Keeping the baddies out
Contrary to popular belief, viruses and "hacking" in the traditional sense in the context of home users is not an issue in today's world. All "hacking" at the user level is accomplished by the extremely professional bad guys simply requesting access to your computer and that request is freely granted. You think you are talking to someone legitimate when, in fact, you are talking to scammers.
We see the following:
- Scammers lying to you. You grant them full access to your entire computer.
- Ransomware. Mostly targets businesses. Haven't seen it in years outside of business.
- Junk advertising being installed. Annoying but not stealing anything.
- Junk or malicious software is described using various jargon: viruses, malware, spyware, adware, ransomware, worms, trojans, blah, blah, blah. It all gets removed the same way - digging into the files and deleting it.
All the bad stuff gets installed by tricking someone into clicking something on the screen or in an email, or calling a phone number. That's it. No one is breaking into your computer. Something was clicked on because it was thought to be legitimate or a scammer told you to click something.
If you had any conversation with a scammer, the computer must be brought into the shop to have any leftover remote access software or other bad stuff removed. If it cannot be brought in, call immediately. We've had people say they didn't let them into the computer when, in fact, they did.
All email is scammer mail unless proven otherwise.All phone numbers that appear in popups, windows, messages, screens, search results, etc are scammers. Never search for tech support numbers. Assume the first 4-6 search results are all scammer numbers. Go to their website directly to get a phone number.
Never, ever, call a phone number or click a link in an email to fix an issue, pay a bill, get a refund or God knows what. If there is a banking question, contact your bank directly. If there is a billing issue, contact the vendor directly. If it's something with Amazon, log into your Amazon account.
Any message that tells you to call a number or log in using a button in an email, delete the email and call or login directly to whomever supposedly sent you the email. There is a 100% chance nothing is wrong and it was a fake email.
Never Never Never Never call a number or talk to anyone claiming to be someone from anywhere about anything. Hang up! Hang up! Hang up!
They are all scammers!!!!
If you get a call out of the blue, do not play with them if you know they are scammers. They know your number and can mess with it forever. Just hang up, hang up, hang up!
If they say they are the fraud department from your bank, the government, the IRS, social security, medicare, medicaid, Amazon, etc, hang up or delete the email. Contact them directly if you feel you must. Assume they are scammers.
Remember, no legitimate company such as Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Dell, HP, Amazon, or the government could care less about your well being. They will never call or email you about anything regarding your health and safety.
However, if you just can't resist and call the number, you'll know it's a scammer when they answer the call in a few rings. A real company makes you navigate an endless menu system just to get to a human being in a reasonable number of hours.
That's it. The only thing that needs to be done to secure your computer and online accounts is to do absolutely nothing. Ignore anyone claiming to be from somewhere, someone you know needing money, or anything at all.
Tj
