Category: information

Barclays Digital Safety Adverts

You’ve probably seen one or more of the Barclays recent TV adverts warning people about scammers.

One ad shows a call centre worker taking a call. She asks the caller for the 1st and 3rd letters of her password then says “Sorry I didn’t get that. Please tell me the 2nd and 4th letters”.  Now she has 4 letters of the callers password and smiles at the camera and says “Did you see what I did there?”

This is part of a new £10 million advertising campaign by Barclays and the ads are very good.

Instead of just saying “Watch out there are scammers about” – it shows some simple tricks that anyone could fall for and hopefully that makes a bigger impression.

Another advert shows someone going into hospital accident and emergency and a voice desperate to transfer money to help the person. But it’s a scam. Fraudsters send messages pretending to be a loved one in distress and needing money. These people have no heart and will do anything to steal your money.

A third advert shows a man claiming to be from Barclays and asking for a customer’s  password because of a necessary upgade. Barclays make the point that they never ask for a full password or Pin number so never give them to anyone.

I think these are useful adverts as they are a different take on fraud.

You can watch the videos on Barclays YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/barclaysonline

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Starting a Small Claims Court Case

Before starting a small claims case in the courts, you should have made a serious attempt to resolve the problem or your case could be rejected for that reason.

But if that fails, then you need to know who the defendant is – you cannot start a court case without clearly identifying the defendant.  It also makes a great deal of sense to take legal advice before starting a case so you will have a legal opinion on whether you have a winnable case.

The next step is to gather all relevant evidence and if you believe you have a good case then go to the government website https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/overview

The fees involved are for example £100 – £170 for cases where the money in dispute is between £1,000 and £3,000, but the full list of fees is available from that page.

Start your case.

You can start a case on paper rather than online but the fees are higher and the process will take longer.

To use the online service you need to have a Government Gateway login and password. If you don’t have this then get it in advance as it will take days to receive the details in the post. Go to http://www.gateway.gov.uk/ to register.

Make sure you have a strong case before going down this route and make sure you have exhausted other simpler options first.

The steps involved are further outlined in the article http://fightbackonline.org/index.php/guidance/12-explanations/70-using-the-small-claims-court-to-sue-a-scammer

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Virgin Media Customers at Risk of Hacking

Virgin Media has told 800,000 customers to change their router passwords to protect against being hacked.

This only applies to Virgin media customers with the Super 2 router. The router is box that provides your Internet connection and WI-FI.

Which consumer magazine has been investigating Wi-Fi in the home and discovered this problem.

Virgin Media said the risk was small but advised customers using default network and router passwords to update them immediately. This means that if your router has never had its password changed, then you should consider changing it.  To do this you need to use your browser and connect to the http address for the router.

A spokesman said: “The security of our network and of our customers is of paramount importance to us. We continually upgrade our systems and equipment to ensure that we meet all current industry standards. We regularly support our customers through advice and updates and offer them the chance to upgrade to a Hub 3.0 which contains additional security provisions.”

Supposedly, the issue exists with other routers of the same age and is not exclusive to the Virgin Media model.

Which carried out the study in conjunction with ethical security researchers SureCloud and they tested 15 devices -of which eight had security flaws.

In one case a home CCTV system was hacked using an administrator account that was not password protected. Hackers were able to watch live pictures and in some cases were able to move cameras inside the house.

Which? called for the industry to improve basic security provisions, including requiring customers to create a unique password before use, two-factor authentication, and issuing regular software security updates.

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Website Comments and Pingbacks

“I truly love your website.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you build this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as I’m wanting to create my very own blog and would love to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Appreciate it!” by home and family crafts  at homeandfamily.eux

Now this sounds like an enthusiastic comment on my blog.

But it isn’t. It’s a computer generated random comment and instead of being added as a comment – it’s been added as a Pingback.

What are Pingbacks?

These are like making comments by remote.

