Pamela's Computer Help for Seniors Blog

I am CLEARING a very LARGE INVENTORY of EXCLUSIVE GIFTS AND ARTWORK from a high class downtown store.

Timeless Gifts for All Occasions – Don’t Miss this “Once in a Lifetime Opportunity!”

Thank you for viewing WNED COOKS and for your interest in my recipe. Since many have asked me for the recipe I decided to post my Honey and Walnut Roll Recipe on my website along with more of my Favourite Recipes.

WNED COOKS will broadcast again on March 26th. I hope that you will be able to gather your friends together and view it once again. You will also be able to purchase the detailed Cook Book which also contains the recipe that I demonstrated.

Let me know which recipe you tried and how it came out. I look forward to hearing from you.

Join me and eight other cooks with unique, home-style recipes on SATURDAY FEBRUARY 26. I will be making my family’s favorite Honey and Walnut Roll at 1:00 PM and you can find more of My Favorite Recipes HERE

You may be surprised and ask why a Computer Tutor has a passion for baking. The answer is that I get immense pleasure from teaching computer techniques or how to prepare and enjoy delicious desserts. Both of these activities make life more pleasant and being able to teach and share my ideas, gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

Don’t forget to watch“WNED COOKS: FAMILY FAVORITES” a new three-hour cooking extravaganza, premiering Saturday, Feb. 26 at 11 a.m. Let me know how you enjoyed it by commenting on this BLOG.

This month I begin a very important mission and I need every one of my readers to help.
Your participation will hopefully protect your identity and the safety of your fellow seniors.

Seniors are often the target of telephone or email scams because the older generation was brought up to be more trusting. They are also at the time of their lives when, after years of saving and investing, they have built up money for “a rainy day” or have gathered a nice “nest egg” to help their family if they are in need.

Scam artists posing as their grandchildren or representatives of grandchildren, call seniors, asking them to send money for an emergency. Hundreds of seniors have been victimized across North America and we need to spread the information as far and wide as possible in order to alert our seniors and catch the culprits.

My mission is to publish on my website in my newsletters and my BLOGas much information as possible so that my readers are aware of “scams” that are flooding our nation; I will not name the victims only the crime. This is were YOUR HELP IS NEEDED I would like you to visit this web page if you or someone you know has been subject to a telephone or email scam? I would also like you to send this newsletter to as many of your friends and family as possible and ask them to pass it along to their contact list.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

RECEIVED FROM THE SON OF A SENIOR:

My father received a phone call from a person claiming to be an attorney in Montreal representing his grandson. There had been an accident in which his grandson had been involved with alcohol being a factor. If Dad could send $4600 via Western Union, then they could clear this matter up and his grandson would have no record. Then, a person who sounded very much like his grandson was put on the line, asked Dad not to contact his father, and said he could pay Dad back when he got home because he had $5000 in the bank. Dad agreed to send the money and was told that the “attorney” would phone back in a couple of hours to verify the money had been sent. Which he did.

About 3 hours later, after the second call, another call from the same “attorney” to tell Dad that the other party in the accident needed more money to get this incident settled. Another $4600 was requested.
Dad told them that he could not afford that amount again, whereupon the price for that was cut in half. And, Dad realized that he was being scammed. And demanded his money back. He also called his grandson’s father and verified that his grandson was in Calgary, not Montreal.

He then re-visited the Western Union office which is in the Wal-Mart Store in Olds, AB. He found that the Money Order had been picked up and cashed in Montreal at a Money Mart there.
Dad and I reported this to the local RCMP the following morning and gave them a statement. However, no formal police report was filed and we we given the phone number and website address for the AntiFraud Centre.I have a friend that works for the RCMP in Calgary and I contacted her to find out if there was a Police group looking into this fraud. There is but there has been no further contact with me.
We have had questions as to how the folks running this scam have been able to get the information needed to pull it off. For instance, his grandson is a student and although his Father is in close contact with Dad and I, we only see or hear from him occasionally.

