Post by Rob W. Case on Dec 5, 2009 19:23:20 GMT -6
Whenever times get tough economically, scam artists of every type rear their ugly heads to prey on the weak and feeble minded. Mind manipulation, psychological pricing techniques, fear, appeals to a person’s greed or economic desperation are all effective tools people use to make money for themselves. But adding to those things are new, vicious scams within the cyber-world. Many of these recent computer scams cause trouble for you so that you spend money to have the troublemaker get you out of trouble.
A Case in Point:
Not that long ago, I had a malicious piece of software install itself on my computer through my web browser. I was using Mozilla Firefox at the time because it, in my opinion, works faster than Internet Explorer 8. Firefox also used to have a good reputation for being safer than Internet Explorer security wise. But as always, someone cracks the security code, and in my case they successfully breached the security with Firefox. This incredibly annoying piece of Malware (which is a term that is short for malicious software) passed itself off as a “virus protection” and “scanned my computer” to conveniently “find” all sorts of “infections.” To make a long story short, all sorts of messages kept popping up, telling me that I was “infected” and that I need to purchase the software to get rid of the “infections” it “found”. Even when I was not connected on the internet, it would send fake messages that tried to make me think that somebody was attempting to attack my computer….. WHILE I WAS DICONNECTED FROM THE INTERNET!! That sent a red flag to me. Then all of a sudden, I kept getting bombarded with these irritating and unstoppable message boxes. I would get hit with messages that said, “somebody with the IP address of 316.25.782 is attempting to attack your computer.” Every time this message would come up, the IP address would change. And yet, I wasn’t being attacked because I was offline and disconnected from the internet. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, every program I tried to access was stopped by the “software” and it said that the file I was trying to access was infected. Whenever I tried clicking on the program more than once, it finally worked. The kicker in telling you all of this is that in order to stop all of these intrusive pop-up messages, messages saying that everything was infected, and all of the involuntary opening of web browsers windows from both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8, the software said that the only way to get rid of the “viruses” that I was “infected” with, was to purchase the software that was forced on my computer without my consent. So, in other words, they force their software on you. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, in order for you to “get rid of it,” you have to pay for the software, meaning you have to give these intruders your credit card information in order to get it to stop. No. I am not going to trust any intruder who forces his way into my territory only to try and trick me into giving said intruder my credit card information. It’s not going to happen! If you are inexperienced, or not as experienced in using a computer, then you might be more prone to fall for this scam more easily than if you are familiar with the process. The other night, I was at my friends house using his computer and the same thing was happening to his computer. I quickly tried to exit and use Microsoft Security Essentials, for the new Windows 7 to stop this before it gets to the point where my last computer was. And for his computer, I was able to get it to stop.
But it doesn’t stop there. You have to be incredibly careful when you go on the internet, and most importantly, you have to make sure you have good virus, spyware, AND MALWARE protection. Be aware.
Editor's Note: Since there are various scams occurring, I am going to post new threads to this post. So check back, as they will be updated as new material emerges.
A Case in Point:
Not that long ago, I had a malicious piece of software install itself on my computer through my web browser. I was using Mozilla Firefox at the time because it, in my opinion, works faster than Internet Explorer 8. Firefox also used to have a good reputation for being safer than Internet Explorer security wise. But as always, someone cracks the security code, and in my case they successfully breached the security with Firefox. This incredibly annoying piece of Malware (which is a term that is short for malicious software) passed itself off as a “virus protection” and “scanned my computer” to conveniently “find” all sorts of “infections.” To make a long story short, all sorts of messages kept popping up, telling me that I was “infected” and that I need to purchase the software to get rid of the “infections” it “found”. Even when I was not connected on the internet, it would send fake messages that tried to make me think that somebody was attempting to attack my computer….. WHILE I WAS DICONNECTED FROM THE INTERNET!! That sent a red flag to me. Then all of a sudden, I kept getting bombarded with these irritating and unstoppable message boxes. I would get hit with messages that said, “somebody with the IP address of 316.25.782 is attempting to attack your computer.” Every time this message would come up, the IP address would change. And yet, I wasn’t being attacked because I was offline and disconnected from the internet. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, every program I tried to access was stopped by the “software” and it said that the file I was trying to access was infected. Whenever I tried clicking on the program more than once, it finally worked. The kicker in telling you all of this is that in order to stop all of these intrusive pop-up messages, messages saying that everything was infected, and all of the involuntary opening of web browsers windows from both Firefox and Internet Explorer 8, the software said that the only way to get rid of the “viruses” that I was “infected” with, was to purchase the software that was forced on my computer without my consent. So, in other words, they force their software on you. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, in order for you to “get rid of it,” you have to pay for the software, meaning you have to give these intruders your credit card information in order to get it to stop. No. I am not going to trust any intruder who forces his way into my territory only to try and trick me into giving said intruder my credit card information. It’s not going to happen! If you are inexperienced, or not as experienced in using a computer, then you might be more prone to fall for this scam more easily than if you are familiar with the process. The other night, I was at my friends house using his computer and the same thing was happening to his computer. I quickly tried to exit and use Microsoft Security Essentials, for the new Windows 7 to stop this before it gets to the point where my last computer was. And for his computer, I was able to get it to stop.
But it doesn’t stop there. You have to be incredibly careful when you go on the internet, and most importantly, you have to make sure you have good virus, spyware, AND MALWARE protection. Be aware.
Editor's Note: Since there are various scams occurring, I am going to post new threads to this post. So check back, as they will be updated as new material emerges.