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how to identify scammers and protect yourself

Email Phishing /Remote Support Scams

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Never provide remote access to your device to someone over the phone that you don’t personally know and trust! Scammers will often direct unsuspecting users to visit a website and will typically either ask the user for a code or will provide one for you to enter on your device. Microsoft or any other company will never directly contact you by phone or email to provide you with unsolicited support.

We have received many phone calls and service requests due to the increasing rise of email and phone scams occurring. We encourage all users to read over the following information to know what to look for to spot scams and avoid being taken advantage of.

Email Scams

Most email scams occur by the scammer emailing an unsuspecting user impersonating a legitimate company or one of your email contacts.

Never respond directly to emails claiming you placed an order you don’t recognize or that you owe money or are owed a refund. This has been the most common scam recently, many users report receiving emails that appear to be from an antivirus supplied such as Norton or Mcafee claiming that automatic renewal for their products is enabled and that you will be billed. Other times users receive emails for an order that they did not place showing delivery for an address that is unfamiliar. Users that respond to the email, click on any links, or call the number listed are often asked to provide sensitive information and/or remote access to your device. Scammers have gone so far as to make it appear that they have accidentally deposited funds into your bank account and at times will even attempt to guilt the user into believing their “mistake” will cost them their job. At this point in their scheme, they will instruct the users to reimburse them for their mistake, typically by purchasing prepaid gift cards which are untraceable once cashed.  In reality, no money has actually been deposited into the user’s account as they are providing false images that are misleading the unsuspecting user.

Click here to read what Norton has to say about phishing emails involving Norton.

Check the sender’s actual email address not just the name displayed. Often scammers use email addresses that are similar to the actual email address but not exact. For example, an email from Amazon would always come from an @amazon.com email address not something slightly misspelled like @amacom.com. If you get an email from someone that you normally correspond with via email but they aren’t speaking in a manner that is consistent with their normal behavior, are making spelling errors, or are asking for “favors” it is possible that the sender’s email account has been compromised. We have also seen scammers create new email addresses (most commonly outlook.com accounts) that are identical in spelling except for the @outlook.com portion. If you suspect you’re receiving emails from someone other than the actual sender do not respond instead reach out to the sender in another manner and let them know. If you believe your email has been compromised you should change your password immediately. If you suddenly stop receiving emails that could also be a sign that your own account has been compromised and that emails are being redirected to the scammer’s email address.

Phone Scams

A plumber would never call you to tell you that your pipes are leaking, Microsoft or any other tech support company is not going to call you to tell you that your computer is infected or that you have a virus. (The only exception to that is if you personally signed up for a service that involved your device being monitored. Many of these services offered are scams and we only recommend subscribing to these types of services with local companies that you know and trust in person.) Remember a scammer will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to convince you that something is wrong and that if you don’t follow their instructions that either you or they will be in some sort of trouble.

Pop-Up Scams

If you are on the internet and suddenly find yourself unable to do anything except to seemingly call a phone number for support you are likely visiting a malicious website or one that has been compromised. While you are on your computer if you are receiving notices in the corner of your screen that something is wrong, you have a virus, or need to renew your antivirus you should be aware that many of these notifications are providing false information. Even if you are unable to get rid of the notifications or pop-ups on your own, you should never click on any links or call any phone numbers associated with these notices. Instead, you can reach out to your local computer repair shop (us included!) to have your computer cleaned up and to have any remote software removed.

Text / Instant Messenger Scams

Anyone who has your phone number or email address (or randomly selects your number or generates your email address as a sender) can attempt to reach you. While you can block a specific email address or phone number it doesn’t stop these things from occurring in the first place. It’s important to never believe any messages or notices you receive that sound too good to be true. For example, a popular scam on social media websites occurs when users are led to believe they are going to get something free or that they are requesting some kind of information often for things that are too good to be true. Scammers often take advantage of unfortunate situations such as the rental market shortage or those looking for work at home opportunities.

If you find yourself falling victim to a scam involving your computer, you should immediately disconnect from the internet until you have confirmed that your device is free of remote software that could leave you even more vulnerable. At Jester’s, we offer our clean-up/maintenance service for a flat rate of $99, contact us for support or more information.

