DCT Giveaways and Competitions

There are 26 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 9,169 times. The latest Post () was by Splinter.

1st Official Post
    Quote from Rice

    Splinter, did you give DCT all the personal information required to enter this?

    Hi Rice,


    Name and email is not a lot of personal information and we don't use this information outside of our site-- guaranteed! We need it to notify the contest winners and for verification purposes. You would be surprised at how many people try to "game" the system. I spend lots of time at the end of each contest trying to separate the chaff from the wheat.


    Richard

    Quote from Rice

    Hi, @Richard -

    I never EVER enter drawings; did this only because I trust DCT. But there were many more questions once I clicked “enter.”

    Well, thank you for letting me know because this should not be happening. Please tell me know what questions you were asked. It should only have been a full name and valid email address. Anything else and I need to know about it.


    Thanks for your help,

    Richard

    I sent Splinter screen shots of some of the questions, Richard. They ranged from “Do you have cancer?” to “do you own your own home and how large is it?” to “do you have a prepaid burial plan.”


    All had to be answered before one could successfully enter the drawing, so of course I withdrew. Now I’m getting spam.

    Quote from Rice

    I sent Splinter screen shots of some of the questions, Richard. They ranged from “Do you have cancer?” to “do you own your own home and how large is it?” to “do you have a prepaid burial plan.”


    All had to be answered before one could successfully enter the drawing, so of course I withdrew. Now I’m getting spam.

    Hello Rice,

    I can 100% guarantee that you are not getting SPAM from us. I can also guarantee that those questions were not asked by us, either. One of us, either you or our site, was infected somehow.


    I will look into it and I hope Splinter sends me those images ASAP. (I will ask him about it.)

    Thank you for notifying me of this terrible problem, and should I discover something, I'll get back to you,

    Richard

    Thanks so much, Richard. The first spam I got was the notice that I had only 6 more hours to complete my entry, or I wouldn’t be in the running. This, after I had given my e-addy and clicked “enter,” only to be asked to answer the multiple personal questions.


    So, after all that, I’m not even in the DCT drawing. As I never, ever fall for the “drawing “ scam, I’m not surprised; only sorry that I gave land mailing address. It’s a PO Box, so not that personal; still, I expect new junk mail at our address, heretofore very private with no junk.


    They also asked for date of birth, phone, etc, which I did not give.


    My fault entirely. I actually thought this was a small DCT mailing list drawing, but when I think about it, that would have been unrealistic.

    Hello Rice,


    We have just run a site-wide malware test at DCT, and it came up clean. I let Splinter know that I'd like to see those images and he said he would pass them along.


    The only thing we ask for when someone enters a contest is their name and a valid email address. That's it. Nothing more. We experience hundreds of entries for each of these contests and this is the one and only time this problem has come up in the nearly three years that I have been managing them. And it does not involve a mailing list, as such-- the only email that gets sent is to the winners of the contest which is usually five to 10 people.


    Without seeing those images, I can only suggest at this time that you run a complete scan of your system not only with your currently installed AV program (which has apparently failed you), but with several manual scanners which are available online. No single scanner will catch everything. If you are not sure which of those scanners to use, I will happily recommend a few for you to download and run locally. Most of them do not need to be installed; simply download them and run them, and see their results.


    I'm sorry you had this problem but I assure you that it did not originate at the DCT site,

    Richard

    Quote from Rice

    Thanks so much, Richard. I’ve been using my iPhone exclusively for some months, so am unclear on how to run a scan. Will ask help from Splinter.

    Hi Rice,


    I just got a look at all those images you sent Splinter and every one of them comes from play.sweepstakes[dot]com. This has nothing to do with Dave's Computer Tips (DCT), and how you got there is a mystery to me.


    Yes, ask Splinter because when it comes to phones, I know nothing.

    Richard

    Richard .


    many of us would be grateful for on line scan recommendations !


    Could you please post some.

    Hello GlasgowJohn,


    The following recommendations are not online scanners. They need to be downloaded and run locally on your computer. As I mentioned before, some need to be installed (MBAM, for one) while others will run as Portable utilities. They are all free and come from reputable developers.


    One of our writers recently posted an article about Rootkits and listed several scanners. These scanners are not limited to Rootkit detection, however. You can read all about it at How To Scan For Rootkits.


    Hope this helps,

    Richard