PC Doctor Dave

15/12/2025

I'm just checking this gives a link with the picture I choose https://pcdrdave.co.uk/

28/11/2024

Why you should use Duck Duck Go instead of Google. I think the makers can tell you better than I can (I fully agree with this):

If you ever get asked why you should use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, here's a definitive answer by our Founder & CEO, Gabriel Weinberg.

25/11/2024

Always check the email address and links !
There are far too many phishing emails around and the hackers are getting better at making them look real. These are intended to collect information about you to help them spoof you later. Always look at the sender's actual email address (not just the name) and before clicking on a link to a website, always check where the link is going. On a phone or tablet hold your finger on the link until this information shows. On a computer, just hover the mouse over the link until the information is displayed at the bottom of the screen. If in doubt search in good for the website followed by the word phishing ('ipfs.io phishing is a good example). Take a look at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/phishing-scams for more help from the anti-fraud squad.

How to recognise and report emails, texts, websites, adverts or phone calls that you think are trying to scam you.

23/07/2024

I just could not resist posting this one! Hope you like it as much as I did.

07/03/2024

Please note that the Pewsey Parish Business Directory is a complete scam. If in any doubt, please see https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/parish.uk There are too many things like this attempting to get your money!

Do you agree with PARISH.UK Network's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 53 customers have already said.

26/02/2024

Passwords and how to be sensible

You may not realise just how common it is to be hacked. These rules are intended mainly for online use so it’s not so important for your PC itself (except the Microsoft password that is also online).
Usually being hacked is a direct result of bad practise on the part of the individual.
Dave has personal experience of how many of you just break all the rules. Here are the common ones that you really must avoid:
• Really silly ones like 123456, Password123, PA$$word etc
• Names including pets, family & favourite football teams (Mollydog123)
• Your address or part of it (even repeating the digits is a bad idea)
• Any part of your email address
• Notable dates (e.g. your birthday or that of your family)
• Keyboard patterns (look at 147852 on a numeric keypad)
All these will be tried by the hacker’s algorithms (don’t think they do it manually!) and with every combination of upper and lower case.
Don’t use the same or similar password for multiple things. This is especially important for financial sites but beware that email or even Facebook may have financial implications if hackers get access. It’s often the case that people employed by the likes of BT in India make notes of passwords they set and sell these when they leave for another job!
It’s also important to choose combinations of letters and numbers that aren’t easily guessable from public data about you. For example, a quick scan of your page can tell a hacker what date you were born or even the road you live on. So, working those pieces of information into a password won’t make it impossible to guess.
Best practice is to choose a password that’s at least 10 characters long. A completely random sequence is best but if it’s something you need to remember that’s not always easy.
The longer the password, the better; the denser the mix of letters, numbers and special characters, the better; and the more nonsensical, the better. Think about a four-digit code, using only numbers and nothing else: there are 10,000 possible combinations, but add just one more digit and that goes up to 100,000. Add in letters and special characters, and extend your password up to 10 characters and beyond, and you can see how each extra letter helps.
So how do you choose this mystical combination? Security expert Bruce Schneier suggests turning a random sentence (not a famous quotation or phrase) into your password. For example, “We love getting e-mail from Grandma, but she rarely writes one.” is a unique sentence that can become “Wlge-mfG,bsrw0.” by taking the first letter of every word (except for “e-mail,” which becomes “e-m”, and “o”, which becomes “0”). The result is a password with random letters, numbers, symbols, and plenty of digits—and one that you can easily call to mind by remembering the full sentence. Don’t use that one though as it’s probably already in the hacker’s database! Make your own one!

08/12/2023

WARNING PHONE SCAMS

I've mention this before but probably time I said it again.

Phone scams are on the increase and the callers are getting better and better at it (and therefore more convincing). They will keep calling to convince you they are real.

Also watch out for numbers advertised with Google (which might also show the real website). If you can’t find that number on the real website it will be a scam. If in doubt, search for the number in google. Try searching for 03301742009 as an example.

The scammers contact computer owners directly via telephone in an effort to convince them that there is a problem with their PC and they’ll need to pay to have it fixed. In general, the scammers cannot fix anything, and instead they merely charge exorbitant fees for absolutely nothing.

The call generally goes something like this:

1. The caller (often with a thick Indian accent) identifies himself as a support person for BT, Talktalk, Microsoft, Norton etc.

2. He informs you that you have a number of critical problems with your PC and that you will need to have it fixed. Alternatively, he tells you your PC is causing network issues.

3. To convince you, he offers to connect remotely and pulls up your Event Log (eventvwr.msc). He then filters for Warnings, Errors, and Critical events and uses that as evidence that your PC will soon fail to work correctly if you do not pay him to correct it. There will always be errors here !

4. As soon as you let them in, a backdoor will be installed so they can get back without your knowledge.

Be advised that the real companies will never ring you without you expecting a call. You should know how difficult it is to ring them !

If you have already been scammed, please turn your PC off immediately and talk to us for advice before turning it on again.

16/11/2023

I'm seeing a lot of people falling for the don't share this but copy & paste type scams. The scammers encourage you to do this only so that Facebook cannot eliminate the source to remove all shares of a scam message. By creating a new post with the original text, you do two things. Firstly you become the scammers messenger and secondly you identify yourself to the scammer as someone who might fall for another (probably worse) scam.

See this post from 2012 (it's been going on that long !)
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-copyright-hoax-copy-paste-copyright-facebook-message/story?id=17811357 #:~:text=It%20encourages%20people%20to%20copy,that%20it%20is%20a%20hoax.

06/09/2023

SCAM EMAILS
I'm getting lots of scam emails and so are my customers. The latest one which is supposedly from Amazon says that my payment was declined and I should update the payment method. It looks very convincing but it mentioned a payment for £169 which I did not make. Looking further I can see that the link goes to a non amazon site. To check this just hover the mouse on the link (do not click).

24/05/2023

Icloud Scam watch out !

Apple users need to extra take when checking their emails with scammers trying a worrying new trick to steal data.

24/05/2023

Enjoyed this so thought I would share.

Subscribe and 🔔 to the BBC 👉 https://bit.ly/BBCYouTubeSubWatch the BBC first on iPlayer 👉 https://bbc.in/iPlayer-Home Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield sta...