Scammers impersonating Social Security Administration (SCAM)

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Officials said the callers fraudulently identify themselves as Social Security Administration representatives and threaten taxpayers with deactivating their Social Security number or account due to “suspicious activity.”

Posted: Aug 9, 2019 12:58 PM
Posted By: Chelsea Hunt

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EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Revenue is warning the public after a spike in scam calls.

Officials said the callers fraudulently identify themselves as Social Security Administration representatives and threaten taxpayers with deactivating their Social Security number or account due to “suspicious activity.”

As part of the scam, the caller may ask for personal information and bank account information.

Officials warn that a person’s caller ID may even show the real Social Security Administration number — 1-800-772-1213 — but the scammers are faking the number.

“We encourage the public to protect themselves by verifying they’re speaking with authorized representatives of the Social Security Administration if they have any questions about the legitimacy of the call,” said Department of Revenue Director Nia Ray.

If you suspect the call is a scam, hang up and call the Social Security Administration number and speak to a real representative. Officials said you should never give any part of your Social Security number, bank account information or credit card number to anyone who contacts you.

Officials said if you get one of the calls, notify the Federal Trade Commission. You can also report scams to the Office of Inspector General by calling 1-800-269-0271 or online by clicking here.

Microsoft Issues ‘Update Now’ Warning To Windows Users

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This is from https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2019/06/01/microsoft-begs-windows-users-to-update-now-citing-wannacry-2-security-threat/#290f5c1c60ca
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Microsoft really does not have the greatest track record when it comes to those security and system fixes that are usually referred to as Patch Tuesday updates. Readers of Forbes will not need reminding how these updates have recently caused Windows to freeze or simply decided to install themselves and cause unexpected restarts. Indeed, I have had more messages from readers who are fed up with Windows updates than in relation to anything else I have covered on Forbes. Yet it is precisely these people that Microsoft is now urging to apply one particular set of updates released May 14, warning that unless they do at least a million computers might be exploited by a security threat that could be as damaging and costly as WannaCry was two years ago.

The warning, which reads almost as if Microsoft wrote it on bended knee, was posted on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog. Referring to the critical Remote Code Execution vulnerability, CVE-2019-0708, that has become better known as BlueKeep, Simon Pope, director of incident response at Microsoft, states that “Microsoft is confident that an exploit exists for this vulnerability.” What’s more, Pope says that such an exploit could “propagate from vulnerable computer to vulnerable computer in a similar way as the WannaCry malware spread across the globe in 2017.” An internet-scale port scanner has already determined that there are at least 923,671 internet-facing machines which are vulnerable to BlueKeep on port 3389 which is used by the Microsoft Remote Desktop feature.

It is worth reading between the lines here, especially concerning that apparent confidence that a BlueKeep exploit exists. While it is not clear if Microsoft has intelligence that suggests active malware has been weaponized in this way, what we do know is that there is proof of concept (PoC) code available already. One BlueKeep demo on GitHub will crash a system that is vulnerable but does not execute the wormable threat that Microsoft is obviously so worried about. We also know, through the information security community on Twitter, that there are denial of service (DoS) exploits available, and that security researchers have been successful in developing wormable exploit code.

While Windows 8 and Windows 10 users are not impacted by this vulnerability, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista all are. Despite all of those vulnerable systems being unsupported for some years, Microsoft made the patch available to users which shows just how concerned it is by the “WannaCry 2” threat. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 are also vulnerable.

Although I am as fed up with ongoing Windows update problems as anyone, I’m more worried about a WannaCry 2 attack taking down a myriad of business systems and all the fallout that entails. Which is why I am echoing the advice of Microsoft’s Simon Pope: “We strongly advise that all affected systems should be updated as soon as possible.”

Lowe’s warns customers of gift card scam

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It might seem like a great deal. Getting a $50 coupon to Lowe’s Home Improvement stores in exchange for answering a few questions.

But it turns out the whole offer is a scam.

Lowe’s told Facebook users on Monday that an offer circulating the social networking site is not from Lowe’s.

“The coupon is not affiliated with Lowe’s in any way. It is a phishing scam. Please be careful,” Lowe’s said.

It appears that the false Facebook offer directs users to a site that collects personal information. While the coupon appears to be legit, it will not be accepted by Lowe’s.

The Better Business Bureau has issued five tips on how to avoid online scams:

  1. Don’t believe what you see. It’s easy to steal the colors, logos, and header of any other established organization. Scammers can also make links look like they lead to legitimate websites and emails appear to come from a different sender.
  2. Legitimate businesses do not ask for credit card numbers or banking information for coupons or giveaways. If they do ask for personal information, like an address or email, be sure there’s a link to their privacy policy.
  3. When in doubt, do a quick web search. If the giveaway is a scam, this is likely to reveal an alert or bring you to the organization’s real website, where they may have posted further information.
  4. Watch out for a reward that’s too good to be true. Businesses typically give out small discounts to entice customers. If the offer seems too good to be true (a $100 voucher or 50% discount) it may be a scam.
  5. Look for a mismatched subject line and email body. Many of these scams have an email subject line promising one thing, but the content of the email is something completely different.

