Computers and Scammers.

I had a real laugh the other afternoons my friend once again related the phone call he got from a company wanting to make his computer work faster and better. Of course this would come at a price. He told me how he responded by telling them that he would never ever give business to a company that was involved in cold calling.  Anyway he knew somebody who lived very close by who kept his computer running like a sweetie.  Goodbye.

I had a similar call from somebody with a distinctly foreign accent telling me that my windows  computer was sending out messages to them letting them know that it was infected by a serious virus. I was not to worry they were here to help. Of course once again at a price, this time probably my personal details. 

I sounded deeply concerned and they took the bait. I asked all sorts of really silly questions showing my ignorance, as far as they were concerned, about how such things happened and what could I do. My level of stress increased with each passing minute.

They on the other hand were getting more and more excited at the prospect of a loser. After a fairly lengthy discussion with them I asked again, "You did say that my windows computer was sending out those messages?"  "Yes, that is correct," came the response.

"Now is that not amazing," I said, "because I do not have a windows computer. You might have and I just might have dropped a trojan onto it."

Computers are really not at all complicated  let me explain them to you. Being an artist I am aware that a picture can say a lot more than words so let me share another little picture with you.

Do you fully comprehend all the parts that work together to make it function?  

Can you now see why you need a CPU, a Central Processing Unit?  And why the Backup System so critical?  

And the difference between the Main Storage, and Floppy Disk storage? 

And then there's input and output.  And RAM.  And ROM.  And CD's.  And eternet and WiFi.

  Yet it can still be hard to understand my computer.  Hardware and software.  Computers are confusing.  14 inch monitors, 15 inch monitors, 17 inch monitors, 19 inch monitors, then flat screens, and wide screens.

Like  I said above above, "a picture is worth 1000 words."

Have a wonderful day and do not fall foul of computer scammers.