From: Digest To: "OS/2GenAu Digest" Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2010 00:01:29 EST-10EDT,10,1,0,7200,4,1,0,7200,3600 Subject: [os2genau_digest] No. 2006 Reply-To: X-List-Unsubscribe: www.os2site.com/list/ ************************************************** Sunday 03 October 2010 Number 2006 ************************************************** Subjects for today 1 Re: WINDOWS SERVICE CENTRE : Ed Durrant 2 Daylight Savings Time - again! : John Angelico" 3 Re: Daylight Savings Time - again! : Ian Manners" 4 Re: Daylight Savings Time - again! : John Angelico" **= Email 1 ==========================** Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:07:26 +1100 From: Ed Durrant Subject: Re: WINDOWS SERVICE CENTRE Hi Nick, This is a known SCAM. In fact the Queensland Police issued a public warning about 3 weeks ago and one of my managers in Sydney was called and she "smelt a rat" straight away! So it seems that all states are being targeted. Microsoft has stated publicly that they NEVER cold call customers in the style described. If fact no large Computing companies do, so if the scammers change their name to Dell or IBM or Apple or Google, they are still scamming. Apparently the way the scam works is that the caller asks to take over you computer (in itself a red light), but then "runs" a program that shows you all the bugs that are on your system. The caller ("helpdesk") can clean these non-existent viruses but you have to pay A$60 for them to do this. There is no proof whether or not the caller has installed other "bots" on the system at the same time. I've copied this response on OS2GENAU so that we all can pass this info on to as many users to warn them as you can. Cheers/2 Ed. P.S. the number you gave is NOT Microsoft's Sydney Office - it's number is 02 9870 2200 The number you stated looks like a VOIP gateway which could easily report itself as Microsoft and then transfer you back to the scammers call centre in India, China, etc. This article seems to confirm this: http://whocallsme dot com/Phone-Number.aspx/0291916553 Nicholas Lysaght wrote: > Dear Sirs/Mesdames. > > At about 4:20PM on Saturday 2nd October 2010, I > received a phone call from "Marilyn" from "Windows > Service Centre". She had an Asian accent. > > She told me that we needed to stop transmission of a > file with a virus that is on our computer and that could > spread our personal details across the Internet. > > I asked why she was calling me. She said it was a > service for Windows. I asked if it was Microsoft > Windows she was talking about, and she said "yes" > (with a sigh of relief). I told her that I don't use that > operating system personally. I told her I used > , but my son used Microsoft Windows, > and that we had licenses for them both. She insisted I > was using windows, and to go to my running computer. > > She tried to give instructions that I couldn't > understand. I then confronted her that I thought she > was a scammer. > > > She insisted that she was not a scammer, repeated my > First Initial, Surname, Address and landline number. I > told her she could have got that out of the Phone Book. > She again denied being a scammer and asked me to > check this number. > > (02) 9191-6553. > > I told her I would, then she hung up. > > I feel that it is important to inform you of this call, as > they may try it on others. I found that "Marilyn" > became unproffessional at times, starting to yell when I > could not understand. Importantly, at the beginning of > the conversation, it did sound professional, and that's > why it got to the stage that it did. > > Microsoft, being a largish corporation would surely use > a 13, 1300 1800 number. The phone book attests to this. > > The experience was unnerving, to say the least. I don't > think it did them any good. Firewalls are up, My sons > AV is up to date. Nothing was reported. Virii cannot > attack eComStation, but I run an AV programme > (ClamAV) to minimise being a carrier. Everything > seems to be in order. > > Could you please check the 9191 number for me? I > mean, if it *really was* Microsoft, there must be better > ways of contacting people. > > Regards > > NICK > --------------------- > Nicholas Lysaght > > (you have me on your lists). > > Could you please trace this number? I've never heard of > a "9191" prefix in any Australian City, so it may be > bogus. If it was really the Microsoft Service Centre, > they would know about eComStation....the answers > would have been different. > > -- Cheers/eCS2.0 Ed Please checkout my podcasts at: http://eComStationAustralia.podbean dot com or via iTunes To subscribe - click this: http://eComStationAustralia.podbean