Justin Boggs is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk.  Follow him on Twitter @jjboggs  or on  Facebook .

This information came from https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/national/lowes-warns-customers-of-gift-card-scam

Filed Under: Scams

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World Back Up Day (March 31, 2019 Sunday)

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***** ALL LINK LISTED ON THIS PAGE ARE EXTERNAL LINKS *****

This is the link from where this information is from https://www.lifewire.com/world-backup-day-2617949

Sunday, March 31st, is World Backup Day, the day we technology folks remind you of how important it is to back up your data.

Considering our particular expertise, we tend to do this much more often than once per year, but will take this annual excuse to do it yet again!

Here’s the message to remember:

Your Data Is More Valuable Than Your Device

Hardware is cheap and getting cheaper. Do you know what’s expensive or even priceless? That term paper you spent three weeks writing, the $3,000 USD in music and movies you have on your hard drive, and the digital video of your little boy or girl’s first step.

You can get a new computer or phone, but try replacing those important files: You can’t!

So What Do You Do?

You back them up!

When you back up your data, you’re making a second copy of anything and everything that you don’t want to lose. Should something happen to the originals, you can restore the backups to your computer (or phone, tablet, etc.) with a backup service.

Technically, a backup just refers to any piece of data that exists in two places. The primary purpose of a backup is to have a recovery plan should the primary data become inaccessible, so it’s common to keep backups offsite like online or, at the very least, on a second hard drive, even another internal one.

Why You Should Back Up

There are several scenarios that could take place where having a backup of your data would be useful:

  • Your phone gets stolen, and you lose all your pictures and videos
  • An external hard drive crashes, deleting your home videos
  • You forget your laptop in a cafe and you’ve lost all your homework
  • A virus holds your data hostage until you pay to remove the restraints
  • You accidentally delete something important

Your Backup Options

We’re huge fans of online backup services. Using a cloud backup service (what they’re sometimes called) is the easiest and most economical and effective way of keeping your important data safe.

See our reviews of online backup services for a ranked, updated list, complete with prices. Some plans allow an unlimited amount of storage, some limit you to so many GBs or TBs, some support backup from multiple simultaneous computers, some are even free for a just a little storage.

Have questions about online backup or not completely sure what it is? We answer most every question we’ve ever gotten about online backup in our Online Backup FAQ.

No matter what your needs are, we’ve done all the research to help you make the right decision. Aside from the list of reviews linked above, our online backup comparison chart is really helpful if you’re curious which of our favorite cloud backup services offer a particular feature.

Here are some more online backup resources you might find helpful:

The reason online backup is so popular is because it provides an entirely separate location for the copies of your files. If your flash drive is your backup device, for example, and your laptop gets stolen with your flash drive plugged into it, the backup ends up being basically pointless.

We also keep lists of traditional backup software titles that are built not for online backup but for local backup, meaning that the files are saved to another local hard drive, or even to an FTP server or networked computer. See our free backup software tools and commercial backup software reviews for more information.

Here’s more about backing up:

Using a cloud storage service is another option for keeping your data safely backed up online. The difference between a cloud storage service and a cloud backup service is that the former usually does not let you back up data automatically and on a schedule, but instead is a place to selectively upload important files that you need to keep off of your physical device.

There are lots of cloud storage services to pick from, most of which offer a small free plan with upgrades available if you need more features or additional backup space.

Reminder of End Of Life for Windows 7

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The end of support for Windows 7 will stop on January 20 , 2020. Your Windows  will still work as normal ;However , you will not get any update or security updates for Windows 7. Then in time you can become vulnerable to viruses and malware on the internet and also have your information stolen from your computer.

Now would be the time to update to Windows 10 before January 20, 2020. As of March 15, 2019 You can download Windows 10 for free. If you do want to update to Windows 10 I can do that for you. The cost for us to do it would be $100. This includes testing and making sure that the system is in good working order. Make sure that it can get on to the internet , the printer is working. Also we will clean out the system from junk.

You can ether call or text me at (864)494-9089

or if you like you can email us at robert@roberts-computer.com

or you can go to Microsoft site at  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4057281/windows-7-support-will-end-on-january-14-2020

Tip: For your own safety, you should never Check for Updates in Windows 10

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Tip: For your own safety, you should never Check for Updates in Windows 10

We all know and accept that being a Windows 10 Insider will expose you to early software with potential bugs, but it turns out besides ticking the Become an Insider box there is another way to tell Microsoft you like to live on the wild side, and that is simply clicking on the Check for Updates button.

In a blog post last week Michael Fortin, Corporate Vice President of Windows revealed that clicking that button marked you out as an advanced user willing to test early versions of Windows 10 patches.

