Rio Bravo Consulting

15/07/2022

This one arrived in my inbox today. It has so many red flags I thought I might repost it and go through them.

Here goes:

a) I haven't bought anything online in the past few days. Why is this in my inbox?

b) it's very unlikely that a proper business would have an email address like "emestdavid8402@". Definite warning sign.

Don't bother writing back to emestdavid to tell him off though, he probably doesn't even know their email address is on this.

c) "undisclosed recipients"? Why are they sending this "thank you for your order" email to a bunch of people? Aren't orders supposed to be unique?

d) a .jpg is an image file, receipts and invoices usually arrive in .pdf format. The .jpg may be innocuous and it may just be an image file to make things look official but it's best not to click on anything until you're sure it's safe.

e) the text of the email is not very clear. It seems unlikely that a bona fide business would write something like this. Don't businesses sound a lot chattier and throw in a couple of icons or images these days?

f) what has the text got to do with my supposed order anyway?
So there you go, a few giveaways that an email is not what it claims to be. Good deed for the day? Done.

14/06/2022

Glad to see it's technically gone, though a lot of die-hards are still using it.

Internet Explorer is a PITA as a browser because Microsoft made sure it wasn't exactly like other browsers. Their argument was that most computer users were using their stuff so Microsoft WAS the standard, no matter what standards the rest of the computer agreed to.

Therefore, when building a skin for a website you had something that worked on all the other browsers but then you had to add in various hacks to make things work on IE, too.

Good riddance.

The news that Internet Explorer dies on Wednesday will come as an enormous surprise – not because it was in the prime of its life, but because it was presumed dead years ago.

04/06/2022

Had a weird email today, claiming to be from NZTA/Waka Kotahi and inviting me to pay for my car's rego with the handy discount code they were offering.

Fair enough, I'm not terribly sure about when it expires.
But it was weird so I paused for a second and noticed there was an attachment named "untitled attachment 0008.txt" which was a real red flag.

Surely a government department would at least name the document? And a ".txt"? Surely it should have been a .pdf?

Then I noticed the sender's email address "[email protected]" which is obviously nothing to do with the real NZTA. It's not just that the email claimed to be coming from some people called "blueberry-jitou-farm.com", but also that a government domain is usually a "govt.nz".

Then the link to get the discount pointed to a different domain altogether.

So anyway, into the deleted folder it went, unloved and unclicked. But if you get one of these, look at it very carefully, it might not be what it claims to be.

27/06/2021

There's always that risk.

NBA 2K19, Call of Cthulhu, and Jurassic World Evolution are among the malicious installers.

20/06/2021

Useful stuff.

These classic computing interfaces can help you get more done on your devices.

04/06/2021

From the spam box. It's tough when you rule the world but still end up blocked by email providers for spamming.

"Greetings, from The illuminati world elite empire. Bringing the poor, the needy and the talented to limelight of fame, riches, powers and security, get recognized in your business, political race, rise to the top in whatever you do, be protected spiritually and physically! All these you will achieve in a twinkle of an eye when you get initiated to the great Illuminati empire. Once you are initiated to the illuminati empire you will get numerous benefit, knowledge with new ideas.
Note: that this email message was created solely for the purpose of our recruitment scheme which will end next month and this offer is for unique ones only, if you are not serious on joining the illuminati empire, then you are advise not to contact us at all. This is because disloyalty is highly not tolerated here in our organization.
Do you agree to be a member of the illuminati new world order? If YES!. Then kindly reply us back on our direct recruitment email only at: [email protected]
Please note, Kindly make sure all your response are send directly to the email stated above only at:> [email protected]
For more instructions on our membership process.
Note: Some email providers incorrectly place official Illuminati messages in their spam / junk folder or promotion folder. This can divert and exclude our responses to your emails.
The Illuminati."

10/11/2019

Quite an interesting article on the various ways people can interact with your company.

Customer journeys are collections of touchpoints between users and organizations. A touchpoint is defined by a combination of channel, device, and user task.

09/02/2019

I couldn’t care less about the movie, but the 90s throwback site is very well done!
To think that would have been impressive back in the day. Glad we’ve moved on.

Sign my guestbook!

04/10/2018

Sounds quite interesting. The present-day internet is getting too screwed up.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/107587496/how-sir-tim-bernerslees-alternative-to-traditional-internet-would-work

30/07/2018

Interesting. I suppose it's similar to the way that insurance companies don't like it much when you have left your keys in your stolen car.,

Don't assume your bank will always reimburse you if you lose money to an internet fraud.

26/07/2018

This is very interesting. I've had one scam email where the scammers claimed that they'd taken control of my computer's cam while I was visiting p**n sites. The thing fell apart immediately because I don't have a web cam attached to my PC/

This one is scarier. They tell you your password up front and ask for bitcoin (again claiming that they grabbed your password while you were visiting some site of ill repute). And the password was real... if old.

The way that the scam works is that a lot of people use the same password over and over. The scammers got the passwords from old breaches of sites such as LinkedIn and are hoping that you are using the same password for other purposes. Well worth reading the article, and changing your passwords regularly.

There’s a new scam going around that would terrify most people if it ever landed in their inbox.

17/06/2018

Yep... best to avoid these things.

If you routinely comment on posts asking you what your first car was or where you grew up, you're putting your hand up to be targeted.