Don’t Panic, it’s a Scam!

It’s a fact of life now. New scams, old scams — they seem to be everywhere. Two different clients called on the same day this month about the same scam. They had both intended to go to Amazon. They both tried to get there the same way, and that’s what led to the problem.

When you open your web browser (whether it’s Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or something else), you will see an area at the top of the window where you can either type in the address of a website, or enter search terms. You may also have Google (or another search engine) set as your home page so you can easily search from there.

What both of these clients did was simply type in search words like “Amazon” or “Amazon Prime.” They hit return, got a result that looked like a sponsored ad for Amazon, and clicked on it. They were immediately warned that their computer was infected.

Scammers had somehow gamed Google’s advertising system to place an ad that was virtually indistinguishable from a real Amazon ad. When someone clicks on the ad, it takes them to a fake security warning and a number to call for help. If these clients had called that number, the scammers would have asked to look at their computer screens and attempted to get them to send money.

How to Avoid the Scam in the First Place

Instead of searching for a website you visit frequently, choose one of the following options instead:

1. Type the complete website address (in this case, amazon.com) into your web browser address bar (A, in the illustration below), and hit the return (or “enter”) key.

2. Create a bookmark (B, below) that takes you to the website you are seeking with one click, no typing required. 

Either option will get you directly to the official website faster and more reliably, and will avoid the chance of stumbling upon a scammer’s fake ad. It’s important to note that scam ads look exactly like real ones, such as the one below for Amazon (C, in the illustration). It’s best to avoid them entirely by typing the full website name or using a bookmark.

If you need a quick lesson in how to manage and organise bookmarks, please reach out. It could save you a little bit of time, and possibly a lot of money, to have a reliable system in place to avoid these scams!

What to Do if You Get an Alarming Message

If your computer suddenly displays a message that it has been compromised, hacked, or infected, the first thing to remember is that it is almost certainly a scam! Don’t panic. That is exactly how scammers get you to act quickly before you have time to think rationally. Instead, you want to quit your web browser, or force quit if necessary. Here’s how:

1. Go to the Apple Menu and choose “Force Quit.” This will bring up a window in which you can click on the application you want to quit.

2. Choose Safari (or whatever web browser you are using), and click on the “Force Quit” button.

3. To reopen Safari safely, hold the shift key down when you click on the Safari icon in your dock. This will make sure it reopens to your normal start-up page, rather than the last page you were looking at.

If you are on your iPhone or iPad when this happens, you can follow the instructions for your device on this page to force quit your browser.

As always, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if this happens to you and you are stuck or unsure what to do. If you have further questions about using your web browser more safely, creating and organising bookmarks, or anything else to do with your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, please email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com or text/call me at (207) 691-7788 (US) or 07943 199484 (UK).

"How much storage do I need?"

“Stop right there!”

Too often, I wish I could’ve spoken those words in the critical moments before a client has tapped the “purchase” button on a new Apple computer with insufficient storage to meet their computing needs.

Apple has released some impressive updates to their computer line in the past few months, including the 15" MacBook Air and the M3 iMac. It’s a great time to consider a purchase, and I love helping clients transition to a new computer that is lighter, brighter, faster, and better in every way. 

Except when it’s not.

Because there are few things worse than starting the migration process only to discover that there isn’t enough room on the new computer to hold all of the files from the old device. 

After nearly 35 years of helping people choose and set up new computers, I’ve learned that one of the most important questions to answer—and the one people most often get wrong—is “How much storage do I need?” Here’s how to find the correct answer:

    • Look at how much storage you are using on your current computer.
    • Calculate how much more you are likely to need in the lifetime of the new computer.
    • Make sure you get enough to accommodate the new total, with room to spare.

With just one exception (the Mac Pro), you can no longer add internal storage to new Apple computers. What you order is what you’ll have to work with for the life of that device. So, please, look at what you are currently using and what you might need in the next 5-8 years, and plan accordingly. (And save the packaging until you’ve completed the migration and are happy with your purchase, in case a return is necessary.)

As always, I am happy to help. If you are at all uncertain how to calculate your future storage needs or anything else regarding a new computer, get in touch. You’ll save time, money, and headaches down the road if you make the right decision from the start!

More on Scams
I’m considering writing about scams every month until I stop getting reports of clients falling for them. Just this week a client in Maine called after getting a warning that their machine was infected while they were “just reading the local paper.” They called the number on the screen, and only really got suspicions when the “Apple” agent insisted on knowing the balance of their checking account.

