Inbox

By DON McALLISTER

Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.

Q. Richard had a lucky escape on Monday because he didn't follow the instructions on an email claiming to be from Westpac that asked him to log in to his online bank account. But he's concerned about Westpac's site security.

A. To protect yourself, Richard, NEVER use an email link to login to your bank account, no matter how legitimate it looks. To reach the real Westpac site, use either a personal browser favourite or type in www.westpac.co.nz.

The email scam with the embedded link looked like it was going to Westpac but was actually from a Russian-based hacker site.

Visually, the first steps were Westpac.com.nz (not the Westpac address). The "ru" (Russia) and the "da" (the hacker server) component of the web address was hidden further down in the link and easily missed.

But it was this part - da.ru - that piped victims to the bogus Westpac site where hapless victims typed their login details and passwords, which were recorded by the scamsters.

If it happened to you and you haven't contacted, or been contacted by, Westpac - do so immediately and change your password.

On Wednesday a similar scam surfaced targeting ANZ online banking customers.

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Q. "I can print anything except when I try to print from the screen using recommended "ALT+PRT SC" - nobody home. What am I doing wrong please?" asks Ian.

A. You misunderstand the function of that key combination, Ian. What it actually does is copy a complete image of the desktop to the clipboard. You need to open another program such as Word Pad and paste it there. You can then print the image from there.

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Q. Jack is one of several readers that received a message "MSVBVM60. DLL was not found" after running the SpywareBlaster program.

A. It's a known issue with Windows 98 and ME systems, Jack. Download and run vbrun60sp5.exe from download.microsoft.com. The missing file will be installed and SpywareBlaster should run without any further problems.


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