Facebook Scam: Enable Video Calls

Posted by on 12 July, 2011 No comments

A new Facebook scam starts with a message saying,

Enable video calls

This scam installs a malicious app in your Facebook account that reads through your profile and spams all of your friends. The malicious app then sends them to an online survey that has nothing to do with Facebook.

Facebook does have a video feature but you don’t need to click on someone’s post and enable a Facebook app to enable it. So why would one of your friends post a link to malware? They probably don’t know, malware has a way of using people’s Facebook accounts to advertise itself.

If you see a message like the one in the post above, let your friend know it’s a scam.

The right way to use Facebook video is by opening up the chat window then clicking on the icon of a video camera,

Twitter Follower Scam

Posted by on 24 June, 2011 No comments

This scam has appeared on Twitter recently. There are a few minor variations but they all seem to work the same. It starts with a Twitter message saying,

I will follow back if you follow me

There’s a link at the end of the message that goes to a web page. On this page are two signup options, one free and a paid one called VIP.

The free one asks for your  Twitter username and password. It then asks prompts Twitter to grant you access to your account. You should not enter these details into any untrusted service.

Once they have your account password they send spam using your Twitter account, sending them to this same web site.

The VIP service is just as bad. It asks for your credit card details and Twitter account details, promising hundreds of Twitter followers. People who fall for this also end up sending spam from their own account, with the added risk of losing money.

Please help stop this scam by letting people know about it.

Most Common iPhone Passcodes

Posted by on 22 June, 2011 No comments

Daniel Amitay has been able to collect a sample of over 200,000 passcodes used to lock an iPhone. The most common ones were:

  1. 1234
  2. 0000
  3. 2580 (a vertical row)
  4. 1111
  5. 5555
  6. 5683 (spells LOVE)
  7. 0852 (a vertical row)
  8. 2222
  9. 1212
  10. 1998

This list represents 15% of all PINS (that’s too high). Years starting with 199 were also found to be common. And PINS starting with 1 are also very common.

The information here is relevant to other devices as well, basically anything that uses a 4 digit PIN typed into a keypad.

If you use any of these codes to lock something you consider important you should change it now.

 

Computer Technician Phone Call Scam

Posted by on 21 June, 2011 6 comments

I received a phone call that began with

Can I speak to the user of the computer?

Then the caller started explaining he’s from Windows. I hung up, frustrated, because it’s a scam. Never believe anything like this from an unsolicited caller. Talking to other people it’s evident the scam involves the caller gaining remote access to your computer, installing spyware, then invoicing you for their time.

Have you received phone calls like this? Care to share your experience?

Update: List of phones numbers these calls have come from:

  • 00496075278802 [UK]
  • 760 429 2887 [USA]
  • 760-429-2887 [USA]

Facebook Videos

Posted by on 3 June, 2011 1 comment

In the last few days there have been some malicious videos posted on Facebook. If you use Facebook and see any of the following videos, don’t click on them.,

  • a video of disgraced former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and a hotel maid
  • an X-rated video of celebrities Rihanna and Hayden Panettiere

These videos are not actual videos, but are links to a website that installs malware. Note that it affects both Windows and Mac computers. On Windows, the malware tells people to install a new version of Adobe Flash Player, but instead installs a fake antivirus program. On a Mac the malware brings up a fake security warning and asks people to install a fake “fix” to the problem. In both cases the malware then wreaks havoc with the computer, shows pornographic images, and asks the user to pay money to stop it happening. After (real) money is paid the malware remains. So overall it’s quite a nasty bit of work.

If you come across anything like this in Facebook please let the person who posted it know it’s malicious. The sooner they remove the post the less damage it will do.

 

Fake URL Shorteners

Posted by on 26 May, 2011 No comments

URL shorteners are so common these days people don’t give them a second thought. Especially on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Some common URL shorteners are

  • bit.ly
  • tiny.cc
  • fb.me

The list is endless. You can even make your own service, which is exactly what spammers are now doing.

Spam messages are now being posted on Twitter with these new URL shorteners and it’s difficult to filter them out. E.g. URLs that begin with

  • www.srtu.in/

The best thing you can do is to use a modern web browser that does some URL scanning, such as Chrome, Opera, or IE9 (older versions of IE are vulnerable). Also buy and install a good virus scanner.

More information about URL shorteners here.

 

 

One Million Euro SMS Scam

Posted by on 29 March, 2011 No comments

The following SMS is a scam,

Congratulations! You have won One Million Euro on orange mobile promotion; send your names and Mobile No. via email to; orange [at] citynew [.] com

Please don’t respond to this message. It’s part of a scam. Just delete it.

Facebook Survey Scam

Posted by on 27 February, 2011 No comments

This scam uses Facebook to trick people into completing a survey. It starts with an interesting Facebook message like the ones below,

CLICK HERE to see the status udpate that got a girl expelled from school!!

or

OMG… This GIRL KILLED Herself After HER DAD Posted This ON Her WALL!

or

OMG! Look What this Kid did to his School after being Expelled! After this 11 year old child was expelled from his school he went beserk

Anyone curious enough to click on the link is taken to a page that “looks like” Facebook, but isn’t Facebook. Then two things happen:

  1. You’re asked to “Like” the page, which adds the scam to your own Facebook wall. This is how the scam spreads.
  2. You’re also asked to fill in a survey. This is how the scammer is making money. They’re being paid by a marketing company to fill in these surveys.

And that’s it. There’s no interesting video or article. It’s just a viral scam – it spreads because it sounds interesting.

So if you come across this, don’t click on the links, and let the person who posted it know about the scam.

Thanks to DBM for writing in and letting me know about it. I’m sure that by letting others know about scams we can all help reduce them.

Fake Skype Email

Posted by on 27 February, 2011 No comments

This email claims to be from Skype, offering a new version to download. It’s fake, the link has nothing to do with Skype.

Remember, Skype does not email you and me with links to download. Skype will update itself.

NEW VERSION OF SKYPE 2011 IS RELEASED

Dear Skype Users,

To start New Year 2011 with new features, options and improvements, we’ve just released the new version of Skype Software.

<link removed for security reasons>

New in this version :

* Up to 5-way group video call.
* Redesigned calling experience.
* Improved video snapshots gallery.
* Improved browser plugins performance on some websites.
* Reduced false positives on browser plugin phone number recognition.
* New presence icons.
* Improved handling of calling attempts made when the user has run out of credit.
* Improved access to sharing functionality  

To check and download the latest version , go to :

<link removed for security reasons>

Start downloading the update right now and let us know what you think about it.

We’re working on making Skype better all the time !

Talk soon,

The people at Skype

====================== PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD ===========================
Skype or Skype Staff will NEVER ask you for your password via email. The only place you are asked for your password is when you sign in to the Skype application or our website.

If you see the above email, delete it or mark it as spam.