Phishing – Daves Computer Tips

How To Avoid AI Phishing Email Scams

Jim Canfield — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 05:17:50 +0000

Certainly, in my opinion, AI has been responsible for advancements in numerous fields, enhancing efficiency, creativity, and innovation in: However, nothing, not even AI, is all good. When “bad actors” act before deterrents are in place, they can have terrible consequences. Using AI for the development of Malware is one of the easiest ways for cybercriminals to harm large numbers of…

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Windows Defender Security Has Disabled Your Computer

Terry Hollett — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 05:19:51 +0000

I got a laptop with the following window open. “Windows Defender Security Has Disabled Your Computer” with a 1-800 number to call – obvious fake. It showed a Windows security screen with what looked like everything disabled. It seems to have disabled the mouse as well or at least made it hard to use. Note: Don’t ever call any of the numbers listed. They are all scams. They make it hard for…

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Scamio – New AI Scam Detection Service

John Durso — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 10:01:55 +0000

Fraud and scams are rampant on today’s Internet. And, scammers are getting better at tricking people into giving up personal information, credentials, and money. In the United States, a Federal Trade Commission report estimates that consumer losses from fraud increased by 30 percent between 2021 and 2022 reaching $8.8 billion. Losses from investment scams increased by 111 percent! Scamio is a new…

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Be Careful With VirusTotal

John Durso — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 07:23:01 +0000

VirusTotal is an online scanning tool many Daves Computer Tips readers use to scan for malicious content. However, DCT readers need to be careful when using VirusTotal. The Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas created and launched the VirusTotal website in 2004. In September 2012, Google acquired the company. In January 2018, the ownership of the company changed to…

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Beware: Dog Registration Scam

Jim Hillier — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 07:11:53 +0000

We’ve just gone through a spate of the infamous “Unclaimed Parcel” scam here in Australia and now, it seems, the scammers have come up with yet another ingenious means to dupe innocent victims. Separate instances of the following text message was received by both my daughter-in-law and wife during the past week: The illegitimacy of this message might be obvious to the savvy user – the message…

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Remove 1-8xx Warning In Apple’s Safari

Terry Hollett — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 09:47:23 +0000

I got a call from a woman who was getting a warning about a possible virus on her system. It was one of those scammer’s ads that tries to convince you that your system is infected. Two things to keep in mind: 1. Never call any of the numbers listed 2. Usually, it’s not a virus but a scammer taking advantage of a flaw in the browser making it a bit hard to get rid of I went online to see…

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Scamming Nigerian ‘Princes’ Caught Red-Handed

Marc Thomas — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 07:38:15 +0000

When you’re a flash, professional scammer, flaunting your ill-gotten gains on Instagram is maybe not such a great idea and this is exactly how the police in Dubai caught up with more than a dozen Nigerian cyber-fraudsters. We’ve all laughed and joked about those inheritance emails, also known as Nigerian 419 scams, from far away African republics promising a share in millions of dollars…

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Beware Of Coronavirus Scams!

Jim Hillier — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:49:47 +0000

As is the case with many disastrous situations, the cybercriminals and scammers have crawled out from under their rocks in droves to take advantage of the fears and concerns created by the rapidly spreading coronavirus. Many reputable sources are reporting that, within a very short space of time, literally thousands of new domains have been registered with either Coronavirus or COVID-19…

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6 Security Tips For Today’s Dangerous Internet

Richard Pedersen — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 08:39:07 +0000

Today’s internet is a dangerous place– no news there. It amazes me that people who are armed with a wealth of information about this dark place where criminals lurk still act as if it is a garden of Eden where all is good in the world. With this article, I am going to add one more to the huge pile that already exists and hope against hope that someone will actually pay heed to some very basic…

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Is Click-bait Dangerous?

Jim Canfield — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:47:52 +0000

If you own a computer, phone or tablet you undoubtedly have already wasted your time clicking on a headline that had absolutely no bearing on the actual article to which it is linked. Even though its use stems from and is mildly linked to the old-fashioned, attention-grabbing headlines used in newspapers, you had the ability to quickly see that the article below the headline was or was not worth…

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Disposable eMail – Good Defense Against eMail Abuse

Daniel Banks — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 05:20:24 +0000

If you spend enough time online, sooner or later you’ll wish you had a disposable eMail account, or, a way to track whether or not someone has “shared” your eMail address. Maybe you want to subscribe to a mailing list for a weekly newsletter about collecting antique thimbles. Perhaps you want to sign up for a discussion group on a Web site devoted to planting peach trees in your living room.

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Using Browser Extensions – Internet Safety (part 2)

Jim Canfield — Mon, 02 May 2016 05:42:37 +0000

This is Part 2 of Using Browser Extensions – Internet Safety. We will be covering the two types of programs that probably have the ability to keep you safer than all the others combined: Password Generators/Managers, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Proxies. Using these extensions can be one of your safest acts as a PC user. The rating conventions are explained in Part 1. If you would like…

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Using Browser Extensions – Internet Safety

Jim Canfield — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:45:24 +0000

If you are on the internet a lot, and most people are, then why not do it with the right tools available. Now that Microsoft Edge will be introducing extensions, that means that every major browser out there has extensions that can help you in an endless number of ways. Want to make the web pages easier to read? They have that covered. How about improving the way Office documents look in a…

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Learning Computers: Phishing

Jim Canfield — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 22:46:10 +0000

Links to all articles included in this series: The Beginning: Opening introduction to the series Browsers: What are they? How to make them a safer door to Web. Search Engines: The Good, Bad and Ugly. Understanding search results. Malware and Virus: What is Malware? – What is […]