A new settings file for the <email address> has just been released

Dear user of the <email address> mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox <email address> settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings please click to this link and open file((If clicking the link in this message does not work, copy and paste it into the address bar of your browser.)

http://<removed>/ settings.exe

Best regards, <email address> Technical Support.

The words in italics and in < > are my changes, to make it easier to read and search, and to avoid linking to the actual malware.

Any email that looks like the above is suspicious. Any attachment (and especially one that ends with .exe) is suspicious, and when it says that I sent it to myself it leaves no doubt that this is a scam that links to malware.

Learning to recognise these scam emails is important. Relying on virus scanners is good but common sense also helps.

If you see this on your browser, close the browser. Don’t click on any buttons. And most importantly, don’t panic. These scams are designed to scare you into making irrational decisions.

Below are screenshots of how it looks (click to enlarge the screenshots):

This type of scam happens on both Windows and Mac computers.

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by smileworld.com to notify you that we have temporanly prevented access to your account.

We have reasons to beleive that your account may have been accessed by someone else. Please run attached file and Follow instructions.

(C) smileworld.com

Note how many spelling mistakes and typographical errors there are in the email. A serious company would proof read any emails such as this.

Also, there is no reason for any company to send you unsolicited attachments. It’s a sure sign of a scam.

The malware can affect Windows computers if you connect the phone to the computer. It’s as simple as that.

There are a couple of things you can do to avoid this malware, and to avoid similar malware in the future from similar scenarios:

• Disable the autorun feature in Windows (click here for instructions)
• Install a good antivirus package.

This type of problem is becoming more frequent – ordinary consumer devices infected with malware at the factory.

Hey [name removed],

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed. You can find your new password in attached document.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

There’s another version some people have received that is similar but has a different introduction and sign off,

Dear user of facebook,

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed. You can find your new password in attached document.

Thanks,
Your Facebook

Both of these emails come with a virus attached. And neither of these emails were actually sent from Facebook. In fact, Facebook had absolutely nothing to do with it, the scammers just mention the word to encourage people to open the attachment.

So as always, be suspicious of unsolicited emails, and be suspicious of attachments you didn’t ask for.

• Contratulations. Get a free $1,000 Ikea Gift Card
• Get A Free Apple Ipad Just For Testing It!: Would You Like To Test Apple Ipod? Get Your Free IPad Here Hurry
• Get the Aple iPad Free

Note how many mistakes there are on the second one, a clear sign of a scam.

All of these ads are part of a scam. They take you to a site that asks for your name, address, date of birth, and email. These details are used to send you more spam.

Then you are taken to an online gambling site, hoping that you’ll be tempted to hand over money.

Nearly 40,000 Facebook users have been tricked by this scam, and it doesn’t end there. The same scam is also used for fake food gift certificates, and no doubt will continue to evolve.

If you see scams like these, please don’t forward the message along. You don’t want your friends and family to fall victims of a scam. Do proper research before passing any “bargain” messages along.

Recently (22 April 2010) several phishing emails were sent “appearing” to be sent from Skype. The emails have a link to a web page asking you for your Skype username and password. These details are then collected by hackers and used for malicious purposes.

The general rule is, if you receive any emails from legitimate companies asking you to log onto your accout, don’t click on the links. Open a new browser and go to the company’s web site yourself. This way you can be sure you’re on the real web page, and not be tricked into going to a fake copy of the page.

These are services used by developers, most “normal” people would not have accounts on these services. If you do use these services please read the full incident report here.

I changed DNS registrars a couple of days ago, it didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped for so yesterday this site would not have been accessible. My apologies for that. It’s all running smoothly again.

It’s not a replacement for a good antivirus product, but if it’s too late and your PC has been infected then this could help clean it.

Download it directly from McAfee’s web site and follow their instructions.

Some words in this email can change but the general part of it remains the same:

Hello,
My name is Earnest and our company currently has several positions it needs to fill in your region.
We are a well known company with offices throughout Europe, Asia and North America.
Our current turnover is over 130 million annually and we are still seeking for expansion.
I have 12 vacancies of Financial Assistant that need to be fulfilled immediately.

