Category Archives: Rip Offs

Phishing Scams, Rip Offs, Scam, Spam

Ten Ways to Spot a Scam

Leave a comment
Photo of Stop Scams photo
If you’re smart, you won’t get cheated by the many criminals out there.

We’ve noticed so many new kinds of scams lately that we thought we’d update you with some tips on how to spot one. Off we go:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it most definitely is. Just as you know you didn’t already win the Publisher’s Clearing House millions, you didn’t win the Yahoo/Microsoft email contest either. Oh, and about that money held in escrow in England after that guy died? Nope, not going to happen.

2. Most banks, if not every bank or financial institution will never email you about a sketchy transaction or suspicious activity. They’ll either call you on the phone or simply suspend your access until you both can sort it out.

3. Anyone you do business with already knows your name and account information. If someone calls you and asks you to verify anything with them, tell them no, then call the bank/company/whoever yourself, just to check. They will know immediately from their records whether they have contacted you recently.

4. Do not answer polls on the phone, specially ones about home security, no matter how legitimate the person may sound. While you are answering the questions, you’re also giving the caller all kinds of information about your home, your current state of security as well as the hours when you’re there.

5. Never give money to anyone who is going door to door in your neighborhood. Even if they say they are from the Children’s Wish Fund or the Heart and Stroke Foundation, don’t give them any money. Why? Most of the time these people are scammers. Even if they aren’t, they are making money from the money that you hand out. In most cases, they are paid reps not volunteers. Give directly to the charity, and choose the charity carefully. This ensures that the money goes directly where you want it to, not into some scammers pocket.

6. Never donate a dime to the folks who hang around just outside the grocery store collecting for children’s charities or pet adoption outfits. We’ve checked dozens of these and not one has ever been associated with a registered charity. The money you give goes directly into someone’s pocket, not to a charity.

7. If you get a message on your answering machine and you don’t know who called, don’t call them back if you don’t recognize the area code. The 1-800 series of numbers are usually OK but there are numbers out that that will cost you hundreds of dollars a minute in charges. You’ll get a big surprise on your next home phone or cell phone bill. Look at it this way. If it’s important, they’ll call you back, right?

8. Don’t add unknown apps to your mobile phone. Some of the horoscope or trivia apps will send you text messages every day or several a day, all the while charging you money for them. Getting out of these charges is next to impossible. This goes for some Facebook apps too. In the signup process the charges will be hidden in the fine print and, if you’re like everyone else in the world, you never read the fine print. Getting a daily horoscope just isn’t worth $2.50 per text message, is it?

9. Check emails for spelling mistakes. That goes for websites, too. If you happen to get directed to a website that looks legitimate, check for misspelled words, bad English, etc. Scam or spam email is known for grammar errors and words that are misspelled. ‘Informations’, with an s, is a popular mistake that you will see over and over again.

10. Update your technology regularly. Windows updates itself whenever a new exploit is detected. This goes for your mobile devices as well. For us, a new version of WordPress is installed as soon as we find out about it. These updates help you avoid identity theft. By the way, if you get a notice of an update that comes from an unexpected source, let’s say while you’re on a website, stop what you’re doing, close the site and restart your browser. Chrome, for instance, updates itself every time you start it. Internet Explorer doesn’t but that in itself is a great reason to switch to Chrome, isn’t it?

Stay safe out there. If you have a security concern, talk to us about it. If you have found a new scam, let us know so we can spread the word. Do it in the comments below or Like our Facebook page and tell us there. Here is the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

Domain Registration, Phishing Scams, Rip Offs, Spam

Domain Name Scam – look out for this one

Leave a comment

We own quite a few domain names here at Computers Made Simple. All are registered with one company, all are up to date and all are set to automatically renew on their respective anniversary dates. We get substantial amounts of email from our domain company but we also get emails from the vulture service that is known as ‘Domain Service’.

 

This particularly loathsome outfit scours the web for domains that are about to expire. Once they find such a domain, they send out an email, from a hotmail account if you can believe it, that looks like this:

Photo of Domain Name Scam 1
This looks vaguely like a domain renewal notice.

 

Next, farther down the email, comes the prices:

Photo of Domain Name Scam 2
Ridiculous prices for nothing, absolutely nothing.

 

Lastly, here is a description (in fine print) of what this email is actually soliciting:

Photo of Domain Name Scam 3
This is a ‘search engine submission’, something that is completely unnecessary these days.

 

Once you read the fine print, you’ll see that this is just another scam. With the likes of Google and Bing, there is no need for ‘search engine submission’ at all. Additionally, this looks vaguely like a domain registration renewal, doesn’t it? Even if it it was, the prices are at least three times higher than any other company out there. There is no ‘lifetime’ renewal, by the way.

The big clue in this would be the originating email address. We can guarantee that no reputable company uses a hotmail address. The web is full of scams like this. We’ll try to help you identify them as they come to our attention.

Thanks for reading!

Microsoft Xbox Live Gold

Microsoft’s Big Mistake

Leave a comment

Every now and then (think Windows ME), Microsoft screws up. Although it’s too early to tell, Windows 8 might be another gigantic mistake. Right now, however, I’m talking about Xbox Live and the big mistake Microsoft made with it.

If you buy an Xbox 360, Microsoft asks that you pay a monthly fee to gain access to something called Xbox Live Gold. Remember that you’ve already shelled out big bucks for the game console, only to find out that the bulk of your online experience is going to cost you even more money. Big mistake on Microsoft’s part.

