CyberSec Tips - "Computer Maintenance Department"

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

I got a call today from "James," of the "computer maintenance department."

I suppose this may work better against those who actually *have* a computer 
maintenance department.  Since I'm self-employed, it's pretty obvious that this is 
phony.  Sometimes, though, "James" or his friends call from Microsoft or other 
such possibilities.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, these are false, attempts to get you to damage 
your own computer, or install something nasty.  They can then charge you for 
spurious repairs, add you to a botnet, or mine your computer for account 
information.

Oh, and also, as chance would have it, today I got my first completely automated 
spam/fraud/telemarketing call: a computer generated voice and voice response 
system, asking how I was, and then, when I didn't respond, was I there.  Probably 
would have been fun to try and push the limits of it's capability, but I didn't have 
time ...

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else
you do well matters very much.          - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://www.infosecbc.org/links
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://twitter.com/rslade
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