La Piazza Blog - PANDA SECURITY SUPPORT

Posted by Ana

Just for fun!! Tech Support for Dad by Tom Smith

It had been a long ass work week, it had been a long ass day, I was hoping I could just go home and sleep the night away, But the message waiting for me was the worst a man could know: “Hi there, son, could you call me back? My computer’s running slow.” There are bamboo shoots and water torture, German blondes named Gert, Films with Adam Sandler and lots of other things that hurt, But it’s not my job or girlfriend that finally drove me mad, I’ve been on the phone long-distance doing tech support for Dad.

It took seven tries to get him to the Start menu and Run, He had Bonzi Buddy, Comet Cursor, and Quicktime 3.1. I said I’d try to find out if his firewall had been breached, Turned out he’d bought this Compaq before Clinton was impeached.

Service packs and driver updates, he needs every single thing, And he gets online by dial-up, so he might be done by spring, But he trusts that I can fix it, his beloved college grad, Never mind it was in Russian, now I’m tech support for Dad.

After thirty seven reboots and a dozen clean installs My room is trashed, my plants are dead, and there’s green slime on the walls But his ‘puter’s running smoothly, I can finally get away, When he says, “Oh, son, one more thing — how do you sell stuff on eBay?”

Here’s a pox on all programmers puttin’ crapware on your shelves, May you have to teach your programs to your dads by phone yourselves, There’s the Normandy Invasion, and the Siege of Leningrad, And the special hell filling in for Dell as tech support for Dad.

Now I’ve built him a computer, nothing can get in or out, The firewall’s adamantium, and the drives are sealed with grout, And if this one starts to run slow, well, that’s just too damn bad, ‘Cause I’d rather shave my eyeballs than do tech support for Dad. Tech support for Dad. Tech support for Dad. 

Hang on, son — your mom wants to know how to set up a web page.”

Posted by David Verstraeten, November, 13th, 2009

Let me begin by introducing myself, my name is David Verstraeten, I am a support technician at the Panda Security Benelux offices and I have been giving support for both the Retail as well as the Corporate products.
One thing every technician enjoys is solving technical problems, no matter how hard finding the solution was!
To help us find a solution for your problem, you can also help us, and thus help yourself.

Here are a few tips:

If you are ever in need of help, access the TechSupport website, if you still need further help, let our TechSupport Forum expert technicians guide you.
In any case, have at hand the following preliminary information as it will speed up the resolution of your issue:

• Your client details, whether it is your client number, user name or activation code.
  With this information technicians can effectively track your problem and make sure your request for help is logged into our system. If your contact details are different from those you registered with us, that will save you some minutes to look these up while you are on the phone with us.
• Operating System, product and product version for issues regarding the updates and activation of the program. Very often we see that people are using older versions of the product, and certain issues are already solved in later versions, so it is important to make sure you have the latest version of the software involved.
  In the case of incompatibilities with third-party software, please indicate the name of the product and its version.
• And most importantly, a clear description of the problem.
  If you find it hard to describe what is going wrong, take a screenshot of what is occurring and send it to us. The more detailed information you can give us, the better we can analyze your problem and supply you with a solution or workaround.

Of course not all these things will be applicable to all situations, or it might not be clear to you what is.
If that’s the case, just provide whatever information you think is necessary and we’ll do our very best to help.

NOTE: Please use the forum, not the blog to address your technical queries

Thanks!

Tech Support Managers from Spain, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, Benelux and France, together with the Support Managers in HQ and myself. They are the ones that make it happen everyday!! I’m so proud! Thank you guys, you are great!!!

Posted by Leyre Velasco, November 3rd, 2009

Do I have a virus? Am I protected with my current antivirus? Can I post in the Panda Forum? How can I activate my product?
All the answers to these questions and many more can be found in Panda antivirus Technical Support website. Resolve yourself your query any time of the day and from anywhere in the world.
Do you still not know it? Access now the Technical Support page and see it for yourself!! At the product level, Panda offers an extensive Knowledge Base which includes the most searched solutions tailored for you.

From the free antivirus option, you will be able to scan your computer completely free through an online scanner, detecting malware infections, such as threats, rootkits, trojans, identity theft, etc. Besides, from the Panda Support page, you will be able to access the Customer Service section, containing the most frequently asked questions about modifying your customer details, a password reminder wizard and so on.

Last but not least, we would like to highlight the Support Forum, a community meeting point where you can discuss technical and off-topic issues, make suggestions, share your experiences about the Panda products and of course, find solutions to your questions. Why don’t you join in? Simply register and take an active part in the forum!!

How else can we improve Support? Share your suggestions with us! We would be delighted to hear from you!

Posted by Nerea Bezares, 29th October, 2009

Computer fraud is an everyday issue. We are becoming accustomed to hearing on the news about criminal groups that clone credit cards, hack mail accounts, bank accounts, etc.                                                                                                                                                                               

Most of these scams are carried out withour the user’s knowledge. The process is transparent until the scam is complete. However, in the case of phishing, users knowingly send their bank details to an email address (or website), and therefore have an active role in the scam.
 
Despite the best efforts of banks to warn users about these risks, victims still fall into the same traps. Today however, I would like to talk about another scam we have encountered on the Internet. It’s a traditional scam adapted to use a combination of new technologies to defraud users.
 
Ever heard of the pigeon drop scam before? Basically, it involves convincing a victim or ‘pigeon’ to give up a sum of money in order to obtain a larger sum of money. The result however is that the scammers end up with all the money.

There are many variations, but typically, the victim is presented with the chance by one of the scammers -who will often appear to be extremely naïve or stupid- to get a large sum of money (or valuable object) in exchange for a much smaller amount. A stranger (in reality, one of the scammers) will invariably appear, encouraging the victim to seize this ‘opportunity’. The victim hands over his money in exchange for the bag or envelope containing his sudden windfall, which, as the bag has been switched, turns out to be strips of newspaper or other worthless material. By this time the scammers have made off with the victim’s money, and the ‘pigeon’ will rarely report the crime through guilt or shame.
 
As innovation is all the rage among the criminal fraternity, we now have a technological version of this traditional scam. A user receives an email explaining how easy it is to become a hacker and get hold of a list of credit card numbers which can then be used to buy things online, transfer money out of people’s accounts, etc.

To access the list, the user simply has to forward his own credit card details to the sender of the email, who is –needless to say- the real hacker. The hacker will then be able to use the credit card for whatever he wants. The scammed user will not know how to explain it to the authorities, as on the one hand, he has given out his details voluntarily, and on the other, he did so to steal from other users.
 
What do you think about this scam? Do you think those who attempt to scam others deserve what they get?

We remind you we are in the  Tech Support Forum and on http://twitter.com/PandaTechSup