Ramblings Of An All-Around Role Model
Technology…Who Needs It?

image

Who needs Technology? Unfortunately, we all do. The reason why I say the word ‘unfortunately’ is because people who once were able to function without it are now required to learn in order to function in the ever changing world around them. It’s unfortunate that people have to keep up to date with the newest gadgets and equipment to function in their daily lives. Whether or not this is better of worse for our society is up for interpretation.

It’s good for a production based economy like China who is constantly developing technology for the rest of the world to use. It’s bad for a consumer based economy like the United States who is losing it’s pace when it comes to technology development. As a result of this, Technology has dumbed the West down in many ways. People no longer are required to think, remember and comprehend as well as they would have been required to in the past. You might say that this is ridiculous, and if you are one of these people I have a simple challenge for you: Try and think of the telephone number of 5 of your closest friends/family. Chances are you probably couldn’t come up with a number even if your life depended upon it. After all, why would you need to have that information memorized? Your smartphone has it all memorized for you.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a Luddite (Word of the date: Someone who hates Technology). I happen to think technology is rather handy. I love the fact that things are getting better and the fact that things are getting better means that things are getting a little easier. I like the fact that Technology is very user friendly for someone like me to use. And just because I am Asian doesn’t mean that I am technologically savvy, because I’m not. The biggest problem I have with Technology is how to fix it when something goes wrong. I just seem to have bad luck when it comes to it.

Which brings me to the problem I seemed to have with my Desktop computer. I have a Laptop and a Desktop. I use my laptop for when I travel. I use my desktop for all my home operational things. Editing photos, videos, gaming, watching movies, whatever the case may be. It’s on pretty much all the time, which is not bad for the type of computer that I have because it is a very powerful PC. I’m not going to try to bore anyone with computer specs.

image

Every once in a while, I may get a Security Update or whatever update that Windows is feeding my computer. Most of the time my computer installs and configures those updates without a problem. For whatever reason this didn’t happen for the last update I got. I couldn’t figure it out and my PC wouldn’t bypass the configuration. So what I decided to do was to do a system restore to a point before the update. At first it seemed to work but now I couldn’t seem to log onto my computer through my user or any user I have it on. For whatever reason, my computer was only operational on safe mode. Which was good because this gave me a chance to back up everything on my PC. First thing I backed up were the important files, then the thousands upon thousands of personal photos that I have (which would have been disastrous for all of you). Then other things, like movies and dramas I did not want to download again.

I thought it was best to do a factory reset of the entire system (clean repair) since everything I tried just wasn’t working, which ultimately didn’t work at all. The Damage was so bad that I had to re-install my version of Windows on my computer.

This is the part which essential drove me insane. It felt like all I was doing was going through hoops, just to do something as simple as re-installing Windows 7 on my Desktop. I’ll try to go through it in steps without drowning everyone else in pointless details:

  1. I download the version I already had of Windows 7 on my Laptop Computer.
  2. I download the program which will allow the PC to read the installation program from my external HDD, since I didn’t have a flash drive.
  3. Program wouldn’t allow me to tranfer the installation program because it the HDD wasn’t in the right Format (NTFS).
  4. Transferred all the important files on my Second Desktop and Laptop (yes, I have more than one of each).
  5. Decided to burn the installation on a DVD instead of transferring it to an external HDD. The problem is that my Desktop has issues with reading burned DVDs and CDs.
  6. Tried to burn the DVD on my desktop. It’s very old so it doesn’t read disc very well, so being that my Second Laptop is more up-to-date, I used it for the burn.
  7. As expected, the CD plan didn’t work so back to the HDD plan. I had to format it to FAT 32. Unfortunately, the only other option I could format it to was exFAT but I found a program which allowed me to format it to the right format I needed.
  8. I changed the BIOS so that the computer would Boot with the HDD before any other component.

By doing all of these long and tedious steps, I was able to get my computer up and running again. Keep in mind, I didn’t think of a single one of these steps. Thankfully, I have people who are very into computers who were feeding me suggestions and without them I wouldn’t would have spent money needlessly trying to get my computer running. It’s very annoying because of course no one this is my own fault and the problem was very simple. I just wish that the solutions could have been simple as well. I felt like all I was doing was jumping through hoops in order to fix the problem and went it felt like I was getting closer to solving the problem, another obstacle arises. 

I often say that it’s important for everyone to think like Economist. People should know how the business cycle works, what the role of prices are why there cannot be a central plan determining prices and resources for the entire economy. I believe people should understand how Technology works. Not to the point of how to operate their devices, but how works inside and out. The Focus shouldn’t be so narrow to the point where people can’t understand what is wrong with their devices. This only makes people vulnerable to scams. Technology is nice, but sometimes it can make things too difficult, not easier. 

Beware of Cold Call Virus Centre Scammers

image

I know times are hard. People are still struggling. Economy doesn’t show any signs of actually improving. Some people actually try to make the most of their situation. Finding a job, two jobs, part-time, temporary work. Then there are those who turn and rely on the Government. Collection unemployment, welfare work programs, etc. Then there are those who choose to make a living off scamming others. 

Although, scammers have been around for a long time, it’s generally not right to take advantage of unsuspecting people. Not that I was the one who was taking in by these frauds, sometimes there are people who genuinely and truly need or want their services and can’t help but to be taken in by these scammers. Although, most of the time scams then to target a specific demographic of people but this particular scam can target mostly everyone. As long as you have a PC, you’ll pretty much be a target.

Who Are These Scammers?

Comantra is an Indian firm which specializes in remote computer support. Naturally, on the surface is a perfectly legit business. The problem is that they’ve been scamming people for years. They’ve even had their Gold Partnership Status Revoked by Microsoft last year. Even after being dropped by a prominent company they still continue to scam people from all over the world.

How Are These Scams Done?

How this general scam works is based on a process of random selection called ‘Cold Calling.’ Generally some up and coming small business owners will use this method of generating leads for potential clients, consumers and business partners but generally frauds use this tactic as well. These scammers will call people at random with very important information about your PC and how it has been compromised. The operator explains that the PC is infected with malicious files. Taken in by the scam you accept their assistance. 

They will also ask you to install a piece of software which makes the diagnosis process easier, but what they are really trying to do is gain access to your computer to do god knows what. By using a perfectly legit product called Ammyy Admin they will be able to gain access to your computer remotely. As far I know Ammyy is not apart of this scam. They will instruct you to do a few things, explain a bunch of tech mumbo jumbo which doesn’t really means what they says it means. And finally send you to one of their faux websites well you will be able to download some software to rid your machine of these malicious files, but for a fee of course.

Here is a video about how someone decided to fool these people and exposed them on the internet.

My Thoughts: Generally the goal is to fool people who aren’t tech-savvy into buying a service/product that they don’t need. Admittedly, I’m not tech-savvy at all and I use a computer all the time. These people come off as very professional and in the end it is all a ruse. To add to their arrogance, they even tried to scam me into buying their most expensive program. Normally I wouldn’t even bother with a blog about this but this is a serious matter to me and these people have tried to scam me at least twice. The first time I hung up the phone on these people. The second I confronted them about this issue and they never called me again. 

In short, beware of these people and all scammers in general. Do your research before making any sort of decisions involving the money that you’ve worked hard for. Ask them difficult questions and don’t stop until you get an appropriate answer. Just don’t settle for the answers that you want to hear. People like these rely on the ignorance of the masses to get what they want. 

EAV:27cc2f611cf64bc2