The Comantra Scam: Trust me, I’m WETTING meself …

Oh …

Dear …

Oh, deary, deary me …

And I say that, whilst ALSO admitting I’m trying not to wet meself, despite this being a serious subject.

You see …

Well, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve written — a few times, now — about a dodgy company based in Bangladesh, called Comantra.

Who’ve been phoning people, for at least a year, to try and con people into to giving them remote access to their PCs: installing some seriously nasty software, and then charging the innocent mark to remove it.

I first wrote about it, roughly a year ago, when a friend of mine, Kelly, got a call from them.

And, Kelly, being Kelly, she immediately started asking around, to see if anyone else thought it was as much of a dead rat as she did.

Of course, ever since then, the Gazette’s been keeping an eyeball peeled, and managed to report at least three of these attempts.

And I’ll be honest … ?

I’ve just had a call from them, myself, calling themselves Online PC Services.

Here … this is the email I sent to the Gazette about it …

Dear Sir

I’ve got be honest, I’ve been reading your articles about scam phone calls from people claiming to be able to remotely ‘fix’ your PC, with interest

As you may know, I’ve been following the story for a while, and written about it on my blog, after a couple of friends tell me about calls they’ve had.

Well, I’ve got to confess, I’ve just had a call from the same people: today, at 12:53.

Coming from a bad line, from a caller with a heavy Indian accent.

The chap — at least I believe it was a man, the line was very bad — identified himself as coming from Online PC Support, and told me their investigations showed there was a problem with my computer.

I got him to repeat that a couple of times to make sure I’d heard correctly.

He basically told me their records were showing them there was a problem with my PC.

And I’ve got to confess, I was trying desperately to NOT laugh at him.

Because — me being me — I immediately turned round and said “I haven’t had a problem with my Mac, for years”.

They put the phone down on me.

Which was rude, I thought. You’d EXPECT a bunch of scammers to be politer, after all.

But I’m going to thank the Gazette, here. It’s nice to see others beside me and tech fans, making people aware of this sort of scam.

It really does need continual highlighting.

Lets hope that gets published.

After all, I’m thinking this sort of thing really does need continual highlighting.

An Interview …

Well, that was good to see!

The BBC’s Breakfast show had an interview with Sir Terry Pratchett, this morning, which I managed to completely miss! Mostly because I was in the shower.

And managed to record the wrong channel!

D’oh!

How the heck did I manage that?

I’m blowed if I know!

No, hang on, yes I do!!

I managed to record the BBC News channel, instead of the Breakfast News on BBC 1; they don’t always show the same thing at the same time!!

Bugger!

So I’m gonna happily thank Gwen and her partner, Stefan, who managed to dig up the relevant link on the BBC’s site for me, bless ’em!

Which was a fascinating one to watch; inevitably, he and the presenters had to give the particular variant of Alzheimer’s — Posterior Cortical Atrophy — that he suffers from, a mention. And it doesn’t sound especially pleasant, but does sound like he has more time than I thought he might have; at least he’s managed to find some helpful dictation software.

•••••

But the point of the interview was the release of something I’m looking forward to getting my hands on, his latest Discworld novel, “Unseen Academicals”.

Which is — believe it or not — all about football.

Now this I’ve got to read!!

After all, whilst I’m not a fan of the game, something Sir Terry said, this morning caught my attention; that “Unseen Academicals” wasn’t so much about the game of football, as the sociology of football.

Strange to think I’d be reading anything about the blessed game, but he does have a point.

To my way of thinking, any really enjoyable read boils down to people; things they do, things that happen to them, and, ultimately, their relationships with each other.

And his point was that he tried to write about — as I’ve already said — the sociology of football. People’s relationships, both with the game, and the rest of their tribe of supporters.

Which caught me.

Back when the new version of “Doctor Who” started, I was working as a barman at the Hutton, when the new managers — Pete and Chris — asked if I could think of any ideas to bring people in.

My idea was to see if I couldn’t get a dozen or so of my friends down, to watch that opening episode.

Pete and Chris both gave me what’s known in the trade as a ‘Funny Look’.

Well …

More one of mild disbelief, mixed with trying to keep straight faces!!

But what I said to them both, at the time, was simple.

“How is it different from half a dozen Accrington Stanley fans turning up for the away game?”

Which I’m thinking it isn’t.

Apart from being a bit geekier …

Let’s face it, I’m thinking that humanity is more tribal than we generally think; whether we divide ourselves along ethnic, religious, political, or national lines — or even something as trivial as TV shows, or sport — I think we like the comfort of knowing others who think like us.

And that’s as reassuring, as much as it’s divisive.