The Computer Exorcist Podcast

Hosted by Marc-Anthony Arena

Episodes

Language

EN-US

About the show

We're increasingly dependent on technology. Our business and personal lives rely on it, but as you've probably noticed, it's unreliable. They promise it'll get better, but it usually gets worse. Our computers are slow, so we end up squinting at smartphones. We live in constant fear that something's going to happen to our personal data. So we're scared into paying for fake protection that proves useless when disaster strikes. The jokers we pay to fix our stuff have no clue what they're doing, so they wipe out our precious photos and tell us to buy a new machine.If we only had someone to explain it all in Plain English, so we can start protecting ourselves. If only, we had... The Computer Exorcist Podcast, with your host, Marc-Anthony Arena! This show is for intelligent people who are intimidated by technology, and think it's somehow their fault. Once people learn what the industry is doing to them, they're ready to get torches and pitchforks. We expose Update Attacks, Fake WiFi, Cloud Control, and many more industry scandals that are designed to keep the gravy train flowing. Oh yeah, and we also do a little bit of scambaiting! We answer calls from phone scammers and torment them until they pop. Visit www.teknosophy.com or www.thecomputerexorcist.com to buy my book "How to Protect Yourself from Your Computer", and support the show by buying something ethical from my recommendations page! NOTE: I have obtained written permission from the bands to use their music!

Listen to episodes

60 recent

37 min

150 Security Through Community

It's our 150th episode! We celebrate by inviting special guest Connor Peters from Rochester's very own Locke Identity Networks. Whether you're a consumer or small business, they deal with password management so you don't have to. Privacy vs. Security - is it really one or the other? Password Recovery is the weakest link (and everyone's pet peeve) Why should some faceless Big Tech firm be in control of your life? Locke's alternative is called Security through Community. Complicated passwords vs long passwords Skylux - white-glove service because you don't have to log into any apps What are passkeys and what are their pros and cons? Imagine a seamless experience instead of hassle. Small businesses just want things to JUST WORK! Hyundai promises "software-defined vehicles", ensuring that they, and bad guys, can control and modify your car. "Anytime you have a backdoor, there's a front door." There's a new form of human treachery called SURVEILLANCE PRICING - you're now charged an amount based on who you are, where you live, how much money you have, and how badly you need a product. What's NY State's solution, and what's the real solution? Find out more about Locke at www.locke.id and talk to you next week!

34 min

149 15,000 Download Celebration Pt.2

Tonight on CEP! We finish up our 15,000 download celebration by slaying more articles. iPhone assembler Foxconn proposes a new open platform for EVs. Sounds like a great way for EV startups to get going without reinventing the wheel, pun intended. California allows digital license plates, a pointless idea fraught with subscriptions and complexity, with no benefit. It brings a whole new meaning to the term "garbage plate"! Every time Google is exposed in the news for doing something nasty, business doubles over at Duck. This is an article about such news articles! In this case, Google now wastes their own energy force-attacking AI results before the organic search results, and to their surprise, people aren't happy. "What, you aren't just accepting whatever we foist on you?" We also explain the terms I've coined: Anti-improvements and runaway brains. We enter the mind of the relentless perfectionist, and Mike brings up a great point: Rather than nervously guarding your position, just enjoy being on the top of the mountain for a while because someone will eventually knock you off. Do you have any friends who are frustrated by tech? Thanks for telling them about the show!

