A Phishing Trip No One Wants to Take

March 20, 2013

I received a rather interesting email from my mom this weekend. There were no words, just a hyperlink to a website promoting a weight-loss supplement called Raspberry Ultra Drops.  Either my mom was trying to tell me something or her email had been compromised–again.  Since there were no words in the email, which is very odd for her, and the hyperlink consisted of random nonsensical characters, I suspected the latter.  As you can see from this fraud alert, http://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2013/1/9/raspberry-ultra-drops-to-help-your-weight-drop-spam-email-and-fake-websites/, I was right. Continue reading “A Phishing Trip No One Wants to Take”

Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Use the Computer…

April 25, 2012

Has this ever happened to you? You’re sitting at your computer when all of a sudden a window pops up telling you that a virus has been detected and that if you don’t take immediate action, your computer will be harmed. I remember one such instance where a message popped up on my home computer telling me that I had a virus and needed to buy this software to remove the virus, and no matter what I clicked the message would remain. Even after I turned the computer off, when I turned it back on the message reappeared. In other words, my computer was being held ransom, and unless I paid the ransom (i.e. bought the software), I would not be able to access my computer. Continue reading “Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Use the Computer…”