Yet another nasty email scam

Since I had Alastair a year and a half ago (all right, I admit it, my wife did the hard bit, but you know what I mean!) I’ve taken a lot more photos on my digital camera. After all, I want to make sure we’ve got a record as it all goes so amazingly fast. I’ve learnt some useful tricks for taking the photos and printing them out, too – sometimes a simple little thing can make a big difference. The little tip I’ve got for you today is one of the easiest! But first, I’m afraid there’s another email scam to watch out for…

Yet another nasty email scam to watch out for
This one is similar to scams where you get an email that looks like it’s from your bank, asking you to open an attachment. If you do, the attachment is either a dodgy program that infects your computer, or a form asking you for your bank details (which the scammers then use to take your money out of your bank).

But in this variation, the email looks like it’s from Littlewoods, the catalogue people. No doubt before long there’ll be versions that appear to be from other catalogue companies. And it looks quite plausible.

Two things make it stand out, though. One is the fact that the “subject” (that’s the bit that appears before you open the email) just says “proceed via attachment” which is not what a real shopping company would be likely to say.

The other is that a real shopping company wouldn’t ask you to open an attachment anyway. If they needed you to log in to check your details, they’d ask you to go to their website and log in.

Anyway, forewarned is forearmed! If you get an email like this pretending to be from Littlewoods, or any email saying “Proceed via attachment”, be very suspicious – I’d suggest just deleting it!

A very quick tip for better printing of photos
I’ve been working on digital photography a lot lately (see below) and here’s one tip that’s very simple but well worth doing. When you open a packet of printer paper, particularly glossy photo paper, make sure you keep it in the packet and keep the packet shut. Especially in winter, it helps keep the paper dry. I was a bit cynical when I first heard it but I’ve tested it and it really does make a difference to how flat and smooth the paper stays – which in turn makes it print better. You get flatter photos, with no “waves” in the paper AND the ink goes on with less blotching.

So keep your paper in the packet!

We have a winner
Back in January I published the right answers to my Christmas quiz – well I’m now finally ready to announce the winner! Mike Pimley got 8 out of 9 right – a pretty amazing result! Not only that but he also did very well on the tie-breaker – which mattered since he wasn’t the only one to get 8 out of 9. He got closest on the tie-breaker, though, so he gets the prize and has picked a signed copy of Desktop Publishing One Step at a Time as his prize. Well done Mike! And thanks to everyone else who took part, too!

Why I’m up to my eyeballs in digital photography
I’ve been very busy lately, recording some videos about digital photography. They’re going to cover both the camera side of things (using the camera, what all the settings are and handy tricks to get better photos) and the computer side of things (putting the photos on PC, editing them to remove red-eye or correct a too bright photo and printing the photos out).

It’s been quite fun – and I’ve had to learn a few new tricks along the way. For example I’d never really bothered with some of the touch up tricks – but you can quickly use some of the tricks magazines use for their covers. I had a few photos taken inside where the colours were unpleasantly yellow – and in just a minute or so I changed them to look natural. Wish I’d done it ages ago.

Anyway, there’s still a fair bit of work to do. It’s not just the recording, but also adding arrows and boxes to the screen, showing what I’m talking about, as well as removing coughs, or bits where I fumble my words… or where I pause to slurp my tea!

But watch this space – more information next time…

Yours
Tim Wakeling
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