Two Tweaks To Avoid Email Scams

The Internet and Email are the most dangerous avenues for viruses and scams. I am going to show you a couple of ways to protect yourself from these threats via email.

The first one, is to hide the message reading pane; and the second one is to use the “to” column to verify the recipient of the email before you open it.

Windows Live Mail SampleDepending on your email client (the program you use to view your email) the settings should be similar to what I am about to describe. For this exercise I will use the Windows Live Mail program that comes with your windows Vista, 7, or 8.  If you have a different operating system and email client, leave me a message at bottom of this article and I will respond with a specific solution for your case. Continue reading “Two Tweaks To Avoid Email Scams”

How to Change Your CMOS Battery

What is a CMOS?

CMOS Battery inside a pcYou can read in more detail about that question here:

There are two major ideas behind CMOS. One refers to the circuitry that allows digital cameras to collect the light that produces the pictures taken. I will not be talking about that one today.

This topic is about how to replace the battery that keeps the CMOS in your computer working properly. Continue reading “How to Change Your CMOS Battery”

OpenSSL what is it and why should you care?

Heartbleed emblemOpenSSL is an encryption method used by websites to provide security against prying eyes.

The problem is that someone found a flaw in the programming of a certain kind of SSL. The flaw allows crooks to peer into the working areas of the encryption process and extract important information from it, such as passwords, or other private information.

If you remember passing notes in class and getting caught by the teacher, you quickly learned to encrypt your messages.  You devised a way to change the meaning of your letters or words.  As an example, you might have changed the letter A to a C, the B to a D, C to a E, etc. Hello John would look like: Jgnnq Lqjp. Continue reading “OpenSSL what is it and why should you care?”

A man stiffed out of $1300 by Microsoft Tech Support

I have already warned you about this scam.  Microsoft Tech Support will NOT call you because your computer is broken or infected. But unethical jerks who will pretend to be from Microsoft will.  And they will try to suck as much money off of you as possible.

Fake Microsoft Tech Call Scam in progress
“You’re calling me from where?”

Take this man. As the news reported, he was scammed out of $1300.  He himself thought it was a large sum that could potentially pay for two brand new computers.  Yet, he fell for the sweet talker on the other end of the phone call. Continue reading “A man stiffed out of $1300 by Microsoft Tech Support”