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ber that scammers try to rush you. Legit
people don’t.
· Check it out. Before you act on something
or share it – stop. Do some research. Do
the facts back up the story?
· Pass it on. If you get offered something
great, or you’re worried about something
alarming: talk to someone you trust before
you act. What do they think?
· Keep in touch with the FTC. Sign up
for Consumer Alerts to help spot
scams: ftc.gov/subscribe. And watch for the
latest at ftc.gov/coronavirus.
· Report scams to the FTC. Go to ftc.gov/
complaint. Your report can help us shut the
scammers down..
Notice the next to last recommendation. I encour-
age you to sign up for FTC Consumer Alerts and to
visit the FTC website at ftc.gov for tips and infor-
mation about how to protect yourself from scams
and/or to recover if you have been scammed.
On the technology front, there is not much to re-
port:
· There are some changes in the works for
Microsoft’s Office 365 productivity suite,
which we should learn more about in the
coming months.
· The Wi-Fi Alliance has established a
standard for Wi-Fi 6 and is offering certifi-
cation to Wi-Fi hardware that meets that
standard. Look for this “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
6” designation on any new Wi-Fi devices
that you purchase now or in the future.
(BTW, this certification is based on the
new IEEE 802.11ax standard; current Wi-
Fi devices are based on the 802.11ac
standard.)
· A new Wi-Fi 6 variant is in the works.
Dubbed Wi-Fi 6E, it will extend into the 6
GHz band pending regulatory approval. It
will offer even greater bandwidth than Wi-
Fi 6 and seems to me to be aimed at com-
mercial applications rather than home use.
· Wireless 5G continues to roll out (I think),
but I haven’t seen very much about it other
than T-Mobile’s ads touting their national
April 2020
network employing lower 5G frequencies
that offer wider coverage but slower speeds
than the higher 5G frequencies being used
by their rivals.
In closing, please be careful and stay well! For
some tech things to do while you are staying at
home please refer to my recent Google Group email
to all.
Phil
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el of minutia, so I ended the calls. Almost immedi-
ately my phone began ringing from an unknown
800 number, over and over until I blocked the num-
ber. I believe the ploy was to obtain my information
such as date of birth, address and social security
number so they could steal my identity.
Although I didn’t get far enough to determine the full
scam, I was very surprised that they added so
much credibility by calling me back and
“spoofing” (faking the Caller ID) of the actual police
department number I had provided and they had
checked!! As we know, spoofing a phone number
occurs often on junk and scam calls. This specific
trick could cause a reluctant mark to falsely think
they were maybe being too cautious. The scammer
may attempt to retrieve your date of birth, name,
address and partial social security number by ask-
ing throughout the conversation for you to verify the
information. With those items, it is possible to initi-
ate a change of address and phone number with
Social Security and then redirect your direct deposit
to a different bank.
Having repaired two cases of scammers gaining
access to computers that week, one which was
able to gain bank information and withdraw a four-
figure sum of money from a retiree, I was interested
in experiencing the actual pitch. It can’t be stressed
enough that allowing remote access to your com-
puter from random phone calls, emails or web page
screens is to be avoided. Also do not release any
personal information to unknown callers no matter
how official they attempt to sound, with so much
information available in the public domain many
times only a small about of additional information is
needed to initiate an identity theft.
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