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Skype Scam
Posted: Jan 17, 2013 4:16 PM by Andrew Ellison - aellison@kristv.com
Updated: Jan 17, 2013 8:24 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - The Better Business Bureau says beware of a new online scam targeting Skype users.
The default settings on Skype allow anyone else with Skype to call you. That means that any scammer can find you and pop up on your screen.
That's when they try to convince you that you won something, or tell you to click on a link that looks good, but really has a virus in it.
And that's when the scammers get your personal information or get you to cough up money.
Sometimes the scammers try to get you buy bogus computer protection software.
The B.B.B. says the online video chat program is attractive to scammers because its used on so many devices like IPADS and smart phones.
Alan Bligh is the regional director for the B.B.B. in Corpus Christi, and says its basically an old dog learning new tricks.
"It could be absolutely anything (any scam) that you used to see on emails or still do see on emails, facebook scams, all these kinds of things. It's just another vehicle for the bad guys," Bligh says.
Skype tried to fix the problem by changing the default settings on the program so that only someone's friends on Skype could call them on Skype, but Bligh says Skype's customers didn't like that.
"They want to hear from everyone. I guess the social networking thing. And you just opened it up," he says.
So in short, if you want to keep the scammers out, just go into Skype and change those preferences so that only your friends can call you, and the bad guys can't.
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