ANOTHER PHONE SCAM ALERT! PHONE SCAM ALERT!
Hi everyone. Matt here. There has just been another phone scam that just happened at our house today (Saturday 17 November). There was a man (my mum got the phone, not me), claiming that he was from Spark saying that our own WIFI Broadband was getting hacked into. Apparently thank goodness my mum did not give the person any other details apart from this info. Her laptop is a school laptop and runs Mac software not Windows. Anyways, the person on the phone was saying that she needed to go to Teamviewer, (a typical scammers way for them to access your computer) and type in a password for them to access my mum's laptop (well her school's laptop). She didn't know that password, thank goodness for that.
Apparently the person is going to ring back here on Tuesday at 5.30pm at our house.
I had told my mum that this person claiming to be a Spark caller or technician is a scammer. Spark (previously Telecom) or any other company would not ring you saying that your WIFI broadband is getting hacked into or wanting to access your computer.
So she rung up Spark the local Auckland number to see if they had rung our house and to see if our WIFI broadband was getting hacked into or if it was another scammer.
She also looked at the Spark Website. She did read that Spark would not provide credit card or passwords
This is what the Spark website says. I'll give you both the link and the info underlined.
www.spark.co.nz...
Phone Scams
There are many different types of phone scams. There are a range of strategies a scammer uses to trick the person, including number spoofing. This is where a scammer disguises the original caller ID with a number they choose. For example, a call may look like it's from a local NZ number but is actually coming from overseas.
You can see a list of verified phone scams on the current scams page. See current scams
Characteristics of a phone scam
It’s a cold call you weren’t expecting. The caller claims they've identified a problem in your modem or computer. Or that your WiFi has been hacked or is running slow due to a recent Fibre install or virus. They offer to help by taking control of your computer through Team Viewer.
Note: Spark does not call customers unexpectedly to say they have a virus on their computer or modem
If the person is suspicious, they often provide a New Zealand number for the person to call back on. This number belongs to the scammers and they answer the call "Hello, Spark help desk".
The scammer claims to be from Spark’s help desk and offer their Spark staff number to prove they are an employee. They even offer to give you details of their manager to call.
They may know your full name, address and birthday. They can find this information through research online or buy it on the black market. You shouldn't assume they're legitimate for knowing these details.
The scammers call from an international call centre with a large number of staff. Scam calls are often very noisy in the background.
This is a so called scam like those Microsoft scammers who call you to want to fix your computer and bank scammers as well. Mind you our house has not had any of these but I personally get a lot of the "phishing" emails on my other email. "Phishing" email are just basically emails for example if any of you get these, this is just for example:
Subject: ASB Bank
Were waiting for you bank account to be activated. Please the link below to this. Obviously you click the link in the email.
I don't a link, but giving this one just as an example of what you people might get in any of your emails.
If you do click on a link that the so called email does provide, it will just end up taking you to the real bank website whatever bank you are with.
If any of you do receive any bank emails like this just delete these.
I hope that whoever reads this will get more understanding with scammers.
Matt
Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?
Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱
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49.5% Yes
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48.6% No
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1.9% Other - I'll share below
Here's Thursday's thinker!
I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?
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Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.
Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.
I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.
More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).
Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.
I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).
Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).
Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).
Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.
Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?
When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.
What do you think?
See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...
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