143 Million Americans, and some British and Canadian consumers had their information hacked through Equifax on July 29. But Equifax did not disclose the attack publicly until September 7. They claimed they engaged an independent cybersecurity firm to conduct forensic studies to provide recommendations to tighten security.
 
Equifax is one of the three major credit monitoring and reporting agencies. Equifax has information on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide. They also have records holding employee data from more than 7,100 employers. 

BEWARE: Emails may start coming to your email inbox purporting to be from Equifax, or maybe even your bank. There is sure to be phishing attempts to get you to further divulge your information. Be very careful about clicking on any links that are contained within these messages. Best action: Go to the actual website but DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS in random emails. They may look like they are coming from the actual sender but may be a “GOTCHA” trick.

Keep in mind that once your personal data has been compromised by any kind of hack, that information is floating around forever. So what can you do?

Bob Rankin, one of the club’s “Go To” resources for the latest technology revelations, has an article with a lot of really good information. PLEASE READ: 

https://askbobrankin.com/equifax_takes_the_data_breach_cake.html

More information here: 
https://thehackernews.com/2017/09/equifax-data-breach.html

and here:
https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-protect-yourself-from-that-massive-equifax-breach/

​Email spoofing is forgery of an email address so that the message appears to have originated from someone you may know but is actually from someone other than the actual email address owner. This phishing attempt is a tactic used in phishing and spam campaigns because people are more likely to open an email when they think it has been sent by someone they know and trust. The goal of email spoofing is to get you to open, and possibly even respond to, a request for money or information in the message.
 
Bob Bloom has prepared a short presentation to demonstrate.

​CLICK HERE to view.

For those interested and involved in genealogy research, you may want to be aware of a really creepy site that divulges all of your personal data as well as that of your family and loved ones.  The website is www.familytreenow.com/

But what makes it so creepy is that Family Tree Now provides all of your public information in one place, totally free, without a login or any other info. This makes it just too easy for anyone to gain information about you and your family. It even discloses “possible past associations”. The fact that this site will give anyone your current address, age, relatives, and other info immediately gives anyone all the info they might need to locate, even contact, you. Creepy!

Check these articles out and read carefully. Then try to opt out.

Fortune gives details at: http://fortune.com/2017/01/13/family-tree-now/

Money explains how to remove your info from the site:
http://time.com/money/4634434/family-tree-now-opt-out-protect-yourself/

​If you are using the Wot add-on in your browser, you will see that all links to this site are RED meaning that the site is not trustworthy.

Computer Club Members:

Have you had a telephone call, email, pop-up message, text message, travelling salesman, or random person on the street tell you that you have a computer problem?  The “random person on the street” is not hyperbole, they have as much credibility as a telephone call or email. 

That is to say, NONE!

It does not matter if your computer device is new or old, Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, Android, iOS, Amazon, Apple, Dell, HP computer, tablet or phone.  Indeed it does not matter if you don’t have any electronic devices at all – since these are people have no scruples at all, THEY DON’T CARE.  ‘At the end of the day’ all they want is your money and will literally say anything to get it.  In short, they LIE.

What happens is: You receive, without looking or asking for it*, some kind of communication that something is wrong with your electronic device.  (And again, what device doesn’t matter!)  They convince you to let them access your computer or device.  Through sleight of hand, they show you evidence of something being wrong.  Then the pay-off: they can fix it but it’s going to cost you.  And they can offer “A Plan” to protect you for some number of years.

It’s a scam and it’s a fraud.  We’ve had at least 3 members allow the scammers access to their computers and that’s not good.  One even paid the scammer to ‘clean’ their computer.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is fighting back, but you are your own best defense.  If you get one of these calls or other communication, just hang up or delete it.  Some fraud web pages (“This is Microsoft - Call the following number immediately!”) can appear to lock up your computer – just turn your computer off, pulling the plug if you have to.  And don’t go back there.  Realize that anything and everything they may say is a lie.  (They did get me to click on a link, “NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. banned from racing due to PEDs,” but that was a lie too.  It was just an PED advertisement!)  As said, they’ll say anything to get you to click.  It’s what you do afterwards that counts.

If you have or do let a scammer into your machine, and realize later when they ask for money it’s something you don’t want, don’t argue, discuss or otherwise talk to the scammer.  It only takes seconds for a vengeful hacker with direct access to your computer to do major damage.  You should Immediately disconnect your computer from the Internet, turn it off, or even pull the plug; and hang up the phone.

An old computer mentor of mine liked to say, “If you don’t know how to do something, ask someone that does.”  Google is a phenomenal resource, imagine a place you can go to get an answer to any answerable question.  For Example, the top ten answers to “How to check my computer for viruses?” include 2 answers from Microsoft, 3 Anti-virus companies, 3 Publishers, an ISP, and a ‘How to’ Video.  As always, not everything Google finds is true; one still has to have an engaged brain to make sense of it.  Reputable computer repair stores do malware checks routinely.  The NSC Computer club has step-by-step instructions for Windows that can help in most situations.
 
---------
 References:
To report scams to the FTC:  
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

FTC info, Tech Support Scams:  
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams

ArcTechnica Story, “Inside the US government’s war on tech support scammers” tells how the scam works: 
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/stains-of-deceitfulness-inside-the-us-governments-war-on-tech-support-scammers/

*A key indicator of fraud or scam is them seeking you out, not the reverse.

VIDEO
Tekthing sad story of “BB in Arkansas” (jump video forward to 9:00 for story)