Phish­ing Attacks — Com­puter Repair

“Hi, my name is Mr. Rufus Mukhenze, and I would like to send you 21 mil­lion dol­lars.” Does that open­ing sound famil­iar to you? It’s the start of what’s called a “phish­ing” attack, which seeks to steal your bank account infor­ma­tion by pre­tend­ing to be some­body that wants to help you out. In addi­tion to steal­ing your per­sonal infor­ma­tion, many of these attacks include file down­loads that, if you run them, will infect your com­puter and cause you to need online com­puter repair.

As a rule of thumb to keep your com­puter healthy and not need­ing online com­puter repair, you should never down­load file attach­ments in e-mails unless you were expect­ing to receive them from some­body. Even if the file is from some­one you know, it’s pos­si­ble that it could be a phisher spoof­ing their e-mail address. In other words–still an attack on your com­puter that could result in a visit to an online com­puter repair specialist.

Other exam­ples of e-mails which ask for your infor­ma­tion include requests to ver­ify your user name and pass­word, or text that claims you have won a prize and need to click a link to access it. The lat­ter type will often send you to web­sites which will down­load Tro­jans and other viruses to your com­puter, which you will not be able to get rid of short of using an online com­puter repair site to clean up your computer.

Tips to remem­ber:
– Never down­load attach­ments unless you were expect­ing to get one.
– Never send any­one your login and pass­word for bank­ing sites or other accounts. If an e-mail sounds authen­tic, call their cus­tomer sup­port line to make sure.
– Double-check to make sure the e-mail isn’t com­ing from a fake address. (e.g. ebay-admin@someothersite.com)
– If you ever get a virus, visit an online com­puter repair site.

By adher­ing to these tips, you can ensure that your com­puter stays safe and clean and that you won’t need access to online com­puter repair.

For­tu­nately, even if you acci­den­tally down­load some­thing you shouldn’t from one of these e-mails, or if your com­puter is ever oth­er­wise dam­aged, online com­puter repair ser­vices can help to get you back up and running.