Major operational duties are prompt receiving and processing customer’s payments for their further transfer according to the specified method. Detailed work scheme will be provided upon request.

I am looking for self-motivated individuals with strong work ethics and ability to schedule work hours effectively.

Requirements:

* Expert skills in managing payments and transfers between our company and clients
* Knowledge of basic payment systems
* Bank account (personal or business)
* Advanced PC and Internet skills
* Minimum 24 y.o.

Benefits:
*Salary plus commissions
*Full reimbursement of banking and Western Union fees.

NOTE: This vacancy is valid for American residents ONLY.

Contacts: <removed>

So if you see an email like this delete it. Don’t fall for the scam.

The attachment has a virus, of course. And the email has all of the usual traits such as poor spelling and grammar. Below is what it says,

Your internet access is going to get suspended

The Internet Service Provider Consorcium was made to protect the rights of software authors, artists.
We conduct regular wiretapping on our networks, to monitor criminal acts.

We are aware of your illegal activities on the internet wich were originating from

You can check the report of your activities in the past 6 month that we have attached. We strongly advise you to stop your activities regarding the illegal downloading of copyrighted material of your internet access will be suspended.

Sincerely
ICS Monitoring Team

If you receive this email, delete it. Do not open the attached file.

NOW YOU CAN SEE EVERY 1 WHO VIEWS YOUR PROFILE

Apart from the annoying all-caps writing, the group suggests you install a toolbar to make this possible.

You should never install toolbars unless you completely trust the company who made it and really need it. In this case, Facebook didn’t make the toolbar. A stranger did. And you don’t really need it (and it doesn’t do what’s promised).

So do people fall for these things? I looked at this group in Facebook and 146,604 have joined it. That’s a lot of gullible people who don’t understand how Facebook’s privacy works.

There isn’t much information on what the toolbar actually does but it seems to spam your friends. Spamming is not nice (and possibly illegal in some places).

Here is an interview with someone who really scammed people using this technique. He explains how the scam operations work, how much work they put into building people’s trust and eventually take their money.

It’s an interesting read and it’s certainly a different way to learn about these scams and avoid them. It would be useful to show this interview to people who might be new to the internet. Then hopefully less people will fall victim to it.

The full interview is split into three parts:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

The phishing email says:

Dear member:

We have recently updated our Online system to include new layer secure authentication. This is intended to provide you with the best security possible when accessing your account.
You will need to update your account in order to continue using your card.

CUA Update

Your ticket code is L690545X.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding.
Member ID 690545

The domain name they use is cua-members-australia (.com). After doing some simple research, CUA is a credit union in Australia. Their real address is www.cua.com.au so the one provided is obviously fake, even though it might sound real. Further research shows that the fake address was registered in USA (even though these details could also be fake).

Below is a screenshot of the phishing scam site:

They get straight to business asking for a card number and a PIN. Very private information that no one should ask you.

So the following email I received is clearly an attempt to spread malware. It’s an email that claims to be from Microsoft – a quick look at the email’s header shows that it came from branchen4u.de. Not Microsoft.

So apart from the suspicious attachment and forged sender address, the other thing that tipped me off is that I don’t actually use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express.

Below is a copy of the infected email:

Brief Description
Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express. This update is critical and provides you with the latest version of the Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express and offers the highest levels of stability and security.

Instructions

* Install Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721). To do this, follow these steps:
1. Run attached file officexp-KB910721-FullFile-ENU.exe
2. Restart Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express

System Requirements

* Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000; Windows 98; Windows ME; Windows NT; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Windows Vista

* This update applies to the following product: Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express

There was a zip file attached that contains the Bredlab trojan. If the trojan were installed it runs quietly in the background downloading viruses and other malware.

So again, don’t trust unsolicited emails. I didn’t ask Microsoft to email me patches so this one was unsolicited. And it turns out it contained a trojan.

You should also have a good antivirus package installed.

When a scammer has a large amount of money to move, such as stolen money they want transferred into their own bank, they don’t do it themselves. That would make them too easy to get caught.

What they sometimes do is ask other people to transfer the money. They tell these other people that it’s a legitimate job, and trick them into making these bank transactions.

They even go so far as to invent a company in order to recruit innocent people, or sometimes borrow the name of a legitimate company.

