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Phone Number: 705.429.6100
Address: 1295 Mosley St., Unit 7, Wasaga Beach 

Wasaga Computers is your full service computer store, located in beautiful Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada.  We service, repair and sell computers.  Our team will diagnose your computer in shop and give you a quote for what it will cost to fix your computer problem.  The quote is what you pay to fix that problem, not a penny more.  We also clean out viruses, malware and spyware for a flat rate so you know what you are getting into.

We are striving to be the number one computer shop in the beach.  Feel free to stop by to say hi. 

We work with both PC and Mac.

When you work with us you get:

    •    The problem fixed correctly the first time, ask in store about our policy
    •    An explanation of what we’re doing in terms that you understand
    •    Useful direction in how to safeguard your technology (for example, proper backup procedures)
    •    The level of support that you require – nothing more, nothing less

When you work with us you will not get talked down to, we will treat you with the respect that you deserve.  If you have a question please ask, answers are free of charge.

 

The WC Blog

Thursday
Feb232012

Computer Virus Phone Scams

Here are the take away points from this post, they are too important to get buried in this lengthy story:

  • Microsoft or another tech company will never call you to say your computer is broken/infected let us help you fix it
  • Don't bother interacting with these people just hang up
  • Contact your local law enforcement officials or Phone Busters (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre) 
  • If you let them into your computer, contact a computer professional as soon as possible
  • If you paid them anything contact your credit card company and let them know

A Typical Scam Attempt Simplified

Step 1:  A phone call will come in and the person on the other end of the line will claim to be from Microsoft or some other tech company.  They will say that they have detected that your computer is infected, full of errors or give you a similar line.

Step 2:  They will then try to show you proof of this by having you open up different programs in Windows that have information about internal processes and logging.  These logs can easily be misinterpreted and misleading.

Step 3:  They will then attempt to get you to give them access to your PC by using some sort of remote software and/or to get a credit card number out of you to "fix" the problems.

Step 4:  They will steal personal information, login credentials and possibly leave a backdoor if they don't destroy your computer when they are done.

The Story

Last week we had a conversation with a reporter from the Wasaga Sun about the rise in the number of computer phone scams that we have been seeing.  These scams have been going on for a number of years but as of late we have seen a sharp increase in the number of customers either calling or coming in to talk about this issue.  Most have been fortunate enough to not to allow the scammers access to their computers but a few unfortunate souls have been tricked.

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre put together a press release on September 29, 2011 explaining this type of scam; see the references below for a link to the PDF.  On their home page this is one of the scams of the week and to quote them; "The virus scam has grown to epidemic proportions in Canada, now accounting for between 70 and 80 per cent of frauds reported daily to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC)."  We have also had a chance to talk with Huronia West OPP about what to do should you receive a call, Constable Mark Kinney recommended that you either call your local law enforcement officials or Phone Busters (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre).  The OPPs press release is also linked at the bottom of this post.

If you are one of the unfortunate few to have taken in by this scam and you've allowed them in to your computer it is imperative that you talk to a computer professional about this situation.  The scammer may have stolen personal information and some steps need to be taken.  They may have also left behind a backdoor to get into your computer.  If you gave them a credit card please contact your credit card company and let them know what has happened.  They will have recommendations and procedures in place.

Our store policy in the event that a computer is compromised in this nature, is to recommend a format/reinstall of the operating system.  To be clear we aren't talking about malicious software or a virus.  We're talking about the steps that should be taken once an unknown party has been allowed remote access to the computer.  If a customer does not want to format the computer we can attempt a virus/malware clean out in the hopes that we can catch any tools/backdoors left behind.  These two procedures are the same cost on our rate table so ultimately the choice lies with the customer.  We choose to err on the side of caution in our recommendation because our customer’s safety and security is extremely important to us.

We take time with the customer prior to doing any work to assess if the computer was accessed or not, we have had a number of instances where people thought they may have been compromised but didn't actually go through the entire process and were safe because of it.

The final step we take happens after your computer leaves the door. During the assessment phase we try to figure out what method was used to gain remote access, most of the time the tools used are from legitimate companies like TeamViewer or LogMeInRescue.  We then take the information we gather and if possible notify the company that makes the tool, to hopefully get the account that was used banned.

Stay safe and never let anyone you don't personally know and trust into your computer.

References

Wasaga Sun Article - February 22, 2012

OPP Press Release - February 2, 2012

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre Press Release - September 29, 2011

Friday
Dec022011

Christmas 2011 Special

 

We are beating last years off lease laptop specials by $40.00.  We currently have Lenovo T-61 Thikpads for sale! These laptops are off lease and only around 3 years old. Here are the details:

 

  • Dual Core 1.83 GHz Intel Processor          
  • 2GB of RAM
  • 14.1 Inch Widescreen
  • 80GB Harddrive
  • 1 Year Warranty

 

 

 

Here is the best part they are going for only: $259!!!

 

 

Friday
Dec022011

Rosewill RCX-SC1U 1U CPU Cooler Review

Recently one of our clients needed a server built up but had some very limited space constraints.  The server could be more than 2U in height but needed to have 4 hard drives in it.  We based the build on an Intel Xeon E3-1220. The TDP of this processor is 80 Watts so it isn't some heat generating monster and is actually pretty efficient when it comes to power usage.  A case of this of this limited height has some serious space constraints internally.  The stock cooler from intel wouldn't fit because it was trying to take up some of the space that one of the hard drives needed.  We opted for a Rosewill RCX-SC1U a small 1U heatsink and fan.  The entire heatsink is made of copper and the fan is designed to pull air in through the heatsink and eject out of the vent on the top.  This is really nice because we can focus where we want the heat to go and make it work with the fans already in the case.  The installation of this little cooler was a snap and thanks to reading some of the reviews online we avoided some potential work.  Apparently the glue that they use on the sticker that protects the bottom of the heatsink likes to leave a lot of residue behind.  We used a heat gun to get the heatsink nice and hot then removed the sticker with out a problem.  We performed some stress tests on the CPU to make sure that the cooler would be able to keep up with the demand and it performed perfectly, the CPU was at 100% for about an hour and never climbed over 72C.  We could occasionally hear the motherboard ramping the speed of the CPU fan up in order to compensate and it was very noticeable, though it was relatively quiet when running at idle and under normal operation. This cooler was designed for a server case and to that length we are very happy with it's performance and would recommend it for that kind of usage.


Wednesday
May182011

Change Your Facebook Password!

So there has been a bit of a security development with Facebook over the course of the last week.  Take the time and read the Symantec Blog Post:  Facebook Applications Accidentally Leaking Access to Third Parties.  To summarize what all that technospeak actually means, through this vulnerability there is the potential for some with access to these tokens to actually interact with your account.  This all depends on the level of access that you gave the Facebook application that leaked your token.  For example if the application you gave permission to has the ability to post to your wall then the who ever gets that token can also do the same.  Why should you care?  Simply put some could put a link to a malicious website on you wall for all your friends to see.  They would be likely to follow it because it appears to be coming from you a trusted source.  Facebook has fixed this issue going forward but in order to invalidate old tokens all you need to do is change your password.  So go do it, now. www.facebook.com

Summary:

There was a problem with Facebook security, change your facebbook password and you will be fine.

Thursday
Jan062011

We've extended our hours

To service our growing customer base better we have increased our hours to the following.

Monday   10-6
Tuesday   10-6
Wednesday   10-6
Thursday   10-6
Friday   10-6