I hate spammers / scammers

[sgtaylor5]

Title says it.

I’m an independent computer repairman / consultant who works with seniors mostly. So many of my clients see these infected web links I’ve attached:

This is the current scam campaign I’m seeing.

Fixable by “Ctrl + Alt + Delete” on Windows (to bring up Task Manager) then end task/process on current browser. Then clear browser history.

On macOS, fixable by “Option (or Alt), Command, Esc (Escape)” then end task/process on current browser. Then clear browser history.

Some of my customers have lost money on this and there’s nothing I can do about it after the fact. I have virus scanned every machine that I come across with this problem and I’ve never found anything. Either they’re so good that I can’t find anything or what they really want is your money. They are too good at lying to people, scaring them half to death and convincing them to hand over their money.

DON’T!!

Be suspicious, be cautious, learn to pull back from your computer when you don’t know what’s going on - to think about it first. Don’t just dive in.

I am so angry.

 

[Clix Pix]

Not all of us who are now identified as "seniors" are inept when it comes to dealing with computers and online situations. Many of us are the ones who created and built the backbone of it in the first place and others carried things forward, developing more and more strategies and usable, understandable software as the momentum increased....

It is sad, though, that yes, there are many seniors out there who maybe never were comfortable with the whole online thing even when they finally first ventured into it, as certainly there was a learning curve. Some never got beyond the very basics, others struggled and moved forward....

However, now, yes, many interactions with computers and things online seem to be much more complex these days and even some of us who were around in the early days are occasionally baffled by some new function/feature that isn't readily understandable to us. We know enough to check things out thoroughly before taking any sort of action.

With regard to spammers and scammers....they are all too often seemingly clever creatures and one really does need to use common sense and caution when confronting something new that shows up on the computer screen rather than reflexively clicking a button or responding to what seems to be an email from the bank or a friend or, as posted above, a dire warning message from the OS and its security system. Common sense seems to be in short supply these days.....

 

[sgtaylor5]

Not all of us who are now identified as "seniors" are inept when it comes to dealing with computers and online situations. Many of us are the ones who created and built the backbone of it in the first place and others carried things forward, developing more and more strategies and usable, understandable software as the momentum increased....

It is sad, though, that yes, there are many seniors out there who maybe never were comfortable with the whole online thing even when they finally first ventured into it, as certainly there was a learning curve. Some never got beyond the very basics, others struggled and moved forward....

However, now, yes, many interactions with computers and things online seem to be much more complex these days and even some of us who were around in the early days are occasionally baffled by some new function/feature that isn't readily understandable to us. We know enough to check things out thoroughly before taking any sort of action.

With regard to spammers and scammers....they are all too often seemingly clever creatures and one really does need to use common sense and caution when confronting something new that shows up on the computer screen rather than reflexively clicking a button or responding to what seems to be an email from the bank or a friend or, as posted above, a dire warning message from the OS and its security system. Common sense seems to be in short supply these days.....

Re: the first paragraph - Oh, yes. I'd agree totally. But, you'd not be the type of person to call me, either

The types of people who would call me are the types who never were drawn to computers (actually hate them), but they have to have them, grudgingly, to just exist in this modern world. They just want to talk to their far-flung grandchildren.

I try to explain, but most don't even understand a word I say.

 

[Clix Pix]

Very true, this..... I am not a developer or programmer but I was still on the leading edge of computer and software technology and the internet in another way: as one of the early users of said software. It was something we learned early on in my professional career as a librarian, using databases and developing search strategies to get the appropriate "hits" and results for our clients and patrons. We learned about Boolean Logic. We learned how to create a search string of key words which would brig us the results we needed. We marveled at how much easier and faster it was to sit at a computer and type in something and quickly get the information required, whether in a financial industry database, a medical database or some other source.

So yes, I was in the right places at the right time and at the right age to eagerly learn and absorb all of this stuff, and of course when it was financially feasible in the early 90's I eventually had my own personal computer right in my home, where I could explore and learn even more.

Unfortunately, not everyone had those opportunities and yes, over the years I spent time with friends showing them the ropes, patiently explaining the importance of developing strong passwords and of being careful when they got some sort of unexpected popup message or email that required some sort of response on their part. I warned them about reflexively clicking on the link or the button, and reminded them to really pay attention to everything and anything which appeared on their screen, even if it seemed to be an innocuous email from a friend. Did that email sound strange in some way? Was it including a vague or unexplained link while urging an immediate action of clicking on the link?

What about that email purportedly from the bank? Why were they sending an email requiring a response by clicking on and following a link? I told them, any time you see something like that from your bank or some other place with which you do business, rather than blindly just following the link, get on the phone with the bank or the other place and see if in fact there really is an issue with your account.

Anyway, fortunately most of my friends, once they'd really become familiar with the online world in general, quickly caught on to the necessity of paying attention to what they're doing while online even if a situation on the surface appears to be OK.

Sadly, yes, there are too many people, and not just senior citizens, who have come to the online world rather late and who have not had the benefit of learning what most of us learned early-on, and who may or may not have the intelligence and common sense to be alert and wary of everything they see on their computer screen.