One such example is a job ad that claims to be from a US company called Texaco. The scammers sent a forged email with a link to a fake website, made to look like the read Texaco.

The scam email says:

Texaco/Chevron Downstream Europe
  1 Westferry Circus Canary Wharf
  London E14 4HA

Dear Job Candidate,

The TEXACO Online Employment System wish to inform you that your posted information onlinehas been carefully and confidentially reviewed by our Recruitment Team Professionals and we have considered under our current vacant opportunities within the Firm to employ you for work in our company.

TEXACO Online Employment System is affiliated to various job recruitment websites and your information was submitted to us by our online agent that submit job candidate resumes for consideration of employment depending on the vacancies we have in any branch of TEXACO Company Worldwide.

As regards to this, you have been automatically granted this employment to work in TEXACO Oil & Gas Field with a monthly salary of Eight Thousand
Five Hundred Pounds (£8,500).

Kindly acknowledge the content of this message by reconfirming your interest in working for us and indicating your area of job interest, ensuring that you
have quoted your vacancy title below or send your CV with a covering letter.

For further details relating to your employment, kindly send an email to
Texaco/Chevron Downstream Europe H/R Recruitment Service Department
texaco@post.com / http:// texaco.us.ms / http:// texaco.com/portal_default.asp/.

  Regards,
  Paul Matins
  HR Recruitment Manager

This email is a scam. The web site that they give ends with .us.ms – this is not the real Texaco’s domain name.

So the next time you see a job ad too good to be true, consider if it might be a money mule scam. Does the job ad promise to pay an unusually large rate? Is the work unusually easy? Is the job description vague? Is the web address correct? Did you receive the job ad in an unsolicited email? These are all questions you need to ask yourself.

People have been posting notes on Facebook about something called “un named app”. It tells you to remove something from Facebook. It’s a hoax. Don’t believe what it says, don’t follow the instructions, and don’t pass it on.

Below are some quotes of the hoax:

ALERT >>>>> Has your facebook been running slow lately? Go to “Settings” and select “application settings”, change the dropdown box to “added to profile”. If you see one in there called “un named app” delete it… It’s an internal spybot. Pass it on

this is real.. i checked and found this app and deleted it… hopefully, my facebook will run better now.

Cannot believe how much quicker mine is running after doing this….

I don’t have this app on my Facebook account but if you do, don’t worry. It’s a normal part of Facebook and you shouldn’t delete it.

Now the second part of this hoax is a real trojan. If you go to Google and search for “facebook unnamed app” you’ll see quite a few results. Some of these results are fake antivirus programs.

A fake antivirus program is actually a trojan. It pretends to scan your PC and quietly installs malware in the background. It goes under the name of Security Tool, it has a fancy detection screen and everything. But it’s definitely bad.

The rule of thumb is that if a web page tells you that your PC might be infected, don’t trust it. Go and get your own antivirus program, not something that pops up on your screen (see here for a good free antivirus program).

There’s a lot to learn here. Basically, be careful who you trust. These days scammers have to trick you into installing malware and they’re good at it (it’s called social engineering).

There’s also a paid version which extra features such as a personal firewall. I personally use and trust Trend Internet Security, but Avast would be my other choice (especially the paid version called Avast Internet Security).

The free version can be downloaded from here.

Inside the card skimmer it has:

• Electronics to read your bank card’s details
• A camera to record someone typing a PIN

Some other card skimming devices also have a mobile (cell) phone built in, to transmit details to the criminal. This one doesn’t.

So the next time you use an ATM have a good look at the card reader. These things are out there, people get caught out every day.

Below is a summary of their findings. Why is this important to you? Because it means that statistically, you probably have a weak password that can be guessed.

• 41% of passwords only use lower case letters (weak)
• 15% of passwords only user numerals (even weaker)
• Nearly 50% of people used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial words as their passwords. These can be guessed in seconds by a “brute force” program.

The ten most common passwords were:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

If you use any of these as your password then change it now, it’s too easy to guess, especially now that everyone can see this list.

For tips on how to choose a good password read our previous article. And here are some tips on testing how good your password is.

Imperva’s complete report is here. It’s full of interesting technical details on what they found and what the risks are.

