The Working Mouse

We at The Working Mouse hope everyone is having a good summer so far and are looking forward to good times ahead. Fall is just around the corner and every day new technological trinkets are released for public use. Last year we had a significant increase in smart home device (Alexa) setup and camera system installation. (also, Alexa supported)

And once they put eyes and AI upgrades on Alexa,

No one will escape her grasp.

Many people and local businesses wish to have some extra peace of mind with an expensive camera system installed, but make sure what you purchase will suit your security needs! Many systems do NOT include a hard drive, if you’re going for a traditional home security system, with footage stored locally. This is fine unless you want as little setup as possible. You only need to make sure you get a hard drive of decent space, (1-2 terabytes is enough) and plug it in.

If you do experience a break in, you want your system installed in an area that is hard/impossible for people to access. Unless you have a system that supports cloud backup, (recordings are backed up via internet to company servers) all video footage is recorded on your camera’s hub box. All a thief must do is remove this (or break it) and all footage is lost. Since these aren’t usually cheap, they may just nick it as well and try and pawn it online.

Regardless of what unique items that catch your fancy, if you require assistance, or advice regarding smart device setup, feel free to contact us at The Working Mouse! 

Hello people of the west coast! We’re back with a fall article, with hopefully more to come on a bi-weekly basis. With Black Friday over and cyber sales in full effect, we hope everyone is finding the computer/electric devices that suit their personal/workplace needs.

This month we’d like to point out an apparent increase in scammer activity. Whether it be via phone calls, email, or those super loud and flashy scam pages that flash up while browsing the internet, there has been no end to them these past few month’s! Some of these examples may seem quite ridiculous (they are), but these people will simply keep calling hundreds, to thousands of individuals until they get the select few that will follow their instructions.

We’ve spent years advising our customers on scam prevention. In many cases however, its only AFTER someone has let someone into their personal computer, or given a voice over the phone their banking credentials. If you or a loved one has let an unknown person into their personal computer, be sure you have someone with the technical know-how reset your device (and back up your data!).

If you have made payments for computer “services” (the most common being “lifelong” virus protections services) costing upwards of $500 or more, make sure you make contact with your bank or credit card company ASAP. Charges can be canceled, but only if you refute them in a timely manner. This usually being within a thirty day time period. Charges are easier to get removed if they are done with a credit card, rather then debit or direct cash orders from your bank account.

It’s best if we never get to this step in the first place, but people are either getting craftier with their lie’s, or using the same exact methods that have been working for years. The old methods via phone and email are still used today and haven’t changed much. The individual will talk like a machine repeating a set recorded message. If challenged or asked to provide BASIC information to prove themselves, it often ends in immediate disconnect. That or they will simply repeat the same lines over and over, for whatever reason believing you wont question it, after the third or fourth time…

The most ridiculous one’s we receive are people claiming to be from the IRS. It’s the same every time, read from a script. The scammer will claim to be from the IRS, and that you have outstanding tax payments yet to be made.

If you try to question this charge, they will simply get incredibly aggressive. You will be threatened with jail time, and an immediate visit from the police if you refuse…to pay your fine with gift cards or money orders from the local Walmart. The reason they will ask for this method of payment is simple. If you give these individuals cash or gift cards, that money is gone for good. Unless they are caught in the act, you wont be able to refute the charge, or get your money back. Also as a bonus, you will be ordered to not hang up the phone during all this, as doing so will result in an immediate arrest. This has proven to be fun for our customers who answer with a land line telephone.

This is an example of one of the more extreme lies scammers give. Many people do recognize this as a ridiculous lie, and you would be forgiven for thinking there is no way anybody could fall for this sort of thing, but it happens everyday. The people behind the scam are typically targeting the elderly and retired. They will call hundred’s of people a day until they get the one or two that will pay them out of fear and confusion. Brooking’s being a retiree town, has seen more than its fair share of this.

Other methods are a bit more subtle however, and people are much more susceptible during certain situations. A scammer usually depends on luck of the draw. They prepare a script, and read it to you (or send it via email, malicious website, etc). A common one that’s easy to mistake is a fake Amazon notice. Almost everyone makes purchases from Amazon. So it is very easy for any stranger to call you up and pretend to be an official representative. Again, fairly easy to question why they would (and they will) ask you for things like your credit card information or social security number.

These things are sometimes used to confirm your identity though, so it’s a bit easier to slip up and volunteer this information. If an individual is undergoing a time of heavy stress, or simply tired from a day’s work, thoughts are less directed towards “hey this is bull$%?! “. Instead it becomes closer to “gotta get this sorted out now and go watch Netflix/sleep/stress over college loans/where is Mr Fluffles?!”