The spammer makes an entry on their own website/blog etc. and adds a large number of links to pages she wants to advertise.   Each link goes to the comments section of a legitimate blog (or website) such as Fightback Ninja blog.

That registers a comment (pingback) on my blog and when I read it that counts as a page hit on the scammers website.

Scammers and spammers want high levels of traffic to their websites as they can then charge more to their own advertisers, but I don’t want pingbacks because they are always spam.

Pingbacks are automated and meaningless. If someone wants to make a legitimate comment, they would do so and not use a pingback.

Self Pingbacks

Self-pings (pings within your own blog) are found useful by some, annoying by others. Those who find them useful feel that if someone finds the old post that they will see the link to the new post. But some are unsure if this is a good idea or not.

Normally when you create a link, the entire URL including http:// is used. That will cause a self-ping.

To prevent self-pings, use a shortened url i.e. remove the http:// and the domain name

e.g. https://fightback.ninja/test/the-1000-gift-card-scam/ shortens to /the-1000-gift-card-scam/

Note: Your editor may add back the domain information so you need to check this.

How to Disable Pingbacks

In WordPress, go to Dashboard, settings, discussion and find the relevant box to untick.

You can also disable pingbacks on individual posts via the Discussion metabox on your Add New or Edit Post page:

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Horizon: The Day the NHS Died

We all watched in shock as the NHS was forced  to shut hospitals, send patients home, cancel operations and close surgeries due to the WannaCry ransomware that disabled many of the NHS systems in mid May 2017.

The BBC Horizon programme “The Day the NHS Died” tells the story of what happened – how the NHS coped and the guys who stopped the ransomware in its tracks.

The presenter, Kevin Fong,  is a doctor so the programme was very much about the medical effects of what happened.  The attack started on May1 2th and rapidly spread across the NHS because of certain old computers still on the network and newer computers that weren’t up to date with security patches.

Much of the NHS relies heavily on computer systems – especially radiology  and once the attack was recognised much of that equipment had to be turned off to prevent the attack spreading to those systems as well.

The two guys who stopped the attack work in cyber security and looked at the ransomware code and discovered a website address which turned out to be an off switch for the ransomware and they used it to stop the attacks.

The programme is interesting but also worrying at how badly the NHS fared compared to other organisations. There’s a lot of work to do on the NHS computer systems to make them secure and that means a lot of money needed.

Watch now on iPlayer at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08vfzm0/horizon-2017-cyber-attack-the-day-the-nhs-stopped

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Warrington Gears Up Against Scammers

Friends Against Scams run awareness sessions around the country to educate people on how to avoid scammers and what they should do if they or someone they know is caught up in a scam.

There was such a session in Warrington recently and it seems to have had a big effect.

All those attended signed-up to be a “Friend Against Scams” or a “Scam Champion” and have pledged to raise awareness and spread the word across communities about the dangers of scams, particularly to Warrington’s most vulnerable residents.

As part of the event, they showed how criminals attempt to trick people with official looking documents or websites, or convincing telephone sales patter, with the aim of persuading them to send a “processing” or “administration” fee, pay postal or insurance costs or make a premium rate phone call.

A relative of a 78-year-old man from Cinnamon Brow who was a recent Warrington mail scam victim said: “I tried intercepting as many letters as I could find in his house and return them with ‘gone away’ but that had no effect on the volume of mail sent. He was still receiving at least one hundred scam mailings a week. “I estimate he has spent at least £30,000 in four years on scam mail products and scam lotteries.

Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, director of public health for Warrington, said: “Scams come in many forms, and scammers will target people of all ages, backgrounds and income levels. We receive complaints from residents who have lost thousands, and in some cases, tens of thousands of pounds

“These sessions aimed to empower residents to recognise and avoid scams and to help friends, family and neighbours do the same. Financial loss is not the only cost to victims, as feelings of vulnerability can also have a devastating impact.”

For more information about the campaign and how to get involved visit, go to  http://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk

Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards Scams Team initiative which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams by empowering communities to take a Stand Against Scams.’

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