Please stay alert for these scams. You will never (and I really mean never) get a legitimate warning pop up on your screen that there is a security breach on your computer. No Apple employee (or any other credible caller, tech support or otherwise) is going to want to know, let alone see, your online banking details. Remember that any emails that have grammar or spelling mistakes are always suspicious. And no one is going to tell you to stay on the phone. You can always hang up and call a friend (or me) if you are concerned.

As always, if you have questions or need help, please reach out. You can email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com or text/call (207) 691-7788 (US) or 07943 199484‬ (UK).

“What exactly is it that you do?”

Unusual Technology Challenge
In my work helping clients with their technology, every day presents the possibility of an interesting new challenge. That’s what makes it fun. For 35 years, I’ve been storing up everything I learn along the way so I have answers at the ready when my clients need them. No matter how obscure or unusual the task, someone else invariably comes along who needs the exact same kind of help.

So, when I read on a local Facebook group here in the Cotswolds that a charitable organization needed volunteers to run video transcripts through online translators, I reached out. The woman seeking help chairs the Timothy Syndrome Alliance, an organization working to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and care of individuals with CACNA1C-related disorders. This piqued my interest and seemed a good use of my spare time. I received my first assignment and learned that the required task was a tedious one, to cut and paste small sections of text into an AI translator, so that subtitles could be generated in multiple languages. (Diagnosis is so rare, there are entire countries with only a single known case, which can be very isolating for those affected. The goal of this project is to make new and updated information accessible to all.) Volunteers were needed because the text translation could take up to an hour for a single language.

I knew there had to be a quicker way!

A program called Keyboard Maestro came to mind. I purchased a copy and dug in. I won’t go into detail here about how it works, but I was able to create a macro that completes the one-hour task in six or seven minutes. It could save hours each time a new video is translated. I am sharing this story as the sort of example I usually forget to mention when someone asks, “What exactly is it that you do?” In short: I solve computing and technology problems, whether it’s something I’ve done a million times before, or something I can delve into and solve for the very first time.

All this to say: please reach out if you want to make your technology work better or faster for you! I can probably help.

Scams
I continue to get calls about scams. Most recently, a client setting up a new HP printer called and told me they went to HP’s website, https://123.hp.com, and called the number shown there for further help. But there is no phone number shown on this HP site – at least not a readily obvious one. I suspect they made a mistake typing the address, which led them to a scam site. The person who answered their call insisted that their network was compromised and wanted to charge them $199 to put it right. Happily, they sensed something was wrong, hung up, and got in touch with me.

To repeat my warning from last year: if the slightest thing doesn’t seem right in a phone call, hang up. Nothing bad will ever happen if you do this. If something doesn’t seem right in an email, don’t click on any links. You can always check the email “from” address — it’s nearly always obviously not from the place it purports to be from. You can always call me if you are unsure, regardless of how insistent the person on the other end of the line is that you shouldn’t call anyone. (In fact, if someone is insisting you shouldn’t speak to anyone else, that's all the more reason to do so!)

Metal Detecting
As many of you know, I took up a new hobby a few years ago: metal detecting. It has so many enjoyable facets – from being outdoors and driving in the remote countryside to finding fascinating objects, researching and photographing them, and submitting relevant ones to the Finds Liaison Officer so they can be entered on the Portable Antiquity Scheme’s website. Below is a photo of some of the more interesting items I’ve found recently.

18th Century knee buckle, Elizabeth I sixpence, George III half penny, Henry II cut half penny, James II shilling, and William III sixpence.

Starting in the upper left, you can see an 18th century knee buckle, used to hold someone’s stockings under their britches. Next is a Queen Elizabeth I sixpence. Look just to the right of the cross at the top of this coin and you can see a small mark that looks like a hand or a mitten; this is the mint mark of the Tower of London for the years 1590-92, where the coin was made. Next, we have a half penny of George III from 1806, just 30 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. On the bottom left is the oldest coin I’ve found: a cut half penny from the reign of Henry II. It was made by a moneyer named Rogier, in Exeter between the years 1158-1163, less than 10 years after the end of The Anarchy.  I love to think about the transaction which led to it being cut in half to make change, and what caused it to be dropped in a Cotswolds field at the end of its journey from Exeter. Next we have a gun money shilling from 1689, made a year after James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution. He fled to France, then returned to Ireland and planned to invade England to get his throne back. He needed money but didn’t have much silver, so melted down old church bells and armaments, hence the term “gun money.” Last in this row is a 1696 sixpence of William III who, with his wife Mary (James II’s daughter), replaced James II on the throne.

Please reach out if you need a hand with any of your Apple devices, related software, or a puzzling technology challenge! (Or if you have a field you’d like me to visit with my metal detector!) You can email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com or text/call (207) 691-7788 (US) or 07943 199484‬ (UK).

