Page 16 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

P r o t e c t Y o u r T e c h

Scams a nd threats to avoid, plus new s ecurity t ools

W A TCH O UT FOR…

N e w ‘ click t o call’ t e ch-su p p ort s cam

What’s the t hreat? engineers c an walk you How c an you
A n ew type of tech-support s cam that through the r emoval stay safe?
without warning launches a p hone app process o ver t he phone”. As Microsoft points out
– o n y our s martphone or PC screen – It also tries to frighten in its blog post ( www.
showing a n umber t o c all t o c ontact you i nto c alling b y snipca.com/26317),
a ‘ support t eam’ (see screenshot). If claiming that it will be genuine e rror messages
you t ap or click t he screen to begin t he “forced t o d isable and don’t contain p hone
call, y ou’ll r ing a n e xpensive number suspend” your device i f numbers, nor d o
and e nd up speaking to scammers w ho you c lose the m esaage. legitimate support s ites
will try to sell y ou fixes for n on- This i s t he latest scam try to terrify users i nto
existent problems. in the c at-and-mouse phoning. A lso, never
Detected by Microsoft’s Windows game between c riminals tap or click a d ialler
Defender Research team, t his ‘ click and t ech c ompanies. screen (like t he one i n
to call’ s cam targets iPhones a nd Previously, t ech-support the s creenshot) t hat
Windows P Cs. I t’s a ccompanied frauds would s trike as you opens b y i tself.
by an audio m essage that says your browsed o nline, plastering your screen What’s worrying is that the c ode
device “ has a lerted us that your system with pop-up alerts t hat s ay you n eed used to create this scam appears to be
is infected with viruses, s pywares, to ring a n umber f or help. M ost b rowsers from a t emplate, meaning it’s probably
and p ornwares”. N ext, it urges y ou to now l et you b lock or close t hese pop-ups, for s ale o n t he black m arket. That
call “immediately o n t he toll-free thereby f orcing s cammers t o a dopt means it’s likely t o s pread a nd become
number listed s o t hat o ur support new t actics. one o f 2 018’s most prevalent s cams.

New tools Firefox T racking Protection ScamWatch

www.mozilla.org/firefox
READERS WARN READERS
Speed and p rivacy are k ey
battlefields i n t he browser w ars. TV Licence s cam r eturns
Google’s Chrome has b een I w ant t o w arn readers a bout an old
winning t hese battles since it scam that’s returned. A f ew years ago
launched in 2008, s tealing I r eceived a n e mail promising me a
millions of Firefox a nd Internet refund on my TV Licence. I t s ounded
Explorer users. It has a lways b een too g ood to be true, s o I c hecked by
fast enough to compensate for ringing t hem a nd they confirmed it
occasional crashes, and r egularly was n onsense. I g ot a s imilar email i n
adds new w arning messages to early N ovember, trying to tempt m e
protect y ou from online t hreats. browsing’ m ode. with a r efund o f £ 85.07. Maybe
But F irefox has r earmed itself w ith To turn on Tracking Protection click scammers u p t heir game near
Quantum ( version 57), which l oads the m enu b utton ( three h orizontal Christmas b ecause people l ike t he
web p ages faster, and u ses less P C lines), Options, t hen ‘ Privacy & idea o f h aving e xtra cash t o s pend.
memory. I t a lso t akes your privacy Security’ (on t he left). In the T racking The TV Licence people h ave a w eb
more seriously by letting y ou block Protection section select Always ( see page warning about the s cam: www.
all t rackers a s y ou browse (these are screenshot). When Firefox i s b locking snipca.com/26305. I t n ever sends
tools a dvertising a nd marketing a s ite’s t racker you’ll see a s hield icon refund information by email.
companies use t o g ather y our p ersonal at the t op left of the b rowser bar. Phil Lewis
data). Previously, y ou could only d o Mozilla p rovides more details at Warn your fellow readers a bout scams at
this when using F irefox’s ‘private www.snipca.com/26320. letters@computeractive.co.uk

16 20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2 018