Tech Tip Tuesday!

Today is Tech Tip Tuesday!  I'm starting to get back to some "normal" activity - and it feels good! 

I hadn't really PLANNED to do a "Tech Tip Tuesday" post on my Facebook page, but I got a "HELP ME!" message, and worked through the problem.  My plan is to create a separate blog for this type of thing, but for now, I'm going to share the story here!  I can make it 'professional' and post it later - but for you, my general group of friends and blog-readers, here's how I spent part of my snowy Tuesday:

The whole thing began with my friend needing to update a Garmin GPS system.  They needed to go to Garmin.com to download an update.  They had some errors, and SOMETHING popped up on the screen, which led my friend to click on something taking them to "garmincomexpress.support", which is NOT a garmin.com site! 

I have a suspicion that they may have typed GARMIN in the address/search bar, and then the browser SEARCHED and came up with a mostly-garmin site...  but I don't know that for sure, but it's one way that people find themselves in trouble.  I do that myself, let the browser do the work - but then you have to make sure it took you to the site you expected.

At that site, they were prompted for a live chat, and then for a phone call.  Ultimately, the "tech" got them to allow a remote connection - and then claimed that the reason they had trouble doing the download is because there was a virus.  Next, they offered virus protection for $200 for four years, $350 for six years, and $699 for lifetime...   this is the point where my friend realized it was NOT Garmin support, disconnected, and contacted me!

My first plan of attack is often Malwarebytes - it's been very effective.  It was already on this computer, but when we tried to run it, the error said "Cannot connect to service".  We opened the Services, and could see that the malwarebytes service was set to "disabled".  We changed it to automatic, started it, and -- still couldn't run it.  Supporting services were also disabled.

Comparing the list to a working computer's list of services, my friend reset ALL of the disabled services that should have been enabled.  A reboot, and things worked normally.  We still scanned the computer, but I'm pretty sure that the scam does NOT install a virus, but simply made the computer unusable by disabling services, probably with a script, and that upon payment they could simply reverse the action.

Did I mention that we did this remotely, just using video chat? 
No snow days for Technology Coaching! 

I've also been doing some research on iTunes and adding new music, on resetting a forgotten computer login password, and prepping for my Phone Photography adult ed class.  I'm also working on how to build my tech coaching business, including the use of video - thus, the experimental Tech Tip Tuesday video!