AsOne was recently made aware by a client of a scam caller. The caller claims to be a technician from Google. The caller will tell you that there is a problem with your computer, in this case the technician told one of our clients that there was a problem with their websites algorithm. The technician then requested that the client open a ‘TeamViewer’ session to fix the problem.
Fortunately our client was aware that this was a scam and passed along the information for us to make you all aware of the scam callers. Here you can find a video that shows the process of what happens if the scammer gains control of your computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDJWixw4TCI
Once the scam caller has been given access to your computer as shown in the above video they will be able take control of your computer and have access to your files and much more.
These scam callers may not necessarily say that they are from Google. They may also claim to be an anti-Virus software agency and telling you that you have a virus on your computer. If you are to receive a call like this whether it is Google or a technician claiming that you have a virus, please cancel the call. If you believe there may be a problem with your computer please contact your provider directly from a official and trusted number.
Please keep vigilant when giving out personal information on the phone or computer. If you do get contacted by somebody trying to carry out a scam on you, let us know what they tried so we can make other people aware.
AsOne were recently made aware of a scam email that is asking the account holder to click the link to stop their account from be lost. We would advise that you do not click the link within the email as it is highly likely that this link will be hiding a virus. We recommend that when you receive an email like this one you report it to you email provider. Report the email as phishing –
‘The fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.’
By clicking the link you may be making yourself susceptible to viruses that may drastically affect your computers performance or steal important details that could lead to fraud.
Take a look at our previous blogs that talk about phishing in greater detail and read more about spam emails to make sure you know everything you need to know to protect yourself and your computer.
The email content.The emails sender.
If you are concerned about your account please contact your email provider personally over the phone before clicking any links provided.
Recently there has been a string of scams regarding the breaching of copyright online so we thought it would be a good idea to stress the importance of adhering to copyright laws.
It always seems easier and more effective to just visit Google for an image that you need for your website instead of taking your own, after all you may not have the best camera to use or the time to create your own graphic. However, it is never worth the risk to just lift an image from Google that you don’t own, doing so can lead to a lot of legal trouble and a heavy fine on top.
The mind-set of ‘there’s no way that company in America will the see the image or text I used so it’ll be fine’ is a very dangerous mind-set to have for your business and will put you in a very risky position. The more copyright protected content you put onto your website, the higher the chance your misstep will be noticed especially if your website is ranking highly.
In the end the consequences of breaching copyright will cost you much more than what you gain from using the images in the first place. Your best bet is to just use your own content as the hassle for copyright infringement definitely isn’t worth it.
If you would like more information on scams and copyright feel free to contact us by calling on 0161 368 9100 or email us at here@asone.co.uk
Recently one of our clients brought a document they received to our attention.
This is an example of how scammers may try to exploit you and your business. Many scammers will try the approach you see here; the general idea is to force their target to give them money through seemingly legitimate means. These documents can come in many forms, from emails to physical letters and all of them will most likely look relatively convincing.
Scammers Letter P.2
However there is a way to tell Scammers documents apart!
This trick can be easily countered by simply reading the documents you receive carefully. Simple right? Not only that but usually just thinking about the context of the letter will give away its illegitimacy. For example, if you receive one of these letters asking for a payment that you ‘missed’ just think over all of your payments, have you paid them all? Is there anything outstanding? These types of questions will most likely bring to light the sinister nature of these documents.
Or if you have your web services with AsOne just give us a call or forward any correspondence you are unsure about onto us. Protecting yourself from these types of tricks should be of utmost importance, these scams could be extremely detrimental to you and your company. In essence you need to be constantly vigilant, these scams can come along at anytime and could catch you out if you’re not careful potentially leaving you with serious repercussions.
If you have any other queries regarding net safety please call us on 0161 368 9100 or eMail us at here@asone.co.uk
Phishing is a fraudulent scam where people get your details for websites that you have logged into, through a pretty easy process.
It is really as simple as building an identical website, making you visit their website, whilst you think you’re on the actual website. You then enter your username and password, which then sends that information to the owners of this fake site, allowing them to access your account, whether it be Facebook, Twitter or even your bank account details.
Even if you don’t realise, you will constantly receive phishing emails from your bank asking you to log into your account by clicking on the link in the email, which is actually a fake email, sent from a masked email address, which looks like a genuine address. This link takes you to a phishing website, where you enter your bank details and consequently, your money is gone.
Your bank will NEVER ask you to log into your account through an email. They will ALWAYS ask you to visit the site yourself, which will be protected and secure.
Protect yourself
ONLY log into websites, which you have typed in the URL yourself, and always check that you’ve typed it properly and you haven’t ended up on a copy website where you details could be stolen.
