A national news service reported this week that a malware scam was using fake police emails to lock peoples computers in order to extort money and credit card information. Yes indeed, the criminals are even posing as law to perpetrate their crimes.
No ruse is too low for a Scammer. They will send you emails from someone posing as your Mother in order to pull off their scams. Over the years I have seen emails from every bank on earth, most restaurant chains, several government agencies and even the Boy Scouts with links that I know are dangerous. Scammers will go to any lengths.
It’s easy to spot most spam. The performance enhancing pill names, the high-end watch brands, the terrible spelling mistakes and pleas from countries you never heard of that are so prevalent in most of these emails are dead giveaways. There’s a lot of spam that is simply annoying and readily avoidable.
However, the Scammer will hide behind a very legitimate looking email, waits for you to click on that fateful link and then strikes like a snake injecting your computer with viruses, bots, Trojans, and all sorts of malware. These scams are designed to steal everything from your precious time (at best) to all your data and money (at worst).
Ransomware is not new but it is becoming more prevalent. If your computer is infected with ransomware use an uninfected computer to do an online search to find reputable sites that can give you the steps to remove the virus. If necessary get the infected computer to a professional debugger.
Once cleaned up, if you haven’t already, make sure everything is backed up and update your firewall as well as your Vircom modus software and spam filter settings.
In previous posts I have mentioned the importance of carefully reading your emails. This is vitally important when it comes to scammers. They endeavor to make their emails look as legitimate as possible but there is often some sort of indication. But, always remember to only open links from sources you know and trust.
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