Unusual title? Of course, and I’ll explain the two themes in just a minute. First, however, I want to discuss FRAUD. They are after your money and know how to get it.

Our membership has a lot of senior citizens (my wife and I are among them) and we are targets of a large number of con men/women out to get as much of our hard-earned money as possible.

Heard of any good computer fraud cases? Drop me an email about them and lets all try to warn the computer community about them AFTER you check them out to be sure that they are not “urban legends”. I use Snopes to verify stories before I pass them on and I also check out virus warnings with Symantec to be sure that they are real and not a repeat of a 1995 story.

Of course, you understand that this article will probably be the last one I write because Marion and I are going on an extended vacation – first class of course – because we have been recognized for our honesty and great reputation.

I know this because I received an email from the widow of the deceased Treasurer of Nigeria. This gentlemen was murdered because he failed to provide the President with the account numbers of their secret bank account that has over $50 million USD in it.

The widow won’t give the money back and asks for our help in getting it into our bank account so it can go to charity. She wants none of it for herself, of course, and is willing to pay us $10 million USD to help this noteworthy effort.

All we have to do is give her our bank account number and they will wire transfer the money and she will send me the list of charities it is to go to.

Would you believe thousands of people fall for that? Their bank accounts are raided and they are out their money. They may even get a phone call asking for further money to help set the transfer up.

Another favorite trick is to imitate eBay or PayPal logos and what seems to be their address. The subject line is usually a real “grabber” about terminating your account or to investigate fraud. If you reply, you are asked for your password, bank account number or credit card number and other personal data. If you reply you have just joined the ranks of the folks whose identity has been stolen. The real companies never NEVER ask for that kind of information after initial signup.

Remember, THEY want YOUR money and know how to fool you. Beware! The two frauds above get people that are greedy and willing to do something illegal (transfer funds that are stolen) or are simply trying to do as they are asked (for information or to confirm an account). DON’T FALL FOR THESE TRICKS!

Marion and I returned from a trip and were going through the pounds of mail that seems to stack up when I ran across what I thought was an ad from Sprint. For some reason I opened it and found a bill for a new cell phone activation plus lots of calls. I called Sprint and found someone had gone into the phone book and used my name/address/phone number to obtain a new phone. They did not use a phony driver’s license or any other form of identification. After a rather unpleasant conversation with Sprint they finally cancelled the account (they seemed to think I was trying to cheat them but had no way to explain the lack of identification media used to open the account).

This is a hard one to prevent so all I can recommend is that you check the mail and be aware of the possibility that someone wants to use your good name. Beware!

Do you get spam via email? Dumb question! Do you realize that much of it can contain virus-infected files and spyware? That lets the sender do all sorts of things including using a program that can obtain your passwords and any financial data you might have on the computer. Once they have that info, they have your money. Never, ever, ever, open spam or order from them. If you get an ad from a company you do business with but never asked for email info, be careful – it could be a phony!

If you keep your anti-virus program current and have it screen your email before you open it you should be able to avoid 98% of the problems. If you don’t have an anti-virus program, please check your email address book and make sure my name isn’t in it!

Now to water – a friend of mine had a pipe break and flood her house. Her computer equipment was not damaged but - - are you ready for this?

The company that came to remove the water picked up items on the floor to include the transformers and wires leading to all her components. After it was over she had no idea which transformer was for which piece of equipment. The plugs would fit several items but the output voltages were different and she is still working to find the correct ones to use.

Moral of the story: label the cords and label the transformers just in case.

REPEAT REQUEST: Heard of any good computer fraud cases? Drop me an email about them and lets all try to warn the computer community about them AFTER you check them out to be sure that they are not “urban legends”. I use Snopes to verify stories before I pass them on and I also check out virus warnings with Symantec to be sure that they are real and not a repeat of a 1995 story.

Take care and be safe in your computing.