He writes:

We also release optional updates in the third and fourth weeks of the month, respectively known as “C” and “D” releases. These are validated, production-quality optional releases, primarily for commercial customers and advanced users “seeking” updates. These updates have only non-security fixes. The intent of these releases is to provide visibility into, and enable testing of, the non-security fixes that will be included in the next Update Tuesday release (we make these optional to avoid users being rebooted more than once per month). Advanced users can access the “C” and “D” releases by navigating to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and clicking the “Check for updates” box. The “D” release has proven popular for those “seeking” to validate the non-security content of the next “B” release.

In short with the monthly C and D patches are a proving ground for the regular and mandatory B “Patch Tuesday” releases which regular users would not normally receive unless they click Check for Updates.

And while Microsoft notes these are “validated, production-quality optional releases” we know these patches have gone wrong in the past, and have had to be pulled and re-issued.  Unless you wish to be a tester it is probably wise to let the pioneers take the arrows first.

In the end, it is wise to test any software update on a small segment of users first, but many less expert users have been told Checking for Updates makes your PC safer, not riskier. Some segment of users even Check for Updates to avoid unexpected reboots when they are doing something important. How Microsoft views this group will not be transparent to them.

With the usual Christmas meetups approaching it may be wise that, instead of telling our friends and family to keep their PCs up to date, to spread the message that it is best to leave your PC alone to do its thing and hope and pray Microsoft gets it right this time.

This is from https://mspoweruser.com/tip-for-you-own-safety-you-should-never-check-for-updates-in-windows-10/

Be aware of phone scams

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Phone scammers posing as your utility provider may claim you
are delinquent on your bill. They also may threaten to turn off your power,
rig caller ID to make it look like the call is from your utility provider
or tell you to put the money on a prepaid debit card and ask for the
card number. Don’t believe it.

Filed Under: Scams

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Scam Calls Are ‘Epidemic’ — and Getting Worse

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A new report says nearly half of mobile calls will be fraudulent by next year

by  Sarah Elizabeth Adler, AARP, September 14, 2018 | Comments: 200

This can be found at Scam Calls Are ‘Epidemic’ — and Getting Worse

Unknown number calling

Tero Vesalainen/Getty Images

Scam calls are getting more frequent — and quickly. By next year, nearly half of all calls to mobile phones will be fraudulent, according to a new report from telecommunications firm First Orion. The company analyzed data from more than 50 billion calls over 18 months to get a snapshot of what they call the scam-call “epidemic.” Here’s what they found:

  • Mobile phone scam calls are increasing: In 2017, only 3.7 percent of calls to cell phones were fraudulent. This year, that number reached 29.2 percent — and it’s expected to climb to 44.6 percent in 2019.
  • Fraudulent landline calls are declining: Scam calls originating from landlines are decreasing. In 2019, only a projected 24.8 percent of scam calls will come from landlines, a decrease from 56 percent in 2017. This is in part because fewer people use landlines in the first place, but it’s also a sign of just how technologically sophisticated — and successful — mobile scammers have become.
  • Beware the area code: “Neighborhood spoofing” is a tactic in which fraudsters show up as a local number on your caller ID by matching the first six digits of your number. The report estimates that 9 in 10 scam calls will come from a familiar area code next year.

The increasing numbers of scam calls mean it’s harder to determine what calls are legitimate — on either a mobile or landline.

“People just don’t answer their phones anymore,” says Gavin Macomber, First Orion’s senior vice president of marketing and strategic business development.

Learn more about protecting yourself, visit AARP’s Scams & Fraud page. 

According to Macomber, 84 percent of unknown mobile calls (and an even higher percentage of landline calls) go unanswered these days. This can be a real problem for legitimate businesses trying to reach their customers.

And for consumers who get caught up in a scam, the financial repercussions can be serious. The FTC reports that the median loss from a phone-based scam in 2017 was $720.

Luckily, there are several ways to stay protected. For smartphone users, apps such as RoboKiller and Truecaller can help detect and block unwanted calls — but keep in mind that these apps block calls only from known scam numbers, not “spoofed” calls that temporarily hijack legitimate digits.

Some carriers, such as T-Mobile, have started to offer screening services that alert consumers if an incoming call is likely fraudulent — and other carriers are likely to follow suit. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with common scams, like calls from people claiming to work for the IRS or your credit card company.

Macomber says he hopes we’ll soon be living in a world in which consumers can answer their phones again. Until then, just hang up.

New kind of scam to look out for with Facebook

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Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept anything from Lucia Hernandez (Luciana). She has a picture of her sitting by the water)She is a hacker and has the system connected to your messenger account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.
Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them

Filed Under: Scams

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Thank God when you go to bed

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Everybody bow your heads…Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you as humbly as I know how. I confess my sins, known and unknown. Lord you know I’m not perfect, and I fall short everyday of my life. I just want to take time out to say thank you for your mercy and your grace. Thank you for my health, my family, my friends, the roof over my head, food on my table, and everything I have.

This was found on the internet and I thought it was a good reminder of are Father in Heaven.