YDDOS: The Unstoppable 'Tech Support' Scam
Jul. 7th, 2010 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzYour daily dose of Slashdot:
Scams such as these are at once scary and infuriating. So many people haven't the foggiest idea how their computer works, or how the internet works, and will be easy prey from these assholes. Some might argue that that's why they shouldn't be using the internet, but these days you can hardly go without. Who still reads a hand-written job application?
Some might learn, some will be scammed out of a lot of money. It's just scary.
Would it be a solution to convert them all to Linux? Ubuntu is pretty low-threshold....
In other news:
The Unstoppable 'Tech Support' Scam
Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 06, @12:04PM
from the all-your-base-are-c-o-d dept.
"A pernicious new type of scam is targeting British computer owners, reports PC Pro. The con is both fiendishly clever and ridiculously simple. The fraudster cold-calls the customer and tells them that Microsoft has detected a virus on their PC, then invites them to download a piece of remote-assistance software. No doubt reassured by the lines of indecipherable code flitting across their screen, the caller assures the customer they can make the virus vanish – but first, of course, they want payment. £185 to be precise. The spoof site behind the scam is approved by McAfee's Site Advisor and bears Microsoft logos, something which both companies have failed to act upon. Meanwhile, an assortment of British regulators have said there is nothing they can do to stop it."
Read More...
Scams such as these are at once scary and infuriating. So many people haven't the foggiest idea how their computer works, or how the internet works, and will be easy prey from these assholes. Some might argue that that's why they shouldn't be using the internet, but these days you can hardly go without. Who still reads a hand-written job application?
Some might learn, some will be scammed out of a lot of money. It's just scary.
Would it be a solution to convert them all to Linux? Ubuntu is pretty low-threshold....
In other news:
Parasite Correlated With World Cup Success
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 06, @05:56PM
from the yeah-yeah-not-causation dept.
"A parasite commonly found in cats, Toxoplasma gondii, has an unnerving relation to World Cup victories by country. (..) Toxo can be found in almost every type of mammal, from rats to humans. The overall goal of the parasite is to end up in a feline stomach, which is the only place it can reproduce. In other mammals, humans for example, the parasite heads for the brain. It is estimated that nearly 1/3 of the human population has a latent Toxo infection, with individual countries having infection rates varying from 6% (Korea) to 92% (Ghana). Countries with greater incidence of this parasitic infection in their populations tend to win more World Cups than those without. The article, written by a Stanford University neuroscientist, goes on to try out various rationales for such a correlation, ranging from increased testosterone to increased dissent of authority — all symptoms of a Toxo infection. Now we just need to find a parasite that causes an inability to referee properly, and we'll have this whole World Cup business all sorted out."
Read more...
