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Trading Standards - Fair Trading
Trading Standards aims to assist businesses to trade fairly through enforcement, advice and education.
The Office of Fair Trading (new window) is a government department who's mission is 'to make markets work well for consumers'. They look at competition between traders, investigate rogue traders, deal with scams and provide general advice on how consumers can deal with problems and protect themselves. They cannot provide advice or assistance to individual consumers or traders. The link on the right will take you to their website.
COMPUTER SCAMS
Trading Standards would like to make residents aware of the various scams surrounding computers and the internet as they are becoming more prevalent in today's society. Below is a selection of the most popular scams but is not an exhaustive list.
Malicious Software
Malicious software or Malware is designed to secretly access a computer system without the owner's consent. Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware and other malicious and unwanted software. There is no method that can guarantee that your computer will not be infected with malware but there are a number of steps that you can take to lessen the chances of this happening.
1. Install antivirus and antispyware programs
2. Update software regularly
3. Never turn off your firewall
4. Use strong passwords and keep them secret
5. Don't be tricked into downloading malware
Virus Telephone Scam
Cold Callers pretending to be from Microsoft phone to fix a fake computer problem. The cold caller calls asking for the householder and usually quoting their name and address before saying they are from Microsoft and informing the householder that they have had a report from their internet service provider of serious virus problems. They state that if it is not addressed the computer will become unusable and are then directed to a program called "Windows Event Viewer" which contains a list that the average user would think are errors with their computer.
The caller then directs the user to a website and gets them to download a program that hands over remote control of the computer and the caller then "installs" various things to "fix" the problems. It is at this point the caller requests to be paid for the service. There is never anything wrong with the computer, the caller does not work for Microsoft or the internet service provider and the owner of the computer has given a stranger access to all data on their computer.
Phishing Banking Scam
A phishing scam is when the scammer sends you an email purporting to be from a bank/financial institution which asks you to click on a link to open a new window in order to provide personal information. The scammer will have created a look-a-like website which resembles the target company's website.
Be wary of emails that ask you to click on a link and then provide sensitive information. Most legitimate companies would not request sensitive information from customers via email. If you have any doubts at all about the authenticity of an email, contact the company directly.
27/09/2011
