amelierosalyn.com

Most people are wise to so-called phishing scams, usually in the form of emails pretending to be from a reputable place such as a bank asking you to click a link to 'secure your account' or similar. Said link is usually a clone of the real site so that users feel comfortable entering in their confidential data. Of course, it all gets sent to scammers who go and use your details to commit fraud. Lovely.

It's not a new thing at all, but people are doing this over the phone too. A popular one that recently caught out a family member is that someone will call, ask for the householder by name, and proceed to tell them they are from Microsoft or 'Windows Support'. They may have the householder's email and/or home address (from where I have no idea; they may be using the local phone book or have the details sold onto them from other sources) and will gain the trust of the user by confirming these with them, proceeding then to tell the user their computer is infected by viruses and this must be fixed now or they will be fined/their computer will crash/other similar threats. Sounds like a classic scam, but due to the user being named it can catch people out - especially if they're computer illiterate.

The scam generally continues with some or all of the following:

1. The user is instructed to go to their computer, go to the Run command/Windows+R (which brings up the Run box) and type in "eventvwr" and/or some form of "prefetch unwanted"

2. The scammers tell the user that the entries listed in the resulting window are viruses and these must be cleaned.

   This is of course not true - "eventvwr" brings up the Windows Event Viewer and entries listed within this are events logged by Windows. Scammers may go further with this one and say that any items with a yellow warning triangle or red cross are malicious items, but they aren't - they're errors logged by Windows which for the most part are harmless. They are definitely not viruses.

   The "prefetch unwanted" command brings up the Windows prefetch cache, which is just that - a cache of programs which enables Windows to open them more quickly. Deleting these files won't remove a virus nor will it damage your computer.

3. After insisting that the files found are dangerous, the scammers will offer to 'fix' them and will ask for payment to do this. They might take users to a website or they will ask for card numbers over the phone. Common websites users are sent to include some variant of the words "tech support" in the URL.

4. What follows is an attempt to connect to the computer remotely. How this is done differs slightly per scam but in general they will direct users to a web page via the Run command and/or will ask them to install a program such as TeamViewer or LogMeIn. Installing those particular programs (the ones mentioned, that is - other programs may be more malicious) is not dangerous in itself - it's the part where the user hands over control that is, and the scammers will do this by asking the user to enter a code into the website or program. Control is then given over to the scammers - they can then see and use the computer as if it was their own.

5. Once the card payment has gone through (for far more than the user paid for, in most cases), the scammers will set about 'fixing' the computer, which generally involves downloading and installing lots of software onto the machine and possibly deleting anything they think is a virus (note: this could be anything - personal documents, essential Windows files, etc). They might tell users to leave the machine for a bit and during that time they'll snoop into their personal files - or they'll do it right in front of the user and claim it's part of the fixing process. It isn't - they're just looking for information they can steal.

6. Once all the software is installed, the user is told their computer is fixed and the call is ended. The installed software is, in most cases, harmless; it's just junk that doesn't do anything (or perhaps does do something, but not what it advertises - it may pop up a load of ads or redirect your browser to a dodgy search page, for example). However, some scammers have installed software which opens a backdoor to the computer and leaves it in their complete control and can use this to do far more damage. Rootkits and keyloggers can get installed and the computer can end up a so-called 'zombie' acting as part of a botnet.

Wonderful, eh?

Fixing all this once the user discovers they've been conned depends on quite how bad the damage is to the computer. Personally I'd recommend a full reformat - you never know what nasty little things were done during the 'fixing' process and what that seemingly harmless software might leave behind. It might still be 'calling home' in the background, sending personal details back to the scammers. Not really a nice thought. It also goes without saying that you should cancel all cards given out to these fraudsters and contact your bank telling them what happened. It's unlikely you'll get the money back, as you willingly gave the details out, but you should still contact them. Watch out for an increase in junk mail, email spam and/or similar phone scams as your details get passed around - don't fall for them again. If you can, get a credit check done to make sure no one is fraudulently using your details.