Clicking on the link in the email takes the reader to an exact copy of the real ATO website. The address is clearly wrong,

• Fake address: www.a-imbn . org
• Real address: ato.gov.au  (all Australian government web sites must end with .gov.au)

If you’re in Australia please let others know of this scam.

But Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is quite old and very vulnerable to being hacked. It’s so vulnerable that it’s the main (technical) cause of the recent hack attack by China against Google (read here). In short, it seems that the Chinese government (or agents working on their behalf) hacked certain people’s Google accounts. They were able to do this because these people weren’t using the latest version of Internet Explorer.

So any organisation that refuses to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer is also at risk.

Microsoft have made an official statement that IE6 is vulnerable and they want everyone to upgrade to the latest version.

Update: The Australian Government has also asked people to stop using IE6.

Update 2: Microsoft has made a patch available to all IE6 users to fix the problem. Download it from here.

It’s a hoax. No damage can be done by the message, whether you forward it or not. And of course it will annoy people if you do forward it. It’s also very unprofessional to forward things like this to work contacts.

The message reads:

Do not accept this contact : 21536 (mireya diaz) she’s a hacker!!!! She will format ur blackberry and all ur contacts also.

Att: if one of ur contacts accept her u will get hacked also!!! Send this to all ur contacts

And don’t take the mentality that you should forward it “just in case”, or that it’s “better to be safe than sorry”. This is the wrong attitude. Make a stand and accept that it’s a hoax, and let others know.

There’s also something called a “barcode photo” that people talk about on BlackBerry forums. I don’t use a BlackBerry so I don’t know what this is, but apparently you shouldn’t share this barcode with people you don’t trust. It lets strangers add your BlackBerry to their contacts and send you hoaxes etc. You should stay in control of your privacy and choose who to share details with.

This is what the email looks like:

The British Red Cross Society
British Red Cross
UK Office
44 Moorfields
London EC2Y 9AL

MAKE YOUR DONATIONS NOW
=====================

Dear reader,

A devastating earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 sending the Haitian Capital Port-Au-Prince into chaos, killing hundreds and affecting thousands more. Please give what you can today to help thousands of people there in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Relief aid workers from the Red Cross have already been arriving at the Haitian capital with relief materials.

Donations have been grouped into two cartegories:

1: Group A (£250 British Pounds to £1,000 British Pounds
2: Group B (£1,000 British Pounds and above)

Donations are to be made payable immediately via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER immediately and directly to our donations accounts liason officer as RECEIVER’S name:

DONATIONS ACCOUNT LIASON OFFICER:
LOCATION: 44 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AL

Please provide us via return email the following informations below as they appear on the Western Union Money Transfer slip;

1. Name and Address of Sender
2. Exact Amount Sent ***
3. MTCN ***

NOTE: At British Red Cross we are committed to protecting your privacy as a STANDARD practice. We will not share your information unless you have previously indicated that you are happy for us to do so.

Hope to receive your donations soon as thousands need your help.

Please send return email with donations details to

Yours Sincerely,

For and on behalf of The British Red Cross Society

The email has a few spelling and grammatical errors. They unnecessarily capitalise a few words. Both of these things are unprofessional and would not be done by a serious organisation. Also, they want money sent to Western Union! Any legitimate organisation would have a professional method of accepting money. All these things should make you suspicious of the email.

If you see this email remember that it’s a scam. And there’s no doubt that there’ll be dozens more emails with similar Haiti scams. If you want to donate to help with humanitarian efforts then find an official (and recognised) charity organisation and donate to them. Don’t click on links in emails that you receive.

Also be aware that scammers will use every event that makes the news as an excuse to send these type of emails. When celebrities die they send out similar emails, asking for money or asking you to click on a link (that goes to a malicious site). They never stop sending out these emails.

One Android app that showed up recently is a free banking app. It looks like it supports US banks. But instead of logging into your bank it sends your online banking details to a scammer. Then it won’t be long until someone steals money from your bank account.

Google has been notified of this malicious app and they have removed it. But for some people it may be too late.

There’s a lesson to be learnt here. Smartphones are cool, installing apps on them is cool. But we shouldn’t let our guard down and trust everything to them. Know what you’re installing, know who wrote the software, and how it stores and sends your login details.

