NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
A5
BEWARE!
Examples of scams that may target you online
TECH TIPS
By Kimball Hawkins
My wife called me over to her computer.
“I’ve never seen this before, what do I do?”
The “this” was an alert screen that had
popped up on her computer while she was
playing an on-line game. At fi rst glance, it
looked legitimate. It looked like an Apple
web page, it had the Apple logo. It listed
all the malware it claimed to have discov-
ered and it included a big button [SCAN
NOW].
To add to the urgency, it included a
countdown timer to when, it claimed,
“damage is permanent”.
Since no website can see what’s on
your computer other than the cookies you
allow it to see, I immediately assumed this
was a scam but here are some steps I took
to further confi rm it.
First, I checked the URL in the address
bar. It looked like this:
It said “Not Secure | apple.
com-clean-mac.website/redi-
rect/?ip=104.152.204.137&...” fol-
lowed by dozens of seemingly random
characters.
This kind of URL address shows that
this web page is certainly a scam. While
one might be misled by the very beginning
of the URL, “apple.com”, the actual URL
is everything up to the fi rst “/” which is
“apple.com-clean-mac.website”. The last
section of a URL is called the “domain”.
In this bad URL the “.com” is in the mid-
dle and is meaningless, the actual domain
of this bad URL is “.website”, which is
invalid. The avalanche of characters fol-
lowing “/” are designed to further obfus-
cate the true web page source.
Note, also, the “Not Secure” preface.
The address has not been authenticated.
A valid page from Apple or another legit-
imate company would show a lock icon,
indicating the source was secure.
I also used the “hover” technique on
the button “SCAN NOW”. I put the cur-
sor on the button but did not click it. The
hover text at the bottom of the browser
window showed the same invalid URL
“apple.com-clean-mac.website/...”.
If I had clicked the “SCAN NOW” but-
ton, it would have pretended to scan my
Kimball Hawkins
“Alert” screen popups can look legitimate. But since no website can see what’s on your
computer other than the cookies you allow it to see, there is actually no way for another
website to determine remotely that your computer is “infected.” This is a scam.
If you hover your mouse over the “Scan Now” button WITHOUT CLICKING the URL address
will be visible. In this case, after the apple.com there is a long list of words that ultimately
transform into a gibberish of letters, numbers and symbols--a sure clue that this message is
NOT from a legitimate Apple site.
wife’s computer, pretended to fi nd mal-
ware and then it would have informed me
that I now had to pay for and download a
program to clear the computer. All bogus.
It is likely that any such downloaded pro-
gram would actually have installed mal-
ware instead of removing any.
I assured my wife that there was no
reason to panic. There is no malware on
the computer, it was all a scam.
You can use these simple techniques
any time to ensure you don’t fall for web-
site scams.
Report proposes higher oil and gas
royalties, sales tax on outdoor recreation
By Derek Draplin
The Center Square
Increasing royalties for
oil and gas development
and implementing taxes on
outdoor recreation equip-
ment are among the policy
proposals that could help
alleviate the over $19 bil-
lion maintenance backlog
on federal lands, according
to a recent study by an envi-
ronmental advocacy group.
The Denver-based Cen-
ter for Western Priorities
released a report {span}
last week called “Funding
America’s Public Lands
Future,” which argues that
“policymakers should con-
sider establishing a Con-
servation Trust Fund with
diverse funding streams that
could augment general fund
appropriations.”
The four federal agen-
cies that manage 640 mil-
lion acres – the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service,
the National Park Service,
and the U.S. Forest Service
– have a collective $19.38
billion in deferred mainte-
nance costs. Federal lands
are welcoming more visi-
tors than ever, and agencies’
budgets are being stretched
thin, all while dealing with
the increased impacts of cli-
mate change such as more
intense wildfi re seasons, the
study said.
The study acknowledged
the importance of the Land
and Water Conservation
Fund (LWCF), which uses
revenue from offshore drill-
ing rather than taxpayer dol-
lars to fund conservation at
the state and federal lev-
els, but “the program has
long faced uncertain fund-
ing levels.”
LWCF is authorized to
receive $900 million annu-
ally, but is still subject to
congressional
appropri-
ations, so it most often
doesn’t receive the full
funding. The center said
the program should be fully
funded and the amount
should be adjusted for infl a-
tion, which would end up
being $3.6 billion.
In addition to funding
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
Tourists in Rocky Mountain National Park, near Estes Park,
Colo.
for LWCF, the report pro-
poses a “Conservation Trust
Fund” made up of several
revenue streams to fund
public land maintenance
and conservation.
The center says royalty
rates for oil and gas devel-
opment on federal lands
should be raised to 25 per-
cent, up from the current
12.5 percent, as one reve-
nue stream for the fund.
