Ducktoes Spyware Blog

Yesterday, I talked about Phishing, and how to watch out for it. Interestingly enough, today I read in the Virus Bulletin about a US supermarket chain that almost lost 10 million dollars to a phish scam. Read the article here.

Everyday I receive phishing e-mails. Today I received one pretending to be from PayPal. They asked for my credit card number and pin. Right now some unsuspecting person probably is putting in his or her information on that fraudulent site.

To blow the whistle on the phishers, and prevent more potential victims from getting scammed, there is a site called Phishtank, where you can post phish websites. I posted the Paypal phish on it. When you get phish e-mails you too can post them and the websites they link to on Phishtank

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Phishing is a scam that comes by e-mail. The e-mail claims to be from a bank or other financial service such as Western Union, Pay Pal, e-Bay, or on-line stock broker. Often it is from an institution where you don’t even have an account, but sometimes, by chance, it’s from a place familiar to you.

The e-mail is designed to trick you into clicking a link to the phishing website, that is, a forgery of a website you trust, and entering your credit card, social security/social insurance number, password, account number, or other personal information. Sometimes the e-mail threatens that your account will be limited or other penalty if you don’t go to the phoney website, other times it promises money or other benefit. Ironically, like a self-prophesy, some e-mails warn that someone is trying to access your account, and they are right, someone is trying to access your account: they are!

A few years ago I received my first phishing e-mail; it was supposedly from Pay Pal. I clicked the link to the website and was asked to enter my account number and debit PIN. I knew Paypal would never ask for my PIN, so immediately I realized it was a phish, before I knew the term.  In other words, it was a scam.
My dad once entered his credit card on a phishing site. A few days later, his bank called and asked if he’d been shopping in Czechoslovakia. He was lucky his bank recognized a “phishy” purchase and contacted him.

Yesterday I received an e-mail, supposedly from the IRS, but in reality from fraudulent criminals attempting to lure me to a phoney IRS website and claim a tax refund. The creators of this phish e-mail were in such a rush they even left telltale signs of the “<" characters that happen when you copy and paste an e-mail. They couldn't be bothered to delete them. If the IRS does send e-mails to people about refunds, which I doubt, they would send more professional-looking ones. The phishermen were counting that my greed for the $300 refund would surmount any misgivings about the shoddy-looking e-mail. But it went directly into my "Bulk" folder in my Yahoo mail. And even if it hadn't, I can recognize a phish e-mail right away.

So, protect your identity, be aware and learn to recognize phish too, and don't get lured into any "phishy" sites.

Get your web feet wet, safely, with Ducktoes!

I’ve always thought and heard (from other techies mostly) that IncrediMail was spyware, but after listening to the couple of ardent Incredimail fans among my clients, I am reconsidering the assumption. IncrediMail users really love this e-mail program; they love it so much they don’t care if it is spyware, they can live with it, they tell me. So I set out to discover for myself whether or not IncrediMail is spyware. Using the Internet for research, I found many websites pro and con Incredimail. This is IncrediMail’s own response. So perhaps this is a bum rap as far as the privacy and spyware issue, but IncrediMail certainly is adware and makes computers much slower, according to many reviews. This is one.

No e-mail is worth a much slower computer to me. A slower computer means a longer work day and more frustation. But if you love IncrediMail more than speed, then perhaps it’s worth it to you. Who am I to say? It’s your computer. And probably if you have the rest of your computer working well and quickly, IncrediMail shouldn’t slow it down that much. Go for it. Ducktoes can help speed up your computer with or without IncrediMail. Call 403-483-0105.

I’ve seen time and time again, client computers running too slowly with Norton or McCaffee Internet Security. Computers with these programs can take an eternity to boot, an eternity to start Word or go on the Internet, an eternity and a half to restart or shut down, an until-hell-freezes-over to do almost everything. And I’ve seen Norton Anti-virus that doesn’t ever update entirely and does this inadequate updating excruciatingly slowly and ineffectively. And these programs cost money!!!! One client’s computer took 1 minute and 56 seconds to boot and 1 minute and 10 to start Word while running Norton Internet Security. I uninstalled the Norton and voila! the computer booted in 26 seconds and Word started in just 18!!!

These programs slow down the computer as much as the spyware it is suppose to prevent. See this tutorial on how to protect your computer without Norton or McCaffee. Or if you live in Calgary let Ducktoes do it for you. Call 483-0105.

If you are using your own or someone else’s computer and it is slow, ad-ware, spyware, and malware-loaded, or if you are using Limewire or other P2P, never enter your credit card numbers or other sensitive information on-line, because you never know where your data will end up. A spyware-infested computer will be painstakingly slow and its Internet Explorer will have these tell-tale symptoms: extra toolbars across the top of the browser (which are not Yahoo or Google) or a hijacked browser (a bogus ad-filled search engine) that you can’t get away from or get rid of when you are attempting to go to your preferred search engine.

Yet sometimes your computer may have nasty spyware or malware without being slow. But if you don’t take precautions, your computer definitely will get it, and sooner rather than later.

In fact, if you do not even understand what I’m talking about, then STOP doing your banking and shopping on-line!!! You need to educate yourself and take preventative actions FIRST. You need to install a good virus software (AVG is free) and several anti-spyware programs (Spybot, Ad-aware, or AVG Anti-spyware.) You need to run them routinely. Or buy Spy Sweeper. It runs automatically. And even after you learn how to do protect yourself and your computer, or get someone else to do it for you, never enter your info on a public computer, or computer you don’t manage. If you don’t want to take the time to learn how install and run virus and anti-spyware programs for your own internet safety, then hire a good computer techie to do it for you. Read this blog to educate yourself. Ducktoes can help if you live in the Calgary area. Call (403)483-0105. You can–with a the right software and precautions– use your computer for shopping or banking safely, and Ducktoes can help you do it!!