As more people buy smartphone scams are only going to become more common.

If you go to this site and enter your Google account details you’re actually letting a stranger (hacker) know your account details. It’s a scam.

———————————————
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
Message id:388520237785520
———————————————

Hello,

You have a new text alert from adwords

Please use the link below to login:

http://www.adwlordls.com/Selects/Login/static/index.html?ref=56105007342

Advertise your business on Google

Best regards, Google AdWords Customer Team © 2009

———————————————
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
Message id:847914946168909
———————————————

So if you see this email or one like it, delete it. Google did not send this email.

That was true until now. Passware are a company that recently released new tool that cracks this BitLocker security. The way it works is complicated and someone would need physical access to the computer.

So if you rely on Passware for security life is suddenly more complicated. The best you could do is to also concentrate on the physical security of your computers.

More details here and here.

iPhones have some security built-in, courtesy of Apple. This security’s main purpose is to let Apple decide what you can and can’t do with the phone. For example, you can buy and install an approved program, you can’t install a hacked program.

Now there are plenty of people in the world who want to use their iPhones in ways not sanctioned by Apple, such as using it on a non approved network or running non approved programs. So these people remove this layer of security. This is known as “jail breaking”.

Now for a summary of what’s happened recently:

First, there was a practical joke called “rickrolling” – some people found their phone’s wallpaper (background image) changed to a photo of the singer Rick Astley. It was a practical joke, harmless.

How were these phones hacked? Someone wrote a program that looks on the internet for vulnerable iPhones and installs this wallpaper, then the program copies itself to that phone and does the same thing to others. (More details here)

It only affected some jail broken phones. People were told that it’s nothing to worry about.

Then a couple of days later someone else took this idea and wrote a malicious version that works the same way. Again, only some jail broken phones are vulnerable. Except this time instead of being a practical joke it steals personal data.

It connects to a server in Lithuania and lets hackers connect to the phone and do what they want (such as stealing passwords and reading SMS’s). This is bad.

How can you protect your iPhone?

• Firstly, if you don’t jailbreak your phone you have nothing to worry about.
• If you do jailbreak your phone you need to change a special password that’s built into the phone. The password is usually “alpine” – you can’t see this password unless you know what you’re doing but it’s there and it needs to be changed. There are instructions here on how to do this.

Summary

An iPhone is a “smartphone”, meaning that it basically works like a computer and it has an internet connection just like a computer. And like computers it can be hacked and can get viruses. Apple goes to a lot of trouble to make sure everything works well (it’s in their best interest to deliver a quality product) so people who go about circumventing the device’s security are taking a great risk.

Below is an extract from the scam site:

Breaking News: Google Now Hiring People To Work From Home

If you live in America and you have been wanting to work from home, you might be in luck. Google has now released a new "Work From Home Program" that will allow Americans to work for the titan from the comfort of their own homes.
To thousands of Americans this means that they will soon have a safe and bright future working for one of the fastest growing companies in the world.
…
What you need: A Computer, an Internet Connection and the desire to make a living working from home. No special skills are required other than knowing how to use a computer and navigate the internet.
…
Google will send out your checks weekly. Or you can start to have them wire directly into your checking account. (Your first checks will be about $750 to $1,500 a week. Then it goes up from there. Depends on how many links you posted online.)

Like most scams, you don’t need any experience, you can work from home, and you can make $1500 a week so easily. It’s all too good to be true!

The fake article is hosted on a site called ValuePromotions.

If someone were gullible enough to sign up they’ll be asked to pay US$2 to get started. But instead of paying $2 they’ll be charged US$80 a month directly from their bank account.

There are so many scams similar to this one. They all feature the same principle – a promise of free or easy money. Always do research on articles like this (use Google) and have a sceptic mind – if it’s too good to be true it’s probably a scam.

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed.

You can find your new password in attached document.

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

If you see this email just delete it. Don’t click on the attached file.

Just say some malware gets installed on your computer. It wasn’t picked up by your antivirus program for whatever reason (maybe you don’t even have antivirus). It starts watching you type in your passwords and tries to send details to a criminal’s server. This actually happens every day to some people.

