Q. I would really like to clean up my iPhone contacts. The only way I know of is to open each contact and delete them one by one. Is there a way or program to mass delete them?
A. iPhone stores online contacts in your different accounts.
The best way I’ve found to manage contacts on my iPhone is to go to the web interfaces of my accounts and edit them there.
If you go to icloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID, then click Contacts, you’ll see all the contacts Apple has stored for you.
From there, you can select all the contacts you want to delete, then click the gear icon in the lower left corner and select Delete.
If you have a Gmail account connected to your phone, you can go to contacts.google.com and sign in with your Google account and select the contacts you want to delete from there. Just select the ones you don’t want, then click the three dots above the list and select Remove.
If you have another email account connected to your phone, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, you’ll probably want to check that service’s web interface and see if you have any contacts stored there.
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Q. I was browsing the web and a pop-up appeared on my screen telling me that Windows Defender had detected a Trojan that had infected my computer.
My machine was indeed frozen. Additional instructions stated that the issue could be resolved by calling Microsoft at the number provided in the pop-up window. I suspect my computer has been hacked. Is the phone number a legitimate Microsoft number? Why didn’t my McAfee find the problem and fix it?
A. What you have experienced is a common scam designed to trick you into thinking there is a problem with your computer.
In many cases, the pop-up will look like your computer has frozen, which makes it even more convincing.
The number presented is not a Microsoft number, it is the number of scammers trying to scam you. If you were to call this number, the scammers would try to convince you to pay to fix the so-called problem.
Your computer has not been hacked.
The fastest way to fix this problem is to simply shut down your computer and restart it. The computer will be magically unfrozen and the pop-up will be gone.
To prevent this from happening again, I recommend that you install a pop-up blocker for your browsers. Something like AdBlock Pro or similar should help with these kinds of false alerts.
But if you ever see one again, you should never call the number. If you think there is something wrong with your PC, please contact a reputable technician and never trust anyone who randomly contacts you.
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