Have you ever noticed that people send out spam emails from their personal accounts, which you know they haven’t sent themselves. It will probably be written badly, about something ridiculous like viagra, and there will be a link. If you click this link, it will probably look like you’ve logged out of your emails.
It is here where if you put your details in, the same thing will start to happen to your account.
How to fix it
Log in and change your password for that account and every other account which you care about as if the passwords are the same, you never know, they could be in there too.
For bank problems, call your bank and speak to them personally to talk to the fraud prevention team as obviously, losing security to your bank is far more worrying than Facebook.
It’s finally December! Christmas is coming, Geese are getting fatter, and today is Cyber Monday – the day Retailers reckon people will spend the most money on Christmas Presents.
With people turning more to Online Shopping, it’s natural that criminals are looking to make a profit from unfortunate shoppers. It’s important more than ever to make sure you are safe online, especially when shopping.
I have no idea what to do… where do I start?
Keep Up-to-Date
The software you use everyday – your computer’s operating system, your web browser, your Anti Virus and more are constantly being updated with security and performance enhancements. Just like making sure your house is safe from intruders, keeping your PC safe from hackers and malware is important to online safety.
Operating System
Your Operating System is the software that lets you use your device in the first place. Keeping this up-to-date is your first line of defence.
Windows XP – Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows XP after April 2013, meaning that XP is likely to be vulnerable to hackers or malware. Now may be the time to consider upgrading/changing your OS, or buying/building a new PC. You should still check Windows Update to see if you’re up to date.
Mac OS X – Apple released OS X Mavericks not too long ago; a free upgrade for all OS X users of 10.6 or above. Read how to get the upgrade for free on Apple’s website. Remember to check for other updates by going to the Apple Icon on the top left and clicking ‘Software Update’.
Anti-Virus
No PC (or Mac for that matter!) should be online without a Virus Scanner. Viruses, especially those on hacked websites and that come via email (which clients are now protected from thanks to the new virus scanner we have on our email server) are increasingly common nowadays. You should ensure that your scanner is up to date, and, if it’s a paid AV, that your subscription is active.
Don’t have a virus scanner? Aren’t you the adventurous one. Here’s a non-exhaustive alphabetical list of some Free Anti Virus programs you can use. Most work on Windows, Mac and Android.
A web browser is what you use to access web pages on the internet, like this page you’re reading now!
The vast majority of browsers update themselves nowadays, but just to be sure, you can always redownload and reinstall your browser of choice. Click your browser below (or a new one that takes your fancy) to go to the Download page.
Internet Explorer – PC only – Version 11 is the latest as of writing, and is available for Windows 7; it’s built into Windows 8.1.
Firefox – Version 25.0.1 is the latest as of writing.
Safari – Mac Only – Use Software Update, or update your OS, to get the latest version.
Plugins and other useful Applications
There are many applications you can download that can add features to your browser – and sadly these are often targets of hackers too. Make sure these are up to date as well to increase your security.
Adobe Flash – Often used by Youtube and Facebook games. Flash has a built in updater nowadays, Youtube, and newer browsers, will block Flash if you aren’t up to date.
Java – Technology that powers some websites, and hit PC game Minecraft. It’s a popular target of hackers, and tends to get updated every other week.
Vigilance
You should always be weary while using the ‘net of any potential threats.
Don’t click links or open attachments from people you don’t know. If you receive a questionable email, forward it to support@asone.co.uk and we’ll check it out for you.
Be cautious if a friend or associate sends you a strange link. Their account may have been hacked and could be being used to send spam or phishing URLs.
If asked for login details, or payment details, ensure you’re on the correct site. Look at the address bar in your browser and make sure it’s the domain you expect (e.g. you’d expect https://www.paypal.com/, but the URL is actually http://wwwpaypal.somerandomdomain.ru/)
When entering information into a website, look for a Padlock in your address bar to show the site is secured by SSL. If there’s a green bar, or a green padlock, even better! If there isn’t a padlock at all, contact the shop owner and verify with them if SSL is installed or not.
Make use of the online Community’s vigilance! Use services such as Web of Trust and OpenDNS to help prevent ending up on scam or low reputation websites.
If you are ever unsure about the safety of your details or card info, don’t proceed under any circumstances.
I have no idea where to start on checking my PC, where do I begin?
Checking your device to make sure you are safe can be quite daunting for some.
More and more people are incorporating their own businesses with companies house online when previously it was the role of your accountant. If you register your business at your own address (not your accountant’s as is the usual practice) you might find some interesting scam letters through your door.
If you receive a very convincing letter from Intracom VAT registry (see link for sample http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/vat-scam.pdf) shred it!
