Latest in scam alert

Just imagine if someone showed up on your doorstep and said, "Hey, there's mice in your house that you didn't know about. Give us $100 and we'll get rid of them." This is the Ransomware Scam in its original form. There actually used to be people that would go around, let pests into your house and then knock on your door and point them out to you. "Good thing we saw them while driving by!" This scam must be making someone some good money because it's still going on.
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You know that feeling when you are fooled into clicking on something on a website that you didn't intend to click on? Maybe it was an order screen that fooled you into paying for extra shipping, an installation wizard that tricked you into installing some adware browser toolbar, or a "free" download that turned out not to be quite so free after all. We've all been there, and we've all been disappointed by the tenacity of marketers that are overly aggressive.
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Scams. Frauds. Social media. All three of these tend to go together, but only one stands well in a positive manner on its own. It's just too bad that the other two affect it so often. It's a fact that there are bad people in the world, and they thrive on selfish acts which help them but hurt others. It could be stopped if more people were aware of them, but in this fast-paced society influenced by social media, people ignorantly cry wolf time and time again.
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For a while, there has been a trend that involves scammers posing as customer support and calling up innocent people only to falsely inform them that their computers have viruses. The scammers in question will then request for remote access to these computers, allowing them to acquire all kinds of information and data. Sometimes, they will even ask for personal information right over the phone. However, you can fight back.
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Security threats have increasingly come from new directions and that isn’t looking set to change in 2013. There are new risks you should be aware of, exploits of popular applications, increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks, malware, and scams targeting our love of social networks and photo sharing, and threats associated with viewing online videos.
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Being scammed sucks, especially on eBay. You invest all of that time into selling a particular product or you spend a lot of time researching the perfect item, complete the transaction, and then… nothing. The buyer never pays up. The seller never ships your item. Some scams are obvious, but others are subtle and manipulative. Do you know when you’re being scammed?
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The problem is that not all businesses “trading” at Christmas are reputable. While you can trust your shopping center chains and online giants, there are plenty of businesses operating both in plain sight and behind the scenes that are trading not in gifts, but in data – your data. Specifically, I’m talking about email addresses, and the remarkable number of ways that scammers can farm them over the Christmas period.
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PayPal is one of the most important accounts you have online. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge PayPal fan, but when it comes to your money, you don’t want to play around. While getting your Facebook account hijacked is a huge annoyance, it’s nothing like getting your money stolen out of your PayPal account. And the scammers know this too. That’s why PayPal is one of the most targeted accounts for phishing and scams – there’s real money to be had.
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A malicious worm has been spreading quickly among Skype users which may take over your computer and ask for ransom in order to release its content. The worm is spread through a Skype instant message which reads: "lol is this your new profile pic?" followed by a link to the supposed profile pic. When a user click the link, it will download a ZIP file which opens a back door, allowing remote control of the affected PC. Not only does this worm take over your PC, it also sends the link to your contact list, so the message can come from people you know and trust.
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There is a new hoax making its way around Facebook, and there is a good chance you have already seen it. The post implores Facebook users to repost it by midnight to avoid Facebook's new monthly charge. According to the post, Facebook has implemented a new, three-tier pricing structure that will go into effect tomorrow (the date is not relevant, it says tomorrow no matter when it's posted). The proposed prices range from $9.99 a month for gold to $3.99 a month for bronze. The post makes no mention of what features users supposedly get for these tiers.
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Internet security is a topic that we all know to be important, but it often sits way back in the recesses of our minds, fooling ourselves into believing that "it won’t happen to me". Whether it’s the destructive force of the newest virus or just the hacking attempts of a newbie scriptkiddy, we’re always only one click away from dealing with a security mess that we’d rather not confront. Nowhere is this truer than in our emails.
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When the Internet hit the mainstream and everyone jumped into email, personal websites and online banking, it became inevitable that the criminals and organised crime gangs would not be far behind, with their devious plots, schemes, scams, hustles and heists. There's always enough gullible people that will fall for the craziest stories which makes it easy for the gangs to make a profit.
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Another day, another spam email drops into my inbox, somehow working its way around the Windows Live spam filter that does such a good job of protecting my eyes from all of the other unsolicited bobbins. Naturally, the message comes from a Nigerian citizen, a legal representative of a deposed prince who would like to pay me to hide some ill-gotten gains in my bank account.
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Last week we took a look at some of the main social engineering threats that you, your company or your employees should be looking out for. In a nutshell, social engineering is similar to a confidence trick whereby an attacker gains access, information or money by gaining the victim's trust. These techniques can range from phishing scams via email to elaborate phone tricks and invasive pretexting attacks.
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You can install the industry’s strongest and most expensive firewall. You can educate employees about basic security procedures and the importance of choosing strong passwords. You can even lock-down the server room - but how do you protect a company from the threat of social engineering attacks? From a social engineering perspective, employees are the weak link in the chain of security measures in place.
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