Monday 14 September 2015

Phishing .

A day of Internet problems and solutions occurred yesterday. A young couple here on holiday found that their rented accomadation had no wifi! They knocked on my door to ask if I had! Naturally I invited them in...they were German, very young and very charming and I let them use my wifi here and told them they were welcome to come back....

Later on I got a message from my sister in law. We are friends on Facebook and she sent a message. The only problem was that her daughter had warned us all that her mother's account had been hacked. I had then unfriended her but I wasn't sure it was the right one!

I asked her her daughters name and she got it right and then asked me about some money making scheme on Facebook so I rang her...she had been hacked but she knew about it and hadn't sent me any messages...

Now this has happened to me before. I got a message from a colleague asking me for a very urgent sum of money to be paid to a friend in need...the timing on this one proved providential...I had been talking to the colleague just minutes before the request arrived! I knew it wasn't him!

The internet plays a huge part in our lives now. The young couple I had helped out earlier were very keen to get some urgent emails. The Internet is an ongoing real presence in our lives now. It is easy, it keeps us in touch with old friends and there is always someone to talk to....my life would be very different without it...and yet like many other good things it can be used to defraud or to threaten.

Scams occur almost daily now....the phishing is quite blatantly obvious but they look for better ways to cheat all the time...

My cooperation with the two young Germans this morning may lead to a small better relationship with hopefully no repercussions... Everything in life can be used for good or ill....it depends on whose using it!

 

1 comment:

UKViewer said...

What ever did we do before wifi? or even broadband?

Dial up modems ...................................................

I'm still waiting to connect :)