The Holiday Season

2010-11-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

This time of year is all about friends and family. Unfortunately it is one of the busiest times for all the scammers too. More and more people are buying online and using online services like PayPal. There are people that make a living off stealing your money. These are some things to look for so you don't get caught in a scam and loose your money.

1. No company will ever send you an email asking for your password or bank info.

2. If you get an email from a company like that and they provide you a link; do not click it. If you do click it before you give any information look at the address bar to make sure it says paypal.com (or whatever company sent you the email). if there is alot of random words seperated by dots ( login.form.secure.account.info..ect) it is fake. If you don't see the name of your company in there at all, do NOT go any further. Close the window and delete the email.

3. If you are trying to find that perfect gift online and you come to a site you have never heard of before; It may be a scam site. There are sites that claim they have anything your looking for and they will have a fake page for that item. After you give them all your info the site will not work for you again and they got what they wanted. So if you come across a site that even looks poorly designed, shy away from them. Search them on google, and if they do not show up google has probably banned them or they are so new google does not know about them. Both of these are a good indication of a scam.

4. If you get anything in the mail like a check or something saying you need to act right away; It is a scam. Throw it away. Even if it says you won the money, throw it away. If you didn't enter to win how could you win? They want to you act now and put the check in your bank and send some of that money back to them so they know you got it and you keep the rest. The problem is that the check is fake, there is no money and the money you just sent them is your own money that you now lost.

5. Scammers are now even using text messages and phone calls to get your info. They will text or call you claiming that you have won something. The text usually has a number to call or if they call you in the first place they say they need your personal info to verify that you are the winner. Truth is you did not win anything. It is simple, if you did not enter to win this prize, you couldn't be a winner. Unless of course its Publishers Clearing House. I would not hang up on them or slam the door in their face.

To sum it up, the holiday season is a time where you spend money on the ones you love. Remember these things and don't give your money to the ones you'd love to hate.

Backup Backup Backup!

2010-07-27T05:16:00.000-07:00

The most important thing you can do is keep your data backed up to a CD, DVD, USB drive or an online backup service. At any time you computer could suffer a hardware failure or freeze up do to a virus. Data loss is easy to achieve but data recovery and be a slow and costly process. Don't wait until its too late. Back up your data now when everything is working well. A large percentage of my customers never back up their data. Being about customer service I go out of my way to backup their documents and keep them safe while I work on the computer but other computer repair places could care less. I've had people bring me their computer asking if I could get files back that the other guys had lost. While I'm usually successful there are the ones that are hopeless. Most people take for granted having everything on the computer. It's easy to organize and have all your important info right there in front of you but the second you know it's gone and not coming back; It's a terrible feeling. If you can work it into your budget, and online service would be the best. They usually back your documents up as you go so you never need to worry. Your data is also at a secure remote location that you can access anywhere.

MadTown PC

The Holiday Season

Backup Backup Backup!