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Current scams doing the rounds

There are so many of these on the internet, I often wonder why anyone bothers opening up any emails at all. Anyway, as we become aware of them we'll post them on here:

Christmas parcel Delivery Scam (December 2013)

Watch out for fake delivery scams arriving in your inbox or letter box.

Scammers take advantage of busy times of the year to target Australians, and with Christmas just around the corner, they are jumping on the mail rush by posing as postal and courier service providers who for a fee will redeliver a parcel that doesn’t exist.

If you are expecting a parcel to give as a gift to family or friends, or expect to receive one, don’t be fooled by an email or phone call out the blue requesting a fee for a parcel to be re-delivered. The scammer will often claim that no one was home to receive the parcel on the first attempt.

A tell-tale sign that it’s a bogus delivery is if the scammer asks you to pay the fee by international wire transfer – it’s rare to trace or recover any money sent this way.

This Christmas, warning bells should ring louder than jingle bells if you are asked to pay to receive a parcel. If you hand over your money, all that will be delivered this Christmas is a hole in your pocket.

Parcel delivery services such as Australia Post will never call you to request payment for an undeliverable mail item. If you receive a call that matches this description hang up!

If you are suspicious about a ‘missed’ parcel delivery, call the company directly to verify that the correspondence is genuine. Independently source the contact details through an internet search or phone book – do not rely on numbers provided.

Remember – these days, it’s easy for a scammer to create a professional looking email. Double-check the email address, look for grammatical errors (a tell-tale sign of a scammer!), and if you have any doubts, don’t respond or click on anything.

If you think you have provided your banking or credit card details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately.

New Ransomware Virus -- CryptoLocker

CryptoLocker / October 14, 2013****

CryptoLocker is the next generation of internet virus that is currently circulating all over the world in large numbers. Once a computer becomes infected it will lock all your files plus any network files it has access to, even your server. Once the files are locked it will give you a three day countdown to pay the ransom, usually $100 or $300. If the time expires your files are locked with no option to pay the ransom.****

Currently there are only two known methods to remove the infection, restoring your files from a backup or paying the ransom. Please be aware that paying the ransom is not guaranteed to work. We don't condone paying the ransom and supporting these cybercriminals.****

**Update**: Paying the ransom no longer works. The servers which were being used to decrypt the files is no longer working.

What makes CryptoLocker exceptionally dangerous is the fact in most cases it can pass right through all Anti-virus protection suites. Usually this occurs by these methods: ****

- In the form of attachment, usually disguised in an email appearing to come from your bank, insurance company or courier service or scanner.****
- Through Trojan websites, which will ask you to download a piece of software in order to watch video clips or download songs off the internet.
****
- Through exploit kits, specific websites with similar names to popular ones, just waiting for people to miss-type the address and think they are on their favourite website.****

***** Advice for prevention *****

- Do not open attachments if you are unsure of the contents or the email was unexpected.
- Look for clues in the email content, usually most legitimate emails will address you by name and not something generic like ?customer? with vague wording.
- Do not click on website links in emails until you have viewed the link location (do this by hovering over the link, this will display the link right at the bottom of Outlook). Instead of clicking the link, you are best to manually browse to the website via your web browser.
- Make sure your anti-virus is updated regularly

- Make sure your backups are current and working and backing up ALL critical data

If you back up daily (you do do this don't you????????) on to an external drive, make sure you disconnect the drive from your computer until you back up the next day

***** If you get the virus *****

- Stop work
- Immediately disconnect any network cables and attached drives
- Contact an IT person
- Alert other users of the issue, as most likely any work done will be overwritten when the backup is restored.

WOOLWORTHS FAKE EMAIL SURVEY (September 2013)

Police has urged people to be wary of scams after the resurfacing of a fake Woolworths online customer satisfaction survey. The fake survey asks for personal details, such as bank account information, in exchange for a $150 gift voucher.

The scam usually targets people via social media or email.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has already received 140 complaints about the scam this month. ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said scammers impersonated well-known businesses to obtain personal details.

``Last year victims of this survey scam reported money stolen from their credit card with losses up to $1000,'' Ms Rickard said.``Others were unwillingly subscribed to premium SMS services, which cost money for every SMS received.''

Ms Rickard said vouchers for surveys were a legitimate marketing tool often used by retailers, so people could be easily duped. ``If you see one of these surveys, call the business's official customer service line before starting it,'' she said. ``Don't rely on the links or numbers provided on the offer, because these can link to a fake web site or even a fake call centre.''

TAX REFUND SCAM (August 2013)

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) are urging consumers and small businesses to be aware of tax refund email scams, with scammers taking advantage of the busy nature of tax time to target you.

A new phishing email claiming to be from the ATO is currently circulating that claims you are entitled to a tax refund. All you have to do is click on an embedded link and complete an online form. But watch out – the online form and link are fake, and are designed to steal your personal information or infect your computer with malware.

Scams are increasingly sophisticated these days, with scammers creating slick web sites and forms that look like the real deal. These sites may in fact be mirror images of the ATO’s official site, with scam forms designed to be quick and easy to fill out. You may even find a web button that appears to link to your bank or financial institution, when in fact it will send you to another scam site asking for your log-in details or personal information.

You might be busy at tax time, but don’t lower your guard to scams. The ATO will never email asking you to confirm, update or disclose confidential details like your tax file number, passwords or credit card details.

