June 8 & 9, 2024 Show Notes
Filipino Mabuhay! Festival / IndiaFest / Harbourcats Home Openers / Fernwood Art Stroll / Cook Street Village Block Party / Weekend Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
Your crew this weekend:
Charles Martin
Co-host
Victoria Mac and iOS Users Group Program Director and AppleInsider.com Weekend News Editor
Phone 1-888-718-4598
1) If you get a call from someone claiming to be from Bell, Telus, or Rogers, offering you a much cheaper phone plan, it's likely a scam
The caller will know your phone number and what carrier you're with now, and will offer to give you more data and for less money than you're paying now.
In my case, Simon, who claimed to be from Bell, offered me unlimited worldwide calling and phoning and 20GB of international data for just $30 a month if I would switch to Bell from Freedom Mobile. When I asked him to confirm that in writing, he texted me the message screenshotted here.
One of the clues — besides the poor sentence structure — is that Bell does not currently offer a plan that includes international data roaming! Another clue is that the phone number which sent the text is not a Bell number, it's unassigned.
If you agree, the caller will ask for your email address to send you the new agreement, and your mailing address where they can courier your new SIM card, and then they'll advise that you'll get a text from your current carrier asking you to confirm that you're switching carriers, and if so, to reply with YES.
If you do that, you'll have just given the scammers permission to take over your phone number!
Within minutes, your phone will show "No Service", and all calls and texts to what was your phone number, will then be routed to the scammers, and your now-former carrier will be powerless to reverse the process. The scammers will then use your email address to trigger password reset text-codes for your bank, email accounts, and other accounts, so they can steal your money and your identity.
NEVER reply "YES" to a text from your carrier asking if you are changing carriers, unless you're doing that either in-person with a new carrier at their store or kiosk, or if YOU initiated a carrier change by going online to the website of a budget carrier that has no kiosks.
2) Watch out for a new round of fake Service Canada Tax Credit texts
The texts, which look like the screenshot shared by Charles, are being sent from @gmail.com email addresses — not from phone numbers.
They include a link (this one is Revtxn24.com, which has since been shut down), and it takes you to a (fake) CRA "Deposit Your Money" page, at https://txgvcdn24.info (which has also since been shut down) as shown in the screenshots.
It asks you to click on the icon for your bank or credit union, and then it takes you to a (fake but very real-looking) log-in page for that bank or credit union…
If you type in your Client Card or username and password, you'll be giving overseas scammers direct access to your bank account! NEVER click on links in texts or emails like this!
3) Watch out for fake Costco rebate texts
The texts, like the one screenshotted here, appear to come from a number in Quebec (819 area code), and include a link they want you to click on to get your 2% Costco member rebate…
First of all, Costco rebate cheques are sent by postal mail to your home address — they're not texted.
However, if you don't know that and click on the link, it takes you to a security screen that asks you to click on all the squares with a specific item in them to prove you're not a robot, just as in the Service Canada scam above. Once you do that, it takes you to a (fake) Costco reward redemption page which asks you to click on the icon for your bank or credit union, and then it takes you to a (fake but real-looking) log-in page for that bank or credit union.
If you type in your user name/card # and password, you'll be giving overseas scammers direct access to your bank account! NEVER click on links in texts or emails like this!
4) Watch out for scam emails claiming you've won a $500 Petro-Canada gift card
The emails come from "Petro Canada Winner" with no email address, and say (see screenshot) that "you've been selected as one of the lucky few for an opportunity to receive a Petro-Canada $500 gift card.
If you click on the "Start Survey" button, it takes you to a fake Petro-Canada web-page (hosted on a website in Germany) where you have to answer three basic demographic questions and then pick a prize box. No matter which box you pick, you won't "win". But, they'll give you a second chance, and no matter which box you pick, you will "win". You pick your prize, and then they'll ask for your contact info and mailing address, and then you'll be asked to give them your credit card info to pay a $5 "shipping fee".
If you give them your credit card info, within minutes, the overseas scammers will be racking-up fake charges on your card. But even if you don't, by that point, you've already given them your contact info and mailing address, which they can use to try to steal your identity.
NEVER tap on buttons in pop-ups like this! Just force-close the app or web-browser, or if necessary, restart your device.
5) A new evasive Mac malware strain is stealing data from browsers and draining cryptocurrency wallets
A new type of Mac malware is masquerading as CleanMyMac or Photoshop cracks, and has been stealing data from browsers and pilfering cryptocurrency wallets.
