Scams – Daves Computer Tips

Beware This Phishing Email From ‘Microsoft’

Jim Hillier — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 06:09:45 +0000

I recently received an email supposedly coming from Microsoft. However, it is clearly a phishing email purely designed to entice users into giving up their Microsoft Account login details. It’s also a prime example of common phishing traits: BOTTOM LINE: I cannot remember ever receiving such an obvious phishing email. As I said earlier, this one includes pretty much all of the common…

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Beware Xmas Online Shopping Scams!

Jim Hillier — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 06:07:44 +0000

It’s almost Christmas time again, which means it’s gift time, and many of you will be looking to purchase online. The scammers are well aware of the increased activity at this time of year and crawl out from under their rocks to do their worst. Here then are some tips to help you avoid these scams: Scammers will employ all sorts of devious methods to make their products appear larger…

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The Scourge Of AI-Generated Books

Marc Thomas — Tue, 27 May 2025 06:21:19 +0000

In June last year, I wrote Itchy Boots Has Accident In Africa and in 2022, I wrote How ItchyBoots Became A YouTube Sensation. During her recovery period in Holland, Noraly Schoenmaker wrote a book, Free Ride, due to be published in English on June 3rd, 2025. The new book gives an honest account of how she came to acquire her Royal Enfield Himalayan and decided to set off riding around India…

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How To Easily Identify Phishing Email

Jim Hillier — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 05:35:50 +0000

“Phishing” refers to an attempt by criminals to trick people into revealing sensitive personal information, especially banking and financial details. These attempts are delivered mainly either via email or text message. In this article, I’ll be explaining phishing email. In the early days, phishing attempts were quite crude. However, over time they have become more and more sophisticated…

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Reimage/Restoro Scammers Hit With Huge Fine

Jim Hillier — Thu, 02 May 2024 04:07:16 +0000

Reimage and Restoro are notorious tech support scams that, after years of scamming victims, have finally been brought to justice, sort of. Reimage and Restoro are not separate entities but are one and the same. The Reimage scareware scam first came into being in 2014 but after some years had received so much negative publicity that, in an effort to overcome all that negativity…

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Windows Defender Security Has Disabled Your Computer

Terry Hollett — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 05:19:51 +0000

I got a laptop with the following window open. “Windows Defender Security Has Disabled Your Computer” with a 1-800 number to call – obvious fake. It showed a Windows security screen with what looked like everything disabled. It seems to have disabled the mouse as well or at least made it hard to use. Note: Don’t ever call any of the numbers listed. They are all scams. They make it hard for…

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Microsoft Patches 73 Windows Flaws

Jim Hillier — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 07:21:23 +0000

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday update that rolled out in February 2024 addresses no less than 73 security flaws, including two that are known to be actively exploited. Of the 73 flaws, 3 are rated as moderate, 65 as important, and 5 as critical. The two flaws that are known to have been under attack at the time of the release of these patches include: The SmartScreen Bypass Vulnerability is of…

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Beware Of WhatsApp Scams!

Marc Thomas — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 06:10:51 +0000

If a complete stranger asks you for money, what do you do? If they compound their sob story with tales of incurable disease, dying grandmothers, starving children living rough, and all manner of heart-wrenching scenarios, are you still tempted to part with your hard-earned cash? Would you still be willing to part with your banking data, such as account number and other sensitive information?

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AI Generated-Content On The Rise

John Durso — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 05:03:08 +0000

AI-generated content is becoming more common. What’s more, it is often passed off as having been written by a human. A prime example is the shocking case of Sports Illustrated. In 1954, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was published. Sports Illustrated went on to twice win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. The magazine published articles by famed writers…

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Scamio – New AI Scam Detection Service

John Durso — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 10:01:55 +0000

Fraud and scams are rampant on today’s Internet. And, scammers are getting better at tricking people into giving up personal information, credentials, and money. In the United States, a Federal Trade Commission report estimates that consumer losses from fraud increased by 30 percent between 2021 and 2022 reaching $8.8 billion. Losses from investment scams increased by 111 percent! Scamio is a new…

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Be Careful With VirusTotal

John Durso — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 07:23:01 +0000

VirusTotal is an online scanning tool many Daves Computer Tips readers use to scan for malicious content. However, DCT readers need to be careful when using VirusTotal. The Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas created and launched the VirusTotal website in 2004. In September 2012, Google acquired the company. In January 2018, the ownership of the company changed to…

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Fortect – Is It Legit?

Jim Hillier — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 04:04:58 +0000

Fortect is a PC repair and optimization service that is being heavily promoted across the web, but is it legit? I’ve previously looked into and exposed the notorious tech-support scams Reimage Repair and Restoro and in this article, I’ll be putting Fortect under the microscope. Editorial reviews are pretty much unanimously favorable but, considering the history of these types of services and…

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Norton Genie: Free AI-Powered Scam Detector

Jim Hillier — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 07:57:18 +0000

In this digital age, scams and scammers abound and it amazes me how these scammers keep coming up with new and innovative ways to cheat innocent victims out of their hard-earned money or trick them into giving up sensitive information. In what I consider a great move to help deal with these scammers, long-standing security company Norton is providing a new free service called “Norton Genie”.

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Beware: Dog Registration Scam

Jim Hillier — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 07:11:53 +0000

We’ve just gone through a spate of the infamous “Unclaimed Parcel” scam here in Australia and now, it seems, the scammers have come up with yet another ingenious means to dupe innocent victims. Separate instances of the following text message was received by both my daughter-in-law and wife during the past week: The illegitimacy of this message might be obvious to the savvy user – the message…

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