How these scams work

You receive an email out of the blue from someone claiming to be from the ATO, informing you that you are entitled to a refund.
The email may appear to come from an official part of the ATO such as the ‘Tax Refund Department’, Tax Refund E-Portal, or Australian Taxation Office Online eTax.
The email may also appear to be from an official ATO email address such as ‘payroll.invoices @adp com', 'Taxrefund@portalservice.au', or 'refundsato.gov.au'.
In order to claim your refund, the email instructs you to confirm, update or disclose personal details by completing an online form.
To access the form, you must open an embedded link or an attachment.
If you open the link or attachment, your computer may be infected with malicious software.
If you fill in the form, you are handing over your personal details to a scammer, who may then use it to steal your identity and money.

The ATO will never email asking you to confirm, update or disclose confidential details like your tax file number, passwords or credit card details.

BANKS WARNING YOU ABOUT IDENTITY THEFT SCAM (August 2013)

The deal is that you receive an e-mail that looks like it came from your bank, warning you about your risk of identity theft and asking that you log in and verify your account information. The message says that if you don't take action immediately, your account will be terminated. Yeah right! And the end of the world as you know it will descend upon you with the speed of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Even though the e-mail looks like the real deal, complete with authentic logos and working web links, it's a clever fake. The web site where you're told to enter your account information is also bogus. In some instances, really smart electronic con artists direct you to the genuine web site, then pop up a window over the site that captures your personal information.

The question you need to ask yourself is this: if it is so bowel shatteringly important, why don't the banks ring you in person. If that call is genuine (AND THEY NEVER DO RING BY THE WAY), you then get a phone number at the bank where you call them back to verify BEFORE saying another word. THEN you ring the bank first and verify the number is genuine and it is the real deal. It won't be! Then you give the number to the police. NEVER NEVER NEVER give anyone that you are not 100% sure of your personal details. NEVER!

THE BETFAIR "KING" ENDS UP OUT THE DOOR

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Gambler, 26, who called himself the 'Betfair King' conned friends out of £600,000 with betting scam to pay for designer clothes
Elliott Short claimed he could make money from successful bets on races
But 26-year-old lost £1million of his own money and cash from investors
One man invested £200,000 in Short's scheme but never saw cash again
Man became suspicious after reading about system in News of the World

A gambler who allegedly conned family friends out of £620,000 through a bogus betting scheme spent thousands of pounds shopping for designer clothes at Harrods and Ralph Lauren.

Elliott Short, 26, who lived in Chelsea, central London, was said to have claimed he was able to place successful bets on races and make large sums of money using a layered betting scheme.

But the horse racing expert lost more than £1million of his own money and cash given by investors through unsuccessful gambling and lavish lifestyle, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Christopher Antoniou allegedly invested £200,000 in Short’s betting system, hoping for huge profits - but he never saw the cash again and began to become suspicious after reading an article about the scheme in a newspaper.

The story in the now-defunct News of the World, which claimed Short had made £21million from his scheme, was rubbished by Betfair - which said the figures given by Short were impossible.

Mr Antoniou often visited Short to talk over his investment and said he saw him placing bets by phone while watching races on TV and marking wins by chanting: ‘Who is the Betfair King?’

After becoming friends Mr Antoniou and Short met socially, and Short would go out to trendy clubs and bars in Chelsea and Knightsbridge, a few times each week, the court was told.

Short would ‘typically pay for everything and anyone, showing off his supposed wealth’ and ‘the bills he would run up were usually in excess of £1,000’, Michael Hick prosecuting, said.

The court also heard how Short spent thousands of pounds on designer clothes and hotels.

Bank statements show during 2009 he spent £4,549 at a Hilton hotel and £460 at Christopher Louboutin. The documents also showed a £7,015 spend at Ralph Lauren and £1,825 at Brinkley’s Wine Gallery in Chelsea.

He also allegedly splashed out on a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, jetted off on holidays to Marbella, stayed in plush hotels and frequented top clubs including exclusive Eclipse in Chelsea.

‘Some smaller sums were going to Betfair, whilst bigger sums were going to places like Harrods and the Hilton,’ Mr Hicks said. ‘The money was in fact being spent on maintaining an extravagantly lavish lifestyle.

What Mr Short’s bank statements do show is that this money was in fact spent on maintaining a lavish lifestyle - spending money in exclusive clubs, eating out, shipping in various luxury brand shops and going on a holiday to Marbella.’

When the article appeared in 2009, Mr Antoniou confronted Short, who alllegedly said the Betfair statement had been issued by the firm at his request as he wasn’t happy with the story and publicity.

Mr Hick said: ‘This was another false story, made up by Mr Short to make him appear successful, and no doubt to convince his investors to keep providing him with money and to attract new investors.

‘However the story prompted Betfair to release a public statement countering the article, stating the claims made were not possible. As a consequence, the News of the World was forced to make a retraction.’

As a result, Betfair allegedly cancelled all of Short’s accounts with them so he could no longer trade.

Short, of Chester, Cheshire, is accused of defrauding James Crawford out of £400,000, Mr Antoniou out of £200,000 and Melinda Barrett out of £20,000 between September 2008 and August 2009.

Mr Crawford, who met Short via his mother and step-father, Rosemary and Tom King, handed over £400,000 after mistakenly believing he was trading successfully, the court heard. He was allegedly told he would receive monthly dividend payments of £70,000, but they allegedly never materialised.

Short is charged with 13 counts of fraud and one count of making or supplying an article for use in fraud. The trial is expected to last three weeks.