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Thoughts From Abbott’s Inbox April 9th, 2021

Thoughts From My Inbox
April 9th, 2021

Hitmen, TV Chefs, and LinkedIn Scams

It seems that I fooled at least a couple of you last week when I said that April 2nd was the last edition of Thoughts From My Inbox.  I appreciate those of you who emailed and said they’d actually miss my weekly update if it were to go away.  Anyhow, here we are, back for year number two.  I’ve said many times in the past that I didn’t have much to provide in a given week.  Well, that’s truly the case this week.  It doesn’t help that I’m writing this from the Florida Keys, where we’re spending a long weekend, and I’ve pushed my deadline to Thursday afternoon.  The inbox has been painfully dull this week, aside from a few Italian criminals, and I don’t even have any good real estate updates for you.  I hope you find something interesting, below!

 

 

Something About…

 

Antivirus Billing Scams

You’ve probably seen a popup on your screen at one point or another, saying that your antivirus subscription had expired, and that you needed to pay to renew.  Now these scammers are doing this via email.  If you get an email telling you that your antivirus licensing has expired, make sure you know what solution you actually use, before doing anything else.  Then, contact the provider directly via their website.  Don’t ever respond to an email like this which asks for payment info or user credentials!

 

 

Darkweb Hitmen

This one made it to my inbox on multiple occasions this week, so I figured it was worth sharing.  It seems that an Italian guy (not the “chef” mentioned above) hired a hitman through the darkweb to rub out his ex-girlfriend.  The Italian authorities traced the cryptocurrency exchange (10,000 Euros worth) to figure out who was behind the hit, and eventually, to arrest him.

 

 

LinkedIn Scammers

Scammers are targeting job seekers through their LinkedIn profiles. As this article states, more hackers are moving away from “spray and pray” attacks (in which they send out mass quantities of lower quality hacking attempts) in favor of targeted and persistent (where they infiltrate a network and stay there for days or weeks before acting) attacks.

 

 

Jeopardy

Yes, I’m a huge fan of Jeopardy.  We watch it every night over dinner, and I usually win.  That said, I’ve taken the online test many times and have yet to score high enough to get invited to try out for the show.  They always seem to stack that test with opera, mythology, and Shakespeare, which are three subjects that absolutely kill me!  Anyway, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is guest-hosting the show this week and next, and I was surprised to see that he wants the job full-time.  In addition to his NFL gig.

 

TV Chefs

An Italian mobster wanted for drug-trafficking was arrested in the Dominican Republic.  Turns out he was making and posting cooking videos to YouTube.  Even though his face was obscured, his tattoos were visible.  Is there where the term “on the lamb” comes from?

 

 

Windows Taskmaster
Ever been curious about getting more out of Windows Taskmaster?  What’s that?  You don’t even know what Taskmaster is?  Ashton engineer Tyler Stewart recently put together a set of three two minute videos explaining how to get more from Taskmaster.  Check out the first one and then visit our YouTube channel to see the other two, as well as various other helpful hints videos.

 

I hope I didn’t bore you too much this week.  If I did, you can blame on your fellow readers for not hitting the “Submit a Thought” button, below.  We have a handful of readers who are sporting various pieces of Ashton swag, just because they sent me something worth posting.  If you have something, send it my way. Otherwise, there’s lots of good stuff on the tube this weekend; The Masters, The Frozen Four (college hockey’s final four, which has its semifinal games tonight after posting of this piece), and Major League Baseball is back in full swing.  With people in the crowd!  Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

 

Best,
Jim

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