What to do when you’ve been stolen

This week we’ve been working with the parents, of an employee, of a client. Do we usually do this? No. But when something extraordinary presents itself and we can help we will. Long story short. They were scammed, the home computer was infected (a MAC, btw) and their identify was stolen the first indication of which was the filing of a false tax return in which someone (not them) got a handsome check from the government. It happens all the time. A friend of mine in my neighborhood had the same thing happen to her. In fact thousands of people are now finding that they’ve been hacked and usually they are finding out when they go to file their tax return and the response is sorry you’ve already filed.

Where did they get the information? Was it your computer, a website, your bank, your library card, your insurance company, a credit card, mortgage company? Since you don’t know how or where someone got your identification from you have to cancel everything.

Start as if you’ve lost your wallet. This means new credit cards; new everything.

Then close your bank accounts and open new ones. Keep a permanent suspicious activity alert on those accounts. Consider removing online banking from the accounts. I keep two sets of accounts; one that has online banking with very limited funds and another than does not. Both require in person only account changes.

Follow the FTC recommendations.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identity-theft

Follow the IRS recommendations.

Get An Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN):

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Get-An-Identity-Protection-PIN

Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/Taxpayer-Guide-to-Identity-Theft

ID Theft Tool Kit: Are you a victim of identity theft? If you receive a notice from the IRS, please call the number on that notice. If not, contact the IRS at 800-908-4490. Fill out the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039. (Please write legibly and follow the directions on the back of the form that relate to your specific circumstances.) http://www.irs.gov/file_source/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf

Change your passwords…everywhere. Have your computers formatted and reloaded.

Above all take this seriously. It’s a giant hassle but it will never go away unless you go through this process and do it with some speed.

-Amy

New Facebook Scam in Your Email

This arrives in a friends email today. It looks just like a message from Facebook but it isn’t. How do you know? Hover your mouse and wait a second for the pop-up to appear that tells you where you are going to go if you click.

Above I hovered my mouse over the See Comment button and instead of facebook.com I see footmaniacs.com/zsl. That means that if I were to click I would be taken to a spoof website or an infected website that would download a trojan only my computer. Usually this is done to gather passwords for you account that they can later try at financial institutions or to gather personal information that can later be used to open a credit card in your name. To avoid this trap you should always hover to verify the destination before clicking anything.

Even better than hovering, just go to Facebook and read the comments there and delete the email. It always better to go to the source yourself.

be careful out there,

Amy Babinchak, Harbor Computer Services

Introducing Parrish Todd; More Scams Target Small Business

Introducing Parrish Todd. By now I think that most everyone has met Parrish and you’ve provided favorable reviews of his work thus far. Soon we’ll begin assigning Parrish to accounts so he can become a select groups “IT guy”. Parrish comes to us with 13 years experience in a wide range of areas, which is critical when working with small businesses. Parrish has worked in both small and medium networks; both consulting and as internal IT.

We are still hiring. We’ve narrow down the current crop of candidates and will be testing their technical skill on some real world problems then making our decision. So expect another new face. We like to get our new staff around to meet everyone, to see the full range of clients and get the broadest possible exposure to all of the things that we do.

More Scams Target Small Business. While many businesses are still battling Cryptolocker, the scammers have not been resting. New attacks seem to have a theme around social engineering. Social engineering is when someone calls to convince you of something by gaining your trust. For example:

• The State of Michigan sent out a scam alert that there’s a company trying to sell you on supposedly required compliance auditing.
• Microsoft is warning people that you’ll never receive a call from a Microsoft support person out of the blue. If one calls hang up on them right away. They just want your credit card and other personal information.
• One of our clients alerted us to a local “ambulance chaser” IT firm that is using the end of life date for Windows XP as a method to scare people into buying their services.
• Oakland University employees found out the hard way that their information was stolen. When filing taxes they are finding that someone already filed in their name and got a fraudulent refund!

The way to beat social engineering attacks is to simply not believe the person on the other end of the phone line or the letter writer. If you get any suspicious calls, email or letters give us a call before you give them any information. We can help you determine whether it’s legitimate or not.

Meanwhile over on our Facebook page:

*OneNote is now FREE for all platforms. Android, MAC and Windows

*New technology from Microsoft combines Kinect and projection to come up with an immersive experience. If you thought 3D was cool you have to see this.

*Microsoft Surface now available with 4G built-in from AT&T. Still comes with Office, 200GB One Drive and a year of free Skype calling. All at less than an iPad.

*Received a nice letter from Microsoft today

*Apple devices needs to be patched right away.

And more! Come follow us facebook.com/harborcomputerservices

- Amy Babinchak