Understanding iCloud

Have you ever wondered if you have enough (or perhaps too much) iCloud storage for your iPhone, iPad, or Mac? Or even what, exactly, iCloud is all about?

Come to a free 1-hour class at the Minchinhampton Market House at 2 p.m. on the 28th of June to find out the answer to this and more. I’ll cover iCloud storage, syncing Photos, Calendars, Contacts (and more), how to avoid giving out your email address when you don’t want to, etc.

Although the class is free, please let me know at hugo@heriz-smith.com that you are coming so that I know how many people to expect.

If this is the sort of help you are looking for, but you can’t make it on the 28th, please get in touch - I’d be happy to arrange a private session with you. You can email me at the address above, or call on 07943 199484.

Spring Cleaning

I hope you all got through the winter okay, and are looking forward to warmer weather when it arrives. In previous years I’ve offered a class on cleaning up your Mac, which seems go with the spring season. I thought I’d write to offer a couple of easy tips to help you bring order to your computer.

Tip #1: DECLUTTER YOUR DESKTOP
If you feel like your desktop is cluttered, make sure you’re in the Finder, go up to the “View” menu and select “Use Stacks.” This will organize everything into piles (or stacks), by type or kind, like documents, screen shots, pictures, and PDF files. Keep in mind, if you don’t like the results of this, you can easily undo it by going back to the “View” menu and unchecking “Use Stacks.”

Tip #2: DE-DUPLICATE YOUR PHOTOS
One of the main cleaning-up tasks people ask me to help them with is getting rid of duplicate photos. Until a recent update to MacOS Ventura and iOS 16, this required the use of  third-party programs to automate finding duplicates in your library. Now, this capability is built into the Photos app on both your iPhone and computer. Simply open Photos and look at the sidebar on the left side (or under Utilities, under Albums, on your iPhone). You will see a new entry there called “Duplicates.” Click on this and a list of all your duplicates will appear, along with an option to merge them. You can do this one at a time or all at once. It will automatically keep the best and highest resolution of your duplicate images.

Another “spring cleaning” activity to consider is finding and dealing with other duplicate files hiding in the nooks and crannies of your computer. If you’d like my help with this, or want to learn how to use the not-so-obvious searching features on your Mac to locate duplicate or missing files, please get in touch.

ANOTHER SCAM ALERT
As always, please keep an eye out for scams. Just this week, someone on this list bought a printer, googled HP tech support for help setting it up, and ended up clicking on a fake website pretending to be HP. They nearly got conned into paying $500 for “lifetime tech support.” Please don’t do this. If you are ever in a situation like this and need my help as quickly as possible, texting is always the surest way to reach me.

P.S. Some of you already follow me on Instagram, but if you’d like to see, among other things, what I’ve been finding while metal detecting in the meadow from the photo above, please follow me on Instagram. I’d love to see you there.

Free class: iPhone Photography Essentials at Box Village Hall, May 12

I am pleased to announce that I’ll be offering a free class on iPhone Photography at the Box Village Hall on the 12th of May at 2 p.m.

I recently moved to Minchinhampton, and I’m excited to bring my Apple expertise to the local community and meet neighbours who are interested in learning more about their Apple devices.

In this introductory one-hour course, I will teach you how to get more from your iPhone Camera and the Photos app. We will focus on how to take better photos, edit existing images, organise your photo library, and easily search and share your photos. A Q&A session will follow.

I have been teaching and helping clients with their Macs, iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices for more than 30 years. I offer both in-person assistance (at your home) and remote technical support (via phone and screen sharing).

I’m offering this course because I frequently hear from people who feel guilty about the state of their photo libraries. It’s a top source of technology stress—worrying about losing images, wondering if they are taking up too much space, and not being able to find favourite photos. This class will address and ease these worries. There are some simple steps you can take to get control of your photo collections and focus instead on enjoying your iPhone camera and taking great pictures.

I work with clients of all ages and levels of experience. I particularly enjoy helping people overcome their fear of “doing something wrong” with their technology, so they can master the apps and settings that allow them to pursue their interests and deal with everyday tasks.

If you’re looking for patient, step-by-step, easy-to-understand instruction, this class is for you.

There’s no charge to attend, but please email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com to reserve your place. Don’t forget to bring your fully charged iPhone and any questions you may have.

I look forward to meeting you!

Free class: Get More From Your iPhone at the Pitchcombe Village Hall

Get More From Your iPhone* – Passwords, Security & More

Tuesday, 8 November, 2 p.m. at the Pitchcombe Village Hall

Learn iPhone security basics, such as how to set and manage the safest passwords, how to back up and sync passwords between devices, and how to avoid current computer scams. The class will also include a Q&A session to address your questions.