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SCAM ALERT: Protecting yourself from rising Amazon & Comcast email scams

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By Aysë Stenabaugh

Unfortunately, scammers are finding new and clever ways to trick unsuspecting users into providing access to sensitive personal information. The most common methods continue to be via emails, phone calls, and sometimes text messages. It can sometimes be difficult to determine which ones to take seriously and which ones to ignore. At Jester’s Computer Services we hear of just about every new scam that comes along. Read on to learn a few tips to help you spot a few common scams, how to protect yourself and what to do if you do find yourself involved with one.

Amazon has become a frequent target – scammers know how many people use the retail giant and they’re using it to their advantage. The most common Amazon scams typically involve an emailed purchase confirmation for an item that you clearly did not purchase which will also be addressed to a physical delivery address that is not yours. This is an example of phishing and emails like these, as well as similar emails from Amazon (and other businesses and online retailers) that warn you of “fraudulent activity” or other account concerns should be investigated but with caution.

If you receive a notice for a purchase that you don’t recognize or if you are ever asked to click a link including to verify your account security, pause and be on alert for the following indicators of a scammer. First, check the email address that the email is From, not just the name itself. Be sure to check on the full @xyz.com address and pay extra CLOSE attention to subtle misspellings. An email from Amazon or any other big organization is not going to be coming from a public domain like Gmail or Yahoo, they should come from amazon.com for example. Second, if the email contains an attachment, you can almost bet it’s a scam, definitely don’t open any attachments! Third, you can check the “reply-to” email address and ensure that it matches the from address. If all three check out you can still visit the website in question directly rather than via any links within the email. If the notification is legitimate, you should be able to locate the notice from within your account on their website.

The same concept applies if you were to receive a phone call from “Amazon” or any other individual who calls that wishes for you to provide personal information including but not limited to; your address, date of birth, social security number, or a code obtained from a website or software in order to provide remote access to your device. Instead, hang up the phone, do not provide the caller with any information, or engage in conversation with them. If you are concerned that the call is potentially legitimate the caller should understand if you tell them that you will call them back at a more convenient time. Do not call the number back that called you or any phone number that the caller may have provided. Instead, find a verified phone number to reach the company by using a billing statement, by using a quality search engine such as Google or, by finding the contact information on their website. Even if a caller comes up with a legitimate Name and OR phone number, they could be a scammer.

Comcast users have been a huge target for scammers as of late. Their latest trick once they gain access to your email account via a compromised password is to forward all of your emails to a new email address with the same username but a different domain, usually outlook.com. For example, if your email address was abc@comcast.net the email address the scammer would create to forward your emails to would be abc@outlook.com. In addition to doing this, the scammers are creating a filter rule which redirects any new emails to your correct email address into the inbox and is deleted. As a user, you may notice that you stop receiving emails all together or you might notice that only your usual contacts aren’t responding to your emails at all. What the scammers are actually doing is emailing your contacts in an attempt to extort them for money. They don’t do so in an obvious way. They might for example, request that the email recipient send a gift card to them as a favor since you’re out of town and need to get a birthday gift for a family member. If you notice this happening to you change your email password right away and notify your contacts NOT to respond to the email. If they have already, ask them to change their password and inform them that they too should notify their contacts.

To be clear none of the above indicate that any security breach to your device has occurred unless you have given someone access to your device, clicked on a link or if you opened a malicious attachment. Anyone can access your email account from anywhere if they have the email address and password as is the case in the Comcast scam mentioned above. Comcast users should also note that any emails received from a comcast.net email account are NEVER correspondence from Comcast themselves. All emails from Comcast the company will come from a comcast.com email address.

If you have been the victim of a scam, Jesters Computers can help; whether you require a Cleanup of your device, advice, or one-on-one support. Contact Jester’s Computers located in Fairfield by calling or texting 717-642-6611, emailing customerservice@jesterscomputers.com, or by visiting us on the web on Facebook or www.jesterscomputers.com