will automatically filter 90%+ of spam emails so you never see them. You should never attempt to unsubscribe from a spam email, as it merely confirms that your email address is active.

Offline Yorkie

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #65 on: June 13, 2012, 08:07:30 am »
can anyone tell me how to stop spam emails I have tried to block them, but they seem to just change their email address. is there a way I can block them for ever???

One way to prevent a lot of Spam is to be careful visiting "funny" or "spurious" sites on the Internet.  One of the worst sites for gathering Spam are the "xxx" rated sites.   I'm sure you know what I mean without me having to be explicit!

There is a good article from the BBC here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/stopping-spam-emails

This mail is not Spam -

THIS IS SPAM  . . . . . . . . !
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Offline SDQ

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #66 on: June 13, 2012, 08:30:47 am »
One of the worst sites for gathering Spam are the "xxx" rated sites.


About 5 of these a day appear in my Spam Email folder


Hmm, what does this tell us about DaveR?   :laugh:
Valar Morghulis

Offline Yorkie

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #67 on: June 13, 2012, 09:08:34 am »
 L0L   L0L   L0L
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Offline DaveR

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #68 on: June 13, 2012, 10:02:47 am »
One way to prevent a lot of Spam is to be careful visiting "funny" or "spurious" sites on the Internet.  One of the worst sites for gathering Spam are the "xxx" rated sites.   I'm sure you know what I mean without me having to be explicit!
It doesn't say that in the BBC article, though? Probably because it's not correct! A site can't obtain your email address just by you visiting it - that's nonsense. The only way spammers can obtain your email address is by you giving it to them or by you unwittingly downloading a Trojan etc to download your address book.

Interestingly, if you use email aliases as I do, you can easily pinpoint where the spammers are getting your email address from. The answer in my case, perhaps surprisingly, was Ebay sellers. Obviously, less scrupulous ones must sell on the list of email addresses that they have done business with in the past.

So...beware!  :)

Offline Jas

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #69 on: June 13, 2012, 12:13:58 pm »
Thanks for all the info. I dont know how they got my email address, I dont go into xxx sites, dont even have an ebay account, So  the  only thing is I just delete as they come in.  :rage:

Offline SDQ

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Re: Consumer news and scams
« Reply #70 on: June 13, 2012, 12:20:33 pm »
I've had some in the past that had obviously come from the member directory of my ISP as the other people on the list all had similar e-mail addresses as mine and they were all in alphabetical order.
Valar Morghulis

Offline cygnusx-1

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Beware of helpful phone calls!
« Reply #71 on: June 29, 2012, 05:30:12 pm »
I happened to be at home yesterday afternoon when the phone rang and a gentleman from somewhere in Asia I think, told me that my computer was downloading infected files which will cause severe problems in the future...........as I have heard of this before I went along with him thanking him for ringing me.

He asked me to close the open windows on the PC which I happened to be on and to click on the start button.........when I said after a few minutes that I did not have a start button he asked was I using an Apple Mac and I said no as I was using Linux Ubuntu he just put the phone down.

This was a scam to start using remote access to my PC which is only available via Windows opearting systems to probably put some little programme on such as a keylogger.

About 30 mins later the phone went again and this time it was a lady representing the same company wanting to help me again............I went through the same helpful procedure and wasted a few more minutes of their time but this lady did not understand that Linux operating systems do not have a Start button.


My message to anyone who gets this helpful phone call...............ALWAYS tell them you are on an   APPLE MAC or LINUX machine as it stops them in their tracks.

Offline Nemesis

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Re: Beware of helpful phone calls!
« Reply #72 on: June 29, 2012, 06:47:55 pm »
I have told a fair few of them that I don't have a computer, that soon takes the wind out of their sails !
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Offline pkevin

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Re: Beware of helpful phone calls!
« Reply #73 on: June 29, 2012, 07:26:43 pm »
Just ask them to phone back on the other line that is next to your computer, which coincidentallyis the same as North Wales Police.

Offline 1_rob_1

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Re: Beware of helpful phone calls!
« Reply #74 on: June 29, 2012, 09:55:15 pm »
Some of these claim to be phoning from Microsoft.
As cygnusx-1 posted, tell them you are using a Linux operating system. Or confront them directly & tell them that if they know that your system has a virus or any other problems, then they must be hacking your system, & to know this they are contravening the data protection act, & you are going to take action against the call. - - - They will soon hang up ;D
These are common scams. In the first instance, they will claim to get rid of the virus/spyware by asking you to download their removal software, or to remotely access your pc to manually remove it. - - - For this, you will be charged about £80.    this will not work because the "virus" has installed itself too deep inside your pc. - - they will then charge you another £70 ish to finish the removal.  - - - After you have paid again, your pc will probably be unusable until you pay a local techie to sort it out at a fraction of this cost.

REMEMBER: If anyone phones you to say that your pc has any problems whatsoever - - To know this, they are illegally hacking your pc, or lying.   So if they are hacking, they wont phone you.

This scam actually catches a lot of people out & they get stung for a lot of money, so dont forget, nobody that phones you knows whether your pc is infected or not.  - - So HANG UP.

Also while I am on this post. If anyone gets any windows that open on their screen to say that their computer has a number of infections & the computer needs to be scanned to remove them. DONT unless it is a message from the antivirus/antispyware program which YOU installed on your pc.

Stay safe

Rob