The malware, which is a new variant of Atomic Stealer malware which has been around for years, presents itself as a legitimate app. Once installed, it uses AppleScript to trick users into revealing their passwords, to steal cookies from browsers like Chrome and Safari, and to self-destruct if detected. Here's how to stay safe…
6) If a message appears on the screen of your phone, tablet, or computer advising that your device is infected or is about to crash, and urging you to call the phone number on the screen, it's a scam.
Here's an iPad screenshot of what one of these scams looks like…
If this appears on the screen, it got there because you clicked on a button or link which took you to what's called a Browser Hijack — a website which has been crafted to try to trick you. Your device is NOT infected. It's just a scam. If you call the number, it'll connect you to a call-centre (often in India) where a scammer will pose as someone from Apple or Microsoft or Samsung or Google, and will offer to fix the problem, either for a hefty fee — they'll want your credit card info — or they'll try to pursuade you to give them banking info. NEVER call the number, and NEVER click on the button or link. Just restart your phone, tablet, or computer and it should go away.
7) Here's an easy way to avoid being scammed:
If you get an email or a text about a problem with an account or service, or about a package that can't be delivered, or an invoice/receipt for an item or service you didn't order, or about a refund owed to you, or about a prize you've won, assume it's a scam, especially if it urges you do something right away.
If you think it might be real, check with your bank, or with the merchant, but NEVER call the number, and NEVER click on the button or link.
Tech Deals This Weekend
Flash sale on iPhones at Freedom Mobile: save $889 - $1029
If you're in the market for a new iPhone, Freedom Mobile is offering hefty discounts on all four iPhone 15 models this weekend…
The iPhone 15 is just $10 a month for 24 months; the larger iPhone 15 Plus is $15/month; the iPhone 15 Pro is $20/month, and the iPhone 15 Pro Max is $30 a month. At the end of two years, you either give back the iPhone, or keep it and pay a buyout fee of $409 for the iPhone 15, $439 for the 15 Plus, $609 for the 15 Pro, and $693 for the 15 Pro Max. If you do the math, those prices will save you between $889 and $1029, depending on the model.
Those prices are available on your choice of three service plans, all of which include unlimited Canada & USA calling and international texting:
- $45/month for 75GB of Canada/USA 5G data, or
- $45/month for 15GB of "Roam Beyond" 5G data and unlimited calling in Canada, USA, Mexico and 78 other countries, or
- $65/month for 60GB of "Roam Beyond" 5G data and unlimited calling in Canada, USA, Mexico and 78 other countries.
The best deal — especially if you take lots of photos — is the iPhone 15 Pro, which is normally $30/month, so you're saving an extra $240.
There's a also an unadvertised additional special, which is great if you're on a tight budget or not a big phone user:
- iPhone 14, just $5 a month for 24 months, and then give it back or pay $379 and keep it. That's a saving of $504 off the $999 full price of an iPhone 14. Choose from any of the above plans.
20% off all Acer and Lenovo tablets at Tesseract on Monday
If you're looking for an inexpensive tablet, all Acer and Lenovo models (both 8" and 10") in stock at Tesseract Computers will be on sale for 20% off when they re-open on Monday in downtown Victoria. These tablets run on Android 12 or 13 and have 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. The 20% discount will reduce the prices to between $152 and $232!
Epson EcoTank ET-2800 printer/scanner/copier: $80 off
Epson's base-model Eco-Tank printer, the ET2800, is on sale for $250 — an $80 saving — at London Drugs this weekend. This is last year's model, so it's black instead of white, but is great, and comes with bottles of ink instead of cartridges — literally two years worth of ink in the box. It feeds paper from the top, so you can print on card stock and photo paper too. No double-sided printing.
Not on sale, but now available: Epson EcoTank six-bottle photo-printers…
Tech News Of The Week
Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!
Tip: if an item in these Show Notes has the icon on the right in the upper-right corner, you can click/tap on it to make the additional info open in a new tab.
10) Google has agreed to pay the Canadian Journalism Collective $100 million/year to be distributed to Canadian news organizations
The $100 million is what Google agreed to pay annually in exchange being able to link its users to news articles written here in Canada.
The Canadian Journalism Collective now has the tricky job of deciding how to divide up that $100 million between the myriuad of news organizations here in Canada.
The Collective is a federally incorporated non-profit organization that was created for this purpose. It has a steering committee made up of 12 independent media outlets that represent French language, community and Indigenous news, and publications that specifically represent Black and minority Canadians.
11) Online streamers like Netflix and Spotify have been ordered to start paying an annual 5% levy on their Canadian sales into funds to boost Canadian content and local news
The levy, which applies to streeaming services that have sales here in Canada in excess of $25 million a year, is expected to inject about $200 million a year into Canadian content creation and local news gathering, starting this fall.