If time permits, we can also talk about other topics of interest to those in attendance. Possibilities include: organising your photo library, managing multiple email addresses, syncing your Apple devices, and general every-day tips such as printing from your iPhone and using the reminders app (examples of things I’ve helped clients with recently).

*While focusing on the iPhone, much of what we discuss will also apply to iPads.

The class is free and walk-ins are welcome, but please email me at hugo@heriz-smith.com if you plan to attend.

Year end roundup of Apple Products

It’s now been a year since Apple released the first computers based on their own chips. In the last three months they’ve released Pro models of their laptops and new iPhones. If you are looking at replacing an older device, you now have many good options. Come to this hour-long session at 3:00 p.m. on the 9th of December to learn more about your choices and find out if a new computer or iPhone makes sense for you—and if so, which one to get.

You can click here to register.

Channels and more in Photoshop

In the early years of the 20th century, Czar Nicholas II gave Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii a railway car converted into a mobile darkroom. Prokudin-Gorskii,  a pioneer in making color photographs, travelled across the Russian empire, documenting scenes from buildings, landscapes, and everyday life. The images are often surprising and beautiful. As a bonus, I've found that they are great subjects to use in learning more about Photoshop. You can see and read more about them here.

Using Photoshop to convert scans of the original 3 frame negatives into color images is the perfect opportunity to learn more about important features of the program that many users might not be familiar with, specifically channels and layers. At the same time, there’s a lot of opportunity to use and become more confident with basics - from selecting and copying/pasting, to repairing damaged images, and more.

While learning these skills, we'll create full color images from the 115 year old originals, learn how these images were originally made, see scenes from long ago and learn more about how color works. Some of you may find the images and process alone interesting – Photoshop is not required to take part in the class, but if you have it you will be able to follow along on your own device.

This class will start at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, June 11th, and will be 90 minutes long. You can click here to register.

New devices from Apple, and more - Zoom Talk

Apple have released major updates to some of their products in the last 6 months, with more coming soon. I’ve seen an uptick in the number of people getting (and somtimes falling for) scams. In this one hour Zoom session I'll cover the new products and discuss what to consider if you're thinking of upgrading. I'll also talk about the scams I've been seeing and how to spot and avoid them. There will be time for questions as well.

The talk will be at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on May 18th. The cost for the one hour session will be $25. You can click here to sign up. I hope to see you in the class!

Mail.app Date Issue

I was just finishing up a remote session with a client today when she mentioned that she had one more thing to look at: the dates were wrong on most of her email in Mail.app.

I took a look and saw that all the email from today and yesterday showed the correct information. Today’s email showed the time it came in and all the email from yesterday showed “Yesterday”. Everything older than that showed 1/16/20. The mail was all there, it just had the wrong date.

Something seemed familiar with this, but I couldn’t place it. Usually, once I run into a problem and solve it, the answer is right there at my fingertips, but this was eluding me. I did a few searches and couldn’t find anyone with just this problem, but the feeling that I’d seen it before was growing. Something to do with time and date…

I went to System Preferences, then Language and Region. I noticed that her Region was set to “United States (custom). I clicked on the dropdown menu and changed it back to plain United States and we saw the dates of the emails correct right away.

Fix for HP Printer Issue

Since I last wrote I’ve helped a few more clients with the HP printer problem. It seems that, for the most part, this has been fixed. If you are still having issues, try the following:

1. Delete the HP printer files from your user library

   1. Go to the Finder (by clicking on the Finder icon in your dock, or just click on the desktop).

   2. Hold down the option key while clicking on the “Go” menu (at the top of the screen, to the left of the Apple menu), and click on “Library”.

   3. In the Library window, open the Printers folder and delete any HP drivers you see. If you see an “hp” folder, delete that too.

2. I haven’t done thorough research to see if these next few steps are necessary, but I have found, with two clients, that they were necessary to stop the warnings about HP drivers popping up.

   1. Go back to the “Go” menu. Click on “Computer”.

   2. Open your hard drive. It’s probably named “Macintosh HD” but you may have renamed it.

   3. Open the Library window, then open the Printers folder and delete any HP drivers you see. If you see an “hp” folder, delete that too.

3. Open System Preferences.

   1. Click on “Printers and Scanners”.

   2. Select your printer.

   3. Click on the “-” button below the printer list to delete the printer. Click on “Delete Printer” in the dialog box that asks you to confirm you choice.