A personal firewall would detect that an unknown program is trying to send information to the internet and bring it to your attention. It blocks the program and asks you if you want to allow it to proceed.

It’s different to a normal firewall because it runs on your PC instead of on the network. And it doesn’t just keep people from hacking into your computer, it stops malware connecting out to the internet. So overall it’s a good thing to have, it’s just a bit more defence against online fraud.

Below are some new deals I’ve come across. I haven’t tried these programs and can’t comment on how well they work – I suggest you ask around.

ZoneAlarm Pro – this program has been around for many years. The Pro version, which usually costs USD39.95, will be free for today only (13th of October 2009). Go to their web site here.

Online Armor Premium – I haven’t heard of this product before but it’s legitimate. It usually costs $39.95 but it’s free to PayPal members, until the 19th of October 2009. Click here, then on the button to buy now, then proceed to pay with PayPal, it will be discounted to $0.

Windows also has a firewall built in but in my opinion it isn’t very good and it’s difficult to configure. And most antivirus packages, the kind that cost money, include a personal firewall.

1. You visit a web page that has been hacked. It’s an ordinary web page (such as a news site), nothing looks out of the ordinary.
2. A trojan is installed on your computer without your knowledge. It sits there on your PC waiting and watching.
3. You log onto your internet banking site. Everything still looks normal.
4. The trojan detects that you’ve logged into an internet banking site and it makes a transaction, transferring money from your account to the account of a money mule (more on this later).
5. When you look at your bank statement online, the trojan captures the network data and changes it to hide the transaction it made. The numbers it shows on the screen have been altered.

Step 5 is the sophisticated part of this attack. Normally you’d notice if money was transferred from your bank account without your approval, but the trojan hides this by showing you a fake statement on your screen. If you can’t see the money being taken from your account the criminals have more time to keep making withdrawals.

The amount of money it steals is different each time so that the bank’s anti-fraud detectors don’t see the pattern of theft.

More details here on this attack works.

So what’s a money mule?

Stealing money from people’s bank accounts is a big business. Criminals not only write sophisticated malware to carry out the transactions, they also recruit money mules to launder the money.

They place ads online offering jobs to desperate people. These jobs require no experience and you work from home (sound familiar?). People who sign up to these jobs receive money in their bank accounts, then they have to transfer it to someone else’s account. They do this willingly and are paid for it, but they usually don’t know that it’s part of a criminal organisation.

This is how the criminals receive their stolen money and cover their tracks. It’s a form of money laundering and is illegal. And to avoid a pattern detection they usually only use these money mules twice.

Here’s an example of a money mule job ad.

Lessons Learnt:

• Always use an antivirus program that not only scans your PC for malware, but also checks every web page you go to. Good antivirus programs cost money and it’s a good investment to protect your online security.
• Only use internet banking from a PC you trust.
• Always update your PC with the latest patches. For example, tomorrow there’ll be a large Windows update, you should install this as soon as possible (after you make a backup).
• Don’t trust job ads that promise the world for little to no effort.

Microsoft tries to release these updates on Tuesdays, tomorrow’s batch will be larger than usual. So as always, make a backup of your PC’s data today in case the patches cause any problems.

Free download of Microsoft Security Essentials: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_essentials/

Now I’ve always said that paid anti-virus programs are generally better. I still believe this because you get more security features such as web page scanning, a personal firewall and fraud detection. And with all the online fraud and scams that happen every day you need all the security you can get and that costs money.

But sometimes you really can’t justify paying for anti-virus, like a computer you’re only going to use for a month. So this fits in nicely. Also keep in mind that there are several other good free anti-virus programs out there.

I’d also like to point out that sometimes internet security companies can be biased. Take Symantec as an example. On the same day that Microsoft launches a free anti-virus program Symantec started a campaign telling people that free anti-virus programs are bad. I see it as a clearly biased argument to protect their business. Marketing is always biased, it’s always best to get an independent opinion (Fraudo is not sponsored by any companies, the ads on the right are dynamic and I don’t get to choose them).

• Their anti-virus programs blocks 1 billion malware a month. That’s 1,000,000,000 attempts to install viruses, trojans, password stealers, etc on to people’s PCs. A month. And that’s just by one small company.
• 1 in 15 people encounter a malware every day.
• They find about 3,000 new malware each day (that’s new and unique viruses, trojans, etc). They have 2.1 million in their database.

