Beware of Internet Scams

Scammers are busier than ever with attempts to access your computer, get personal information and steal your identity. Scarsdale's Carol S. Wolfe is a computer consultant who is available to help you with IT solutions and protect you from evil doers who have become increasingly crafty at scamming consumers.  I know in the past week I received two phone calls from people who claimed that my computer had been infected with malware and attempted to get me to give them access to my desktop. If you receive a phone call from "Tech Global Services," my advice is to hang up.

Carol has put together the information below to help you stay clear of internet fraud.  Here's her advice:

TRUST NO ONE!

I am very disconcerted about the way hackers or miscreants are trying to get into our computers. I have seen the following:

1. Phone calls to YOUR homes indicating that:

    a. This is a Follow Up to something they have already worked on
    b. Something is wrong with your computer and they need access to help you

2. Pop Ups from the following sources indicating that your Computer requires immediate attention.

a. MacKeeper (BAD)
b. Tune Up My Mac (BAD)
c. Other sources

3. Spoof Emails that look real but aren't from:

c. Facebook
d. iCloud
e. PayPal
f. Google
g. Ebay

4.Spoof Emails from MYSELF - yes - they are addressed to me BY me with my correct email address in the "From" field.

At any rate, my main advice to you is to TRUST NO ONE! If you receive an email from your bank or from any other source that is asking you to verify your information, DON'T! Either call the bank or the other source or go directly to their website and check it out directly. Do NOT click on any links. Also, if you are constantly getting redirects or popups on your computer, it means you've been infected with MalWare.

My recommendation is to go to the site www.adwaremedic.com and install malwarebytes and scan your computer. If the redirects are so bad that you can't get there, call me and I can clean your computer enough so that we can scan it and clean it up. If you want to read more about MalWare and the latest news on new malware, click here.

You can install malwarebytes on your PC as well as Mac.

In addition, I have recently read articles about "ransoming" mac computers. While this is more prevalent at the Corporate and PC level, there has been recent news about it possibly infiltrating Mac computers. I will keep an eye on this, but click here if you are interested in learning more about it.

Another way to infect or bring malware onto your computer is to download applications from third party sites. A lot of time when I come to your homes and I see malware, I always ask, do you share your computer with your kids? To make your computer a little bit safer against unwanted downloads, go to the Apple (upper Left corner), choose System Preferences/Security & Privacy/General - then check Allow applications downloaded from Mac App Store and identified developers. At least if your kid tries to download something, he/she will need the computer password to do so.

Click here for an article about the perils of downloading from an inappropriate site.

A friend of mine who works at DropBox told me that if you are a Pro Subscriber, you should be all set in terms of hijacking because of their extended version history feature. I am currently slowly moving my data over to DropBox and can help you if you are interested.

Good luck and stay safe!

You can reach Carol at 914.924.7949, email her at cswolfe@mac.com or visit her website here: www.csjconsultants.com