Technology – The Lowedown

Can you believe it’s been 17 years since the iPhone was introduced? Technically, the iPhone is not considered the first smart phone. That distinction belongs to a phone designed by IBM in 1992 called the Simon Personal Computer (SPC), which was released in 1994. It’s considered the first smart phone because it was the first phone to include apps.

However, it was really the iPhone that revolutionized cell phones as we know it. Flip phones and Blackberries, which were ubiquitous up until then, are but a memory now.

Back in 2008, when smart phones were still relatively new, Apple embarked on an ad campaign that was highly successful and no doubt aided in the early lead the iPhone had over competitors in the newly created smartphone market.

The theme of the ad campaign was: There’s an app for that! Commercials touted the abundance of apps that were available for the iPhone compared to other smart phone platforms. Just about anything you might need to do with your phone, there was an app available that could do it for you.

Here’s an example of one of those early iPhone commercials:

Recently, I had my own “There’s an app for that” moment.

I was meeting with my friend Mike, a guy I’ve been coaching over the last few years. I met Mike in a grocery store parking lot during the pandemic and we’ve been connecting ever since. You can read about that story here in our January 2021 Newsletter at Lowedown.com.

Mike has a passion for basketball and after spending some time as a high school coach Mike has been trying to make the leap into the difficult world of coaching at the collegiate level.

After volunteer coaching for several years at Azusa Pacific, Mike is now an assistant coach for Biola University.

Mike was recently hired as an assistant coach at Biola University, where he now has the opportunity to influence the young men on the team, not just in their basketball skills, but in their spiritual lives as well.

Mike and I were going over some new discipleship material I’ve been developing. The idea is to create a menu of lessons that anyone can use to help another person take concrete steps in their relationship with God. I’ve been going through the content with Mike to get his feedback and to see if this is the kind of material he might be able to use in his basketball ministry.

After we finished the content, Mike told me, “I wish I could translate this into Japanese.” Mike has a significant ministry to Japanese kids and teens both here and in Japan, through the many youth basketball camps he hosts.

He shared how he thought the content we were going over could be super helpful but he wouldn’t be able to share it with a Japanese student because he doesn’t know Japanese well enough to translate the content himself. It launched us into a conversation about how even here in Southern California, there is often a need for material to be available in multiple languages besides English.

The GodTools app is available at the App Store for iOS devices and the Google Play store for Android devices.

Though my content is currently in English only, our conversation made me think about the GodTools app that Cru has created for evangelistic and spiritual conversations.

I had assumed that Mike probably was familiar with the app and probably had it on his phone, but when I mentioned it, I found out that he not only doesn’t have the app, but he was only vaguely familiar with it.

I pulled up the app on my phone and showed him how he could have access to a number of different gospel presentations as well as a presentation on the ministry of the Holy Spirit….all at his fingertips.

To demonstrate, I opened up the Four Spiritual Laws presentation and began to scroll through the pages.

The GodTools app can be shared in 90 different languages and the Parallel feature allows you to toggle between multiple languages at once. You can even share your screen with the person you’re sharing with.

One of the best things about the app though is not just having a gospel tract on you at all times, but the fact that you can share the presentations in any one of 90 languages. And there’s also an option to toggle the screen between 2 languages (English and Japanese for example).

Mike was excited to learn there was an app at his disposal that would allow him to share a number of tools with his Japanese friends in their native tongue and he didn’t have to spend the money to hire a professional to translate it.

It turns out that if you want to share your faith with others, there’s an app for that. And if you need to share it in a foreign language, there’s an app for that as well!

If you haven’t downloaded the GodTools app yourself, consider adding it to the other Bible apps on your phone. Go to GodToolsapp.com for more information on the features of the app and for suggestions on how to use it in your conversations.

Please pray for Mike as he continues to establish himself as a collegiate coach and pray for us as we seek to continue helping Young Professionals multiply their lives into others.

Someone attempted to scam me earlier today.

I got a call on my landline this morning from an unknown number. It was an 800 number and I decided to answer it.

Right away, I could tell that it was probably a scammer.

Scammers often pose as technical support from companies like Apple, Microsoft or Google, but representatives from these companies will generally never call you unsolicited.
Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash`

The voice on the other end was not a live person but a computer voice, and not a really a good one. The grammar was off as well, which is often an indicator that it’s coming from overseas hackers/scammers.

The robot voice indicated that they were calling from Apple and said that my iCloud account had been compromised and I could speak to a representative to rectify the problem.

By this time, I was 99.9% sure this was a scam attempt but I thought, “ok, lets’ see where this goes.” So I pressed “1” to connect to a “representative”.