If you would like to help protect other businesses share the information at your business networks and share this post on Facebook, retweet on Tritter or simply write your own.
If you receive an email claiming to be an “important notice” regarding your domain name renewal, a domain service notice or a search engine submission notice don’t be fooled. Read the small print at the bottom. It is a solicitation (phishing) email designed to make domain owners panic and sign up to something they don’t need.
Do not reply to them just add them to your junk list.
If you are an AsOne customer and are unsure about any renewal notices you receive for domains, hosting, search engine marketing or anything internet related please ask us. Fill in a support request at www.asone.co.uk/support and we will look into it for you.
OMG … have i cancelled my contract by mistake, wait, i don’t even have a contract with BusinessMobiles … oh you guys! You little rascals made a joke …or is is a scam. Wither way its spam trying to fool people into calling them. Its name and shame time again folks.
You might be getting an email soon inviting you to update your details on WCR Online. There is an attachment, but its just a PDF form. All innocent enough. The email even says it is free to update your details. “Phew” you might say because you have head of the directory scams that cost a fortune. Well … read the small print. (more…)
Similar in style to the Skype Scam this one uses a “similar” domain name to try to fool recipients into visiting a site. A simple warning sign is no branding and a double hyphen in the domain name. (more…)
This one is less typical of the eMail Phishing scams we see. Normally the email is well designed with graphics stolen from the legitimate site. In this case and the matching Adobe Phishing Scam email the email looks nothing like an official communication and the spammers have not needed to hide the web address because they have registered a “similar” address. (more…)
This scammer is apparently informing us of another organization buying up similar domain names to our own.
We can only imagine that NewName Net Service Limited have themselves bought the domain names they’re referring to, and will offer to sell us the domains in order to ‘protect our brand’.
The price for protecting our brand will likely be much higher than the current market value of domain names, particularly ones that use vague domain extensions.
We won’t be replying to ‘Amy’ because we’d like to keep our money where we like it, in our pockets.
We have just received the email below informing us that someone is trying to steal our Twitter password.
The email contains a link to download their ‘secure module’ to fix the problem. Notice how the link ends in ‘.zip’. This is a compressed file or folder that most likely contains all manner of nasty surprises that could ruin your computer.
Needless to say, if you receive a similar email do not click on the link to download the ‘module’.
We have just received this email from ‘Mr. Adada’ in Iraq. He wants to give us $1.5 Million completely free!
While we’d love to accept his most generous offer, there’s obviously a catch. These types of emails are sent to thousands of people in the hopes that some people are trusting enough to reply to the sender. (more…)
An email doing the rounds at the moment purports to be from Microsoft, but is in all likelihood a scam email complete with a virus.
The email alleges that you have unread messages in your account and that in order to read them you have to reconfigure Microsoft Outlook by downloading the attached file.
Any file with the extension ‘.exe’ at the end is an executable file. These file types execute a command on your computer and could very well contain trojan viruses that give a remote user access to your files, including stored passwords and other private data.
Never download any attachments in emails unless you’re absolutely sure that they’re safe.
Whenever we get information that can safeguard your business (and your wallet) we like to share it. This one has been going around for some time in one guise or another.
Basically an official letter will arrive warning reminding you that your domain name needs to be renewed and you should “Act Today!”. The letter looks convincing and official but in fact is a scam or at the very best misleading. Signing and retuning this letter could result in loss of your services or even the loss of your domain name. At best it will dip into your pocket. This company is run from a Mail Boxes Etc. Address in London so the chance of getting your money back or contacting the company after you hand over your credit card address is slim.
For more information search Google for “Domain Renewal Group Scam” or visit http://www.domainscams.co.uk/domain-name-scammer_42_Domain-Renewal-Group.php
Whenever we get information that can safeguard your business (and your wallet) we like to share it. This one has been going around for some time in one guise or another.
Basically an official letter will arrive warning reminding you that your domain name needs to be renewed and you should “Act Today!”. The letter looks convincing and official but in fact is a scam or at the very best misleading. Signing and retuning this letter could result in loss of your services or even the loss of your domain name. At best it will dip into your pocket. This company is run from a Mail Boxes Etc. Address in London so the chance of getting your money back or contacting the company after you hand over your credit card address is slim.
For more information search Google for “Domain Renewal Group Scam”
Please use the sharing options below to help warn your Facebook friends and twitter followers.
AsOne was recently made aware by a client of a scam caller. The caller claims to be a technician from Google. The caller will tell you that there is a problem with your computer, in this case the technician told one of our clients that there was a problem with their websites algorithm. The technician then requested that the client open a ‘TeamViewer’ session to fix the problem.
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