A Day of Family Fun!
9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday May 12th*, 2012
Town Park – Gananoque

“STEPPIN OUT” TRIBUTE TO IRVING BERLIN

Irving Berlin was considered to be one of the most important songwriters in America. He was self-taught, and almost everything he wrote was a hit, having written over 1000 songs. The show “Steppin’ Out” featuring Cliff Edwards,

Chantal Thompson, Paul Harding, Bob Arlidge and Doug Gravelle, is the final show in the Winter/Spring Music Series at the Firehall Theatre in Gananoque.

They will be performing those memorable Irving Berlin songs, including “Puttin’ On The Ritz”, ‘Always”, “Cheek to Cheek” and “Heatwave” to name a few.

Two performances, Saturday April 28^th  8:00pm and Sunday afternoon April 29^th  2:30pm.

This show completes a very successful series and promises to deliver many of those great Irving Berlin songs we all remember and love to sing along.

Dates for next year’s series have been confirmed, and Producer Cliff Edwardsfor Artisan Entertainment promises to deliver another series of high qualityentertainment, during the winter and spring seasons in Gananoque.

So, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” as we are “Steppin’ Out”, Saturday and Sunday April 28^th, 29^th. For tickets 613-382-7020, 1000islandsplayhouse.com.

Please read: Don’t fall for phony phone tech support calls claiming to be from Microsoft

Here’s another form of Internet fraud that combines a variety of other common scams—social engineering, fake security software, and phishing.

Cybercriminals have started calling people on the telephone, claiming to be from Microsoft, and offering to help solve their computer problems. Once cybercriminals have gained a victim’s trust, they can do one or more of the following:

- Trick people into installing malicious software on their computer.

- Take control of a victim’s computer remotely and adjust settings in order to leave the computer vulnerable.

- Request credit card information so that cybercriminals can bill for the phony services.

Microsoft will not make unsolicited phone calls to help you with your computer. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up.

LONDON — June 16, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today released findings of a survey* into an emerging form of Internet scam that targets English-language markets and costs victims on average US$875.

The scam works by criminals posing as computer security engineers and calling people at home to tell them they are at risk of a computer security threat. The scammers tell their victims they are providing free security checks and add authenticity by claiming to represent legitimate companies and using telephone directories to refer to their victims by name.

Once they have tricked their victims into believing they have a problem and that the caller can help, the scammers are believed to run through a range of deception techniques designed to steal money.

To establish the extent of this emerging form of Internet fraud, Microsoft surveyed 7,000 computer users in the U.K., Ireland, U.S. and Canada. The survey showed that across all four countries, 15 percent of people had received a call from scammers. In Ireland this rose to 26 percent.

Of those who received a call, 22 percent, or 3 percent of the total survey sample, were deceived into following the scammers’ instructions, which ranged from permitting remote access to their computer and downloading software code provided by the criminals to providing credit card information and making a purchase.

The vast majority (79 percent) of people deceived in this way suffered some sort of financial loss. Seventeen percent said they had money taken from their accounts, 19 percent reported compromised passwords and 17 percent were victims of identity fraud. More than half (53 percent) said they suffered subsequent computer problems.

Across all four countries surveyed, the average amount of money stolen was $875 (U.S.), ranging from $82 (U.S.) in Ireland up to $1,560 (U.S.) in Canada. The average cost of repairing damage caused to computers by the scammers was $1,730 — rising to $4,800 in the U.S.

“The security of software is improving all the time, but at the same time we are seeing cybercriminals increasingly turn to tactics of deception to trick people in order to steal from them,” said Richard Saunders, director of International Public and Analyst Relations at Microsoft. “Criminals have proved once again that their ability to innovate new scams is matched by their ruthless pursuit of our money.”

While Microsoft’s research shows the huge scale of the phone scam issue, at this stage it is believed to only affect countries where the main language is English. However, according to Saunders, it’s only a question of time before the scammers acquire skills in other languages and look to expand their operation. “Fake lottery scams and other forms of Internet scams have followed this pattern,” Saunders said.

Because phone scammers rely on deceiving, Microsoft believes the most effective protection lies in consumer education to prevent people from becoming victims in the first place.

The following is Microsoft’s advice:

The Microsoft survey showed that 67 percent of people who lost money were able to recover, on average, 42 percent of it. Microsoft advises anyone who thinks they may already have been a victim of a phone scam to do the following: