For the past couple of weeks I haven't been feeling what you would call 100%. I've had a really bad lower back pain. I can't really explain it, but at times I've been bent double the pain has been so bad. I've tried to endure it. I thought it would go away of it's own accord, but no, it comes back. If I sit for any lenght of time, such as watching television, when I go to stand up, then the pain comes back. It goes whenever I lie down in bed at night. It's not so bad in the morning and is fine when I go out with Alfie around Eaglestone Park. It got so bad this morning that I just had to get a doctor's appointment and try and get something to stop it, or at least, get the pain under control. I didn't really want to phone for an appointment, because it's such an effort, first getting through, which can take 45 minutes or so, then you have to explain to the receptionist what the problem is and then wait for a doctor to ring back to give you the time of your appointment. I was surprised that, when I got through, there was only one other person in the queue in front of me. So I was speaking to a receptionist and explaining things within minutes. Then it was around an hour before doctor rang. I got an appointment at 10.20. I got there in plenty of time. Surprisingly, there were very few other waiting patients. It wasn't long before I was called into the doctor's room and I was given a prescription for co-codamol and took it next door to the pharmacy, which I noticed was now called Peak Pharmacy, having been Cox and Robinson for all the time I've lived in Milton Keynes.
Later in the afternoon I had a telephone call from someone who said they worked for BT (British Telecom) to say they'd discovered that my computer had been hacked. It sounded so genuine. They always do. I told him that I didn't have my broadband through BT, but he disregarded this. They needed to check my computer wasn't violated and had to install a piece of software on my MacBook to clean off malware and check for viruses. Little did I realise that this whole thing in itself was a scam! I'm sorry folks, I fell for it. Later in the afternoon I rang Apple and the helpful lady showed me how to download a piece of software that checks for malware and viruses and it definitely showed that my laptop was indeed infected and the offending software was removed. Not very pleasant to realise that I had been scammed. I have to admit it. It's so easy to fall for this sort of thing and I had to check my NatWest account to check they hadn't hacked into it but then, when I attempted to get into my Nationwide account I couldn't get into it on-line and had to ring the telephone number that came up on their website. They eventually managed to see that a quite considerable amount of money had been taken from my account, but they knew it had been taken in a scam and it has now been returned, thankfully. I will now have to have the MacBook cleaned and any remaining malicious software removed so I will go into Currys and get them to do this for me. I think I've learned from this whole horrible incident and will make sure in the future to ignore any similar telephone calls. If you read this, please be waring of such telephone calls and don't fall for their sales patter. Check that whoever it is, regardless if they say they're from such-and-such company, that they are genuine before you divulge anything, but never passwords, bank details or whatever sensitive data.
Saturday morning. I have been to Curry's and they didn't have a computer engineer available today to deal with the MacBook and clean out the computer, checking for any viruses and malware. They couldn't fit me in until Tuesday, so it's booked in and I have to take it to leave on Monday evening. It's paid for, so all I have to do is check it in on Monday and then wait over Tuesday to see whether they ring to give me any information. I really hope not because I want it back in good working order. I have Carol's MacBook I can use so I am still connected to the internet and the outside world. I'm not using the larger MacBook until it is back up and running. I did notice that Safari was working properly once the malware was removed, so it now makes me realise that it had been tampered with sometime ago by the hackers in an attempt to get me to use another browser. If nothing else, at least that problem has been resolved, but I wish it had been solved some other way.
Later in the afternoon I had a telephone call from someone who said they worked for BT (British Telecom) to say they'd discovered that my computer had been hacked. It sounded so genuine. They always do. I told him that I didn't have my broadband through BT, but he disregarded this. They needed to check my computer wasn't violated and had to install a piece of software on my MacBook to clean off malware and check for viruses. Little did I realise that this whole thing in itself was a scam! I'm sorry folks, I fell for it. Later in the afternoon I rang Apple and the helpful lady showed me how to download a piece of software that checks for malware and viruses and it definitely showed that my laptop was indeed infected and the offending software was removed. Not very pleasant to realise that I had been scammed. I have to admit it. It's so easy to fall for this sort of thing and I had to check my NatWest account to check they hadn't hacked into it but then, when I attempted to get into my Nationwide account I couldn't get into it on-line and had to ring the telephone number that came up on their website. They eventually managed to see that a quite considerable amount of money had been taken from my account, but they knew it had been taken in a scam and it has now been returned, thankfully. I will now have to have the MacBook cleaned and any remaining malicious software removed so I will go into Currys and get them to do this for me. I think I've learned from this whole horrible incident and will make sure in the future to ignore any similar telephone calls. If you read this, please be waring of such telephone calls and don't fall for their sales patter. Check that whoever it is, regardless if they say they're from such-and-such company, that they are genuine before you divulge anything, but never passwords, bank details or whatever sensitive data.
Saturday morning. I have been to Curry's and they didn't have a computer engineer available today to deal with the MacBook and clean out the computer, checking for any viruses and malware. They couldn't fit me in until Tuesday, so it's booked in and I have to take it to leave on Monday evening. It's paid for, so all I have to do is check it in on Monday and then wait over Tuesday to see whether they ring to give me any information. I really hope not because I want it back in good working order. I have Carol's MacBook I can use so I am still connected to the internet and the outside world. I'm not using the larger MacBook until it is back up and running. I did notice that Safari was working properly once the malware was removed, so it now makes me realise that it had been tampered with sometime ago by the hackers in an attempt to get me to use another browser. If nothing else, at least that problem has been resolved, but I wish it had been solved some other way.
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