By Brian Bondy

​I love my Kindle. It’s small, lightweight, and holds lots of books. I read all of Jane Austen on it at the beginning of the pandemic, including her Juvenilia. Also, Moby Dick, which was great, and The Metamorphosis, which I liked but have no idea what it meant. I’m reading A Gentleman in Moscow now, which I’m loving.

And some reminders: Dan’s Kindle was stuck on a screen talking about using it when it’s plugged in and the USB or something. It would not go away. To get rid of that, press and hold the power button until it turns off. When you turn it on again, it should be fine.

Also, every Kindle has its own email address. You can use it to send Kindle formatted books to your Kindle. This is especially useful in sending FREE books to yourself, which you can find on websites like Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/  You could send yourself a PDF as well, which the Kindle can handle.
​
Jane Austen’s books were free, as was Moby Dick and The Metamorphosis.
And other places for free books. https://www.lifewire.com/places-to-get-free-kindle-books-1357954

This is an important read.   Not a week goes by that I don't get a suspicious message on Messenger.
​~ Carol Bondy

From Rick Rouse's Daily Tech Tips.

​Yet another Facebook-related scam is making the rounds, but this one isn’t being perpetrated on the Facebook website.

It’s actually taking place on Messenger app instead.

As Facebook scams go, this one is pretty simple but it’s also unusually widespread.
In a nutshell, the scam goes something like this… 

Several of your friends start receiving strange messages that appear to have been sent by you via Facebook Messenger. These messages can vary quite a bit but they are almost always messages that are out of character for you.

Some messages will try to trick your friends into signing up for some “deal”. Others will try to get them to click a link or watch a video.

Regardless of the actual messages they receive, they are almost always the types of messages you wouldn’t normally send. That should be a huge red flag for your friends, and luckily it usually will be.

Most people who receive these messages recognize right away that they’re out of character for the sender and message them to let them know what’s going on.

That’s why in most cases the messages themselves aren’t really the problem. The real problem is the “sender” usually thinks their Facebook account has been hacked when it actually hasn’t.
Understandably, they change their password thinking that will fix the problem, but it doesn’t.
Messages continue being sent out in their name even after they change their password, which of course has them pulling their hair out trying to figure out why someone is still sending messages to their friends from their account.

Well, if your friends start receiving messages that appear to have been sent by you, don’t panic. Your account probably has not been hacked.

What’s happening is someone has created a fake account using your name and photo and they’re using that account to make it look like the messages they’re sending came from you.
Unfortunately, Facebook makes it easy for scammers to impersonate you on Messenger, and that can cause a ton of confusion when a scammer decides to target YOUR friends for mischief.
The good news is your Facebook account has NOT been hacked.

The bad news is your friends are receiving messages from a scammer that make them believe your account has been hacked, and when they message you to tell you about it YOU also believe your account has been hacked (even though it hasn’t).

Luckily, this is one of the easiest scams to detect. Here’s how…
When one of your friends messages you and says “you’ve been hacked because I’m receiving strange messages from you“, send them a message back and ask them if there are two accounts in your name showing up in their messages list.

If they see your name on the list twice that means they’re receiving messages in your name from two different accounts – your real account and the fake account that was created by the scammer.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really anything you can do to prevent this type of scam, or even put a stop to it because it’s very easy to impersonate another user on Messenger.
​
What you can do is warn your Messenger contacts about the fake “you” so they can be on the lookout for those strange messages and block the fake account one they discover it.
And now, one final recommendation: Even though your actual Facebook account hasn’t been hacked, I still recommend that you enable Two-Factor Authentication on it to prevent it from getting hacked in the future.

Apple has ended its PhotoStream product and replaced it with iCloud. However, it will officially cease to exist July 26th. If you have iCloud and have it setup to backup all your photos, then you should be fine. If you have PhotoStream on some older devices though and haven’t set those up to iCloud, then you stand a chance of losing those photos.
 
I know a lot of folks out there use iCloud as backup and storage for their Apple devices, which is great. But if you still look at photos using PhotoStream, you need to save those photos you want to keep to a device that will store them in iCloud.
 
Any concerns about this, read the following article: Apple is shuttering My Photo Stream. Here's how to ensure you don't lose your photos. - CBS News
 

I’ve been reading about some safety concerns from cybersecurity companies for Apple phones/tablets/computers, and for Android phones, though different issues with each. I’ll start with Apple.

This Apple issue was widely reported in April, and hopefully you’ve applied your updates. It’s important enough for me to remind you though, as Apple pushed out some updates that go to their Mac computers as well as the iPhone and iPad. You can read about that HERE. Two major Apple security warnings affect a decade of Macs, iPads, and iPhones | Macworld

The Apple fixes are apparently for an exploit that is 10 years old and could affect BILLIONS of devices. Update your software, run the fixes if you haven’t been doing that.
 
For Android phones, the issue is malware inserted via several PDF and Document apps, which is used to access your banking accounts. There are approximately 600 banking apps affected, so it’s a fairly serious concern. Read the below article from Tom’s Guide and verify you do not have the malware app installed, and always, keep track of your bank accounts.
​
Dangerous Android trojan targets 600 banking apps — and it's draining accounts | Tom's Guide (tomsguide.com)