The email is generic, they send the same email to millions of people hoping to catch someone gullable. And in an interesting twist, sometimes they show you your password in the email. What they’ve done is find a dump of real hacked accounts (from another hacker) and send everyone on the list an email asking for money.

Here’s one such email:

Good Day,
Your system was compromised! To show you i have FULL access to your device i sent you this message from YOUR own account (___). You need to read this COMPLETE email to find out how this happened and what to do about it.
You visit xxx sites fairly often, one of these websites was inserted by my computer virus. This virus installed onto your system, granting me FULL access to your device. I download all your email and social media contacts and all your data to my server.
Also, from time to time i activated your camera and recorded some nice videos of you while you “pleased” yourself watching xxx sites. You are probably thinking “what now?”…. read on i will let you know what to do.
I could forward all the nasty videos i have of you to all your email and social media contacts but i guess you don’t want that. This would have a very negative impact on your social life and on your relationship with your loved ones.
Below you will find my bitcoin address (copy the whole address without spaces), if you pay me $620 USD i will delete all the content i have on you from my server, close the virus backdoor on your computer and you will never hear from me again, this is the only option you have if you want to keep living your life without the disgrace of all your contacts and loved ones watching the dirty videos i have recorded.
When you opened this email my system activated a timer, from now you have just 8 hours to perform this transaction, do NOT think you will be granted more time… 8 hours is 8 hours so you better do it right now.
If you don’t know how to purchase bitcoins, use any search engine, it is very easy.
My bitcoin address:
Your time is counting!

As with most scams, the email is full of gramatical errors. Just delete the email if you come across one of these.

And if you see the version with your real password shown, it means you need to change your passwords now. And also delete the email, never reply to it.

Update: Here’s another variation of the same scam. Again, nothing in this email is true, delete the email if you receive one.

Hello!
This is important information for you!
Some months ago I hacked your system and got full access to your acc
On day of hack your acc has password:
So, you can change the password, yes.. Or already changed… But my bad soft intercepts it every time.
How I made it:
In the software of the router, through which you went online, was a vulnerability. I used it…
If you interested you can read about it: CVE-2019-1670 – a vulnerability in the web-based management interface of the Cisco routers. I just hacked this router and placed my bad soft on it. When you went online, my trojan was installed on the OS of your system.
After that, I made a full backup of your computer (I have all your address book, history of viewing sites, all files, phone numbers and addresses of all your contacts).
A month ago, I wanted to lock your computer and ask for a not big amount of btc to unlock.But I looked at the web-history that you regularly visit, and I was shocked by what I saw!!! I’m talk you about web-sites for adults.
I want to say – you are a BIG pervert. Your fantasy is shifted far away from the normal course!
And I got an idea…. I made a screenshot of the adult web-page where you have fun (do you understand what it is about, huh?))). After that, I made a screenshot of your joys (using the camera of your computer) and glued them together. Turned out amazing! You are so spectacular!
I’m know that you would not like to show these screenshots to your friends, relatives or colleagues. I think $528 is a very, very small amount for our secret. Besides, I have been spying on you for so long, having spent a lot of time!
Pay ONLY in Bitcoins! My btc wallet:
You do not know how to use bitcoins? Enter a query in any search platform: “how to replenish btc wallet”. It’s extremely easy
For this payment I give you two days (48 hours). As soon as this letter is opened, the timer will work.
After payment, my malware and dirty screenshots with your enjoys will be self-destruct automatically. If I do not receive from you the specified amount, then your device will be locked, and all your contacts will receive a screenshots with your “enjoys”.
I hope you understand your situation.
Do not try to find and destroy my malware! (All your data, files and screenshots is already uploaded to a remote server)
Do not try to contact me (you yourself will see that this is impossible, the sender address is automatically generated)
Various security services will not help you; formatting a disk or destroying a device will not help, since your data is already on a remote server.
P.S. You are not my single victim. so, I guarantee you that I will not disturb you again after payment! This is the word of honor hacker Do not hold evil! I just good do my job. Good luck.

There’s some malware called CryptoShuffler that gets installed on your computer. Then it sits there monitoring your computer’s clipboard.

One day when you want to transfer Bitcoin (e.g. to make a purchase), you might copy and paste an address. The CryptoShuffler malware detects a Bitcoin address in your clipboard, then it gets to work.

The destination address is silently changed to the address of the hackers running CryptoShuffler.

When you paste the address in your transaction, you’re pasting the wrong address. Most people won’t realise this. The transaction goes ahead, and the hackers get your money. You won’t realise until you start to question why your transaction didn’t go as planned, but then it’s too late.

More details can be found here, https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/cryptoshuffler-bitcoin-stealer/19976/

ATTN:- Winner(s),

How are you? We have a good news for you. You are among the FACEBOOK lucky winners. Please reply if you get this message!

NB: Do Not Ignore This E-mail. Kindly Reply To Have Your Winnings.

Thank You,
Facebook Promo Coordinator
James Lee Curtis

If you see this email mark it as spam or delete it.

Signing up victims to fake accounts – a scammer rings a victim to “connect” them to the NBN for a low price. They sometimes demand payment through iTunes gift cards.

Gaining remote access to computers – a scammer pretends to be from NBN Co claims there are problems with your computer. They try to convince you to run commands on your computer to gain remote access and steal personal information, install malicious software or demand payment to fix “problems” they have discovered.

A scammers impersonates NBN Co to steal valuable personal information like your name, address, Medicare number, or driving licence number. The scammer may tell the victim they’re entitled to a new router, and say they need these personal details to confirm the victim’s identity.

If you’re not expecting a phone call and someone calls you claiming to be from any company (your bank, your network provider, your insurance company, your tax department, etc), never give them any personal information until you can confirm who they are. Get their name, tell them you’ll call them back. Hang up, look up the company’s main number on Google, call them, and ask to speak to the same person. This way you know who you’re talking to before giving out any personal information.

If you receive an unsolicited phone call asking you to run commands on your computer then it’s a scam.

Any organisation asking for payments in gift cards (e.g. iTunes cards) is a scam.

Please talk about these scams with older people, they’re more vulnerable because all of these NBN changes can be confusing.

The summary of the security research is here: http://blog.whitescope.io/2017/05/understanding-pacemaker-systems.html

What can you do? Talk to your doctors, make them aware of the problems. The manufacturers need to feel pressured into improving security.

The downloaded software immediately encrypts your documents with a secret password, and a message asks you to pay money to receive the password to unlock your files.

Apparently many people pay the ransom, totalling about $18 million in 2016. That’s crazy. If this happens to you please don’t pay. Don’t encourage this kind of crime. You have other options.

Firstly, keep a backup of all your documents. This is the most useful thing you can do today. You have so many good options for backups, including some good cloud storage services. If anything happens to your files you can just restore the backups instead of paying huge amounts of money.

