The Case of the Stolen Hotmail

2Jour Computer Coaching Toronto, Canada

Ring ring ring..

"Hello?"

"Karl, my gosh what happened to you man?"

"Charlie?! It's 4 in the morning!!!! You gotta stop this!"

The call from your Ottawa friend of many years did not surprise you. Ever since your move to the big city Toronto, Charlie has found many ways to contact you, tweets, IMs, and also by the soon to be obsolete phone.

"Karl, Toronto has changed you!! Why are you selling prescription drugs?"

"Huh? WHAT?? Charlie what's wrong with you?"

"Karl, you keep sending us mail from your hotmail account about cheap prescription drugs. Jose thought we should do an intervention. "

"But Charlie, I am not selling anything. I have no idea why you are getting email from me... I"

"Karl, you need to STOP the insanity and move back to Ottawa!"

"Is this Jose?", you reply getting more and more anxious.

"Yes, I am here as well as all your friends who have received your disturbing email. Please come home."

Your heart races and you wonder, "Did someone steal my Hotmail account?"

.............................

Your internet account, like email, can be hijacked for a variety of reasons. In any case, the best thing to do is to change your password immediately.

Below are some scenarios on how your account information could be stolen:

1. You log on to your account from a public computer or mobile device without logging out and clearing your activity from the computer. The next time you go to an Apple store and check out your email or facebook account on the shiny iPad, make sure you remove traces of your username and password.

2. You have been Phished! At some point, you logged on to a fake website that looks like your internet account and you supplied the fake website with your username and password.

3. Malware (virus, spyware) is on your computer. It is logging on to your account through the userid and password stored on your computer. Therefore, you need to change your password for your internet account on an UNAFFECTED computer. You will also need to do a scan of your computer and remove the offending program.

Buying a Computer: The Curse of the Acronym

2Jour, Computer Coaching for Seniors Toronto, Canada

The phone rang.

"Hey Karl, your computer is dead."

"Charlie? Is that you? How in the.. How did you know my computer was broken?" replied Karl.

"Karl, you have been offline for several days. I can't skype you or chat with you which is very annoying. Please, please, please, get rid of your old klunker. Go to College and Spadina. I hear it's THE place to get a computer in the big city."

Karl thought through what his friend Charlie had to say and he was right. He was sick and tired of having to repair his slow and frustrating computer. Tomorrow, he will buy a new PC.

As Karl exited the Spadina streetcar all his happy thoughts for his new purchase were replaced quickly by FEAR. Big signs in front of what looked like a computer store had no mention of computers, but scary words like HDD or DDR and many other letter nonsense combinations.

"Oh, what a disaster!!!", Karl thought sadly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stores have made an effort to make it easier to buy computers. However, the dreaded acronyms are still everywhere. College and Spadina is a great place to get computers, but you need to know the computer jargon. Therefore, it may not be suitable for first time computer buyers.

Essentially, if all you want from your computer is to surf the web, check your email, and write documents then the most basic of computers is all you need. If you are not comfortable with the computer lingo, I would suggest going to big computer store chains for your purchase. You may also try getting someone you trust who is knowledgeable about computers to accompany you.

I have included some phrases that will be used to describe your computer. Good Luck!!!!!

Processor (CPU) - The brains of the computer. It's a set of chips probably made by Intel or AMD. This is measured with words like this: 2.3 GHz. The higher the number the faster the computer is. It is also measured by the number of "cores" which tells you how many things the computer can do at the same time. For your basic computer needs, you won't need to take the number of cores into consideration.

Hard Drive (HDD)- Hard Disk Drive space. This is the space the computer uses to save your photos, music, documents and videos. It is measured with words this: 640GB. The higher the number, the more content you can store. To put the size in perspective, 640GB can store roughly half a billion photos! On modern computers, you almost never have to worry about not having enough space on your hard drive.

RAM - Random Access Memory affects how software/program is run. This is measured with words like this: 6 GB. The higher the number the faster a program can run. For basic computer needs, as long as you have at least 2 GB, you'll be fine.