Morning scare

This morning, getting ready for the daily post, on this occasion mainly about something called 'Stabat Mater', I asked Bing to find me a suitable illustration. It turned up something which did indeed look suitable - but I wondered what it was. This took me to something called something like Pixshare, whereupon up popped a more or less pornographic picture, possibly a heavily made-up photograph. This was followed by all kinds of unpleasant sounding warnings, purporting to come from Microsoft, and inviting me to phone some number to sort it all out.

I did think about doing just that, but then thought that closing the relevant Edge tabs might be better, followed by a call to the BT Help Desk, a service I have had good value out of over the years.

They seemed fairly sure that the warnings had been faked and that phoning the number given was apt to result in a more serious attempt to extract money out of me, either by damaging the PC and wanting money to fix it or by relieving me of interesting personal details.

Recent browsing history has been cleared and the PC has been pronounced clean. Windows Defender on the case. If it happens again, action one should be to close the browser, if necessary by powering down the PC.

I don't think that I much care if the people doing this sort of thing have Asperger's syndrome. Take them and their computer skills out of circulation. Bang 'em up if that is what it takes.