dot com/feed -------------------------------------------------- http://www./melbpc/ - The Melbourne OS/2 SIG === **= Email 2 ==========================** Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:22:09 +1100 (AEDT) From: "John Angelico" Subject: Daylight Savings Time - again! Hi all! We have some computers here running eCS 2.0GA and others are on RC4. Prior to DLS kicking in, I checked them for TZ settings in CONFIG.SYS. They ran continuously overnight, and all seemed well, but none of them actually showed correct Summer Time today, so we had to manually change them. That got me wondering about where the TZ data was stored. Can anyone remember if TZ strings in CONFIG.SYS are honoured anymore, or is the time zone stuff now somewhere else (sorry my brain is stuffed full of other stuff atm)? Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG os2 at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au ___________________ -------------------------------------------------- http://www./melbpc/ - The Melbourne OS/2 SIG === **= Email 3 ==========================** Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:59:20 +1100 (EDT) From: "Ian Manners" Subject: Re: Daylight Savings Time - again! Hi John, >That got me wondering about where the TZ data was stored. >Can anyone remember if TZ strings in CONFIG.SYS are honoured anymore, or is >the time zone stuff now somewhere else (sorry my brain is stuffed full of >other stuff atm)? I use SET TZ=EST-10EDT,10,1,0,7200,4,1,0,7200,3600 For Melbourne on the server. Weasel understands it ok. I have no end of problems with different ISP's wanting different time zone information, they often totally ignore international convensions with the scripts they use for spam, so I've ended up just using generics that work with places like spamcop etc. For auto rollover to DST you do still need something to actually do that for you. I use at call delay 15 at daytime -s -u ntp1.cs.mu.OZ.AU as part of a script that is run at 2am every morning on the server by cron, I dont bother with the client(s) as they have the daytime command in the startup.cmd file so they look after themselves when I boot the next day. (the 10 second delay is to ensure that oz.au has updated, as well as to cope with any possible time lose on the server though I've only ever seen it out my a fraction of a second, IRCD complains in the logs every now and then that time is going backwards. I could update manually if I really wanted to as I keep a another script that is common across all OS/2 boxes called 'gettime.cmd' that has the same command as above except it calls the local server for the updated time. Of you could also use a similiar command called via a local schedular on your PC if you thing you will happen to be up on your local PC at 2am of the morning that DST starts and finishes. eCS use to come with a time program, even though I have all copies of them here I dont actually use them, one day I'll get around to it :o) The daytime.exe I use is :- Set time from remote host, $Revision: 1.18 $ (C) 1997 Kai-Uwe Rommel though any similiar utility will work just as well. Cheers Ian Manners http://www.os2site dot com/ -------------------------------------------------- http://www./melbpc/ - The Melbourne OS/2 SIG **= Email 4 ==========================** Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 23:34:49 +1100 (AEDT) From: "John Angelico" Subject: Re: Daylight Savings Time - again! On Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:59:20 +1100 (EDT) Ian Manners wrote: > >I dont bother with the client(s) as they have the daytime command >in the startup.cmd file so they look after themselves when I boot >the next day. > So it still depends on a reboot! I will test in a few minutes. Hmm, having manually adjusted the time last night, to be one hour forward, the reboot just completed made no apparent difference here. So the daytime command on your system gets (and presumably sets) the time from the Melb Uni ntp server? But that means your machines set their time from an external source, whereas our machines here set their time from the internal RTC. That appears to be useful for servers synchronising across time zones, and avoiding clock drifts, but for our own approximations it doesn't seem to help much. What seems to have failed is the display rather than the internal setting of time. I'm slowly remembering that there was a text file of cities and time zones...somewhere Best regards John Angelico OS/2 SIG os2 at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au ___________________ -------------------------------------------------- http://www./melbpc/ - The Melbourne OS/2 SIG ===