Next, if you are affected by ransomware there are many free tools to decrypt your files without paying. Begin by going to this website:

https://www.nomoreransom.org/

This website is run by some very good security companies: Europol, the Dutch National Police, Intel Security, Kaspersky Lab, Bitdefender, Check Point, Emsisoft and Trend Micro. So you can trust their advice.

1. I don’t have an account with ANZ. So it’s obviously a scam.
2. I didn’t request any accounts to be deactivated. They wouldn’t normally do this without you requesting it.
3. If a bank really did deactivate my account they would send me a letter in the mail, on official letterhead, in a branded envelope. They wouldn’t use SMS or email.
4. This is the most important clue: the URL at the end is from “is.gd” – this doesn’t sound like anz.com.au, it’s completely different.

So what is a “is.gd” domain?

Firstly, .gd is the top level domain of the country Grenada. Not something an Australian bank would use to communicate with their customer. But apart from Grenadian businesses it’s commonly used as a novelty domain because it sounds like “good”.

Next, “is.gd” is a URL shortening service. I’ve written about URL shorteners before. What you need to know is that it’s used to shorten (or hide) the real URL. So by looking at it you can’t know where the URL goes. You might be tempted to click on it to find out, but I wouldn’t recommend that. Clicking on untrusted URLs is one way to get malware.

So what about this is.gd domain that has the word ANZ at the end? There’s a safe way to find out what it points to – use a service called http://wheredoesthislinkgo.com. You put in the short (untrusted) URL and it expands it. So in this case, it expands to:

So not the ANZ bank’s website. We can stop here, we don’t need to click on the link. We already know it’s not really from the bank, they already lied in the original SMS so their motives are probably malicious.

What about the sender’s phone number? Can it be identified? No. SMS allows senders to change the “from” address or phone number. You need special software to do it but it’s not hard. So In this case the sender is “Message”, which is also suspicious. But really, anyone can put anything in the sender’s phone number. Just like with email.

Delete the SMS, no harm done at this point. And if you tell your friends and family about it (maybe show them the SMS before you delete it), you’ll be raising awareness of the scam. This is the best way to fight back, reduce the chance of others falling for it.

If you receive a similar SMS (with different wording) you can share it here in the comments.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with your phone and you’d be paying for nothing. It’s a scam.

If this happens to you and you can’t get rid of the messages, close Safari, put the phone in Flight Mode, go to Settings, Safari Settings, and clear history and website data, then turn off Flight Mode.

The message says:

Warning IOS – Crash report

Due to a third party application in yourphone.

iOS crashed

Contact Support for an immediate fix

+1-800-556-2901 (Toll Free) immediately!

There will be other variations of this text. If you find other versions please let me know in the comments below.

From: Valentyna.Petrenko@gmx.com
Subject: Honoured Ladies and Sirs ! Kindly help in urgent S.O.S. situation !

Honoured Ladies and Sirs FBI Inteloligence Services Specialists !
Kindly use next information for urgent sending me with my patient to Your appropriate scientific research hospital.
P.S.: 5/II/2015 / : I.) Aleksey Viktorjvich MAKEEV was operated urgently without my investigations; Now he is in dreadful condition, after his incision of the bladder, bladder catheterization with drainage, his postoperative wound has operative burrowing of bladder fistulas; After he got dilated the bladder neck he has bladder cystic pain and urine flow -empty the bladder- through bladder fistulas too. But Irrigating the bladder was stopped.
I.2.) Patient Makeev has ANEMIA, hemorrhagic vomiting, tarry feces and I.3.)Postoperation Cachexia with chills periodically. II.) Before syringectomy It will be useful to attach to nearby tissues at liver angle, rectum
bowel, hypogastrium, etc., my invented anti-cancer chips. III.) Because 14 thousands grivnas for operation do not guarantee safe health recovery , I bag You to allow him to be operated in more civilised and less corrupted Country ! If International Global Chamber in Paris is not interested in modern Cancer treatment and can not give us an appropriate hospital place, kindly help us to create new Cancer treatment in Your God Blessed Georgia !
S.Y., Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko, paediatrist. I am glad inform to You that I am a REAL PERSON , not a robot, but pediatric doctor in second generation: I had sent to You my photo with a lette. Also kindly contact me with appropriate and person at medicinal treatment hospital or etc., and researches for “Fibromioma’as well
as my proposol for surgical ‘Prostate’ treatment , using Letter N2. My mob: +380986103428
N.B.: I had registered at SKYPE as * Valentyna.Petrenko2 * *for library time 14-17 h in Dniepropetrovsk. I’m looking forward to You. S.Y., Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko, paediatrist in second generation.
Letter N2: Kindly adopt my project with Your Scientific Division ,
VII. Honoured ladies and Sirs Scientific Research Division Officers !
Dear Colleagues !
Kindly urgently send Red Cross Fly two tickets for me and my patient = injured warier, he is suffering cruelly needs urgent Prostate operation and agree to be a first pilot patient instead a suicide. My door step is at Address: Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko(M.D.), Chkalova -str. 33 / 37, Dniepropetrovsk,49000, Ukraine /
S.Y., Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko(M.D.)
After that kindly involve urgently an appropriate practical surgeons scientists for the urgent treatment my patient Alexey Victorovich MAKEEV; He had defended me physically and juridically both but the scoundrels of post-KGB gang had poisoned him by radiolabelling and cancer cells too. In our post -Soviet Country Ukraine it is impossible for us to treat even the tooth: Post- KGB gang had zombied dentists and they had used dental fillings into my healthy teeth with 3/fang-purulent infection and 5/-cancer cells. Or kindly use any other possibility on Your wise choice to save our livings. S.Y., Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko(M.D.)
P.S.: Also I shall need Your help to register and defend all my Know How too.
N.B.: New Cancer Prostatae Treatment (As well as for Fibromioma Maligna treatment).
I. Conservative treatment program
I.1. Magnetic Resonance Microwave Therapy
I.1.1. Measurements of the energy characteristics of the ??n??r cells of ???i?nt in ‘Status Localis’ ?rostatae gland and then in various adjacent and distant organs and tissues .
I..1.2. Fixation potential of microwave characteristics; ?ccurate reproduction of information on computer media.
I.1.3. Spread recorded Microwave characteristics dates at 180 degrees; That is to change the potentials places : plus (+) into minus (-) but minus (-) into plus (+); So Creating the therapeutic effect.
I.1.4. Impact of therapeutic effect ( I.1.3.) on ‘Status Localis’ ?rostatae gland ?nd the surrounding tissue to a significant better complete transformation of ??ncer cells into connective tissue and fiber cells.
II. The Radio-surgical method for surgical removal the ?rostatae gland by (Cyber-Knife magic needle = bullet, etc.): ( As well as the Soviet Union You have more than 40 – years experience of ( I.+II.) with my Know-How long stolen secretly.)
II.1. ?h? therapy in the post-operative period with further use ( I.1.3.) I.1.5. Continued long treatment plan of ( I.1.3.) method after surgery II.
III. The Plastic Surgery.
III.1. Plastic Surgery using any material for the thinned wall of the bladder. As ?rostatae gland cancer spreads often to the rectum in parallel, so it is necessary the Plastic Surgery using any plastic sewn material for the rectum wall too.Do not forget surgical hemostatic sponge /film III.2. Sewing up some preliminary created micro-Chips= the producers of micro-Waves against Cancer cells (magnetic – resonance treatment) into ‘locus minoris resistetia’ in ststus localis and nearby.
III.3. .Removing the control potentials from postoperative ‘status localis’ and whole organs than systematic and as well as periodic treatment of the ‘status localis’ and whole body by ( I.1.3.) method, accoeding to patient’s condition .
IV.In the complex treatment of all comorbidities also include ( I.1.3.) method.
V.Required to connect remote magnetic – resonance treatment but without additional introduction radiolabelling the patients’ body; because he is overloaded and crippled enough with mandatory state radiolabelling.
VI.The operation can be useful for all Your radiolabelling citisens too.
VI.I. Measurements of the energy characteristics for the ??n??r cells and ( I.1.3.) method will be useful for all Your radiolabelling citisens routinely as the highlights the need for early preventive strategies.