It’s not just Amazon either. We’ve noticed plenty of scam pages and emails pop up, claiming to be from Spectrum, the leading internet provider in this area. They will pretend to be from Netflix, one of the local banks, and any other popular business chain they think you have a possible connection with. Possibly one of the most irksome we hear from our customers, is the individuals who call claiming to be a grandson or granddaughter.

They knowingly call retired folks, and pretend to be a younger relative who is in jail for some small offense, and need grandma or grandpa to post bail. Fortunately most people can joke to me about this, and usually respond that they will give them as much as they need, if they can give them their brother or sister’s name. Again, these people pray they get a hold of someone who is advanced in age, and possibly not capable of making rational decisions on the spot. Some of these situations may seem like joke’s, but we have real life customers who have lost a depressing amount of their savings to the predatory actions of these types of people.

Anyway, in short, don’t call ANY numbers that pop up on your computer screen! Just shut the computer off. If someone calls asking for private information such as your social or banking information, challenge the individual if you aren’t sure. You can always verify this by hanging up and calling an official phone number you can look up from your current bill or statement or even in a phone book (just be careful you do a proper google search and get the proper website and information, you MUST be sure you are on the legit domain, googling can many times bring up numbers from FAKE tech support and back to scammers).

Don’t open emails from stranger’s or unknowns. Ever. Seriously don’t do it. It’s 2018 but it’s just as dangerous, if not worse then before security wise. Also check the email address you receive mail from if it seems off, or the individual is asking for money. Scammers WILL attempt to send you email addresses that are similar to people you might know or have listed in your contact list. If it looks weird, don’t open it.

That’s all will we cover for today, but don’t let any of this get in the way of enjoying the end of year holiday season! If you are in need of computer or smart device assistance/setup in the Brookings, Gold Beach, Smith River or Crescent City area’s, please give us a call at The Working Mouse! We wont charge to answer basic questions, especially if they are related to the subject of this article.

By David Christie

Hello folks and welcome to a long overdue update from your local Working Mouse! Our focus over the last few months has been countering and recovering from malicious malware and internet scams. Over the years scammers and malicious hackers have discovered its easier to get money by ransoming people directly rather then fill your computer with viruses and pop-ups, and here we will explain how they do it, and what to do in order to avoid such misfortune.

You’ve no doubt seen the new’s regarding poor network security in regards to Russia’s involvement in our political system, and the recent data breach at Equifax, exposing the private information of roughly half the countries populace. Unfortunately alongside these (and the many, many, other scams out there) we have another global spread ransomware attack taking root on the web.

The most recent bad bit of data trying to worm their way into our computer devices goes by the name Bad Rabbit. It’s known place of origin is through a false Adobe Flash Player update. The program is an executable, meaning typically you will be prompted if you wish to allow the computer to run the program before it actually does anything. Most PC’s and PC devices have a basic antivirus or default settings that require the computer to ask a user before allowing outside programs to run. So if your computer has a decent antivirus or if your running a Mac, you’ll only get this infection if you mistake the message prompt for a normal Flash update, or hurriedly click the prompt away in a rush to get back to work (or Netflix, Facebook, solitaire…we don’t judge)

The malicious software follows a popular troupe that’s been around since the internet was born. They mask the program under a popular name or company brand. All they have to do afterwards is wait until people run the program out of haste, ignorance, or simply because a lot of folks still have a computer running Windows XP/Vista and its security definitions are older then any of us reading this post.

Your woe’s, should you succumb to one of these encryption scams, will typically involve all of the data stored inside the computer being turned into coded gibberish. You will see a message on your desktop explaining that your data has basically been locked, with the only method of retrieving the key is to send a certain amount of untraceable virtual currency to a specified web account. This is most often the result of opening malicious emails and programs, usually under the guise of legitimacy. Like I mentioned before, they simply label the program/message to resemble large and popular companies so casual PC user’s will skip over the details and simply accept or open what is sent to them…kinda like the terms of service page for every product known to man.

Speaking of popular company brands, if you or someone you know claims to have been called or contacted by a Microsoft employee, plead with them to discontinue contact with them ASAP before any damage is done and either check their computer or have a professional look at it for remote access tools. Unless you have made efforts to contact Microsoft yourself prior, Microsoft will NEVER CALL YOU. We get at least one person a week in our town who calls us because they let a “Microsoft technician” inside their computer.

I want you to imagine letting a faceless entity, who you have no knowledge of other then what he/she CLAIMS to be over the phone into your computer. Your computer, that is full of private information, banking information, the usernames and passwords for all the sites you use, your email, as well what websites you typically visit. This includes others who either use the machine or who’s account you manage from the PC.

Now I want you to imagine your about to let a bear into your house. You want to let the bear into your house because, after scratching at your door for a time, it told you that if you didn’t hurry up and open the door, an elf in your closet would start eating all your hats. You love your hats with a passion and would hate to lose them. Your son also keeps his favorite coat in there. You mention this to the bear and he says the elf’s desire might not stop at hats and might lead him to consume EVERYTHING in the closet, but the bear claims he is very good at getting rid of elf’s….