By insisting that Xbox 360 users pony up money for access to Xbox Live Gold, Microsoft is shutting out millions of users from spending money with Microsoft and its premium content providers. Want Netflix? Add the Xbox Live Gold monthly fee to the till. Want Hulu or any of the other premium content? Add the Xbox Live Gold monthly fee to the till. Microsoft could have charged the providers a fee to have access to its Xbox Live users but they decided to charge their own users, instead. In a stupendous moment of short-sightedness, Microsoft has pulled a classic ‘forest for the trees’ move here.

The big picture is that Xbox Live is a portal to the online Xbox experience. Once people get online with their Xbox consoles, the world of online shopping should be open to them. Instead, Microsoft charges you before you even get into the store. An analogy to this would be if Gillette started charging for its razors. Gillette now offers its razors pretty much for free. Hell, they’ll even send one out to you without you even asking for it! Everyone knows that the money is in the blades, not the razors.

Microsoft wants it both ways. Instead of seeing the potential in customers using the Xbox Live site as an online store to generate revenue, Microsoft has slammed that door shut. In a revolving series of discounts advertised on the skimpy free portion of Xbox Live site, Microsoft offers free weekends of the Gold experience, as if someone somewhere realizes the importance of this particular online portal but is bound by some internal law at Microsoft that nothing is ever free.

By not looking at the big picture, Microsoft has limited itself in a way that Sony never did with its PS3. The PS3 experience is much more attractive for consumers. Instead of having to shell out a monthly fee, PS3 users have access to a wealth of content as well as ample advertising for premium material. Sony has you covered. It offers you a good amount of ‘free’ while at the same time having a platform for ‘extra cost’.

In some ways, I think this is a difference between the American business template as opposed to the Japanese template. Instead of gouging you for everything, Sony at least, gives you a decent amount of content and has a built-in platform for its own advertising. Microsoft has missed the boat completely on this one.

Thanks for reading!

Rip Offs

Avoid Getting Ripped Off by Staples

11 Comments

If you buy a new laptop or desktop from Staples, you’re likely going to get ripped off…unless you listen to me carefully.

While Staples may have good prices on their computers and peripherals, they are running a scam in their stores, at least in Canada. If you’re in the U.S., let me know if they are using the same scam down there.

The sales staff at most outlets are very helpful, when you can find one, and they seem to know their stuff. The problems begin once you decide on which model you want to buy. When you get to that point, the csr (customer service rep) will do his or her damnedest to hook you up with all kinds of extras that you DON’T NEED. Here are some examples:

1. A bogus fee to transfer your files (documents, photos, videos, etc.) from your old computer to your new one. This charge was recently quoted  to be over $200.00. This is a completely unnecessary fee. Don’t pay it. Set yourself up with a flash drive, 8 or 16 gigs should be enough, and transfer the files yourself. A drive that size might be $15.00 or $20.00 but it’s both useful after you’ve backed up your stuff and a lot cheaper than the ridiculous transfer fee that Staples wants to charge.

TIP:Here is my how-to about backing up your computer  Part one, part two and part three.

2. An expensive and completely phony charge to set up your new computer. Staples will tell you that the charge is to load the software that comes with your computer onto it. The csr will lie to your face and tell you that the software isn’t already on the hard drive, that it takes hours to load it but they will do it all for you. The fee is, again, in the $200.00 range. Trust me, this money is the worst ripoff out there. Every new computer comes loaded with all kinds of software ALREADY ON THE HARD DRIVE! There is absolutely nothing for you to do on a new laptop or desktop except to create a log-in name and a password, if you want one. The password is optional, of course. There is nothing else to do, even if the csr insists that there is. Don’t listen to the csr and if things get out of hand, walk out of the store. If you are firm about buying from Staples, in spite of what I am telling you, call their head office and insist that the store stop pushing you into these totally unnecessary extras.

3. Extra warranties. All computers come with a year warranty, at least they do in Canada. Believe me, if something is going to happen to a computer, it’s going to happen in the first few months. After that, there is no sense in paying for extra coverage that will, undoubtedly, be money down the drain. HP (and Compaq), Dell and most other computer manufacturers offer these extra warranties anyway. You have time to think about things like this, you don’t have to buy them at the store level. No matter how hard the csr or the manager tries, just buy the damn computer, nothing else.

4. Pay extra for Microsoft Word. Most new computers come with a Starter Edition of Word. This version of Word is fully functional, not time limited and is included in the price of the computer. There is no reason to pay extra for Office unless you KNOW that you must have it. Regardless, you can often get deals from Microsoft on the Student Edition of Office. Alternatively, you can download Libre Office, a completely free, open source version which is compatible with Microsoft Office. Get it here: http://www.libreoffice.org/

If you are firm about buying from Staples, in spite of what I am telling you, call their head office and insist that the store stop pushing you into these totally unnecessary extras. All of these things are generally done at the store level, none of this seems to be part of Staples corporate policy. However, head office must know that this kind of thing is going on and, as far as I can see, has done nothing to stop it. I have gone so far as to interrupt a csr who was deliberately lying to a customer in the store, saying that their new laptop had to be set up by an expert because the software wasn’t already loaded on the hard drive. In spite of my protests, the csr continued to mislead the customer. I finally took the customer aside, told them who I was and what I did for a living, and walked them out of the store. At least I saved one person from being conned by a Staples csr.

If other stores are doing the same thing, let me know. Buy the computer if you want but don’t pay for ANYTHING else.

Thanks for reading!