Page 12      Diablo Blue    August, 2002

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(Continued from page 11)

previous messages were the standard party line, even after some of the participants explained that their party line did not work either.

FWIW, the solution utility posted on their website was not supported by Symantec, so if you chose to uninstall the software, using the files off their website, you did so at your own risk.
I finally received a response from Aaron at Symantec. I got the same party line spiel that all the others did, which means I will have to spend a lot of time getting my machine back to a point where I can use it. So basically, they have wasted a lot of my time, and $60.00 of my money to tell me that I now have to do it myself.
Hmmm. I believe they are the ones who caused it, why aren't they the ones cleaning up their own mess??? Why hasn't there been a recall of this product? Why don't they have a legitimate fix for the problems? Notice “problems” is plural. People are still being snookered into buying this joke, thinking it is compatible with XP, when plainly it is not.

I think it will be easier for me to just reformat and reinstall than to try to clean up this fiasco they have caused. I am perfectly capable of buggering up my own machine, without any help from the outside world. I will now move on to another company who is actually ready to protect my XP computer, and ready to accept responsibility for their mistakes.

I have to wonder, though, if the term "class action" would hold any incentive for them to get their ACT! together. Pun not supported by author...

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My mother received recently received a beautifully done AOL scam. It's the kind of thing you read about but rarely get to see firsthand. The message she received is from the AOL Billing Services Team. She forwarded it to her accounting department — moi — because I pay for her account. (She has me to blame for using AOL, I know). It took less than a minute to figure out something wasn't right.

Telltale Clues

For one thing, the e-mail header showed that the AOL Billing Services Team was blind copying her using version AOL 5.0. You'd think they could use a more current version, right? There's more: The return address was Remindingyou@aol.com and the subject line had a misspelling. I followed the Billing link in the message. At first glance I saw an AOL Welcome box. Take a careful look and you'll know why something's not quite right. Yep, lots of misspellings:

http://www.pibmug.com/files/aolwelcomescreen.jpg. I went along with the game plan and clicked OK. Now I was staring into what looked like a remarkably authentic credit card payment form:

http://www.pibmug.com/files/aolcreditcard.jpg

Is It Really You?

To make sure it's really you, they also want your Social Security Number, date of birth, driver's license number, and mother's maiden name. With that, the scammers can get to "identity theft" heaven before you shut down your PC for the night. But they're not finished. How about throwing in your AOL screen name and password, something even novices know AOL wouldn't do. To add a level of legitimacy, they warn you that, "For your safety, Please do not

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