If you think the bear scenario is more ridiculous, that’s because you’ve never let a stranger into your computer. This stranger after sometime of browsing and doing pointless tasks that he claims are fixing your computer, charges you 200-750$ (they will start high and lower it if you claim you can’t afford it) dollars. The ones who do pay the charge are then subject to the following:

A- You luck out and the scammers simply move on to their next “customer” and hope you don’t refute the charge before your bank or credit card company can deduct the charge. (usually you have a month)

B- As soon as you submit payment with a card, they will go on a mad spending spree, attempting to run your card to the limit before someone freezes the card. Luckily, many banks and credit companies (in my many experiences dealing with this) will contact you once they notice large or bulk purchases on you’re account. More likely so if they are online purchases or outside the country.

C-Purchases will be made in small, barely noticeable amounts to escape notice from both the bank and yourself. This is commonly done with gas purchases, or groceries in amounts under twenty dollars. Anyone who doesn’t check their balance daily might not notice an intrusion like this for YEAR’S, and lose a lot more as time goes on.

D-The scammer will orchestrate your computer to display fake virus and error messages, along with their “business” number. They will “fix” your computer as many times as they can before you become fed up with them or someone notices what they really are.

Should you refuse them (and you don’t unplug your router/modem in time) you can expect the following…

A-They move on to the next person, as they don’t see any worth investing their time and “resources” in holding your computer/information hostage.

B-They change your computers password, or add a SYSKEY (Windows). Locking you out of the computer. Usually they will demand money to reset it. You shouldn’t pay them as there is no guarantee they will give it to you. If your computer remains un-encrypted, your data can still be retrieved through the hardrive.

C-If given ample time they can encrypt your entire computer. This will leave you with access to your computer, but with your pictures, documents, everything essentially opening up as gibberish and code. There are only two ways to recover from this, other then paying a stranger across the world and hoping he doesn’t just cut off all contact. You have steady backups of your data to recover from, or recovering your files from the computers “Shadow Copy”. This is essentially a hidden copy of all the files on your computer. You should however, keep in mind these can be (and often are) overwritten along with everything else.

Regardless of the case, if someone gains remote access to your computer you need to make sure to remove the program they used to access your computer. Most RATS, or Remote Access Tool’s, have an option to enable access to remote clients without prior permission. Meaning if you leave the program alone, even if you remove all other changes made to the computer, they could potentially gain access to the computer again. You can remove RAT tools via the add or remove programs section of Windows 10. You can also access the uninstall programs options via the control panel with the categories option selected. If you aren’t sure where to go on a windows 10 system, simply click the search bar to the right of the start button at the bottom left hand of the screen, then type “remove”. The top option that appears on screen should read “add or remove programs” and clicking on this will take you to an entire list of all the programs installed on your computer.

The two most common remote access tools I run into are Citrix and Team-viewer. Both of which are not malicious programs in themselves, but are simply tools that can, unfortunately be used for the opposite purpose they are intended for. These are just two possibilities you can check for and remove. Also take note that sometimes the remote access tools will uninstall themselves after you have disconnected, with the scammers scurrying off into the darkness of the inter-web’s.

Now, the only true way to 100% guarantee your computer is free of all the problems that come as a result of outside intrusion, is to backup all your data, make sure you have the resources needed to reinstall critical software (Quicken, Microsoft office, etc) and do a complete wipe and reinstall of the computer. Along with this, you should change all your passwords for critical websites that involve any sort of online transactions. Many folk have their passwords for online sites saved inside their web browser of choice. Meaning if you go to your banks website to check your balance, or buy anything on amazon and the computer fill out your password sections automatically, that information can be viewed without much difficulty if the scammer is left alone with the computer for any decent amount of time.

We at the Working Mouse are dedicated to assisting in the recovery and prevention of malicious online scam’s and deception. Please keep in mind to never call or otherwise pay any mind to anyone who claims to be from Microsoft or Apple. Do not respond to phone numbers on internet pages that flash violently and say you have a virus, simply turn the computer off and it will go away 99% of the time. Unfortunately the elderly and retired are a frequent target of these scam’s. People who fall into this categorize you will likely receive many phone calls, with people aggressively pressing you to let them into your computer. Worse, if they were able to get any money out of you they WILL call again. Which can be incredibly disheartening when someone’s 90+ grandmother becomes a repeat victim to these kind of cyber attacks.

That’s all I have for this months update. Hopefully we will have more timely articles posted from now on, keeping you updated on the latest safety tips and general computer knowledge for the baffled, befuddled, and bewildered!

I hope that you found our article helpful, and thank you for keeping the Working Mouse working!