I was quickly connected to someone who introduced himself as an Apple technician.

According to the “representative”, my iCloud account had been accessed in two different overseas locations. He asked if I was aware of this activity. I said I wasn’t.

Though not overtly stated, he was suggesting that my account had been hacked, which is a common tactic of scammers. Scammers often present you with a plausible scenario that suggests your computer or some online account has been compromised. They then offer to “fix” the problem, often for a fee. Their goal is to take advantage of the fear and anxiety they’ve created with this false scenario.

The representative then proceeded to give me instructions to fix the issue.

First, he asked me to turn my computer on.

Think about it…why would an Apple employee ask me to open up Chrome, which is the browser owned by Google, one of its chief tech rivals?
Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

Second he asked me to open my Chrome browser. This is interesting because if he was really from Apple I would expect him to ask me to open my Safari browser, since Safari is Apple’s proprietary browser, whereas Chrome is owned by Google. Why is he asking me to open Chrome?

Since my Chrome browser was already open, I told him “ok.”

Next, he asked me to find the large address bar at the top, referring to the space where you type in the website url.

He then asked me to type in the following url: helpme.net (Don’t type this into your browser!)

At this point, I’m extremely suspicious and I googled the website he was asking me to go to.

Included in the results were words like “scam”, “fake” and “redirect”.

The purpose of the scam he was running was to get me to go to a site where he can get control of my computer, under the guise of looking for malicious files. The reality is that he wants control so he can place malware into my system.

Malware comes in many forms, including programs that steal information and programs that slow or lock up your computer.

The resulting malware could be ransomware – a technique where the computer is essentially locked up until you pay the ransom for them to remove it, or it could be spyware, software designed to steal sensitive information like passwords or financial account numbers. A third type of malware infects your computer with unwanted ads and solicitation. The scammers, passing themselves off as legitimate computer technicians will “disinfect” your computer of viruses, for a fee of course.

As I did more research on this site later, I learned that malware can often be introduced to your computer via Google Chrome extensions. I think this is the reason he was asking me to open Chrome instead of Safari.

The scammer mentioned some things I should be seeing after entering the url into my browser. I was actually googling and reading the results of this website he wants me to visit so I’m definitely not seeing what he wants me to see. I tell him, “I don’t see that.”

“Well, what do you see?” he asked.

“I see from google that this site you want me to go to is a redirect site used by scammers.”

At this point, the scammer got a bit flustered and in his comments back to me, he called me “Ma’am.”

I told him, “I’m not a ma’am.”

“Well, SIR”, he said with derision, “you sound like a (expletive)” – rhymes with “witch” but with a “b”.

I said “Whoa! You really work for Apple?” knowing that a person who really worked for a reputable company like Apple or Microsoft wouldn’t use foul language and wouldn’t respond with such disrespect.

The scammer replied, “NO! F Apple!” (yes, he said the word).

There were some more choice words communicated before the scammer hung up on me.

So how can you protect yourself from the Robocall scam?

First, realize that anyone who is calling you unsolicited to help you “fix” your computer is almost certainly a scammer. Apple, Microsoft, Google and others don’t call customers offering to fix their computers. Instead, if you think there’s an issue with your computer, they expect you to reach out to them. In fact, most software companies don’t have the resources to contact users directly. They contact you only if you’ve submitted some kind of support ticket, in which you’ve outlined your issue in detail.

One easy tip to keeping your computer secure is never give access to your computer to an unsolicited caller. Just hang up!
Photo by chris panas on Unsplash

Secondly, never give a person who calls you unsolicited, claiming to be technical support, any personal information and never give them access to your computer. Entering website addresses they give you is one way you can inadvertently give access to your computer or unknowingly download malware that infects your computer.

The best course of action if you receive a an unsolicited call regarding your computer or your Social Security number or anything else that is personal in nature is to simply hang up. If you have the ability to block the number, you can do so but keep in mind that scammers will simply change the number they call from and so you can never truly block them.

If you are having issues with your computer or you’re afraid that you’ve been the victim of a computer scam, take your computer to an authorized repair technician for your particular computer brand. Don’t ever allow someone to try to “fix” your computer over the phone, especially if they’ve called you unsolicited. This is almost assuredly a scam from someone who is trying to grift you for money or phish for personal information that is often sold and used in identity theft.

Roboscams are likely to continue as scammers find new and creative ways to con you into giving them your money or other sensitive information. You can largely insulate yourself from these scams just by hanging up on any unsolicited calls from unknown numbers. If you’re worried that something is wrong with your computer or device, take it to an authorized dealer for inspection and repair.