Subject : Document.S.O.S.UrgentCollaborationHelp
I am Dr. Valentyna Ivanovna Petrenko (M.D.), Paediatrician in II generation; My useful proposol is collaborate together with Your top spacialists . Kindly adopt all next information together with Your Intellectual Property Intelligence services. Genetic congenital diseases is epidemic in XX – XXX century A.D. The best treatment for Genetic congenital diseases is it’s prevention = prophylactic. The best prophylactic – the genetic prevention is. As You know all congenitall invalids (criminals including) are gene-defective creaches. I am ready to depend on Your Noble Malta Knights organization my Know-How in Neo- Eugenics genetic diseases treatment, prevention, treatment, etc. And Your Country, all our Continent (as well as other countries worldwide) will have a whole army of healthy + high intellectual talented persons instead if “army of invalids”. Honoured Nobel Prize Committee is still research my Know-How Project during years (Keeps in secret), but mankind continue produce gene-invalids of 20% now-days; + fertile absence or miscarriage 20% too, et ctr. My proposal is to open the new Scientific Direction in Genetics: and Your wise involving me as genuine Researcher. Cooperation and treatment is possible under Your protection only. Because there are much folse “investigators” -pretendents & are parasites on my discovery now in some countries: there are 24 of “Valentynas Petrenk’s’ in USA ” only since 1995 ; Most of them are secret relatives of Worlds’ Zionistic Organization and Post-Soviet KGB; and have attempt in future to realize my inventions K-H, whichr KGB had stolled from me and my mother since 1950 y. (my childhood). I am looking forward for Your wise invitation for me to my living=postal address: Dr. Valentyna I. Petrenko, Chkalova-str. 33 / 37, Dniepropetrovsk,49000, UKRAINE //
P.S.: Also I need Your help because I have not any possibility for register all my investigations, inventions and discoveries in my Ukraine Country or at WIPO. Because electronic mafia use psichoprophic weapon all the time i try any step for registration and I am suffering with severe headache immediately. So, kindly use all Your power for help me and pull me out; and Your Country will have a whole army of high-health +talents instead of “army of invalids”. Hope, while I am alive. S.Y., Dr.Valentyna I. Petrenko M.D.). …- – -… Unfortunately I must inform to You the following: I. Dangerous state criminals placed themselves at the head of the Global Scientific Gene Project (GSGP) for Acceleration the Human Development for the purpose to multiply their genetically dangerous sort of people. That Soviet and post-soviet criminals and their crew had stalled that my GSGP by the using the micro-wave interrogations about 1967. As well as all my other intellectual property. The GSGP had revolved the Communist’s Idea of creation the “Human of New Formation” with genetically ill Zionist’s organisms; as well as project revolved all the “scientific” work of the whole institution of the same name in USSR. Later KGB criminal breachers of trust had replaced and improved all the stolen ideas from my brain into the brains of their offspring or relatives, common stupid ones. Already Kremlin reconnoiters-marauders have sad experience: they spread out their criminal or dubious amended gene cells broadly in Russia and in post Soviet territory. Mafia achieved pitiful sorrow underdeveloped fruits, a really Black P.R. for my idea. But in such a way plagiarize hope mistakable to forestall all the mankind in all branches of global historical development and to become leaders of the planet. But in their dangerous gene mistrustful, buccaneer orientation. KGB malfeasance kill me slowly with overdosing of Roentgen-active substances and microwave tortures from early childhood. By that methods electronic mafia kill women and children; my relatives were killed and all my private life was mutilated. Soviet high KGB authorities-plagiarize of science and Zionists began realize my death from the very childhood. Now they had INCREASED their efforts but I am helpless against their crimes. Now my health is in the dangerous state: nephrons, liver and heart clinically picture out the decompensating poisoning and need the blood cleaning; fibromioma of 29 weeks needs operation; necessity of adrenal glands replanting had produced my new Know-How (NH) cell project (autogenic method, including diabetes treatment). Now I beg Your kindly urgent help! My brain cries for the rest-time! For the God’s Sake pull me out to the civilized country for all the operations and real treatment, where the electronic mafia will not be capable CONTINUE kill and poison me mortally. Also I can not survive on 30 USD for a month here. Now mafia grabs my living flat together with the Dniepropetrovsk’s court, I shall not have pl ce to live in. II. GSGP for Acceleration the Human Development purpose to achieve the high gene level of our ancient Aryan ancestors as they were – 7500 years ago. The project gives a hope to protect the mankind from the spoilage out our civilization and of the Higher Developed Civilization’s rejection from us. My project was designed with Know-How : 1) The ADDITION of healthy donor’s (Index Petrenko =IP with congenital positive crossing over), I(O)Rh+ nucleon into the sperm’s nucleon or into the nucleon of any other cell + I(O)Rh+ ovule for achievement the healthy zygote. 2) And other my K.H. I depended on Nobel Committee also to take one, etc. of donor’s nucleon and one of different group of blood, but from the donors with noble genetic features, such as single-lover(devoted) or extreme talents, long-levity,beauty (white, big blue eyes, etc)+ ovule I(O)Rh+. +Test as at SU 1804782 A1 A 61 (21)4424188/14 (22)08.04.88 (46) 30.03.93. Bul. N 12 (75) V.I.Petrenko (GOSPATENT USSR)And,of cause, X-chromosome test ). 4) To replant the healthy ovo cells +(1-3) to women with defective ovules. 5) To help all congenitally ill human organisms, even deep invalids for the healthy> pregnancy; for males(!) as well as for females; and giving birth to a talents. 5.A). In the case of Diabetes, etc. ill mothers, using my separate KH-project for rise healthy genetically enriched fruit in animal’s organism till 6-7 month for treatment future mother with implantation the necessary organ. 5.B) In the case of Rh-negative defect it is necessary to use nucleons from specific donors, who was burned with low weight but showed high capabilities. 6) Never use any cell from criminals for the reproduction because of unknown hidden durable defects! 7) To increase the Acceleration of Evolution of Homo Sapience by all that (1-6) methods; never confuse with “HAMo (cad, boor) Sapience”. 8) To inculcate similar (1-6) genetic methods upon the animal breading and plant cultivation for artificial acceleration of evolution for valuable animal and vegetable kingdom. 