![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2016\/scam-small.png\")
<\/p>\nAs someone who, along with Darcy, works on dozens of PCs each week, I can tell you from personal experience there are a lot of people getting scammed every day – and not just for a couple of bucks – but for hundreds of dollars.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I tend to think people get a little careless out there on the ‘net at times, and I’m sure they do – all of us do. But today I got a taste of what a lot of these poor folks who are scammed out of hundreds of dollars run into on the web. And it’s not pretty.<\/p>\n
This morning, I was going to a site I visit quite often when suddenly I noticed a horrid beeping coming from my laptop speakers – the dire beeping of a dying hard drive, a terribly sick PC or some other unseen and unknown computer malady were my first thoughts.<\/p>\n
I looked up at my browser and this is what I saw:<\/p>\n
AllAnd\u00a0th<\/p>\n
Notice at the top of his screenshot that it says “Virus alert” and in the background it looks like a computer screen (my computer screen) with a bunch of fatal errors being displayed.<\/p>\n
This kind of sleazeball scam with all these dire warnings, awful computer noises, and a browser that you can’t easily close, is a scam designed to scare those are are no\u00a0computer savvy. When they panic, they don’t think, and they call the toll-free number.<\/p>\n
But they can’t fool you, I tells ya! YOU\u00a0can beat these slimeballs.<\/p>\n
Notice\u00a0above, that my REAL ISP and my REAL IP address are displayed, which I imagine causes panic in those who don’t know that every browser broadcasts your IP address, location, your ISP and a lot more information about you. If you don’t believe me, just visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.whatsmyip.org\/<\/a>\u00a0and see how much data your browser broadcasts about you. Will all this info broadcasted from your browser constantly, it’s really easy for these scammers to tap into that info stream and make it look like there is something very wrong with your computer – after all they have your ISP, your IP address, your operating system (even 64 or 32 bit) and the name of the browser you use. All very convincing. And though they try to make it seem personal by showing your personal IP address, browser & operating system, and name of your ISP, you’ll notice they don’t say “Dear TC”, Dear Charles, “Dear Sally”, etc., they just say “Dear Time Warner Cable Internet Llc Customer”. They misspelled LLC as Llc as well. “Dear customer” is usually a dead giveaway that something’s not right.<\/p>\n Then\u00a0they tell you that\u00a0“for your safety”,\u00a0you won’t be able to close your browser unless you call their toll-free number and talk to a “certified technician”. More like a certified slimeball!<\/p>\n And sure enough, when you try to close your browser, you can’t close it. Instead you hear more awful beeping sounds. Everything is intended to induce panic, and get to you to call some slimeball company’s toll-free number. If you do call, they’ll set you up – really set you up. When you call their toll-free number, they will give you a link to connect to them so they can “analyze” and “fix” your computer. And of course, they’ll run fake scans on your computer showing a litany of fake PC-killing malware and viruses. They’ll show you hundreds, even thousands of fake files that they will say are infecting your computer – and\u00a0for just $99 or $199, or even $299 – they can clean all this bad stuff off, fix your computer, protect your identity and save your computer from a terrible fate. And sadly, many people, pay the slimeballs. We have known people who have paid up to $500 these scumbags (we helped them get their money back).<\/p>\n There are a lot of lessons here… and several ways you can beat these scammers. Remember these things:<\/p>\n d.) Completely power off your computer and leave it off for a few minutes. Then turn it back on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n These scams are everywhere. No antimalware or antivirus can stop you from picking up the phone and calling a tool-free number. But you can protect yourself. Never panic. When people panic, sometimes they don’t think clearly. And remember that these scumbags\u00a0are smart…\u00a0but you are smarter<\/em>. Think ahead. Be prepared for something like this, \u00a0so if something like this happens to you, you’re ready, and you know exactly what to do.<\/p>\n Always use common sense. Never ever call a toll-free number which appears suddenly while your browsing the web\/ Never give give these slimeballs your credit card number. Never give them access to your computer by allowing them to connect\u00a0remotely.<\/p>\n Look carefully at the pictures above and familiarize yourself with them. Then follow the tips in this post, and you’ll know\u00a0how to get yourself out of a situation like this.<\/p>\n Don’t let Slimeballs Inc. steal your money or ruin your computer. Now you know what to to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Slimeballs Inc. – The Anatomy of a Scam As someone who, along with Darcy, works on dozens of PCs each week, I can tell you from personal experience there are a lot of people getting scammed every day – and not just for a couple of bucks – but for hundreds of dollars. Sometimes I tend to think\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1655,1462,1433,1678,1669,1656,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11700"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11710,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11700\/revisions\/11710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2016\/scam-small1.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
\na warning that certain programs are open and need to close before you restart – \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 do not click Cancel. Let Windows close all programs and reboot.<\/p>\n