Basic Question On Virus Attacks from a Non-Techie

Pinkypants

Grab a pre paid credit card, then just charge it up when you need it.

If the nasty men get hold of the details on it, it will only have a few quid on it.

bobthedambuilder

Just a quick update to confirm that I did manage to load up Linux Mint from dvd, all as described above, and it all seems to work fine, including accessing my financial websites.

Thanks for all the help, you guys!

SunnySusie

masonn wrote: »

If anyone gets my card info they can't use it as it will be declined due to lack of funds.

I'm sure masonn has checked this out, but if anyone else goes down this route be sure to check that your bank won't put the transaction through anyway and count it as an "unauthorised overdraft". I was once under the impression that my debit card wouldn't work if the account was empty and my assertion that I was told this was the case didn't help me get the penalty fees back. Check and get it in writing!

The same is true for credit cards, I recall reading an article about how many cards continue working after the credit limit is breached. That's responsible lending in action!

Don't assume that debit or credit cards will stop working, please check.

fwor wrote: »

but another solution if you don't want to learn another OS (though I should add that you won't find that hard) is to run your external browser sessions in a sandbox, which isolates it from the rest of your PC. .

Similarly Ive used Virtual PC to run a host OS, at the end of a session you opt not to commit changes and all record of the session is gone. Great for hiding Internet history I guess, not that I condone such an activity!

The other important step, and I am not suggesting OP is doing this, but a general recommendation is to stick to trusted sites, especially when downloading. It is astonishing that anyone downloads anything from pirate sites, copyright arguments aside, people are installing software voluntarily that, by definition, has come from a dodge source. Good luck with that :eek:

yangptangkipperbang

masonn wrote: »

There is another fairly simple option.

I never use my credit card on-line. I have a debit card with no overdraft or any other facility for taking money that isn't there.

This is simple - but is absolutely the WRONG thing to do !!!!!

ALWAYS use a credit card if you can - if there is any fraud - it 'aint your money ! Tell the card provider and he can sort it out.

You are also losing out on a lot of legal protection offered by using a credit card.

.....and as someone has already pointed out your bank may honour a payment on your debit card and leave you with charges for an unauthorised overdraft and the hassle of trying to recover YOUR money from the fraudster.

closed

credit card details are available for a small fee to anyone who wants them, unless you had proof malware was responsible, it seems a drastic step to wipe an OS that you paid for on the guesswork of a random member of a banks call centre.

gonzo127

closed wrote: »

credit card details are available for a small fee to anyone who wants them, unless you had proof malware was responsible, it seems a drastic step to wipe an OS that you paid for on the guesswork of a random member of a banks call centre.

i dont believe the op has wiped windows, in fact from the update it sounds like they are using a livedvd just to do financial transactions and then coming out once finished and then rebooting into windows, which is a perfectly reasonable security measure

Mr_Toad

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

This is simple - but is absolutely the WRONG thing to do !!!!!

ALWAYS use a credit card if you can - if there is any fraud - it 'aint your money ! Tell the card provider and he can sort it out.

You are also losing out on a lot of legal protection offered by using a credit card.

.....and as someone has already pointed out your bank may honour a payment on your debit card and leave you with charges for an unauthorized overdraft and the hassle of trying to recover YOUR money from the fraudster.

I agree for any significant purchases.

I never buy anything of any high value on-line, only small, low value stuff, second hand books, CDs etc. and I have checked with the Bank. They have confirmed they will not authorize any payment if there are insufficient funds in the account and apparently they don't offer overdraft on that type of card.

I have two debit card accounts with the same bank, one was for household expenses, shopping fuel, clothes etc. and the other was for personal use, entertainment, new guitars and stuff like that.

For some reason the household card, Visa Debit, was changed to allow unauthorized overdraft payments the other, a Solo or something, wasn't.

I only found out they'd changed the terms on the Visa Debit card when the bank allowed it to go overdrawn by £2 and they tried to charge me £30 when previously the card would have been refused and I would have used an alternate then transferred enough money into the household card to last the rest of the month.

When I complained they said it was at the request of retailers to 'speed' things up. Complete rubbish of course it had worked for years with no delays, it takes no time at all to do a balance check. It was a cynical profit making move, a license for them to print money!

They apparently wrote to inform me but rather than do it with a statement or something I'd read it was sent out with a load of other marketing spam and I dumped it.

They did refund the £30 though and I now have an overdraft facility on the card to prevent any further robbery, not that I've needed it now I'm aware.

I only ever buy high value items using a credit card but always in a shop. I get the card protection and I find it easier if you can return something in person should the need arise rather than mess about with couriers and companies miles away. It's good to be able to go and shout at someone too, should the need arise.

I've yet to buy anything of significance and fail to fine someone locally who will not price match to within a few quid.

bobthedambuilder

closed wrote: »

credit card details are available for a small fee to anyone who wants them, unless you had proof malware was responsible, it seems a drastic step to wipe an OS that you paid for on the guesswork of a random member of a banks call centre.

gonzo127 wrote: »

i dont believe the op has wiped windows, in fact from the update it sounds like they are using a livedvd just to do financial transactions and then coming out once finished and then rebooting into windows, which is a perfectly reasonable security measure

Quite right gonzo, all I did was download the dvd version of Linuxmint, copy the image to dvd, and reset my boot sequence to boot from the dvd drive first. The Linux OS only loads if the bootup dvd is in the drive, otherwise Windows loads as normal.

Cheers;).

googler

FWIW, I also run XP on two machines, only use Windows' built-in firewall as protection, and also use them for online purchases, banking etc. I used to use AVG but didn't reinstall that a year or so ago

I've seen no evidence, over a period of around 10 years or so, of any hacking or virus infection. The only time I had a virus was when one of the machines was running Vista......