Utility Scams are on the rise. You could encounter these via email, text message, phonecall or even at your door. Here are some examples to learn about and be ready to dodge: Slamming In some states, you are allowed to switch your energy supplier to save money on (for example) your natural gas bill. This … Read more
Yes, there has been a recent class action suit against YouTube, and now that it’s wrapping up, you can consider getting involved. The case revolved around your children watching YouTube while Google allegedly collected data about them. Were your kids’ privacy violated? Google has settled the matter to the tune of $30M, and admitted no … Read more
Google Maps is amazing: One of its abilities is to drop you down to a photographic “street view“. You can see what it looks like to stand on the street of so many locations, all from the comfort of home. While this is useful and fine for public buildings and such, it may also raise … Read more
When watching an on-screen progress bar, I often comment to my client that we shouldn’t put too much stock into the information it presents. If it shows a “Time Remaining”, we may see that figure swell and shrink with little rhyme or reason. A Percentage-style progress bar may creep towards 30%, and suddenly surge from … Read more
If you use a Yahoo or AOL email address, then you probably see a lot of marketing offers from them. Pop-ups, emails and other offers abound. And this also goes for other email addresses that have found their new home with the Yahoo/AOL family. You should know how to get to the Yahoo & AOL … Read more
Disc rot is when a CD or other disc becomes degraded and corrupted. Once disc rot strikes, the affected disc may skip and stutter, prevent recall of some of its files, or outright just fail to work. If you have anything important stored on CDs or DVDs (or floppies!), here’s what you should think about: … Read more
Meta will take anyone’s money, if they want to pay for ad-space on Facebook. And that’s a problem. Because the scammers of the internet have no problem ponying up a little cash, if it gets their scams in front of thousands of people. Last year, I blogged a bit about this, and in this post, … Read more
Buying or selling items through the internet, with other individuals, can be risky. Think about your safety. It’s not just that you want to avoid scammers, but also steer clear of other crime. Robbery or worse. For local sales that involve a face-to-face meeting, you may want a location that is safer than your front … Read more
A customer recently shared this targeted phishing attempt with me, and I want to walk you through it. As phishing goes, it’s a bit more sophisticated than usual. Check out the details so you’ll be ready to sidestep this if it comes to your inbox. More Tailored than Other Scams I mention “targeted” because the … Read more
Your home internet service is similar to a nice car or running water — you rely on it, you take it for granted, and if it ever cuts off, suddenly the whole family is in a pickle! I can’t help you plan for every household emergency, but here’s some food for thought about your internet … Read more