12) C-FAX 1070, 107.3 Virgin Radio, and CTV Vancouver Island are moving to Esquimalt from downtown Victoria
The new studios, which should be up and running by the end of the year, will be in rented space on the 5th floor of the new building housing the Esquimalt Library
13) Canada has a new AI competitor called Claude
Move over, ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Gemini: a new AI competitor has arrived here in Canada, courtesy of the San Francisco-based AI startup, Anthropic.
It's called Claude, and it's available for free on the web at Claude.ai and as a free iPhone/iPad app…
The iPhone/iPad app does not require you to sign in, but will only answer a few queries a day before wantiung you to buy tokens.
The website version lets you pose many more queries per day, but does require you to create a free account using your email address and mobile number.
Like the AI engines from Microsoft, Google and OpenAI, you can also subscribe to a more-powerful Pro version of Claude, which gets you faster responses and early access to new versions. Claude Pro is $28/month per person, or $42/month for a team of up to five users.
14) We're using 25% more mobile data now, than a year ago!
New figures from Stats Canada and the CRTC show that Canadians used - on average — just shy of 8GB of mobile data per month at the end of last year, up from 6.3GB at the end of 2022, and more than double what we were using three years ago.
StatsCan and the CRTC also say that mobile service costs have dropped significantly compared to the Cost Of Living — although most of us are not seeing those decreases on our bills because we're using so much more data…
15) New iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems and more are to be unveiled on Monday, with an expected big emphasis on AI
Apple's 2024 WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) will kickoff this coming Monday morning, June 10th, with CEO Tim Cook and team delivering a much-anticipated kenote where they're expected to unveil new operating systems for iPhones, iPads, Macs, Watches, and Apple TV's, together with a first look at how Apple plans to integrate AI into its hardware and services…
Charles says one thing which it appears we won't see unveiled at WWDC, is new devices…
iOS/iPadOS 18 will include the debut of a dedicated Passwords app
iOS 18 & macOS 15 are going to look to the past for new wallpapers…
16) How to extend the battery life of a MacBook — and also how to make sure it's fully charged on those days when you'll need that!
Charles has written a great article for AppleInsider.com on some easy things you can do to measurably extend both the battery life and battery health of a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air,
One of his tips, which initially might sound counter-intuitive, is to temporarily turn off the new built-in Battery Health Management service for when you want your MacBook Air or Pro to be 100% charged for an upcoming session away from power.
17) How to fill-out and sign forms on an iPad or iPhone
If you're away from your computer and need to complete a fillable PDF — and possibly also give it a legal signature — Charles has written an excellent article ofor AppleInisder.com on how to do that…
19) Adobe has done an about-face, after people noticed that Creative Cloud's new Terms Of Use said that Adobe could do whatever it wanted with users' projects
When people questioned that, Adobe initially said it's always been that way. When that blew up on social media, Adobe waited three days before clarifying that "Adobe does not train Firefly Gen AI models on customer content" and "Adobe will never assume ownership of a customer's work."
Adobe is now in full-blown damage-control mode, insisting it has not done an about-face, and is merely 'clarifying' what it does, and does not, do with your projects…
20) Microsoft is reworking it's new "Recall" feature after researchers point out security problems; it'll now be opt-in, not opt-out
Microsoft is making big changes to its forthcoming "Recall" feature which will let you use AI to quickly 'recall' everything you've done on your computer, after researchers pointed-out it would be really easy for scammers and hackers to access sensistive personal info via unencrypted screenshots.
Among the changes, because of how much of your info it can access, Microsoft says "Recall" will be now be turned off by default, and you'll have to specifically enable it, if you want to use it.
21) Apple is publicly committing to five years of iPhone updates, although it already usually supports them for longer than that
In response to a new UK regulation that requires manufacturers to state how long they commit to supporting a product, Apple has publicly committed to ensuring that iPhones will be supported for at least five years after their release.
While five years is less than some Android phone makers like Google and Samsung have publicly committed to (both companies have said they'll support their latest devices for seven years), in reality, Apple usually hits or exceeds this seven-year timeline for updates — and does so for iPhones released nearly a decade ago, and not just its newest products.
22) Hit-and-run driver busted by AirPod that got flung into his car after he hit a cyclist who crashed through his car window
A 15-year-old Florida cyclist's fortuitous AirPod bounce after a terrible crash, helped police track down the driver who hit him and then took off…
"Hola!" from "Tech Talk" listeners Joan and Ann from here in Victoria, who sent this picture from Madrid in Spain. They both switched to Freedom Mobile and got Freedom's $45/month "Roam Beyond" plan, which is letting them use their iPhones there, and in 80 other countries, just like at home.
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
And so it goes…