Storm Drain III

Another storm drain picture from February since the last couple have gone down so well. You can find the other storm drain pictures through this link which includes several from this same angle in different weathers.

So, I have recently been moaning about my computer backup problems and similar computer issues. I never thought I would say it, but I am so glad I am having these problems.

I was in the final stages of a backup, using new more friendly software, when I got a phone call, apparently from Microsoft about all the error messages I was logging into their system which probably were related to viruses. Now, this seemed not unlikely since I have been having crashes and other problems for a while. So I listened and followed their instructions, but very slowly because I had to pause and eventually turn off the backup software.

I could not understand the thick accent of the initial caller so was transferred to a supervisor, William. They lost me in that process a couple of times and phoned back. They navigated me over the phone to the error log on my computer, showed me all the errors, explained they were from malware on my computer and so on. Then they wanted me to run a command to take me to ammyy.com. This is where my recent problems come in and my gratitude. Since the computer was running so slowly, (during one of the dropped calls of theirs I even rebooted my machine), which meant I had to wait and stall them and it all gave me time to think and feel my gut which said this was not right. So, since I also have had a Microsoft update kill my security essentials software yesterday (when it rains, it pours – this one is a known problem I am in the middle of finding a solution for) I have been keeping the computer off-line except for short times of use like when I write this post. I told William I had to get on line, which I did, but then I kept on stalling his pushy enquiries while I googled  “ammyy.com”. Bingo! Scam alert. I explained he was scamming me, it said so right on this website, and hung up on them before any harm was done. I don’t expect a call back.

Read more here about this scam if you care too, and even if you don’t. These guys are pretty convincing and will lead you down the garden path, reaching into your wallet the whole way, and probably leaving malware behind in your computer. They have been doing this scam all over the world for the past year or two, so it could be any of my readers that gets the next phone call. Be careful. And if you see William crossing the street in front of a bus let me know so I can cross my fingers.

Now back to getting virus protection fully functional again, and finishing that last 1% of the backup.

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Canon EOS 5Dmkii, Canon 50/1.4 lens, ISO100: f-13, 30 seconds, Cameron Fader ND filter at about 5 or 6 f-stops of density.

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13 thoughts on “Storm Drain III”

  1. Pingback: Storm Drain D « burnt embers

    • Thank you Ryan. There are some great photos in the past day of an octopus rising out of the ocean at the Ogden Point Breakwater (which has been the subject of many of my posts) and snatching a gull and killing it (and eating it too). Big octopuses in this part of the world. True monsters of the deep. I can imagine one of them out here, since in fact they are out here.

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      • Ha! It is a great series of pictures. I am green with envy to have missed the opportunity.
        I have a fondness for octopuses as my godfather is an octopus biologist and used to teach me about them when I was young, and feed them to me as well in all manner of recipes he learned when living in Italy and France. Interesting animals, and tasty too.

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  3. William called here last week trying to convince us we had a problem. The caller ID said the call originated in Seattle, too. My wife hung up on him and we haven’t heard back. We have a suite of Norton products and I regard them very highly and would recommend them to anyone. Close call.

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    • Hi Ken. Wow, that William gets around. The statistical probability of him hitting both you and me out of the 200 people that subscribe to this blog – I am not going to strain my brain on the numbers, but he must be making thousands and thousands of calls.
      I really like the MS Security Essentials, it runs pretty quietly in the background is not demanding of system resources and is the best I have used of many different attempts over the years. However, a recent update managed to kill the whole program in a way that leaves tracks through the registry which in turn make it impossible to reload the software. Lots of complaints about it on line. I have a process to go through now that MS has got back to me with instructions. Sigh.

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  4. I’m glad you got wind of the scam before you went any further. I’ve had several calls of this sort. They’re obnoxious and persistent and sometimes very stupid—one guy insisted that I had problems with Windows on my PC that needed to be fixed. Interesting, I said, since I don’t own a PC or use Windows. (And I don’t—I have a Mac.)

    He tried to argue with me.

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    • Hi skadhu – that is pretty stupid. The initial caller on this one had called me a few days before and I had hung up on her thinking she was a marketer. I think I miss a lot of these calls because I only ever say hello once. If there is no speedy answer, I hang up. If it is someone that I know, they will call back. If its a spam call, usually that is it, their computer moves on to the next number.

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