Today is Current Events Thursday for the Sandwich Generation and I am writing about a lesser known, not stupendously huge, but somewhat irritating event that is currently happening, maybe even in your very own email box!
Twice in the last month I have received very nice invitations from people who “added you as a friend on a [little-known site whose name I won't mention]!” The first time it happened it was possibly an old business acquaintance of someone I once knew. Because of that, I did not do anything – YAY! Today, it was from one of my favorite people! Fortunately, being the suspicious type that I am, I wrote her instead of clicking on any of the links. Turns out she is a bit less suspicious than me (a much nicer quality, I admit! 
). Sadly, she got caught up in a somewhat spammy little thing that used to be called one thing and has now resprouted with a new name. She, along with others, discovered to their dismay that something they clicked on without quite noticing, apparently may have given this site permission to dig into their computer, as it got all her email addresses and sent spammy notes to everyone on her email list! Not fun! Needless to say, she, and others, are rather unhappy with this whole situation. Most of the information I found tracked back to the old site, where it used to have an "F" rating from the Better Business Bureau. I checked the BBB site myself and found that the new site has a "B" now. It’s possible they are working to improve their site, however I don’t think my friend would agree. I will pass this info on to her as she might want to let the BBB know about her situation.
She asked if I knew how to delete it but I’m not sure what “it” is. If any of you know, please let me know. Of course I did recommend some of my favorites such as PCPitstop and Spybot , along with Norton SystemWorks . Otherwise, if those tools, along with trying an uninstall, don’t solve her problem, she could always do a complete “nuke it ” and reinstall the original software. She, too, is a proud member of the Sandwich Generation , and has no more spare time than the rest of us, so I know how frustrated she is feeling.
I decided to write about it to try to save some of you a bit of wear and tear on your frustration level. If you get an invite from a friend via ANY SITE, I would suggest you write your friend directly. If you do decide to give it a try, read everything carefully before you click on anything! Which, when you think about it, is great advice for caregivers in any situation, particularly when it comes to the internet . Then again, we don’t always have the luxury of having that much extra time, do we?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It is so hard to keep track of the spam and scams going on out there. I know recently I received a Facebook notice friend request and it had my name on it requesting my own friendship! I was suspicious, I’ve fallen prey to so many things. Turns out, there truly is another Julie Arduini out there, and it was a legit thing. Then I laughed.
But these days, not much to laugh about, thanks for shedding light on something that definitely needs awareness.
Hi Julie. What a great story about Facebook
I wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your take on 9/11 and the now infamous “New York Photo Op” for your news event today. Very powerful article!
Caregivers: Don’t Let Strange Websites Mess Up Your eLife | SandwichINK.com http://tinyurl.com/cj39zq
This is very valuable information, that many people, even in a younger generation, need to be informed of! I am considered a Luddite by my peers, so I am *always* wary of this. I am still looking for a way to ensure the site is legit.
I work with computers each day, but still have yet to understand all the complex scams there are out there. Make sure you are speaking with a real person first- direct contact is always the best way to call out a scam. This is hard when it comes to facebook, etc, since often the names are changed. Hopefully, they will include a personal message, or photo.
Hi Jesa, Yup, it can definitely be intimidating. I do a lot of praying work to take safety precautions as well
One thing you might be interested in, there are a couple of resources that can help notify you if a site is dangerous. Norton Internet Security has that as an option. There is also a Firefox addon that alerts you to problems. It’s called Web of Trust (WOT) – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456 . Keep reading here at SandwichINK. It’s time for a techy reminder post and I’ll include information on websurfing safety as well. 