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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, October 11, 2009
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Please have a mammogram or take someone you love to have one.
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Cell Phone Scams and How to Avoid Them
Tips & Tricks: Alphabetize the Start Menu
This Week's Topic: Adjust Vista Display for Better Performance
Question: Rename Multiple Files
Websites of Interest: Columbus Day; October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month; Redwoods; The Heart Information Center
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Special Feature: Cell Phone Scams and How to Avoid Them
The following article is from scambusters.org
Cell phones have changed our lives, but so have cell phone scams...
This clever technology that keeps us constantly in touch with friends, relatives and even the Internet may be a boon, but it has also opened up more of the airwaves to crooks and snoopers. In some cases, further technological advances have made it tougher for certain cell phone scams to work, but elsewhere the crooks are having a field day.
In this Scambusters issue, we identify 10 of the most common cell phone scams and the action you can take to avoid or reduce the risk of them.
1. Subscriber fraud
Subscriber fraud is simply an offshoot of identity theft. It is far and away the biggest cell phone scam, costing the industry an estimated $150m a year and causing untold anguish to the victims.
How it works: Someone steals your personal details and opens a cell phone account in your name, racking up huge bills that may land in your mailbox.
Action: Take all possible steps to protect yourself against identity theft.
2. Stolen or lost phones
An estimated three million cell phones are stolen or lost in the US every year! In the wrong hands they can be used to make unauthorized calls -- one recent victim faced a $26,000 bill.
Alternatively, they can be mined for any personal and contact details stored on them. In other words, loss of your phone can be just a prelude for costly identity theft.
Action: Look after your cell phone as carefully as you care for your wallet. If you must use it to store confidential information, use password protection.
3. Cloning
Crooks use scanners to read your cell phone identity, including the number and its unique serial number. Then they program another phone with the same details and make calls at your expense.
Action: This is one area where the crime fighters have made progress, with new technology that makes it more difficult to scan for the number. There's nothing more you can do other than keep a close eye on your bill.
4. Eavesdropping
Cell phone scam merchants may find it more difficult to scan for your phone ID but they can do potentially much more dangerous things -- like listening in to your calls and downloading your phone usage records. They can even track your phone to know where you are or where you have been at a particular time.
One piece of perfectly legal software can be secretly installed on someone else's cell phone, then the crook can dial in and snoop. They can listen to your phone calls, download copies of text messages and numbers dialed, or even just silently activate the phone and use its microphone to monitor any nearby sounds or conversations.
And people who use Bluetooth short-range radio to connect a hands-free headset to their cell phone can be targeted by nearby scammers using Bluetooth to eavesdrop.
Action: If you do not let your phone out of your sight and always password protect it, people can't install software on it. But, to be on the safe side, always switch the phone fully off so it can't be activated when confidentiality could be compromised.
Bluetooth users should un-select the "discoverable" option on their devices.
5. Ringtone cell phone scams
Apart from driving nearby people crazy with their awful sounds, users of downloaded ringtones could be exposing themselves to a couple of potentially costly cell phone scams.
Some tones -- usually free ones or those exchanged via peer-to-peer software -- have been hacked by scammers and can install a virus that either damages the phone or steals confidential information.
Second, you may get a text message inviting you to download a ringtone by returning another message or calling a 1-800 number. But when you do this, you may incur a hefty charge and/or unwittingly sign up for a monthly charge for services you don't want.
Action: Get your tones only from established, reputable companies. And don't return messages or calls from people or organizations you don't know.
6. Bogus text messages
There are numerous variations of this cell phone scam but the bottom line is that you receive an unsolicited text message (which you may have to pay for!) which prompts you take some sort of action you'll later regret.
Most common is what seems to be a message from your bank (this may also arrive as an automated voicemail) saying your account has been suspended and asking you to call a 1-800 number where your account number, PIN and other details may be requested. In reality, your identity is being stolen.
Another variation is a "pump and dump" ruse, where you receive a tip urging you to buy stock in a particular company. If enough people fall for it, the share price goes up and the scammers offload their previously worthless stock for a profit.
Action: If you get any message supposedly from your bank, call them on their normal number to check it out. And never buy stock on the basis of a single tip -- from any source.
7. The old switcheroo
You get a call from what seems to be your cell phone company offering you what they claim is a better deal than your present one, or maybe even telling you your current deal is coming to an end and that you must switch.
In reality, it is a competitor, another phone store, trying to switch you over to one of their packages, which may or may not be better than your current one. But since they're trying to deceive you, assume it's better not to do business with them.
Action: Ask the caller to give you some info about your current phone usage. If they cannot tell you when you made your last call or sent an SMS message, they are not who they say they are.
8. Catches in the small print
Sometimes you find what seems to be a really sweet cell phone rental deal. You do not find out you have been ripped off until the bill arrives, showing all sorts of additional charges you did not know about.