9) Never use my Know-How Yourself because of mistakes and creating human invalids! II.A. Mafia has had stalled all my Know-How, even my cell-nucleons, CONTINUE their robberies of my ideas from my brain using m-w. weapon. One of scoundrels is my unasked co-authors of my dissertation ‘Nauchno-filosofskie osnovy genetiky-eugenikcy (neoeugenics) ‘ is at post-KGB still now-time. The dissertation had been stalled from my brain when I was 26 years old, printed by the name of Annenkov etc. in Western Europe. Mafia do not allow me to read or use it till now-days. The profession of scientist was prohibited for me by the pro-Zionistic mafia in the same reason. III. Mafia still solicit to marry my cadaverous for inherit my previous staled prizes, nheritances and future Nobel Prize. Mafia CONTINUE to poison me and falsify their trails by ordeal. Oppress down my brain intellectual function, do not allow me to fill in application forms to the European Court of Human Rights while I am here in Ukraine. IV. Thatâ€s why honored Nobel Committee need to verify all the discoveries and inventions for control them free from psychotropic robbery. Need to ask NATO for specific help. defend those, as I hope, true honest scientists who had worked at neoeugenic problem by my initiative: 30 years ago I had prompted one clever KGB officer to ‘lose’ my neoeugenic project in Western Europe and in USA in purpose for their intelligence sections will easy ‘find’ the secret USSR neoeugenic plan. For exclusion that scientists must be treated as colleagues. Behold! Now all the mankind have two grate problems: 1- The marching down from Homo Sapience to Homo Bipedalis and 2- The World supremacy the criminal pro-Zionistic HAmo Bipedalis over European Homo Sapiens. Do You have the more important urgent sense affair? – No, You have not. “Cassandra is true always”. V. In 1984 I had first revealed epidemic of scoliosis but the electronic mafia covered that fact with silence. Epidemics are of equal worth as discoveries, considering that in medicine our discoveries are very sad, so, we describe them. As a rule the epidemic is described once in each century, unfortunately, our century has had two epidemics: The first was AIDS and the second is SCOLEOSIS- disease as result of using Ro-active substances for the psychotropic weapons. Archaeology shows us bone fossils as most strong human remains, but the soft tissues are frailer and destroyed first, especially most delicate brain and gene cells. The epidemic of scoliosis on our planet is only a small visible part of the iceberg (10%). The larger hidden submarine part (90%) is more dangerous to environmental and genetic-injury causes, means human suffering. So the visible scoliosis epidemic is a sign of the latent hidden destruction and genetic degradation of Homo Sapiens to the level of Homo Bipedalis caused by semi-lethal and lethal genes. I sincerely hope the Honored Nobel Committee and Nobel Institute will pay wise attention to the urgent rescue of the remains of the healthy intellectual genetic human fund on our planet, and consider this problem as primary in the research interests planning. It is urgent to collect and multiply the healthiest genetic fund of all the highly intellectual civilizations on our planet. Great Mother-Nature gives us healthy genetic donors but in Europe ethnic and civil wars and modern psychotropic radioactive weapons leave us only a healthy human population remains of 1% ! Those 1% people are clinically and physically healthy, have high intellectual capabilities, and fewer forms of scoliosis. For them the Index Petrenko is: (0,1-0,5 – S – 0,5-1,5 cm). Do not confuse with Syndrome Petrenko, which reveals the real 100% scoliosis disease. Usually the gene donors are good school girls with light eyes, shaten and of nice figures. They are seldom young boys shaten with light eyes, long-legged sportsmen. “Mens sana in corpora sano”. Now it is possible the gene zygote enrichment according to my KH (1-6 of II) project for the preventable prophylactic, etc. treatment all genetic diseases including boors, criminals, gene defect’s predisposed scoundrels and sly nsidiousness, AIDS predisposed population, etc. Also, the project has not any sexual sin,does not confront any religion and high morality too. Thanks God, other European countries had not such extreme survival trail as severe Chernobyl catastrophe is. So, it is just a time to pay wise attention to the unique Ukrainian tenacious of life gene fund of 1%. For my deep sorrow all the members of Honored Nobel Committee have scoliosis as well as their children. So, do You have more sense affair? – No, You have not! The urgent rescue of the remains of the healthy intellectual genetic human fund will relieve the centuries. Happy and healthy human beings with genetically high intellects and really free from pathological genetic diseases will newer hurt nature, the planet or other human creatures, and they will not need the Ro-active poisoning for military (as et KGB) control too. They will protect nations from evil politicians and world catastrophes. If it will cost one milliard USD (1 000 000 000)or EURO – it will be only a small part of expenditures our countries spend for weapons, military, medical treatment of genetic diseases, political, environment, survival, AIDS, etc., but which will be abolished in the future. VI. N.B.. Dangerous hidden Zionistic strategist,” Hebrew religious”, etc. leaders gave me the oath to erect the solid golden monument at the whole figure size (on my choice) at my lifetime, if I discover the treatment for their terrible congenital diseases. I did find, elaborated the genetic treatment project, look II, 5A), 5B), etc.,of GSGP. After that I had ordered qadriga (4-horses) monument of the promised whole size and weight. But that Zionists.., unwillingly they remember, expecting for my murderous death they mean promised a pledge only for alive person, they continue to keep silence. The whole world knows that it is quite possible for Jewry to implement the vow. But in such a case, will it be judiciously or reasonable enough to multiply that sanitized by my GSGP Ham-sort Zionists with their sly insidiousness, who disgrace all the normal innocent Hebrew people, including my friends? It is very dangerous to confuse Zionists and pro-Zionist’s mafia of “HAmo Sapience” with anybody else, even with nazy-fashists. I have a sincere hope that Honored Nobel Institute and Nobel Committee will consider this urgent human genetic-rescue project in the nearest time. Also I have a sincere hope to be honored for Your kind invitation for my verbal report and demonstrating my KH personally. Also Your wise kind protection will help the European Court of Human Rights to defend me from world-wide mafia. Honored Ladies and Gentlemen ! I ask Your noble lawyers of highest skillfulness to save the mankind from all that murderers-plagiarise; also I ask to defend all my authors’ and human rights, projects, ideas, intellectual property and KH that mafia has robbed during all my life. After that, please, embed and spread all my project’s methods in Europe and in other countries on Your competent choice. Desirable while I am alive. With a great hope I am looking forward to Your wise answer. Also I need Your help because I have not any possibility for register all my investigations, inventions and discoveries in my Ukraine Country or at WIPO.Because electronic mafia use psichoprophic weapon all the time i try any step for registration and I am suffering with severe headache immediately. So, kindly use all Your power for help me and pull me out; and Your Country will have a whole army of high-health +talents instead of “army of invalids”. Hope, while I am alive . Thankful beforehand, sincerely Yours, Dr. Valentyna I. Petrenko (M.D.)
Address:Dr.V.I.Petrenko, Chkalova-str. 33/37, Dniepropetrovsk,49000, UKRAINE / / E mail:

If you see this SMS delete it. It’s a scam.

The sender’s phone number is most probably fake, which isn’t hard to do with SMS messages. The link shown at the end will probably be different each time. The country code shown in this SMS (+855) is from Cambodia.

The message says:

Chris, you received (1) new photo message: http://sn.im/<characters removed>

The sender’s phone number here is:

+855 1207355146

If you’ve ever ordered pizza from Domino’s in France or Belgium, now’s a good time to think about your password. If you use the same password on other websites then it’s time to change them. E.g. if your Facebook password is the same as your Domino’s password, then your login details will soon be public knowledge, anyone will be able to look it up and log into Facebook as you – and if you can’t see a problem with that, keep in mind that some fraudsters would like to pose as you and ask your friends for money.

This is a good time to say that you should not use the same password for different sites. You should have a unique password for every site. And you should use a password manager to keep track of them all (because no one can remember so many passwords).

The incident actually happened 2 weeks ago but eBay kept quiet about it while they investigated. They’ve now announced that confidential account data was stolen including passwords and addresses. The passwords are hashed, meaning it’ll take hackers some time to decode them. In the meantime you need to change your password.

Password tips:

• Don’t use the same password you use on other sites. If hackers steal a password (like they did with eBay) then they can try using the same password on other sites like your email or Facebook, the chances of getting it right are pretty good.
• Use a password manager such as LastPass or KeePass
• Don’t use a common password such as Password1

Here are the top antivirus programs according to their tests – for Windows 8.1. I’ve only copied the ones that received a top score in detecting malware (protection level). They also measured things like performance and usability but I won’t focus on that.

In alphabetical order:

• Avira: Internet Security 2014
• Bitdefender: Internet Security 2014
• F-Secure: Internet Security 2014
• G Data: InternetSecurity 2014
• Kaspersky: Internet Security 2014
• MicroWorld: eScan Internet Security Suite 14.0
• Panda Security: Cloud Antivirus FREE 2.3
• Symantec: Norton Internet Security 2014
• Trend Micro: Titanium Maximum Security 2014

Notice to Appear in Court,

This is to advise that you are required to attend
the court of Los Angeles in January 8, 2014 for the hearing of your case.

Please, kindly prepare and bring the documents related to this case to Court on the date mentioned above.
Attendance is compulsory.

The copy of the court notice is attached to this letter, please, download and read it thoroughly.

WILKINS ALSTON
Clerk to the Court.

The hacked data includes usernames, real names and phone numbers of 4.6 million accounts (this is not all of Snapchat’s users). The hackers “censored” the phone numbers by removing the last 2 digits, but it’s possible they’ll publish it again with the complete number.

What does this mean? If you have ever used Snapchat then your personal information may have been leaked and made public. There’s nothing else you can do, the blame lies with Snapchat for not securing their system.

It also means you might receive personalised spam or fraud in the future. If a scammer knows your real name and the real names of your friends then committing fraud becomes much easier.

More information here.

Subject: Warning !-Apple-Update-Billing-Account

Dear Apple Customer (),

This is an automatic message sent by our security system to inform you know that you have to confirm your account information in 48 hours.
Your iTunes – Account & Billing is prone to be frozen because we are unable to validate your account information. If you do not confirm your account your applications will be deleted from your App Store.
This process does not take more than 3 minutes. To proceed to confirm your account details please click on the link below and follow the instructions.

Verify Now >

Wondering why you got this email?
It’s sent when someone adds or changes a contact email address for an Apple ID account. If you didn’t do this, don’t worry. Your email address cannot be used as a contact address for an Apple ID without your verification.

For more information, see our frequently asked questions.

Thanks,
Apple Customer Support

How can you tell if it’s real or not? Easy. In your email program (e.g. Gmail), place the mouse over the “Verify Now” link. Don’t click, just hover the mouse over it. Somewhere on your screen, usually at the bottom, you’ll see a link. In this email, the link in this fake email starts with tilassa. This is not Apple. If were genuine, Apple’s domain is apple.com, not tilassa. So it’s fake.

Other clues that it’s fake:

• The email sounds urgent. Most scams use this tactic, it’s a psychological trait we have that we don’t scrutinize urgent matters well.
• There are mistakes. This one’s pretty good compared to the usual scam, but it says to confirm your account in 48 hours. It should say within 48 hours (there’s a small technical difference).

If you’re a Vodafone Iceland customer it’s a good idea to change your password. And if you’ve sent any confidential information via SMS (such as credit card details, passwords, etc) you should look into that as well.

This is a good time to remind everyone that SMS messages are not very private. Most phone companies keep all SMSs, usually for law enforcement reasons.

Ars Technica did an experiment by sending a unique link. They monitored their server logs and found that someone (or some system) at Microsoft accessed the link. In less technical terms, this is proof that that Microsoft have full access to your Skype messages. Details of the experiment are here.

Also, another company called H-Online recently did a similar experiment and came to the same conclusion.

This isn’t a risk for most people, it’s just something to be mindful of. Especially if your work requires privacy.

They tested 10.9 million searches on both search engines and found that:

• Google included 272 websites that were infected with malware
• Bing included 1285 websites that were infected with malware

This is bad. If you’re searching for something, both Google and Bing test every website and hide any website that have been infected. This protects you from clicking on a website with malware. They found that Google is better at filtering infected sites. So if you want the best security possible, do your searches in Google. Full details here.

Other tips I can add are:

• Use Google’s Chrome browser. It’s fairly good at blocking malware and resisting hacks
• Keep your computer updates (e.g. run Windows Update frequently)
• use a good antivirus program
• be cautious what you click on
• don’t believe everything you read in Facebook, emails, Twitter, etc

Below is a screenshot of the hoax,

As always, be wary of any free offers. And very ware of things you read on Facebook, a lot of it is false. Always copy and paste things into Google and do a search, you’ll quickly be able to tell if something is true or a hoax.

But it’s still a little disturbing that they do this. HTTPS web traffic is commonly assumed to be encrypted and safe. And it’s probably OK to trust Nokia since they made the phone and its browser anyway. But the fact that they kept how it works a secret is a little unsettling.

Detailed information can be found here and here.

Any if you’re confused by all of the above, it just means that on some older Nokia phones, all web pages go through Nokia’s servers, even “secure” pages. In theory they could one day read or store these pages and you wouldn’t know. If you’re not comfortable with this change phones.

Skype used to be secure, encrypting data before being sent across a P2P network. Now we see that some authorities have a way to eavesdrop.