These statistics are not just marketing numbers, they give you an idea of how serious a problem malware is. If you don’t have a good anti-virus system installed on your computer they you need to take action now (today) and install something to protect you. Good anti-virus systems generally cost money – it’s a good investment, the cost of not buying one is usually greater.

And get something from a known vendor. Last week I talked about a comparison of anti-virus programs, you can use this as a guide.

And Macs and Linux computers aren’t safe either.

It’s quite detailed and at 17 pages it won’t take too long to read – it’s not very technical.

Password stealing is when a program gets installed on your PC that catches every stroke of your keyboard and sends it back to a criminal. The idea is that it’ll record all your passwords as you type them, no matter how strong they are. It’s a sophisticated piece of technology and a very large problem worldwide. If you’re not constantly upgrading your anti-virus software, web browser and OS then you’re at high risk.

These passwords are then sold off and used to steal money from your bank account or to commit other crimes. Even if you don’t use online banking you still have something to lose – someone can apply for a credit card under your name and use it to make expensive purchases, then you’re left to deal with the credit card company and convince them it wasn’t you (this happens every day).

So click on this link and have a read of the report.

… Has Invited You To Play Monopoly

Monopoly Invite

Monopoly2009.com

If you see this email delete it, it’s a trick to get you to download malware. The website asks you to download a file called monopoly.exe – this is the malware, don’t download it.

• G Data
• Symantec
• Avast
• F-Secure
• BitDefender
• eScan
• ESET

Some people have been posting messages on Facebook saying:

to all those using FAN CHECK APPLICATION, please delete it & all its pictures, it contains a virus & takes 24-48 hours 2 infect everyone on your friends list please copy and paste 2 your status to let everyone know

Firstly, malicious Facebook apps do exist. The ones I know of are called Posts and Stream applications. They’re not viruses but they try to trick you into providing personal data (called phishing).

Secondly, Fan Check Virus doesn’t exist, but nevertheless there is a danger. What’s happening is that the virus writers have created web pages infected with real malware and fake antivirus programs.

So if you search for Fan Check Application on Google, you’re likely to end up on the infected web page looking for information, and that’s how your PC gets infected. Clever, right? So all the people writing about Fan Check haven’t done any research and are actually helping to spread the real malware.

There’s a video explaining more about it here.

And it seems this isn’t the first time this strategy was used. Another fake Facebook virus called Error Check System works in the same way, if you Google for information on it you’ll likely end up on a web site with a fake anti-virus product.

• Cookies are codes that web sites save to your computer
• They’re used to help web sites remember who you are. E.g. when you log onto eBay and come back the next day, it remembers who you are.
• Marketing companies use them to keep track of how many of their ads you saw and where you might have seen them

So they’re not really a bad thing but marketing companies use them to track things about you. Then there are programs that try to delete them off your PC. Usually these programs are branded with words like “anti-spyware”, this isn’t completely accurate but that’s where you’ll see them. This is all fine so far.

And you can always delete cookies yourself. In Internet Explorer there’s an option in the Tools menu. All other browsers have similar options, usually in a tools or settings menu.

But there’s another kind of cookie that often gets overlooked – they’re called Flash cookies.

Unlike regular cookies, Flash cookies are not stored in your web browser’s settings. Deleting all privacy data leaves Flash cookies alone. Even deleting all cookie files off your drive skips Flash cookies.

Flash has a feature that lets web sites store a bit of information on your computer, just like a regular “cookie”. By itself this is harmless, but some developers have taken advantage of its features and use them to track you just like regular cookies. This by itself could be seen as a minor annoyance, it’s not dangerous.

But it’s also possible for a web site to restore a cookie that you deleted. Now this is a misuse of privacy. You see, when you tell your computer to delete all privacy data, and it later reappears, things are happening against your will – this is morally bad. The way they do it is developers create some code that uses Flash to store a copy of a cookie and if the cookie is gone it rewrites it.

What can you do about it?

On Windows you can install “Better Privacy” or “Ccleaner”.

On Mac OS X you can install “Flush.app” or delete the Flash cookie files the hard way.