33 min

148 15,000 Download Celebration Pt.1

Tonight on CEP! Dr. Mike joins us to celebrate 15,000 downloads, and we slay some articles. Shout out to Every1Camp.com, a new camp in Rochester for kids with disabilities. We discuss the new horror called "ambient computing" - where gizmos all around your house monitor your every move and then collaborate. Most of it will result in preemptive suggestion attacks, in other words the tech makes assumptions about what you want, and then starts doing things you never told it to do. Cars that display video ads on their evil dashboard screens. We call it "The False Promise of Technology" - the utopia never happens, but instead we see a decline in the quality of life, chaos, anti-empowerment, control, and helplessness. Rumor has it, New Orleans just replaced 911 dispatchers with AI dispatchers, which will result in a plethora of miscommunication. "We've already seen how restrictive and insanely incompetent ALL of this technology is. Just wait until it controls more of your life. More helplessness is coming." "A third of all actions performed by Alexa, it does proactively." In other words, presumptive auto-attacks, or helicopter parenting. Of course, all of this will be subjected to the eternal cat and mouse battle of cybersecurity, and your tech will blow false alarms against you. More fear and uncertainty. "DARE to keep kids away from technology." What's the antidote to this dystopia of tech-addicted braindead kids? 80s dystopian movies like "Chopping Mall" were prescient: They SAW where this was heading. What will save us? Smallternatives and good old human apathy. Let the big guys dry up. Check out my tech tip videos by searching for "the computer exorcist" on your favorite social media site!

47 min

147 Epic Sweepstakes Scammer

Tonight on CEP! It's one big scam call! A scammer calls me asking for Foghorn Leghorn by name! Yes, I've been using the name so often, that the name is now reflected in the databases the scammers sell to each other! Wait til you hear how they pronounced Wisconsin! She tells me that someone from "Consumers Clearing House" is coming to give me a huge "cash awerd"! Her false attitude is so saccharine it's disgusting - but I turn it against her at so many points. The awkward laughs are abundant. I then twist the knife into her by thanking her over and over again for helping the helpless seniors. She then has the audacity to give me a sneaky survey to figure out if I own my home, and ask for the types and amounts of my investments! At one point, the "senior attorney" gets on, and warns me not to talk to other scammers! I told her I give money to anyone who calls, and that piqued her interest. I then told her some other guys called and offered me more prize money, so I might go with them instead! Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and stay tuned for the new book!

30 min

146 We're All Jaded

Today on CEP! Companies using zero-trust are still hacked, claim it's because they're not using enough zero-trust. Paranoia ensues, and employees are even more infuriated than ever before. (As if they didn't have enough stress already!) The great irony is, we're so jaded from all the trillions of confirmation popups, so scammers are taking advantage of that. The Spectrum Loop Story - Wait til you hear what happened when my client tried to cancel Spectrum. When a Tesla's accessory battery dies, you can't roll down the windows, or open those silly electrically-actuated doors. Real physical door handles are there, but they are UNLABELED, so if you aren't a mind-reader, you won't be able to get out of the car. Many people worldwide are stuck in their cars, often in extreme temperatures. The AAA finds that Automated Emergency Braking sort of works, but isn't reliable. Designers can't get it right, but they've already moved on to developing full autonomy, because Jenga. The "Matter" protocol is developed to allow all of these new cloud-controlled gizmos to be controlled more simply. Hopefully this means the end of each gizmo being controlled by a totally different ultra-proprietary app and password. Finally, in good news, a lady invented a Rotary Un-Smartphone. It's a cell phone with nothing but voice call capabilities, protecting you from the frustration of using a touchscreen. Thanks for telling your friends about the show! If for some reason you like me, check your favorite social media site for my new Mini Tech Tips!

36 min

145 Karl, Take The Wheel

My apologies to Karl for not being able to fit him in last week's episode, so because of that, today's episode is All Karl All The Time! What follows can only be described as performance art, the likes of which we haven't seen since Pee Wee Herman. In his first call, a scammer called Karl Mailchimp and said he had a fraudulent charge on his apple account. Karl said it might've been his grandson playing farming games. absolute gold. He then tried to get Karl to connect to "apple secure server", which of course really means some tool used to hijack people's phones. (Warn your friends!) This week's tool is called "Awesun Remote Desktop". When the scammer tries to get him to search for his remote control tool, Karl tells him that his grandson set his phone to Spanish. Hilarity ensues as Karl takes him on a beautiful journey through the Spanish language. Eventually the guy goes on google and looks up instructions on how to change the language back to English! Some instant-classic Karl lines include: "Holy friggin' cow!" and "I don't even know what he bought!" When it comes time to download the App, of course the app store attacks for a password, which Karl doesn't have on hand. He thinks on his feet, and more hilarity ensues. Even the scammer is holding back a laugh at one point. He then gets a scam email urging him to call "Robin Hood Tech Support". So of course he invents a new persona on the spot: "Pastor Cal Ripken Jr.", and promptly takes him for a ride. The scammer tried to scare him into thinking there was a withdrawal happened from Hong Kong. When he questioned Cal's name, Cal gave a most indignant speech that had me in stitches. Then the scammer really gave himself away by asking if he had any money in any other crypto accounts! When asked for the name of his church, Cal came up with another subtle cultural reference on the spot. So thanks to Karl for making my podcast way funnier than it usually is, and stay tuned for more mischief! thecomputerexorcist.com

