Which? Campaign Success in 2021

Which? Magazine is a British institution, fighting for consumer rights since 1957.

In 2021, their campaigns led to significant improvements for consumers and these are the ones they are most proud of:

Online Scam Adverts

Due to the pandemic, many people have become more reliant on digital platforms and there was a 30% increase in online scams in 2021.

In collaboration with the finance industry, law enforcement and other consumer groups, Which? led a coalition calling for the government to tackle fraud in its upcoming Online Safety Bill, so that the online platforms we use every day help to prevent scams appearing on their websites .

Which? and MoneySavingExpert made a powerful case in parliament which culminated in securing a major milestone, with a key committee recommending that the government should include paid for scam adverts in scope of the new legislation.

Bank Transfer Fraud

The government has committed to bringing in much-needed legislation to prevent the number of bank transfer frauds.

This will help to ensure reimbursement for scam losses are made mandatory and that getting your money back won’t be a lottery depending on who you bank with.

Access to Cash

Accessing and spending your cash became much harder in 2021. For some it was an easy shift to using a range of digital payments, but for many cash has been critical to buying essentials

More than 200 businesses, including major retailers, signed up to the Which? Cash Friendly Pledge to give people the confidence that they could spend their cash in store.

The industry-led Cash Action Group has committed to ensuring that communities’ needs for access to cash will be met by alternative provision before closing any branches in town in future.

Travel Problems

The travel industry has suffered greatly in the pandemic due to ever changing restrictions and rules for travellers.

Which? were delighted that by combing over 80 providers’ terms and conditions, they’ve been able to help more than 50,000 people find the best and most flexible holiday providers through the Holiday Checker tool . Which? have secured the return of around £8 million in refunds to affected travellers through CMA enforcement action.

For further details on Which? Campaigns go to https://campaigns.which.co.uk/

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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The Tarmac Your Drive Scam

This is Julie’s story of how she fell for a scam but it didn’t end badly.

A guy turned up on the doorstep – very friendly and convincing, saying his company were doing a neighbour’s drive and had some spare supplies so could give me a good price. In fairness our drive was pretty grotty at the time, and my husband and I had discussed getting it done.

Unfortunately he was away on business otherwise he’d have seen through this cowboy but I tend to believe what people tell me and said it might be a good idea but could I think about it.

I guess the chap took that to be a “yes” and not long after they appeared with tools and started ripping up our existing drive.

It was, to be fair, nice when it was done but I asked the neighbour the man had specifically pointed out as also having their drive done, and it was completely untrue.

I learned afterwards from my husband that this “we’re doing a neighbour’s drive and have extra supplies” is a very common trick.

As is the need for cash – supposedly because they’ve spent theirs getting supplies for the new drive and need cash to feed their kids or whatever. In this case the man was so persuasive about needing cash that I ended up driving my own car to a very public cash machine (he said he’d take me himself but I’m not quite that daft!), withdrew the maximum I could (I think £200 then) although he wanted more,

I said that was it plus I made him sign the receipt. There was an occasion when he became abusive, having discovered a bit of the pathway at the end had a drain or something he hadn’t noticed previously and he said he wanted more money to deal with it.

Luckily by then my husband was back by then and told him in no uncertain terms that he’d contracted for a job at a particular price and if he’d got it wrong then he’d got it wrong and needed to get on with what he’d said he’d do.

The man used a fair bit of bad language and threatened to smash up the drive he’d already done but for once in my life at that point I’d absolutely had enough and completely lost my temper (probably only the second time ever!) and I’m slightly ashamed to say that I gave as good as he did, even in the bad language stakes!

Amazingly it seemed to work because he calmed down and apologised for upsetting me and they got on with the drive, which was actually very nice when it was done, even if it did end at the drain where he’d had a problem, That didn’t actually matter as it couldn’t be seen.

I think my main concerns for other people, especially elderly folk, is the aggression and persuasion these people show and particularly the demand for cash.

I know some older folk tend to keep cash in the house and may well part with a considerable sum possibly without asking for receipts.

I’ve learned my lesson the hard way but now we have the perfect excuse for not having any work done – we just say we’re tenants and can’t do anything without the Landlord’s permission!

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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How to Identify Ransomware

If you are hit by Ransomware, you need to block off the attack by removing Internet access from your PCs and servers, stop any encryption processes in progress and any other processes running that shouldn’t be running.

Then the first stage of investigation is to identify what you’re facing and the website https://id-ransomware.malwarehunterteam.com/ is a good starting point.

You upload one encrypted file or the file that is the ransom message to this website and it will try to identify the variant of ransomware. Currently it can identify several hundred variants.

For each there is extra information which can tell you if there are decryption keys available on the Internet.

Some anti-hackers try to find the decryption keys and post them freely, but the blackmailers do know this and try to stay of ahead of them by using new variants for which there are no keys available except for the one held by the blackmailer.

The website is run purely as a free service to the public and does not decrypt files for you – you need an IT  professional for that (assuming it’s possible as many cannot be decrypted without a key from the blackmailer)

If you have a suspected virus rather than ransomware then there is a website that may help to identify it  at https://www.virustotal.com

As always, the advice is that it’s best to avoid being held to ransom – ensure you have adequate systems protection in place, staff that have been educated on the danger of cyber-attacks, regular backups (including off-site) and have a plan in place to deal with a ransomware attack.

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Stop Remote Desktop Access

Remote desktop / remote control desktop / remote desktop protocol – this means to take control of one computer from another one.

This can be very useful if say you need to work at home but access some services from your workplace or files off your work computer etc.  It’s also used extensively by IT support staff when diagnosing and fixing problems.

Within a company network it can be safe but if you open your firewall to allow remote access through the firewall then this can be a problem.

Microsoft’s implementation of remote access has vulnerabilities that the hackers know about and they scan IP addresses looking for anyone that has left that door in their firewall available (typically RDP is on TCP port 3389).

Security experts believe that this vulnerability is extensively used by ransomware spreaders who can then bypass the password check and gain access to your systems.

If you use remote access through your firewall – make sure you’re safe or turn it off permanently.

Can There Be Safe Remote Access?

This depends on exactly what you want to achieve but the general advice from many security experts is to use a Virtual Private Network or just don’t allow remote access from outside of your firewall.

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