   4. Once the printer is gone, click on the “+” to add the printer back.

   5. In the resulting dialog box, choose the HP driver in the "Use:” dropdown dialog.

   6. Click on “Add” in the lower right.

   7. Your computer should now go and get new drivers from Apple.

4. When this is finished, test your printer.

Temporary Fix for HP Printer issue

I was just helping a client with the HP print problem I wrote about below. I can confirm that the solution of using the AirPrint driver works for printers that are able to use AirPrint. To try this:

1. Go to System Preferences (under the Apple Menu)

2. Click on “Printers and Scanners”

3. Click on the printer causing the problem in the left hand column

4. Click on the “-” below the column to delete the printer

5. Confirm that you want to delete the printer

6. Click on the “+” to add a new printer

7. Select your printer from the list in the new window.

8. Choose the AirPrint drive in the dialog box where it says “Use:”

9. Click on “Add” and print a test.

Let me know if you run into any trouble. Hopefully Apple and HP will come up with a permanent fix for this soon.

HP printer issues on Catalina and Mojave

If you’ve recently found yourself unable to print to your HP printer or perhaps had messages pop up warning you that HP software is malware and will damage your computer, you’re not alone. Over the weekend, at HP’s request, Apple revoked the security certificate that enables the HP software to run on your computer. It’s not clear at this point why HP requested this or if they knew that it would break so many users ability to print.

You can read more at The Register

While you will have to wait for Apple and HP to sort this out for your drivers to work again, you can probably get your printer working in the meantime by using the AirPrint drivers. If you need help with this, get in touch.

Updates on more changes in this challenging year.

In August I sent a note out to clients and friends regarding changes since I wrote the entry below.

Dear friends and clients,

Back in the middle of March I wrote to tell you that I was in the UK due to my daughter suffering a life threatening accident. She has now fully recovered, but a lot has changed since then. 

First, I would like to thank the many of you who so kindly got in touch to check in, pass on your thoughts, and offer support. It means a great deal to me that you reached out. It's been a unexpected, tumultuous, and just plain crazy year for all of us and to then come this close to losing my daughter was certainly one of the more challenging events of my life. 

By the end of May we had worked out that Audrey could stay with my step-sister in Bristol, in the UK. She is looking forward to returning to university in September. 

Second,  the biggest effect of all this turmoil has been, unfortunately, that I am no longer living in Camden or, indeed, Maine. My being away for two and a half months was, sadly, more than my relationship at home could survive. I am grateful that an old friend from high school asked if I'd like to spend the summer at his farmhouse on the eastern shore in Maryland. I've been here since June 5th. 

Since mid-March, as many of you know, I've been providing remote support - via phone and screen sharing, I wrote in my last letter to all of you then:

Whether you need help organizing your Photos, figuring out what’s taking up space on your computer, removing malware or learning how to add an adjustment layer in Photoshop

Coincidentally, I have done all four of the above items in the last week, and helping everyone via screen sharing has worked better than I had hoped when this all started. I hope you will reach me via email, text or phone if you need technical support of any kind.

Third, if you know anyone who could use the type of help I've provided over the past years, I'd be grateful if you'd pass on my name. Many thanks for you support and I look forward to continuing to work with you.

Hugo

Life, Support, and other challenges, in the time of COVID-19

In this difficult time of social isolation, we are all facing challenges that we never imagined at the beginning of the year. Starting a few week ago, as the news worsened and it became apparent that visiting my consulting clients in their homes and offices was not going to be wise or even possible, we began working on a letter to clients advising them that I was going to start providing remote support only.

This plan went from something that was a good idea to something that was absolutely necessary when I got a call on the morning of March 15th. My daughter, at school 3000 miles away in Scotland, had taken a 4-5 meter fall, landed on her head and was now in the ICU of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. I jumped on a flight and was by her side early the next morning. She has been incredibly lucky. The hospital staff were amazing, their care and skill beyond compare. She is able to move all her limbs, talk, and her memory, while fuzzy, is returning quickly.

Just five days after the accident, she was released from the hospital and I drove her down to England, to be close to my father in Malvern. We are staying in a rental, not with my father, for safety’s sake. She continues to recover - a lot of sleeping, some walking, but mostly staying away from everyone.

I’m going to be here in Malvern for at least a month. There are too many variables at the moment to know exactly what will happen next - travel restrictions, her progress, the length and severity of the pandemic, etc.. So - I am back to the plan we started working on nearly a month ago - remote support.

Whether you are someone I’ve worked with in Maine or Delaware for years, or a new client just about anywhere, I am ready to help. If you are looking for clear, patient support, either over the phone or via screen sharing, get in touch and we can set up a time for me to help you.