Author: Olly

  • Help Me Carwow

    Help me carwow

    help me car wow

    …Just testing something 🙂

  • How to Spot online & Phone SCAMS!

    It is something that I have blogged about for over a decade, but more recently I have been made aware of a SERIOUS increase in scams originating from India and similar countries, targeting mostly elderly people or people that they have scammed before (they share and sell info between each other)

    DONT BE FOOLED if they seem to have your details and seem legit – there are ways and means of getting this data. Don’t confirm anything with them as this simply validates their data, of which they resell to other scammers.

    There are a couple of different types of scam, here are some examples;

    • The scammers claim they are from a tech company (usually anti virus related) and claim you signed up and bought something 2 years ago that is now renewing for something like $179 or £70 and unless you call them, it will automatically be debited from your account. The scam is that they make it look like you’ve been given £1790 or £7000 as a refund and they “need the money back or they will lose their job etc”
    • The scammers claim your computer/network has been hacked and the hackers are stealing your data etc. They connect to your PC and show you loads of stuff that is totally normal but looks scary. They then make you buy anti virus that you dont need (and that doesn’t exist)
    • The scammers claim your national insurance number is on the national crime database and there is a warrant out of your arrest. If this was true, you wouldn’t be hearing it for the first time via a voicemail. They try and get you to pay a kind of “bail” to stop you from going to prison.
    • The scammers claim you have won a HUGE prize or have been awarded some kind of grant. You will be asked to make a payment towards the shipping costs they incur when they send you a crate of money. Obviously there is no prize or grant, you are simply giving them money and they vanish once you’ve covered the “costs”.

    I wont go into their methods or their techniques – I simply want to state a few FACTS that if we share far and wide enough, should stop a few people getting scammed.

    1. No legitimate company will want to CONNECT TO YOUR PC to SHOW YOU that they have given you money back
    2. No legitimate company will want you to send them refunds in the form of GIFT CARDS
    3. No legitimate bank will EVER ask you to click links in emails and log into your account to do *something* – they would simply say “visit your online banking” and never directly link you to it.
    4. Amazon, Microsoft, The Tech Guys, Norton Anti Virus, MacAfee Anti Virus – none of these companies have joint support services and none of them work together.
    5. If you get a voicemail or text message that says something is being renewed that you know nothing of, ring your BANK and talk to them about it. They’ll inform you its a scam. NEVER PRESS ONE or ring the number they give you.
    6. ALWAYS search for phone numbers they ask you to ring – as they’ll never take you to their official company website.
    7. The police or national crime agency wont leave you automated voicemails to let you know you are in trouble

    I will keep nipping back to this post and add more examples of the scams they run. If you encounter one or are unsure then please forward the email to scams@0lly.uk or comment below.

    Together, we can squash these bastards.

  • 123 Reg – Online Experts?

    Wooow. Honestly, this blew my tiny mind.

    Ok, so I had a customer who uses 123-Reg’s super duper website builder CMS thingy. All good, right? Hmm...

    So they had the eCommerce bolt-on and ran their online store from this “CMS” that was provided by the dodgiest URL ive ever seen in my life;

    https://online-experts.agency/

    Like, wtf. Im getting red flags already. Dodgy domain, dodgy domain extention.

    Anyway – my client had hit the wall with what was possible with this site builder, they were getting increasingly frustrated dealing with their “support” agents, so came to me and we built them a new site and used the Online Experts CMS data export options to pull my clients 1000’s of products into a CSV for importing into their new shiny website.

    All seemed good…

    Oh wait, no options? It seems all the data was present, SKU,. product name, image references, descriptions, prices, etc…. But no variations/options?

    Ah.

    Looked at the export options (there aren’t any) so decided to reach out to their “support” agents to see if they could advise how I could get my clients data off this system for him…

    Ok, so the regular 123 Reg support portal with the ticketing system is absolutely GARBAGE anyway, and unsurprisingly its not where you get support for the “Online Experts” side of things. That department has ZERO access to the 123 reg support tickets.

    Marv.

    So I got a phone number, it rang twice and then a lady answered it sounding as if the phone ringing had surprised her. I explained the issue, she seemed instantly out of her depth and after a short phone call she assured me it would be looked at, and I left her to it.

    A week passed, nothing.

    I rang them again and they informed me that the customer had been emailed. I do not believe them as my customer LIVES in their emails. I get instant replies when I contact them.

    I was given some fluff by another “Support” agent who was about as helpful as the first lady (not helpful at all) and I was informed that it would be dealt with asap and someone would contact my customer.

    They didnt.

    Once again, I rang and this time spoke to a lad that seemed to empathise with the position we were in. An entire project was now stalled because my customer wasnt able to get an export of HIS data. I’m sure this is against privacy/data laws or something.

    I was given his managers email address, and I emailed her. This was her response;

    Erm, Sorry?

    You cannot export data from your own database? Are we rate or what?

    Online Experts, apparently!

    Why would you ask the design team about a data export query? Do they export data using Photoshop? Pfft..

    That leaves my client in a position where his team now have to add 1000’s of product options into his new store manually, after they’ve adde3d them manually over the years to their first website.

    Its disgusting that 123reg will allow people to build their businesses up on this platform and then essentially leave them totally stranded and in the sh!t if they ever want to move away.

    So if you use the 123 reg ecommerce site builder addon thingy – then be warned! It may be cheap, you may be able to build the site yourself – but if your business does well and you outgrow the 123reg online shop site builder platform then you will have to start from SCRATCH as you cannot get all your data out of it! For google fodder sake its also called the 123reg MMAW service.

    20 years experience in making small businesses succeed. Hmm OOOOKKKK!!!!!!!!

    If you’re having trouble with them, then use the following contact details to get in touch with their receptionists… I mean “Support ” agents.

    0207 023 9300

    lucie_onlineexperts@123-reg.co.uk

    support@onlineexperts.zendesk.com

     

  • Remember 2020?

    Wow. 2020 was a thing?

    I started the year homeless, single and with an uncertain future.

    I ended the year with my own house, a focused – rock solid plan for the future of my business (that is solely mine now, too) and if I play my cards right there may be a relationship with an amazing female on the horizon too.

    Bring it on 2021 and beyond!