This alert was sent to a person in Maine from an Indiana area code informing them that they need to quarantine because they came in contact with someone who tested positive or has shown symptoms for the corona virus.
The alert also instructed them to get tested.
“If you receive a text message like the one pictured, DO NOT click the link!”police posted on Facebook. “It is not a message from any official agency. It is however a gateway for bad actors to find their way into your world.”
One of the issues I’m constantly running into is people who have been taken advantage of by scammers. You know, the old “This is Microsoft calling! Your computer will self destruct in ten seconds unless you let us remote in and fix it for $200!”
These scams aren’t limited to hone calls though. there’s plenty of fake tech support ads floating through the web. In fact, when you do a web search for a tech support phone number, you always have to be extra careful. It’s not unusual for the first few numbers to be random tech places, using words like “Microsoft” or “Google” or “Norton” in thier names.
The rise of voice recognition technology on the smart phones that pervade our society has led to a new twist on this old scam. You see, while you can look at some of these URLS and try to figure out whether it’s legit or not… Alexa isn’t that clever.
The Better Business Bureau reports that scammers are taking advantage of Alexa and Siri’s auto-dialer to send you to the wrong websites or phone numbers. For instance, you may ask your phone to find you tech support for your printer, but the scammers have figured the keywords better than the manufacture and you end up talking to a tech support schemer who has no connection to the manufacturer whatsoever.
You’re always better getting your information from an official company website or correspondence such as a bill or invoice. For more information, visit BBB.org/Scamtracker
Problem:
File shows up in a folder, but any attempt to delete, rename or move it results in : “Error Deleting File or Folder – Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk“.
If it’s a folder, no hidden files are inside it. You can read and write to it. No permissions error, and the file/folder is not set as hidden or read only in properties.
Dropping down to a DOS prompt and trying a DEL, DELTREE, or RN return the same error.
Solution:
This is caused by an invalid character in the file name. Possibly a dot or a space (Spaces are really hard to spot – they’re invisible. But try a rename and just use the arrow keys in the rename box. If there’s a space at the end, the arrow key will find it and move one character past the last letter). Normally Windows will not let you create something with an invalid character in the name, but it can happen if you’re in a system remotely and the connection gets cut off, or if there’s corruption on the Hard disk, or if the file was created by a Mac and then some how transferred over to the system.
I ran across a couple of possible solutions from the command prompt, but if your file has a space in the name, especially in the middle of the name, you won’t be able to run them. Tried a couple of tools, “Killbox” returned a similar error – that the file dosen’t appear to exist. Finally came across “Unlocker”. This app will force a delete of the file. Start up the program and use it’s interface to browse to the file / folder in question (local or network drive, it doesn’t matter. as long as you can browse to it, the application can work with it), and from the actions list select “Delete”. File is immediately deleted. There’s also a “Rename” and a “Move” option. if your trying to preserve the file.
Problem:
Post rootkit removal windows may not boot and display 7B stop error. This CLI command set can rebuild files necessary for windows 7 to boot
Solution:
>bcdedit /export C:BCD_BU
>C:
>cd boot
>attrib bcd -s -h -r
>ren C:bootbcd bcd.old
>bootrec /rebuildbcd
Problem:
Ever have one of those terrible pop ups “YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED!!!!!” trap you on a page while it blares loud warnings that the FBI is coming to raid your house and steal you cat? It happens to every one of my clients sooner or later. So how do you get out of it?
Solution:
It’s a CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill the browser. But there’s a catch! Most browsers will offer to “restore session” when you bring it back up. DON’T! That’ll bring back the ad. Just start a new sessions and head back to your browsing!
Problem:
No printers show up in the printer section of control panel. This is a result of the print spooler crashing. if you go in and manually restart the print spooler it runs until you try to do anything related to the printer then crashes again.
Solution:
Usually this is the result of corrupt print drivers (possible virus infection causing the corruption. Make sure to run a quick malware scan). You may need to uninstall print drivers completely – including the registry entries.
If it is a local printer (My Computer), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintEnvironments Windows NT x86 DriversVersion-2
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintPrinters
If it is a network printer (network printer server or ), go to the following registry keys and delete the respective and entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERPrintersConnections
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlPrintProviders LanMan Print ServicesServersPrinters
After the registry edit, you need to stop and restart the spooler service. At this point, you’ll be able to reinstall the printer driver correctly.
Problem:
Ever have one of those terrible pop ups “YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED!!!!!” trap you on a page while it blares loud warnings that the FBI is coming to raid your house and steal you cat? It happens to every one of my clients sooner or later. So how do you get out of it?
Solution:
It’s a CTRL-ALT-DEL and kill the browser. But there’s a catch! Most browsers will offer to “restore session” when you bring it back up. DON’T! That’ll bring back the ad. Just start a new sessions and head back to your browsing!