30 min

144 Do you believe in Karma?

Tonight on CEP! I realized I haven't published a Torment a Scammer episode in a while, so here you go! Foghorn Leghorn gets a call saying he won $2.5M and a (used?) Mercedes-AMG! The scammer said he was "American Cash Awards" then said he was Bank of America. Our next perpetrator is Nancy, whom I call "Mancy". She sent me an email from "@pple Support", which is of course an attempt to get through spam filters. She told me I had a "security problem" where I clicked on an ad which allowed a hacker to connect to my computer. She's actually not far from the truth, but conveniently omitted that SHE'S the one making these ads that DECEIVE people into thinking they have security problems. She then told me about her "secure server" which is actually the tool she uses to break into people's computers. While waiting to connect to "senior technician", we got a chance to get to know each other. I commended her for her efforts and reminded her about karma. The last one sends me an email saying my "Appl Pay" has been used at an "Appl Store". Of course he couldn't tell me which product or store. When he asked me what browser I have, I described the Firefox icon in the best possible way. Toward the end he suspected I was a YouTuber... As always, hilarity ensues. Thanks for sharing this episode with your friends, and stay tuned for the book, coming out very soon at thecomputerexorcist.com

35 min

143 What Has Come to Fruition

This morning on CEP! We plow through more "ketchup" articles. We give thanks for some treacherous ones that never came true: The NTSB wanted to implement breathalyzers in all new cars. It would add massive cost and complexity, blow false alarms, and of course those who want to get around it will find a way. NY State wanted to implement "intelllligent speeed assistance" in cars, in other words auto-attack if it thought you went too fast. We also celebrate two really good ones that are still thriving: Toyota's hydrogen engine for semi trucks: Why reinvent the wheel when you can just make a new engine for preexisting trucks! The Fairphone - a phone that's not glued together and not designed to die ASAP. You're encouraged to repair it and use it as long as possible! and two of the usual: AI designing your next car. An article from 2015 that exposes how Microsoft tried to retrofit its nagware and legal spyware into its older products. The book should be coming out this month! Get the preview edition on PDF at thecomputerexorcist.com

23 min

142 Beating a Dead Seat

Tonight on CEP! Marc finds an article that explains the extreme disparity between backward, slow, reactionary government, and ultra-rapid Silicon Valley. Disaster will ensue. BMW's unpopular heated seat subscription service surfaces in South Korea. The delusional "recurring revenue" cult spreads to other automakers. What's going to save us? Laws that prohibit rentals? That would just create tons of chaos. So what's going to save us? I've got the answer. Unbeknownst to most of humanity, every picture you take is usually sucked into a cloud service. Lately, the cloud service is starting to peruse your photos and accuse you of things as it sees fit. Disaster ensues. The book, now titled "Don't Be Taken by Big Tech", is coming out soon, to a book retailer near you! Grab a preview at thecomputerexorcist.com

31 min

141 Visiting Joey's Garage

Today on CEP! We're coming at you from Cousin Joey's garage on the coast of Maine! We discuss: The 2022 prediction that electrification will make cars unattainable for the Average Joey. A real-world solution to BMW's unreal scheme to rent people features in their own cars. "Nothing controlled by software is safe." How Skynet is already here, it's just not run by the AI yet. The McLaren "Artura... has so much technology baked in," it's like a disobedient smartphone, at 1,000 times the price. Do TIRES pollute more than TAILPIPES? The Myers Manx "dune buggy" is resurrected as an EV - but is it out yet? What's the real solution to the complexities of life, and what should our real goal be? Thanks for telling your friends about the show! The new book is coming out SOON!