Mother Knows Best

I remember my mother used to like to read the funny papers in the newspaper when I was a child. She often said, "You can get an education reading the comics."  I guess I thought she was just making up excuses.

This week there was a story in the newspaper to warn us of a new scam. It seems people are phoning to warn you of a possible problem with your computer. They say they are representing Windows and will help you check to see if your computer is vulnerable to this new threat.  They will lead you though a step by step process that will actually end up giving them remote access to your computer. 

A day after I read about this, I got the phone call.  The person started out saying she wanted to check on my computer. I had a malware problem recently and, at first, I thought it might be someone checking to see how that problem had turned out.  But at the first mention of Windows, I knew it was one of these scam artists, and hung up without being conned into turning my computer on. 

I have an adult autistic son, who lives independently in another town. He loves his computer, so I thought I'd better warn him.  I sent him an e-mail while he was at work yesterday and he phoned this morning to tell me he got the message.  He said they were a bunch of con artists. Then he mentioned his room mate, who also has autism, didn't even know what a con man was.  My son then said, "I know what con men are because I used to read Richie Rich." 

Apparently my mother was correct.  You can get an education reading the comics.