However, the best advice is not to be scammed in the first place. When random people call you up out of the blue, treat them as if they'd emailed you - would you blindingly trust any email that says it's from a certain sender? You shouldn't trust people on the phone that claim as such either. If they pretend to be from a reputable company, ask their name and ask for a reference number for the call, then call the company's main advertised number (NOT the number the person on the phone tells you to call, even if they say it's their private extension or similar) and quote the details. No such person/reference? You know that call wasn't genuine.

Think about it: would a major computer company such as Microsoft really care about individuals with viruses? And furthermore, if they did care, would they really task themselves with dealing with it? No, they wouldn't - they're a huge company with far better things to do. It's common sense; you cannot know a person is who they say they are even if you met them face to face, so how can you possibly know over the internet/phone? You can't, so don't give them the privilege of having your personal data. You don't know what they'll use it for - ID theft, selling it on, stealing from your bank account ... You name it.

Oh, and don't save things on your computer that will delight such fraudsters when they find them either - bank details in a Word document? Not a good idea. Really.

So, here we go - a new domain for a new start. I've kept a few entries from the old site that were popular with Google search results, and kept some of the pages too, but most of everything else has been cleared out for a fresh start.

This layout is simple (and has some funnies going on with links...but I'll get to that!), but I think it fits the overall tone of the site from this point. I want to focus on things that interest my readers; I want to talk more about the differences between Chrome and Firefox than the differences of what I had for lunch today and what I had yesterday. People just don't care about that sort of thing!

Anyway. Sit down, grab a drink, make yourself at home. If you want to subscribe to the feed, it's a different URL to the last site (click ye olde orange feed icon, top left) so you will need to resubscribe if you were subscribed before. Sorry about that, but I did want to keep things kind of separate.

So yes, here's to a long and happy web life. :D

So, I have been looking for a new phone and was thinking about getting the iPhone 4 or the HTC Desire. I was quite fond of my previous HTC, the T-Mobile branded G1 (aka HTC Dream), but it was crashing a lot. I ended up with an HTC Wildfire (that's it over there on the left. Pic of box taken with phone. Wheee).

Now, the Wildfire was not a choice as such - I went into the shop to see what deals I could get on plans, I wanted to go for the cheapest plan I could and see what phones came with it, if any. In the end I stayed with my current network (T-Mobile) as they had the best deal on cheap contracts, it seems. They offered me a variety of basic phones, but there were only two Android ones - the T-Mobile Pulse, which looked very nice but had a rather old version of Android on it (older than the version I had on the G1) and while I thought it looked great, I did want something a bit more futureproof. The other Android was the Wildfire, a new addition that had just come out, running Android 2.1 via HTC Sense. I went for it.

I was immediately disappointed by the phone. I expected it to be more or less the same as what I'd been used to; as it was a free phone I hadn't had a chance to try it in-store and kind of regretted that - it wasn't at all the same. For a start, I noticed the lower resolution. The G1 had a 320×480px widescreen (16:9) resolution (the same as the original iPhone's) on a 3.2" screen running at 180dpi. The Wildfire has the same 3.2" screen, but it's a 4:3 resolution of 240×320 (dunno how many dpi, but it's less than the G1), which is about 2/3 what I had before. The colours were not the same either - the Wildfire boasts the same 16-bit colours as the G1 but does not deliver them. I get patchy, dithered colours reminiscent of the old 256 colour system.

No matter, I told myself; I can get used to a smaller screen. It's only then, of course, that I realised that the Android Market wasn't showing me a lot of the apps I used to have installed. I searched for them - nothing. I learned why - a lot of Android apps require the default screen resolution of 320×480, which most of the phones have. The Market won't show items that won't fit on your screen, and even those that do say they'll fit on your screen end up looking very squashed, for the most part.

