G.T. Computer Services

03/09/2025

More toying with scammers!

At least whilst we are annoying them, they are not scamming someone else.

Nothing suspect about this person - Ruby Fisk aka Bailey Phillips (Phillips to her friends) - reaching out here to recruit us to NBCUniversal to help grow their followers. (Screenshot 1)

Simple enough instructions too! (Screenshot 2)

Unfortunately unable to play along any further as the Channel feature is not yet available in our version of WhatsApp but looks like we hit a nerve! (Screenshot 3)

Not that they're miffed we took them for £8! (Screenshot 4)

Strange how all the links previously freely given suddenly no longer work too!

Stay safe out there.

24/05/2025

Quick warning of a Facebook scam post to hopefully serve as an example of the kind of thing to watch out for.

Recently received notifications from a couple of friends who followed the instructions on a post in the hope of winning a motorhome. By commenting "@" & "highlight" as requested, this is exactly what will be achieved with the post being highlighted to all friends and so helping to spread this virally.

As stated in my comment, there is no motorhome or prize of any kind & if there was you would expect there to at least be some details as to who exactly is hosting the competition as well as some T&C's as to how/when it will be drawn. Chances are your details will more likely be stolen & used for other nefarious acts including contacting you further asking for fees or sending you some dodgy link.

As can be seen in the video, this is exactly what happened with a message asking me to click on a link!

Hopefully this will help some of you better spot this sort of thing, for which the only real action should be reporting the post via the 3 dots (...) in the top right.

Stay safe out there.

26/01/2025

There appears to be a disturbing increase in posts on here that do not contain the full details but rather ask you to click on a link in the first comment to get the full story.

This is just a quick warning to be wary of such posts as they are generally not for legitimate purposes. Often, this is just a tactic to try & increase engagement, as outlined in the pictured Copilot response.

Whilst sometimes legitimate and just a page trying to make the most out of their posts, the use of this tactic would point to this being the pages main objective, rather than providing anything useful.

At its worse though, these are more often fake posts with the sole purpose of redirecting you for various nefarious reasons.

Be aware & stay safe out there.

26/11/2024

Well, that's a new one on us!

Whilst investigating some suspicious looking emails sent to our Gmail address, we were further surprised to find that they had come through even though they had been incorrectly addressed to [email protected] rather than our actual address of [email protected].

This raised our suspicions even higher, that is, until we came across the following post on Google's Gmail help site.

Apparently, dots do not matter on standard Gmail addresses.

Who knew?

25/04/2024

Another one to look out for - Security Business Home.

Very professional (!) post apparently from the Meta team!

Post & page (created today!) duly reported.

Stay safe out there.

27/03/2024

** SCAM WARNING **

Example of latest scam text message purporting to be from the Royal Mail with link to official looking but fake website, also shown, along with their help article explaining that they would never send suchlike.

Note fake website address (i.e. not official www.royalmail.com) as well as irony of the package not being delivered due to missing address but there apparently being a phone number, else how would they know where to send message! All pointers to help identify this as a scam.

Please note, website is only shown here for example purposes, it is not advisable to click on any suspect links

Hope this helps & stay safe out there.

12/02/2024

New STOP! Think Fraud campaign launched to offer advise & educate people about the growing problem of fraud.

It is backed by BT, Google, TikTok, Royal Mail & Meta so some big names involved.

Hopefully, it may serve to help some of you out but don't forget that we are also hear to help & answer any of your queries too.

Stay safe out there.

Giving you the knowledge and tools you need to stay ahead of scams. Fraudsters aren’t fussy. They’ll pick on anyone. Nobody is immune from fraud. The criminals behind it target people online and in their homes, often emotionally manipulating their victims before they steal money or personal data...

24/11/2023

Just a quick note to other businesses to watch out for this sort of scam message being sent to their FB pages. Purporting to be from Meta, they are fake and by using the link supplied they are able to take your account details and then hijack it. So do not click on link, just report the message as spam and delete.

Stay safe out there.

07/07/2023

Quick link for anyone looking to get a good deal on tech.

tier1online.com offer various grades of refurbished kit at very good prices and by using the link below, you could save even more.

Hey, if you're ever looking for great quality refurbished IT products, let me know and I can get you a discount at Tier 1 Online. Here's a code if you need one now:

11/06/2022

This is coming up in October and the scammers are already onto it.

Don't be fooled. The government/OFGEM would never send this.

Be careful out there folks.

🚨 Scammers are sending text messages appearing to be from Ofgem offering rebates

THIS IS A SCAM

The link could harvest your personal data so be

Read more on how to avoid scams and what to do if you are affected ⬇️
ow.ly/8XWS50JlTAV

15/05/2021

Interesting little conundrum yesterday that just served to strengthen my bias against Dell computers.

Was never really a much of a fan but with little solid reason as to why, until that is, buying a couple of laptops for some of the directors of a company I was contracting to several years ago, for them to give presentations on. They were non too impressed (with the laptops or me!) when we found that their projectors would not work on them due to Dell using proprietary screen output ports.

More recently, a customer dropped their Dell laptop & Garmin GPS Navigator device through the Grove Tavern Hatch for me to sort out why they would not connect so he could update the maps. Several hours of virus checking, windows updating, cable swapping & general troubleshooting later, I happened across a little, hidden forum post stating that Garmin devices just do not work on USB 3.0 ports that also have the Dell Powershare feature, like the ones on the laptop in front of me.

Rather than just returning the kit & telling the customer this though, I first tried plugging in a cheap Logitech USB adapter, as pictured, in the hope that whilst reducing the port back to the older USB 2.0 standard, it would also disable Powershare. Lo & behold, plug the Garmin into this and it was detected immediately.

So, be wary of any USB ports labelled as shown (with either the addition of a battery or lightning flash) & hopefully this may help to prevent some of you tearing your hair out for a few hours as I did!

In fairness to Dell, they are not the only manufacturer to utilise this Powershare feature ... but I still will not be buying one any time soon!