A sales tax on out-
door recreation equipment
“could generate signifi -
cant revenue, while hardly
affecting individual pur-
chases,” the report said. The
outdoor recreation indus-
try is valued at almost $900
billion annually, accord-
ing to the Outdoor Industry
Association{span}.
“Such a tax could be
advertised so that consum-
ers of outdoor goods are
conscious of their impact
on public lands and their
involvement in protecting
them,” it added.
The center also suggests
revenue from legalized
sports betting and marijuana
could go toward funding
conservation. Last week,
Colorado voters approved
a ballot measure legaliz-
ing sports betting and using
up to $29 million in annual
revenue for funding water
projects across the state.
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A recent phone scam
Here is another example, a phone call
scam, recently reported by CNN Busi-
ness. The intended victim received the
call, claiming to be from his bank, regard-
ing a credit card charge from Miami. Hav-
ing received legitimate calls from his bank
regarding attempted fraud in the past, the
victim did not immediately suspect any-
thing unusual.
According to the news report, the victim
confi rmed that he had not used his card in
Miami and the caller told him the transac-
tion had been blocked. So far, all appeared
legitimate.
However, the caller then asked the vic-
tim for his bank member number. Shortly
the victim received a text from his bank and
the caller asked him to read the text – and
he did, not realizing it was a password reset
code and he had been tricked into giving
the scammer complete access to his bank
account.
Fortunately, at this point, the victim real-
ized what had happened and called his bank
to report the fraud.
We can use this news account to show
how to avoid some easily-made mistakes
and stop scams like this before they even
start.
According to the victim, the caller said
“Hi, this is your bank. There was an attempt
to use your card in Miami, Florida. Was this
you?”
The victim undoubtedly made the mis-
take of responding something like “Oh,
Bank of America?” (or whatever his actual
bank was). This was his fi rst mistake.
The correct response would have
been “Oh, which bank are you calling
from?” Even if you only have one bank
account, don’t give possible scammers any
information.
To check even further, ask for details
the bank would easily have but scam-
mers wouldn’t: “What’s the card number?
What’s the address on the account?”. A call
from your real bank will already know this,
scammers won’t.
The second mistake was when the scam-
mer asked the victim for his “bank member
number” – and he gave it to them. Major
mistake!
If the call is legitimate, the bank would
already have his “member number” and
would not have to ask for it. Your bank or
credit card company will never ask you for
your account number, your password, your
social security number or your pin number.
If the caller asks for any such information,
it’s a scam.
The ground rules are simple: If you get a
call from “your bank” or “your credit card
company” make them tell you all the infor-
mation, never “fi ll in the blanks” for them.
If it’s a scam, it will quickly fall apart.
Remember: Be careful, be suspicious
and be safe.
Kimball Hawkins is a computer software
engineer who lives in Wallowa.
OSU scientists sound alarm on climate change
By Steve Lundburg
Oregon State University
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A
global coalition of scien-
tists led by William J. Rip-
ple and Christopher Wolf
of Oregon State University
College of Forestry says
“untold human suffering”
is unavoidable without deep
and lasting shifts in human
activities that contribute to
greenhouse gas emissions
and other factors related to
climate change.
“Despite 40 years of
major global negotiations,
we have continued to con-
duct business as usual and
have failed to address this
crisis,” said Ripple, distin-
guished professor of ecol-
ogy in the OSU College of
Forestry. “Climate change
has arrived and is accelerat-
ing faster than many scien-
tists expected.”
In a paper published
today in BioScience, the
authors, along with more
than 11,000 scientist sig-
natories from 153 coun-
tries, declare a climate
emergency, present graph-
ics showing trends as vital
signs against which to mea-
sure progress, and provide
a set of effective mitigating
actions.
The scientists point to
some areas in which human-
ity should take immedi-
ate steps to slow down the
effects of a warming planet:
Energy. Implement mas-
sive conservation practices;
replace fossil fuels with
low-carbon
renewables;
leave remaining stocks of
fossil fuels in the ground;
eliminate subsidies to fossil
fuel companies; and impose
carbon fees that are high
enough to restrain the use of
fossil fuels.
Short-lived pollutants.
Swiftly cut emissions of
methane, soot, hydrofl uo-
rocarbons and other short-
lived climate pollutants;
doing so has the potential to
reduce the short-term warm-
ing trend by more than 50%
over the next few decades.
Nature. Restore and pro-
tect ecosystems such as for-
ests, grasslands, peatlands,
wetlands and mangroves,
and allow a larger share of
these ecosystems to reach
their ecological potential for
sequestering atmospheric
carbon dioxide, a key green-
house gas.
AARP Drivers Safety Class
Friday, November 15
at the Community Connection
Conference room from 9:00-4:00.
Cost is $15.00 for AARP members,
$20.00 for non-members. Lunch
available at Senior Meals at noon.
To sign up call Community Connection
541-426-3840
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