Then there's HTC Sense, which is HTC's UI on top of Android. Now I'd never been hot on the vanilla Android design, but it was ok and I got used to it. I thought HTC Sense would be a great addition to Android, finally some shininess! ... er, well, not really. The awkward colours mean that it doesn't really work for one, and secondly I'm not sure who designed the HTC Sense UI but it's like HTC took every app on Android and uglified it. Not a fan at all, and I immediately reverted to vanilla Android Home instead of the Sense display. It's a shame, because they have done some rather nice tweaks to some of the apps (the rest, I really wish they'd left alone) but with the ugly interface, I'm really not inclined to use them. That and a lot of the apps are useless anyway - one is "download Navigon" and is nothing more than an advert for a navigation app. Even if you do download Navigon, it doesn't go away. You can't delete it or hide it. Grrr.

One thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE is the fact that I can add my Facebook, Twitter and Flickr contacts, and link them to my phone contacts so that if the person has an updated email/phone number on one of those accounts, it'll update it on my phone. But the problem with that is, once you add those items, Mr Wildfire thinks you will want to be automatically updated of people's statuses/etc when they call you or you call them. Er, no thanks. I'll check my Facebook et al when I feel like it. Oh and note to Mr Wildfire: I set a contact's default number for a reason. I want that number to show up first when I type their name into the recipient field; I don't expect you to list all their numbers in numerical order. That inevitably means I will send things to the wrong numbers, since all landline numbers here start with 01 or 02 and mobiles start 07. That means if I have my friend Bob Jones with a number of 01234 567890 and his mobile number of 07123 567890, when I start typing "Bob" into my recipients, it'll autofill the first number in numerical order - the landline number beginning 01, even though the mobile number is set as his default number. Do not want. Also, I would have thought it would prioritise 'Mobile' numbers over 'Home'/'Work' when texting, as it is more likely I will want to text another mobile than a landline... Eh. Oh, and that's another thing - when you're making a call, it seems the proximity sensor isn't working properly, as my ear pressed a load of stuff on the screen - cut off the call, muted me, etc etc. Hmmm.

And you know the one thing I really wanted on Android - the indication light that flashes different colours depending on what I've received? Ah yes, the Wildfire might as well not have one. It only flashes green (or orange when charging), it doesn't have a multi-colour LED like the G1 and the more expensive phones. Wah :( It also turns itself off after 5 minutes, so if you happen to be in a meeting or some other place where you can't look at your phone every 5 minutes, you'll miss a notification.

But it's not all bad! Honest! I have had the phone a week now and I've actually grown to love HTC Sense's home screen. Still not so hot on the apps (ugly) but the home screen actually fits in much better on the phone than the vanilla Android one. My complaint now is that it eats a lot more battery power :P I got 3 days' battery on vanilla Home, I get a day and a half on Sense, which has more funky widgets and has 7 screens to put them on instead of just 3. The on-screen keyboard took a bit of getting used to, but the predictive text - while largely a rip off of the iPhone's - makes it much easier to use than the version on the G1 (which I hardly used in favour of the slide-out one). I also love the look of this phone - even though I would have preferred it in white (and there IS a white version! It just wasn't available at the store I went to :( ), the grey/black combo looks sleek and professional. It fits snugly in my pocket, unlike the G1 which was a bit too big.

All in all, I have actually grown very fond of this phone and despite the screen resolution/colours and ugly apps (apart from the weather app. That has gorgeous graphics), I'm really glad I got it. I got a cheap contract, and got a cheap (ish. It's not cheap on its own, but compared to the other smart phones) phone with it. For the price I'm paying, I could have expected something that wasn't a smartphone at all, or something that is but was nowhere near the quality of the G1. But I didn't get that, I got something which - yes, it's not as good as the G1, but I'd say it's about 90% the smartphone the G1 was. It may have less of a screen resolution and less colours, but it has almost 4 times the memory and storage space I had on the last phone, as well as an LED flash and brightness sensor. Ok, so the former I don't really use (other than as a torch/flashlight :P ) but I actually really like the latter. The G1 never really did go bright enough... You'd get a bit of sun and that was it - screen was invisible. I've not had any sun yet to try the Wildfire on, but it certainly seems to be able to go much brighter than the G1.

But yes, I'm actually very happy with it now :)