So just keep in mind that if you value privacy you shouldn’t be using the networks shown above. It’s also a good time to remind you that SMSs are often recorded for the same reasons.

More details here.

It’s a scam. It’s easy for scammers to fake an email, complete with Apple’s logo and their email address. If you hand over any details your credit card will highly likely be sold off and used for fraudulent transactions. And that $9 – you’ll never see it again.

The email looks like:

Dear Apple Customer,Apple is rewarding its long-term customers.

Your loyalty for our products made you eligible for buying an Apple Discount Card.

With this only 9 AU$ Discount Card you will have 100 AU$ credit at any Australian Apple Store or on http://www.apple.com/au/ .

To acquire your Apple Discount Card please download and complete the attached form.100 AU$ Credit Bonus

(You will receive your Apple Discount Card via e-mail in the following 24 hours after your payment has been made.)

Once again, this email does not come from Apple – it’s a scam. You should never trust unsolicited emails (or phone calls or door knockers).

How could anyone fall for this?

Sadly, there are people who think “what if it’s true, I don’t want to miss out”. The same scam would work with any high profile company or product. Be wary and let others know.

In the past few days an investigation of PC manufacturers in China has found that some PCs came with some nasty malware already installed. Investigators bought 20 computers from different manufacturers and suppliers and found 4 were infected.

The manufacturer isn’t to blame here – the malware was installed by other parties along the supply chain. A supply chain includes delivery companies, companies that rebrand generic devices, distributors and shops. There are many opportunities to infect a computer these days – even before you turn it on.

In this investigation the malware was part of the Nitol botnet, which keeps installing more malware once the computer is connected to the internet. This makes it especially hard to clean. And it does things including turning on the computer’s camera and recording keystrokes (and recording passwords you type in).

So what should you do?

Install a good antivirus package from day one. This generally costs a bit of money but it isn’t much compared to the cost of the PC. Most computers come with a trial version of antivirus software – you can use this or go buy something else.

You should also run Windows Update as soon as you connect the computer to the internet.

There’s more information on the investigation here.

Facebook allows 3rd party “apps” to use your data for various things. Like collecting your friends’ birthdays to remind you of them, or sharing your game updates with everyone. But it’s not always clear what personal information is collected or shared. Secure.Me’s new App Advisor tool tells you, in plain English.

It comes out on Wednesday and installs as a browser plugin. It supports Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. (If you’re still using IE I highly recommend installing Chrome).

How does Secure.Met App Advisor work?

It starts working when you load Facebook on your PC (so it won’t work on your iPhone). It then notices what Facebook Apps you’ve added to your account. This part is great, because most people don’t know what Facebook Apps they’ve added, or won’t remember what they added 2 years ago.

Then it looks up each app in their database, and tells you what they know about the app.

I think it’s brilliant. It gives you independent advice about Facebook apps, when you need it, and without having to really do anything.

When it launches on Wednesday I’ll update this post with more information.

• The scammer places an ad on Craiglist, looking for a photographer to photograph an event. The ad is appealing, offering an easy job and high pay.
• A real photographer responds and they engage in a quick negotiation and get things going.
• The scammer sends the photographer a cheque as pre-payment. The cheque is for more than the agreed value (overpay). The cheque is counterfeit.
• The photographer banks the cheque.
• The photographer makes out a new cheque to return the balance and posts the new cheque to the scammer.
• The bank tells the photographer that the cheque bounced. By then it’s too late.

Below is an example email of this scam:

Hello ,

Thanks for the quick response and I’m sorry if my message came in late , i have been busy with other arrangements and i hope you understand .Its really nice reading from you and im glad to hear that you are available for my wedding .

I want you to know that this is a inside wedding and the order of events will mail to you a week before the wedding day but the order events is likely to be pictures first, then the wedding ceremony , and then the reception but let me discuss this with my lady because is our wedding so our two has to make the decision together . I hope you understand my point of view.

I want you to know that we will be taking formal pictures so i will like you to recommend 45minutes or an hour set aside for taking formal pictures because we have large family from both my side and the bride side and friends /co-workers we will want to take pictures with . So it will be easier if we can take the pictures before the ceremony because it will be more relaxed with fewer time constraints and would like you to set up a great “first look” shot of me looking at my bride for the first time on the wedding day.

the wedding date is ##th of sept 2012

Basically we need your service starting from 12pm to 6pm .

We are expecting 250 guests i.e 200 adults and 50 children .

And also there will be a table place set for you at the reception , so you don’t need to bring your own food but it will be nice if you can just give me an hint of what kind of food you want us to arrange for you i.e if you are vegetarian or eat all kind of foods .

Further more , there will be special important parts/people at the ceremony or reception that i would want you to take a picture of .I will send the list of the important parts/people to you a week before the wedding day and i want you to know that my wedding is a sleek modern wedding .

I need you to get back to me with your charges and i will be paying you upfront , I just called my uncle who will be in charge of your service fees he told me that your payment will be paid to you via certified check so he has asked me to ask for your full name and physical address with zip code that you want the payment to be send to so as for me to secure your service for my wedding party.

I’m currently on working on off shore and im using impaired device ,so therefore i can only send message via internet or send you an sms from my pinger ..

I will send you the venue address once you agree to everything i stated above and also waiting for the details to issue on the check…

Will be expecting to read back from you with the details I have asked for thanks so much and God bless.

Regards,
CENSORED NAME

And here’s a photo of the the actual counterfeit cheque:

What can we learn from this? Maybe not to return any money until the cheque clears. And to be vigilant of similar scams. If you know any event photographers you might want to let them know about the scam. There’s more information here.

User’s passwords are safe at the moment but there’s no way to know how long it could take to crack them. It could be hours or years, it really depends how well they were encrypted.

If you have a Blizzard Battle.net account you should change your password now. And if you’re reused the password on other websites you should change those as well.

If you purchase a ticket using their ticket vending machines and pay by credit card, the machine issues a receipt. The receipt shows the credit card owner’s full name, the card’s expiry date, and more than the last 4 digits of the card. All of these things are considered security risk. Anyone finding the receipt can use the information on it to commit credit card fraud.

If this applies to you, don’t use a credit card to purchase tickets until the issue is resolved. I can’t verify it but apparently you can’t avoid printing a receipt. Hopefully all of these issues will be resolved soon.

And for everyone, it’s worth highlighting that you should always pay attention to credit card receipts. They should never show your name, your card’s expiry date, or more than the last 4 digits of the card. You can’t assume that the payment terminal you use is perfect, as shown above.

And you should be careful how you dispose of credit card receipts. Recently there’s been a lot of publicity over a hacked iCloud account –  the hackers used the owner’s last four digits of his credit card to gain access to various accounts.

If you use Melbourne’s Myki system and pay with a credit card or have ideas on credit card receipts please leave a comment below, I’d like to hear more.

