Internet Scams

According to wiki, email spam is “a subset of electronic spam involving nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Clicking on links in spam email may send users to phishing web sites or sites that are hosting malware”.

Spyware is a type of ‘malware’ that scammers try and install on your computer. Once the program is installed, it allows people to spy on what you are doing on your computer, such as websites visited, files you use and the details that are stored on your computer. Key loggers secretly record what keys you press on your keyboard and sends this data back to the scammer over the internet. Scammers use these particular programs to steal passwords, most commonly internet banking passwords. Scammers have a range of tricks to get their spyware and key loggers installed onto your computer. Generally this involves users to click on links through spam emails or visiting a website that they have set up to primarily infect computers.

Scammers can obtain email addresses from mailing lists. They do so by requesting a mailing lists server to give themselves the lists of all mailing lists carried. They can also obtain email address from social networking sites, so it is important to keep as little information as possible stored on these websites.  

Last year we kept on receiving numerous phone calls around twice a week from a young man claiming he works for Microsoft, stating that according to my IP address there was something terribly wrong with my computer. It was simple to them, all I had to do was go into the settings on my computer and change something, giving them access to all my personal information stored on my computer. We kept ignoring the phone calls and joking around with them having a bit of fun and finally they stopped calling.

If you have fallen victim to scammers you can report it to scamwatch. Has anyone received any spam emails or telephone calls?