Remember the words of Corp Jones - Don't Panic!
Here in the IT industry we like to invent lots of wares. We started off with software, which we all know and love. Then came skyware, this was software that sounded brilliant, but wasn’t actually available yet. We then got Spyware, which sits on your machine without you knowing and watches what you are doing. Now we have Scareware, which is designed to frighten the whats it’s out of you to make you do something in a moment of panic that you wouldn’t normally do.
Typical examples of this are webpages that suddenly appear and say you have a virus and your machine is in danger. Click here and we will fix it for you. In a moment of blind panic we click it because if we don’t the whole machine is likely to be wiped and all our files and data, we believe are likely to disappear before our very eyes. Well guess what? It won’t.
So if something like that appears on your PC, take a deep breath, and count to ten. Then ask what do I have already on my machine to stop viruses? Hopefully your answer to this question is Anti-virus software. So the next question to ask yourself is – What I am seeing, is it from my own trusted and installed Anti-virus software? If your answer is no then the simple solution is to shut the offending scareware screen down. If you want to double check, after you have shut down this web page, that all is now well again in your world, open your Anti-virus and run a scan. If it comes back clean you can safely go back to web browsing, but perhaps steering clear of the site you were on before.
A word of warning: these messages will look real, that’s their job. The latest information we have suggests it will look at you web browser and choose a message that fits. So if you use Firefox the message looks like it’s coming from Firefox. But remember your anti-virus software’s job is to stop this, so if the message is from anything other than your own anti-virus software then beware!
The second type comes in emails. Initially, and yes they are still around, they looked like they came from your bank, although we aren’t as frightened by these anymore as they also come from everyone else’s bank as well, surely we can’t have all those accounts we have forgotten about?
The latest we have seen is an email scam which threatens to sue you, telling you it’s because you have sent them Spam. We have attached an example of the text below, it looks alarmingly genuine.
From: CorpTech [mailto:customer_679@corptech.com]
Sent: 19 September 2011 13:52
To:
Subject: We’ve sent you a copy of a complaint toward you
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!
Corporate Technology Information Services.
A quick Google search showed others were also getting it, and the purpose of the email is to get you to open the attachment and thus infect your PC.
There are one or two warning signs that all isn’t it as it should be. Firstly, for a legal document it’s not well written, and secondly the attachment has a .rar extension. If we were sending a document it would be .doc, .docx or more likely .pdf.
That’s why it’s called Scareware though, you’re not supposed to be thinking clearly and rationally when you receive them. You should be thinking “I’m going to get sued!!! I need to act right now!!!!” Then in your panic you open it.
As a rule of thumb, if you don’t know the person and they have sent you an attachment don’t open it, at all, ever. In fact be very wary of any attachment. Better to get it sent again than risk infecting your PC.
So next time you get something on your PC that looks scary, remember the wise words of Corporal Jones “Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring!” It could save you a lot of hassle in the long run.
If you’ve received one of these emails or think you might have seen one of those pop up web warning pages – tell us about it here. If we can help you with any IT-related queries just email francis@reactcp.co.uk or follow us on Twitter or for more information about what we get up to check out our Facebook page.
Until next time, sleep well and don’t have nightmares
Francis
Backing Better Broadband for Suffolk