MS-CHAP v2 is an authentication protocol used to secure VPNs and some wireless networks. It’s commonly used with PPTP VPNs and sometimes with WPA2 wireless networks. For the past few years it was considered secure as long as it’s used with a strong password (a complicated password).

Today some researchers at a security conference demonstrated how to crack it in one day. They demonstrated that they can decrypt all data sent across the VPN or over WiFi.

So if you’re setting up a network and come across the MS-CHAP v2 setting, remember that as of today it’s no longer secure. It’s not even slightly secure, or better than nothing. If someone wants to view your encrypted VPN or WiFi traffic and you use MS-CHAP v2 then they can, with very little effort. Full details on cracking MS-CHAP v2 are here.

Why didn’t Yahoo! use better securty?

Reports say that hackers used a SQL injection attack to steal the list, a common way to hack into web sites. There are many ways of storing passwords on a server and Yahoo! didn’t use the most advanced and secure method. So the passwords were easily converted to plain text. In short, Yahoo!’s programmers got lazy, their security wasn’t good enough.

What can we learn from Yahoo!’s mistakes?

• Yahoo’s problem is also your problem. Don’t ignore security alerts like this.
• If you work in software development, don’t be lazy. Block all kinds of SQL injection attacks. And don’t store passwords in plain text, or MD5 hashes, or other simple hashes.
• Everyone should use good passwords, mixed with numbers and made-up words.
• You should not reuse a password on other sites.

Update (16 July 2012):

Yahoo! has confirmed the breach and has fixed up the source of the problem. In their words, “We have… now fixed this vulnerability, deployed additional security measures for affected Yahoo! users, enhanced our underlying security controls and are in the process of notifying affected users”.

You should still change your password.

This new procedure can also be invoked manually, if you suspect your computer might be infected. The link is http://on.fb.me/infectedMSE, and you’ll need to enter your password. Note: when entering passwords, always look at the address bar at the top of your browser and make sure it’s genuine – in this case, it needs to have facebook.com/ in the address.

If your account is temporarily locked because malware was detected or because you manually started the procedure, you won’t be able to unlock the account until you finish the virus scan.

This is all for Windows. OS X users will have a slightly different procedure.

There are more details on Facebook’s web site.

Dear Formspring user,
For security reasons, we have disabled your password and ask that you reset it. When you log back into Formspring, you will be prompted to change your password.
Thank you for taking the time to reset your password.
The Formspring Team

If Google’s system detects unusual attempts to access an account, they now show a warning on the top of the Gmail screen. They’re calling it a state sponsored attack. It doesn’t mean your account has been hacked, only that it’s the target of an attack.

If you ever see this, you’ll be advised to change your password (make it a strong password), and to enable two step verification – this will use your mobile phone as an additional way of protecting your account.

Some security researchers have been analysing this app and have discovered that when using the calendar feature it sends data to LinkedIn’s servers. It sends all of your calendar events, without explicitly asking for your permission.

This is considered a privacy risk. If you use the LinkedIn app on iOS, turn off the feature.

You should expect LinkedIn to make a statement about this issue, and eventually resolve it. I’ll post any updates here as they happen.

Update 7 Jun 2012:

LinkedIn have responded to these privacy concerns – you can read their comments here. Basically they confirm the privacy issues and justify it. They’ve also made changes to their iOS app to address the issue, the updated version is 5.0.3.

And at the same time someone in Russia claims to have hacked LinkedIn’s servers and has a list of over 6 million hashed password. A hashed password means they can’t read your password yet but given enough time it can be found. This incident is unconfirmed by LinkedIn, but it would be a good time to change your account password.

The following email is a scam. It’s made to look like a serious IT request but it’s really a trick to get your account details.

Help Desk

Attention Account User,

Scheduled Maintenance & Upgrade

Your account is in the process of being upgraded to a newest of Windows-based servers and an enhanced online email interface inline with internet infrastructure Maintenance. The new servers will provide better anti-spam and anti-virus functions, along with IMAP Support for mobile devices that Support IMAP to enhance your usage.

To ensure that your account is not intermittently disrupted but active during and after this upgrade, you are required to kindly confirm your account by stating the details below:

* User name:

* Password:

This will prompt the upgrade of your account.

Failure to acknowledge receipt of this notification, might result to a temporal deactivation of your account from our database.

Your account shall remain active upon your confirmation of your login details.

We do apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Help Desk

© Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved.

In one case a lady sent over $100,000. And in nearby Erskineville a woman was tricked into sending $275,000 to a con artist in England.

The scam begins with an ad on an online dating website, targeting asian women in Sydney. They describe themselves as wealthy bankers or businessmen. They send photos, stolen from other websites on the internet. They lure their victim along for up to six months, gaining their trust, and eventually start asking for money.

These scams happen all over the world. Please help raise awareness by talking about this issue with people you know.

Note: because I used the words “online dating”, Google has placed ads on this page with links to online dating websites. Some people who post ads on these sites are not genuine, use your own judgement here.

The figure comes from a report by McAfee. They also report that malware for Macs are becoming less common, and malware for Android are becoming more common.  You can read more details here, it’s pretty grim.

Some tips to avoid being a victim:

• Use a good antivirus product on your computer. Paid ones are usually better. Keep it updated
• Use Google Chrome
• Don’t click on every link you see in Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Sometimes people’s accounts get hacked, so something they wrote online might not really be from them
• Don’t believe every sensational headline you see
• Don’t believe every alarming email you receive, especially emails that sound urgent and have poor spelling and grammar
• Use common sense (why would a stranger in an African country want to give you millions of dollars, or did you really enter the Spanish lottery?)
• Use Google to check if something you read is true

A new study of 1100 banking customers found that 1234 and birth dates make up a large percentage of PINS. This means if your wallet is stolen, a thief can find your birth date from your license or other ID, take your ATM card and guess your PIN. And it will work for 1 in 18 stolen wallets (or 1 in 11 for some banks). They’re good odds for thieves.

The study suggests that banks issue a random PIN instead of letting you set one yourself. I think it’s a good idea. Here’s the full document.

The GSM system (used by most phone companies) has a test mode built in. A recent demonstration by a university showed that anyone can access this test mode and request the location of any phone, if they have the right skills and equipment. The equipment doesn’t cost very much, and the skills can be shared on the internet.

Mobile phones use base towers to handle the communication. The phone network needs to keep track of which towers are closest to you. And by using triangulation, an approximate position can be calculated.

Here is the research paper by University of Minnesota explaining how they tracked phones: Location Leaks on the GSM Air Interface.

What can you do?

Nothing. Law enforcement organisations have always had access to your phone’s location. Hackers now have it as well. If you need to keep your location private then don’t carry a mobile phone. You could also keep it turned off until you need it, but as soon as you turn it on the cell network will know your location.

Spam comments are very vague. Instead of discussing your content, it says something very generic, such as “your website is great”. E.g.

naturally like your web-site however you need to take a look at the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I to find it very bothersome to inform the reality nevertheless I will surely come again again.

