WTF would ANYONE buy a WIn 7 PC?

On a sunny day (Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:04:58 -0800) it happened Joerg wrote in :

Mostly spoofed sites that mimic as the bank site, you then are asked for a TAN, repeatedly... LOL

Bit of DNS manipulation will ooops

On a sunny day (Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:51:25 -0800) it happened Fred Abse wrote in :

Just tried that, it crashed my system. I think the reason is that I use the Nvidia beta driver for X. I did see the second X pop up, but using the normal X server in some strange resolution (lower). It immediately exited again. I tried going back to the first X, and that was now a black screen. Did a power off on sequence... So YMMV. :-)

The folks who fall for that must not be very smart. I mean, how does such a rogue bank site know the balance in your bank account? Wouldn't you become suspicious of there is a lot more or lot less in your account than you know there should be?

I think by now anyone knows that one shall not click on links in emails of unknown origin.

I have some CAD applications that run on Win2K. My solution is run Linux directly on the hardware, and run Win2K as a "guest" OS under VMware. Win2K is amazingly reliable when isolated from all the hardware, and runs for months with no hiccups. Linux runs for 200+ days at a stretch and is immune to practically all of the virus and spyware crap on the net.

Unfortunately, VMware doesn't support Win95 or Win98 anymore.

Jon

I'd say all of it.

Usually not so much. For example, if an unauthorized credit card draft was done and the bank can't recoup the money from the entity who dunnit they usually have to eat it. Or nearly all of it.

sk,

... and they pass on the cost to the consumers of course. :)

When my wife's purse was stolen and the thieves used her credit card at Jack in the Box and at a gas station, sure, we didn't have to pay for the charges, and even the sheriff's office was willing to help the credit card company, but the credit card company (on the phone while we were at the sheriff's station) refused the sheriff's help. Very odd behavior.

Michael

You're an idiot.

Regardless of the outcome, they still get to write it off.

That has its limits. They've got competition from other banks and credit unions.

That is odd. My bank seems to be on the cautious side. Occasionally they call me when they think that a charge seems kind of odd to them. Then I have to identify myself. So far they were all legit but one never knows, it's nice that they do this.

... but in the end, much of this "cost of doing business" fraud ends up coming out of the pockets of consumers, in the form of higher fees by the bank, higher prices by the merchants, and credit-card interest rates which are far higher than the prime-rate cost of borrowing. Even if the specific consumer isn't billed *directly* for the fraudulent charge... even if they get all of their money back... I believe that most of the damage ends up coming out of consumers' pockets as a whole, eventually.

I've been amazed (and worried) at how frequently these days I am *not* asked to sign a credit-card receipt, or show any form of ID. Granted, this does sometimes happen at stores where I've used the card before... but not always, by any means!

Try VirtualBox, or QEMU. You can emulate some fairly down-scale hardware with these if you wish... even DOS applications can be made to run pretty well.

That's a bit like encouraging thieves to rob your house just so you can write the losses off on your taxes. Not too many do this. (Well, excluding those who want to feed their dogs extra-fresh meat, and those who want some rifle/handgun/shotgun target practice. xD)

Can be worse: I bought a little spectrum analyzer early December and UPS just dropped it off at our front porch. No signature, nada. Truck stopped ... thud ... truck rumbled off into the distance.

It's not UPS' fault, the shipper didn't require a signature. Though I avoid UPS whenever possible... I prefer undamaged cartons ;-)

What bugs me is shippers who use USPS... "crumpled, stapled and mutilated" until it fits the tiny little neighborhood box :-( ...Jim Thompson

Unless they are also the ones doing the theft too. Then, they get the cash they claim they lost, AND the write off against it. Then, they pay it back to the customer, and the write off ends up a huge tax reduction, and they are not out anything other than a little reputation point hit.

Think again.

It is just like the viruses being authored by the anti-virus application authors.

isk,

Sometimes when they say no signature is required for purchases under $25 I am tempted to reply, "Ok, next time I steal someone's wallet, I'll keep that in mind, thanks!"

Michael

We have a good relationship with our mail carrier. And she gets a nice Christmas present every year :-)

But when a substitute carrier drives the route, oh boy, then we are often the last 1/10th mile mail carriers. Re-distributing to the correct addresses. Luckily we live in a non-HOA area (was a requirement for me before buying a house) and so I mounted a very large mailbox with keypad and lock. Probably has 10x the capacity of one of those neighborhood box compartments.

My wife had a bill come in for one of her credit cards for charges in florida at Macdonals and a couple of other fast food joints. You see the problem with that is, she hasn't gone to florida for years, no one else has and she had the credit card sitting in the renewal envelope that she never got around to activating, because it was one of those cards she seldomly used.

So, we have a use of a credit card that is sitting in an envelope that still has not been activated.

Call the credit people, they look into it. They can't understand how that happen? Because her card on their records still shows no activation process, but it also shows replacement card issued the night the charges took place. Yes, It was night time, the girls at the office must of had lots of fun taking their boy friends out for dinner.

Also noted, the cards that were send to us were issued from the same location in florida as the charges were, how quaint that is, which they also thought that was a little strange. That is when things got a little quiet and they decided to clear all charges rite away. We then drop the card, especially when it was noted that the replacement card issued had a new number that didn't match the one we had, and that was an undertaking.

Jamie

risk,

I get that too. I'm not too convinced banks do it for fraud prevention. ...more like those guys at the airports with their metal detectors.

Customers want to put their money where they think it's safe, not necessarily where it's ACTUALLY safe.

-mpm