There’s also a great deal more information in this article.

It’s now up to Adobe (the company that makes Flash) and web browsers to treat this as a privacy bug and to improve their browsers.

Firstly they send out the email shown, it offers to list your business on a register. Their email mentions the word “free” several times and they never mention a price – but it’s misleading, they’re actually offering a paid service. It’s called deceptive marketing and it’s illegal in most countries.

Then if you sign up to list your business they send an invoice for approx €995 (quite a bit of money).

Now this is when the stress begins for most victims. If you ignore their invoice they start sending a stream of nasty letters threatening legal action. Based on what I’ve read in forums it seems that they’re empty threats (see for yourself here).

So please do a bit of research on any unsolicited marketing offers you might receive. Search on Google, even if you think it’s a free offer.

The email that they sent is:

Ladies and Gentlemen.

In order to have your company inserted in the registry of World Businesses for 2009/2010 edition, please print, complete and submit the enclosed
form (PDF file) to the following address:

WORLD BUSINESS GUIDE
P.O. Box 2021
3500 GA Utrecht
The Netherlands

email: register@wbgtoday.net
FAX: +31 20 524 8107

Updating is free of charge!

If you are not the intended recipient, please submit an email to
unsubscribe@wbgtoday.net
Your request shall be dealt with accordingly.

And the attachment that they sent looks like this:

If you see this email just delete it.

Further evidence of the need for antivirus software on Macs is given by Apple themselves. They’ve made their own antivirus software for the latest version of OS X (called Snow Leopard). This built-in antivirus software is very limited at the moment:

• It can only scan files downloaded from a small number of programs (so it doesn’t scan “everything”), and
• At the moment it can only detect 2 trojans

If you’re a Mac user you can read more here. My point is that you should do everything possible to protect your computer from malware, scams, etc. Assuming that your computer is somehow superior and invulnerable just doesn’t cut it.

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Best Regards,
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Adv Media Ltd  | 890 Avenue| Sydney | 1002 | Australia

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It’s called PC Antispyware 2010, a name that sounds a bit serious (and misleading). The screen looks pretty fancy, maybe people trust things that look nice or shiny – don’t be fooled by it.

If you see the screen above then don’t click on the download link, don’t install it. You can see a larger screenshot by clicking here. Only use antivirus products from known and trusted vendors.

• 130 million is a large number. How many people like in your city? Or country? He operated in the USA, and I don’t have any stats on how many credit cards there are in USA but it’d be somewhere around half of all credit cards. The more you think about this the less secure you’ll feel about your own credit card number.
• All this data was sold to hackers in various cities countries (California, Illinois, Latvia, the Netherlands and Ukraine). So even though he was arrested the data’s been compromised already.
• There’s nothing you or I could have done to protect ourselves from people like this. He stole the numbers from businesses (such as restaurants) that store the numbers on their databases, not from people’s home computers.
• He wasn’t a sophisticated hacker, he just looked for businesses with wireless networks and weak security (read here on how to secure a wireless network the right way) and installed malware to do the work.

Businesses should be doing more to keep their data safe. A lot of the time they just don’t have the skills or budget to spend on network security (especially non-technology businesses such as restaurants). Yet there’s a moral obligation to do so. What can we do about that?

You should also be watching your own credit card accounts regularly.  Internet banking makes it easy to check your account details every couple of nights from home. By doing so you’ll notice compromised accounts early and can get the card cancelled. Just make sure your computer is safe when you log onto internet banking sites (read here and here for some good tips).

The full article on this incident is here. It’s a bit long but an interesting read.

The promise of money is enough for some people to get hooked into the scam, they believe all the stories and keep sending money to the scammer hoping to get their “reward”.

A woman in Oregon, USA, was scammed of US$400,000 over a 2 year period using this scam. If you have friends or family who aren’t aware of these scams, please let them know how it works. Show them this video and help raise their awareness. There are still many people in the world in a vulnerable position.

Watch the video below, or if it doesn’t load click here to access it.

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In similar news, Norton has published a list of what they consider the top 100 most dangerous web sites. I won’t copy & paste the names here because my site and newsletter will no doubt be blocked by filters everywhere. You can have a look here to get an idea of what they consider to be highly dangerous web sites.