There is nothing useful in this comment, and it could apply to anyone’s website. So obviously it was sent to every website they could find hoping someone clicks on their link.

Another place to look is the sender’s URL. Some website software such as WordPress allow commenters to include their URL (their web page). Look at it closely, if it says something like paydayloansonlinecash.com then it’s spam – they’re trying to make money off your site.

If you see something claiming to help you remove the Timeline feature in Facebook, it’s likely a scam. It starts with someone claiming to have instructions on removing Timeline. If you click on the link, spam is added to your Facebook profile. Another variation asks your Facebook friends to provide their details to the scammers. 

Some variations of the “Remove Timeline” scams are a little more complicated, and install software on your computer. To cover up the fact that it isn’t really helping you it says that it will take up to 24 hrs to take effect. This is just a trick.

If you see a scam like this on Facebook, ignore it, or click on the “Report App” button on the left menu – this will alert Facebook staff about the scam app (this is only visible on Facebook Apps).

At the moment there is no official way to remove the Timeline feature – I’ll update this post if this changes.

If you look closely you’ll see many spelling and grammatical errors. Also, the email was not sent from the FBI – you can see this in your inbox if you place the mouse pointer over the sender.

The emails is:

FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
(202) 324-3000

Sir,

We the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Washington, DC in conjunction with some other relevant Investigation Agencies in the United states of America and right now in West Africa, headed by Wayne Mitchell (RPO), we understand that your fund has not yet been transferred to you do to an Outrageous Conduct.

We have to let you know the truth because we know that you have gone far in trying to get this fund and you must have paid some amounts of monies to persons you are not supposed to give out a dime to. Through our Global Networking Investigation, we discover that your fund (Sixteen Million United States Dollars $16,000,000.00 including the accrued interest is among the funds ON HOLD in West Africa (Ghana) do to one or two reasons which you have not been told.

As the Executive Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI and a Principal Officer, We strongly know that the people you have been dealing with are not going to tell you the truth because they are all Criminals. You are hereby advised to stop every communication with any Office and feel free to explain to this Bureau why your fund is not yet released to you.

As a matter of fact, we do not have enough time to waste since we have consumed much time in going through your Payment files to ensure that these Funds are genuine and legit. On this Effect, this instruction requires urgent attention because the release of your fund is due.

We awaiting for your urgent response,

Sincerely,

Robert Muller III
FBI Director Headquarters

If you reply to the email they’ll make their story even more complicated and start asking for your bank account details. Their reply is:

FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
(202) 324-3000

Kind Attn:

This is to bring to your notice that we have received your mail today.

We understand that your fund has not yet been transferred to you do to an Outrageous Government Conduct which you have not been told. What a mess? though the FBI expertise and the investigation teams has officially instructed the holding bank to release your long awaited fund valued the sum of Sixteen Million United States Dollars $16,000,000.00 to you with immediate and effect.

The financial expertise and the investigation team has resolved to the fact that the fund is genuine therefore you have to stop every communication with any Office and feel free to contact the holding/ paying bank with your banking details through the below contacts information for your fund to be release to you:

MERCHANT BANK GHANA LTD
Contact Person: Managing Director
Email: merban@accountant.com
Phone: +233-247630112
Fax: +233-303403381

Do this and let us know if there’s anything you do not understood so that we can give you further instructions to back you up for this claim.

Sincerely,

Mr. Robert Muller III.

If you see this email, mark it as spam, or delete it.

The email says,

Hello. Your email is sending spam messages! If you don’t stop sending spam, we will be impelled to sue you! We’ve attached a scanned copy of the document assembled by our security service to this letter. Please carefully read through the document and stop sending spam messages. This is the final warning!

The subject is one of

• You are sending ad messages
• We are going to sue you
• This is the final warning
• We’ve sent you a copy of a complaint
• A message from our security service

If you see an email like this don’t click on the attachment. Delete the email. The attachment is a trojan that then installs viruses every time you reboot the PC.

The email says:

Australian Taxation Office informs you about the changes in the rules of submitting tax report.

Please, read about the changes to Click Here.

Important to know
We do not offer cashier services for tax payments or refunds. For further information on how to pay your taxes, see How to pay.
(http://www.ato.gov.au/content.asp?doc=/content/33696.htm) 

We are kindly asking you to keep to rules and terms of tax report submission to avoid penalty. 

Best regards,

Andrew Nichols
Australian Taxation Office

If you see this email, don’t click on the links. Delete it.

How can you be sure if it’s real or a scam?

Place the mouse pointer over the links, but don’t click. You should see the real address popup. If it looks dodgy then it’s probably a scam. See this screenshot,

This type of scam email is common. Always use this trick to judge if the email is legitimate or a scam.

This screenshot was captured from the US National Archives’ signup page (click here then click on New User). It asks for a challenge question and challenge answer, in case you forget your password. The problem here is one of the questions, “What is your preferred internet password?“.

Why would you give someone this information?

Challenge questions and answers are a way to recover lost passwords. Unfortunately this information is often not encrypted – it’s less secure. So whatever you set for your challenge question and answer is sometimes vulnerable to hacking. Also, the questions are often things that other people can easily find out about you, like your pet’s name. This is why I don’t like them.

Poll:

According to  Norton’s Cybercrime 2011 report, criminals stole US$114b worth of money using the internet. This is a serious problem. Think about where all that money came from? Who do you know that had stolen from their bank account, credit card, or other cases of fraud?

Here’s a breakdown the US$114b:

• USA: $32b (74 million victims)
• China: $25b
• Brazil: $15b
• India: $4b

Facebook have published a security guide and it’s quite good. It covers topics like recognising scams, recognising hacked accounts and how to use SSL connections. All good stuff! For example,

The common scams offer prizes like free  virtual objects. Other lures claim that your account has been suspended and provide a link for you to remedy the problem.

If you use Facebook at all I recommend reading through the guide. I also strongly suggest you print it out and lend it to your friends and family – people who might not be able to do their own research on security.

The more people understand security on Facebook the better it will be for everyone. Click here for A Guide to Facebook Security.

• Foursquare
• Facebook Places
• Bing and Google have their location sharing systems

It’s a popular thing to do. But have you ever had a good think about the pros and cons of doing this?

Pros:

• You receive an email telling you that a hotel has incorrectly charged your credit card
• The email also says that you should fill out an attached form for a refund (i.e. open an attachment and get some money)
• The attachment installs a fake antivirus program
• The fake antivirus program asks you to pay money to clean your PC (even though there’s really nothing wrong with it)

Hotel Renaissance Chicago made wrong transaction

Hotel Westin St. Francis made wrong transaction

Wrong transaction from your credit card in Woodrun V Townhomes

At the moment it only detects one strain of malware, but since it’s transparent and non intrusive it’s a good thing. Also, this is only relevant to Windows.

So if you see this message, your PC is probably infected with malware. Google suggests some steps to remove it, and you should really buy and install an antivirus program to prevent further problems.