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The Fox Report Barry Fox’s technology column Fakes, scams and evasion C ovid has provided a golden opportunity for scammers to con the unwary – and even the wary. I bought a 2TB USB stick memory which turned out to be a fake. I have since learned that the crooks are using a controller unit which gives a false reading for whatever memory chips it is bonded to. So, using a PC to check capacity is no guide. Soon afterwards I was stung by a 2TB portable HDD which also failed to store as much data as it should have done. In each case I was able to return the purchase and ask for a full refund. But in each case I lost data. Price is not necessarily a reliable guide to fakery because the faker may charge a high price to create false confidence. Fortunately, there are several free software tools now available, such as H2testw or FakeFlashTest. The downside is that they can take days to fully check a large capacity store. Plus, they may lock up when they hit a capacity problem. On the face of things, fully formatting a new drive (not quick formatting) should show its true capacity. But it is possible the fakers can – or will soon – fake that too. Once a faking chip is available there is no way of limiting who uses it. This probably explains why there are so many 2TB fakes around. Arguably the safest guide to genuine quality is the brand name. This can of course also be faked, but phoney products will usually look cheap and phoney. So, buy memory USBs and HDDs from a source which has a friendly return-and-refund policy that costs only the price of the paper and ink needed to print a pre-paid label. 1557 IP68 sealed enclosures Answer or ignore? The scammers are also having a field day with scam phone calls, texts and emails. Phone calls are easy and fun to prolong if you have some time to spare. Just give no personal details and keep the scammer talking to eat into the time they have to call other, perhaps more gullible targets. Be wary of replying to scam emails and texts, however much fun it might seem to be, because you are just confirming that your ID address is ‘live’. I was recently shocked to hear absurdly bad advice on scam emails given out by a so-called expert on a morning BBCTV programme. Talking about online scams, he advised that if anyone gets a scam email, then they should ‘change their password’. The fact that a scammer knows your email does not of course mean that they have access to your email account. It simply means that they have harvested your email from any one of countless possible sources. Most people get multiple scam emails every day, so anyone taking the BBC’s ‘expert’ advice would be changing their password several times a day; and changing an email password does not stop scam emails arriving. ! w ne Learn more: hammfg.com/1557 Contact us to request a free evaluation sample. uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812 8 Practical Electronics | March | 2021 I contacted the BBC who waffled that the ‘expert’ was ‘simply offering one way that a person can protect themselves, but we appreciate you did not agree with this advice.’ I have now suggested that the BBC ask its own IT Department to confirm that it is not a matter of opinion but fact that advising people to change their password when they receive a scam email is downright wrong; and it is doubly worrying that an ‘expert’ advising millions is not willing to admit and correct a mistake. A great big non-answer As recently reported (Fox Report, February 2021) I asked the chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority, Guy Parker, for his personal views on the ASA’s competence to handle consumer complaints about adverts with technical content; and I promised to report back on any response. With considerable difficulty I did eventually squeeze a personal response from Guy Parker, which reads: ‘I recognise your frustration about our newish complaint handling procedures, but my colleagues, including members of my Senior Management Team with responsibility for our Complaints and Investigations operation, have taken time carefully and thoughtfully to respond to your concerns, including committing to review our procedures in light of your helpful feedback. I’ve nothing to add to that. ‘I disagree that the ASA is illequipped to judge ad claims for consumer technology products and services. On the contrary, we have a great deal of experience judging such claims. ‘While it’s obvious that our responses have not satisfied you, there’s not much we can do about that and I see nothing to be gained from continuing to correspond. I therefore consider the matter closed and I won’t be replying if you choose to write to me again.’ products and services that we now see in the media; see: http://bit.ly/ pe-mar21-asa1 Readers can also search online for any technical credentials among the ASA’s management here: http://bit. ly/pe-mar21-asa2 In the meantime, I have filed another tech-related complaint, regarding commercial promotion of consumer tech products by a consumer tech TV personality. So, I can report firsthand that, thus far, there is no sign of the procedural changes needed to keep consumers informed on the progress – or silent dismissal – of their complaints. This is two full months after the ASA said it would ‘look to implement something’ based on my ‘very helpful suggestion’. Check for yourself 5-year collection 2015-2019 PE readers can look for themselves at recent ASA rulings, and form their own opinions on whether the number that relate to adverts with a technical slant reasonably reflects the plethora of adverts for tech-based NEW DOWNLOAD! 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