In one travel scam case we reported previously, renters of temporary cell phones were taken in by a money-back deal, offering a refund of the rental fee when the phone was returned. But the credit card they provided was used to levy exorbitant charges for the calls themselves.
Usually these deals are perfectly legitimate and the sting is hidden away in the small print of the Terms & Conditions.
Action: Read the Terms & Conditions!
9. Vote with your phone
During the recent presidential election, people received text or recorded messages offering them the chance to cast their vote by phone, simply by pressing a key for each of the candidates.
Turned out this was a trick targeted at voters of one political persuasion or another, to stop victims from actually casting their vote for real.
Action: You cannot vote this way.
10. Beware of these hoaxes
Finally, there are a couple of hoaxes related to cell phone scams to look out for:
* An email that warns against taking a call from a bogus engineer who asks you to key in 90# for a test of your cell phone. The message claims the caller can then use a scanner to collect ID numbers for cloning or to collect other confidential information. It's an urban legend and untrue.
* You get a message warning you that cell phone companies will soon be releasing all mobile numbers to telemarketers and that to avoid them you must add your number to the "do not call" registry.
Sometimes, this is just a bit of mischief; other times they ask you to call a bogus number for which you will be charged an excessive fee.
Fact is, cell phone numbers are not publicly available for marketing in this way.
OK, we said '10' but number 10 wasn't really a scam, was it?
So, let's just add one more cell phone scam that applies to almost anything you want to buy -- the Too Good to Be True deal. You know the sort of thing -- the cell phone of your dreams, with all the latest gadgetry and doo-hickeys at an unbelievably low price. It is almost always a scam.
Action: Don't even think about it...
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Tips & Tricks: Alphabetize the Start Menu
Question: I have added so many programs to my computer that it makes it difficult to find what I am looking for in the Start menu. Can you give the steps to put them in alphabetical order?
Answer:
Click the Start button and point to Programs or All Programs (depending on your version of Windows). Point to any program in the programs list and right click on it. From the resulting menu, left click Sort by Name. All your programs should now be listed alphabetically.
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Today's Topic: Adjust Vista Display for Better Performance
Windows Vista can be slow at times. One of the reasons for the sluggish pace is the visual effects. If you are not so concerned with the appearance, and just want a little more speed, you can turn off these visual effects. Here are the steps to do so:
First, save the settings that you have now. Do this just in case you do not like the new appearance; you can go back to the way things were before your changes. Right click a blank spot on the desktop. Left click Personalize. Click the Theme link.
This opens the Theme Settings dialog box. Click the Save As button. The Save As window opens, type a name for your saved them and click the Save button. You may want to save to the Desktop so the old theme is easy to find if you need it again.
Close the Theme Settings dialog box and the Personalize Appearance and Sounds dialog box.
Click the Start Orb. Right click Computer. Left click Properties. Click Windows Experience Index.
In the Tasks area, click Adjust Visual Effects. Windows may ask for your permission to continue, click the Continue button.
The Performance Options window opens. Click the circle to the left of Adjust for Best Performance. Click the OK button.
Windows will take a moment or two to process the new setting. When it is done, you will see a difference in the way the screen looks, but you should also notice a quicker response to your commands.
If you do not like the new look, you can go back to your old settings. Here are the steps:
Right click a blank spot on the desktop. Left click Personalize. Click the Theme link. This opens the Theme Settings dialog box.
Under Theme, click the small drop down arrow. Click to choose your original theme, and then click the OK button. You may need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect; Windows will let you know if you do.
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Question: Rename Multiple Files
I have about fifty picture files from my granddaughter’s wedding. They have names consisting of seemingly random letters and numbers. Can I change the names on all to say Wedding, without having to do one at a time?
Answer:
Yes, you can. You can select all of the files and rename them. The result will be files named wedding (1), wedding (2), wedding (3) and so on. Here are the steps:
Select the files you wish to rename. To do so, click the first file. Hold down the Shift key and click the last file. This will select all of the files.
Right click the first file. A menu will appear; left click Rename. Type the name you would like to use.
Press Enter.
Windows may take a moment to process your command, depending on how many files you have chosen. When it is complete, all files will have the same name and be consecutively numbered.
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Websites of Interest:
Columbus Day
Visit these websites to learn the history of the voyage, the ships, the crew, navigation, and more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
http://www.columbusnavigation.com/
For the children, learn all about Christopher Columbus, his ships and voyages at this fun and informative website.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/columbusday.html
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Visit these websites for breast cancer information, facts, statistics, symptoms and treatments, early detection, mammography screenings, and much more.
http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/
http://tinyurl.com/l65of
Redwoods
Take a look at some astounding pictures of the redwoods of the Pacific coast.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/redwoods
The Heart Information Center
From the Texas Heart Institute, this site provides educational information relating to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease.
http://www.texasheartinstitute.org/HIC/his.cfm