 

[sgtaylor5]

Very true, this..... I am not a developer or programmer but I was still on the leading edge of computer and software technology and the internet in another way: as one of the early users of said software. It was something we learned early on in my professional career as a librarian, using databases and developing search strategies to get the appropriate "hits" and results for our clients and patrons. We learned about Boolean Logic. We learned how to create a search string of key words which would brig us the results we needed. We marveled at how much easier and faster it was to sit at a computer and type in something and quickly get the information required, whether in a financial industry database, a medical database or some other source.

So yes, I was in the right places at the right time and at the right age to eagerly learn and absorb all of this stuff, and of course when it was financially feasible in the early 90's I eventually had my own personal computer right in my home, where I could explore and learn even more.

Unfortunately, not everyone had those opportunities and yes, over the years I spent time with friends showing them the ropes, patiently explaining the importance of developing strong passwords and of being careful when they got some sort of unexpected popup message or email that required some sort of response on their part. I warned them about reflexively clicking on the link or the button, and reminded them to really pay attention to everything and anything which appeared on their screen, even if it seemed to be an innocuous email from a friend. Did that email sound strange in some way? Was it including a vague or unexplained link while urging an immediate action of clicking on the link?

What about that email purportedly from the bank? Why were they sending an email requiring a response by clicking on and following a link? I told them, any time you see something like that from your bank or some other place with which you do business, rather than blindly just following the link, get on the phone with the bank or the other place and see if in fact there really is an issue with your account.

Anyway, fortunately most of my friends, once they'd really become familiar with the online world in general, quickly caught on to the necessity of paying attention to what they're doing while online even if a situation on the surface appears to be OK.

Sadly, yes, there are too many people, and not just senior citizens, who have come to the online world rather late and who have not had the benefit of learning what most of us learned early-on, and who may or may not have the intelligence and common sense to be alert and wary of everything they see on their computer screen.

last two paragraphs: You've got smart friends. and the people who just want to trust people keep me busy.

O/T: I'd love to learn how to write like you, Lizkat and ScepticalScribe can. I fear it would take another 36 years for that; it took me that long to know what I know about computers. Back in the mid 90's when I worked at DEC, I learned that nothing is private on the internet and I started self-censoring what I wrote. It's only recently that I've felt free enough to write on forums, though I'm still careful what I say.

 

[KaliYoni]

O/T: I'd love to learn how to write like you, Lizkat and ScepticalScribe can.

I'd say that if your OP is typical of your writing, you already write clearly and cogently.

I'm not familiar with Lizkat but based on what I've seen of Clix Pix and ScepticalScribe here on MR, I'd say their writing is the product of not only frequent writing but also of reading regularly. I believe reading, especially off-line reading, helps to develop and improve writing much more than sitting through endless grammar lessons or trying to memorize somebody's style guide. I also think learning a second language is useful because it helps move the structure and worldview of one's native language from an implicit to an explicit understanding.

 

[sgtaylor5]

I'd say that if your OP is typical of your writing, you already write clearly and cogently.

I'm not familiar with Lizkat but based on what I've seen of Clix Pix and ScepticalScribe here on MR, I'd say their writing is the product of not only frequent writing but also of reading regularly. I believe reading, especially off-line reading, helps to develop and improve writing much more than sitting through endless grammar lessons or trying to memorize somebody's style guide. I also think learning a second language is useful because it helps move the structure and worldview of one's native language from an implicit to an explicit understanding.

Sorry for the late reply, but I've had a busy weekend working. I don't work Sundays, but the business owner didn't want to change a network switch and install an NAS (Terramaster (very easy to set up)) if the other employees and customers were there.

@KaliYoni, thanks for the encouragement. I think I've been reading far more with the advent of the internet than when I was a child. I was always head down in a book designed for an adult (non-fiction, science-oriented, not really fiction) back then. My parents had invested in the Time-Life Science Library; I think it was high school or college oriented reading level. Anyway, I ate them up.

Now, I'm reading paper books a lot less, but I'm not giving them up, either. I've had my losses, some self-inflicted, but not anymore.

I have had some German exposure in high school and a year of French in college, but that's all. Was looking at Japanese a year ago, but BOY is that a hard language to learn with three different writing systems that are intermingled in normal writing. It's very culturally complex with the honorifics system.

 

[KaliYoni]

Was looking at Japanese a year ago, but BOY is that a hard language to learn

The US State Department agrees with you!

----------
Category IV Languages: 88 weeks (2200 class hours)

“Super-hard languages” – Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers.

Arabic	Chinese – Cantonese	Chinese – Mandarin
Japanese	Korean

https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

 

[MajorFubar]

Sadly I don't see these scammers going away as long as even 1 in say 1000 people fall for the scams.
EDIT and truth be told there probably isn't even a human behind them now (well in so far as no human is sending scam emails out). We have this mental-image of some poor Nigerian working for pittance for some scummy organisation, tasked with sending out 1,000 scam emails a day to elicit the bank account details from the trusting and vulnerable. It's all going to be electronic these days, with a system that will send 1,000 scam emails a minute let alone in a day.