Do the fraudsters have access to school, college, tech school, or university databases?
Are they gleaning information from social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter?
Do the offices of Western Union and Money Mart in Montreal have Surveillance Cameras as does the Western Union here? Montreal is too far, cost wise, for us to travel and try to recover same. And the fraudsters have that in mind.
Apparently, Western Union has been fined in the USA for failing to train their people to recognize folks in this particular situation. And if their offices are being sited in Wal-Marts, Wal-Mart needs to be advised of this as well.
If, through CARP, I could find retired police officers across the country willing to assist, I bet that this could be shut down within a month.
Here’s how it could work: Publicize the scam through CARP and your blog. Ask the members to report any occurrence or attempted occurrence of the scam, either to them or folks they know. Have officers assist the police in retrieving the security tapes in the places where the money orders are cashed. Find the routing of the money and shut down that system.
Dad was contacted and given an Ontario phone number to call back when the money was sent. That was inoperative the next day. But, someone had to sell that phone somewhere and the number had to be recorded to operative. Did the same person purchase others? which may still be in use?

Can You Help or Have Information that will Help Others? Contact me though this web page and let’s get started! By speaking out you will educate your friends, loved ones, peers and local community to be able to recognize and identify a scam. Help me in my endeavour to protect seniors against scam artists.

I LOOK FORWARD TO HEAR FROM YOU.

When I was a child my mother constantly reminded me that “there is no such word as can’t.” I therefore grew up thinking that everything was possible if I tried really hard and thought of different ways to complete a project thus making it succeed. With this mindset I went through life using my imagination and over time my skills improved and grew in all ventures on which I embarked.

Although teaching never entered my head this attribute, that my teachers saw in me, became apparent when I became dedicated to the Computer Education of Seniors. With infinite patience I convey to them that they do not need to “be afraid” of their computers or think that they cannot and will not ever be able to operate one. Quiet the contrary! A computer is an easy to understand, friendly unit that can be understood very easily in a very short time if the correct instruction is given.

With my help and the information that I have gathered into an “Easy to Understand How-To” Book “Computer Tips for SENIORS” you will be up and running in a snap!

Contact me anytime for FREE answers to your questions which will arrive in your Inbox within 24 hours if not at once.

Get Started Right Away! I am looking forward to hear from you!

I hope that you are enjoying your Apple iPad as much as I am. I have found so many useful features while using my iPad that I wanted to share them with you.

If you have found some easy features please let me know by replying to my BLOG or click HERE to send me a question. My answer will arrive in your INBOX within 24 hours if not at once.

It’s that time of year again; the New Year is here and it’s time to make your computer run more efficiently. I know that this may not be an exciting project but please read on, you will be so pleased that your computer is running fast and without problems when you complete the steps below. It does take time and a little patience but in the long run you will benefit and so will your computer.

If you have saved all your Documents in your Document folder now’s the time to consolidate and transfer all the old, unused, documents to an external medium so that it frees up space on your hard drive. If you have a fairly new computer with a 500GB hard drive you may think that this procedure is not necessary but clearing off old files and folders and organizing the files in use can help you locate them much faster.

I make a point of doing my “Computer Spring Cleaning” at the beginning of each year and if you would like to join me in this endeavor read on.

Every time I need to save a file I make sure that it goes in the appropriate folder with a date as the first part of the saved file name so that I can find it easily. In other words, 010111 Letter to Jim or 01-01-11 Letter to Jim.

Make new folders in your “Documents” named for the previous years. Maybe you have documents from 2008, 2009, 2010. If you have not looked through your Document folder for some years gather all your files from previous years and put them in the appropriate folder. You can “highlight” a whole block of files from 2009 and then drag them to the 2009 folder; this saves a great deal of time. Repeat this procedure for all the other years and you will see how “tidy” your “Document” file looks and how easy it will be to find your files when you need them.

Do the same with your “Pictures” folder. If you have saved pictures in your “Documents” folder drag them into your “Picture” folder and then make folders for each occasion i.e. Granddaughter, Holiday in Italy 2009, Visit to the Museum etc.

Delete unwanted files and folders and drag all your old useful files and folders to an external medium i.e. Flash Drive, External Hard Drive, CD or DVD and keep it in a safe place to access at a later time.

Remember to save all future documents in your 2011 Document folder and pictures in your Picture folder. If you think of your computer like a giant filing cabinet it will be easy for you to organize your work.

If you need help with any of the above procedures please click HERE.

I have been asked to explain how to “subscribe” to this Blog which is explained in the steps below. I would advise you to save this BLOG in your Internet Explorer browser because some of my readers have not been able to do so with Firefox. You may also find that ADDONS in Internet Explorer are causing problems so follow the instructions in the November issue of Pamela’s Monthly Review to disable them. You will be surprised how much faster you will be surfing the Internet!

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