Online Frauds and Scams
The internet is full of some very useful information, but in turn it is also full of misinformation, rumours and scams. Many people can be easily caught out as it’s hard to identify everything for what it really is and many tricks/scams are quite sophisticated.
Never the less, I have one resource I turn to if something just seems fake or false or I’m just unsure about it and that is snopes.com
Check it out, it’s quite an interesting website and a great resource if you want to double check something. In particular the fraud section here http://www.snopes.com/fraud/fraud.asp which details both real scams to watch out for an fake ones to ignore.
Of course the Australian Government has it’s own resources for computer scams, in June 2013 the Victorian Government warned citizens about a current scam involving random people being phoned up stating that their computer needs a repair and asking for remote access to it. However legitimate computer repair companies such as Splendour IT Services do not cold call anyone regarding computer repairs or virus / spyware / malware issues. If you have such a problem or your computer won’t startup you can call us yourself on 0410 661 441 for professional advice.
If your interested in reading further about the scam you can read the full article here:
http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news-updates/computer-repair-scam-news-alert