Tuesday 17 February 2015
Scams, hacking and backup.
Funny how in the click of a mouse, things
can go very wrong on your computer. If
you are very careful what you click on, you shouldn’t have any problems. Once you have made a mistake, it could be
very costly to put right or take you a lot of time.
This email arrived for me a few weeks ago.
Refund Reference Number is: Ref/14377/2014
Dear
Taxpayer,
*Refund
Amount : GBP 521.78
>>
Your *Refund Reference Number is: Ref/14377/2014 <<
*************************
Account
ID: 748200162
E-mail
ID: 930155328
*************************
NOTE:
If you've received an Income Tax 'repayment' it will either be following a
claim you've made or becouse
HM
Revenue & Customs has received new information about your taxable income or
entitlement to allowances.
The
refund may come through your tax code or as a payment and could relate to the
current tax year or earlier years.
CLICK HERE to submit your tax
refund request
Thank
you,
HM
Revenue & Customs
Would
you have known that this was a scam?
The
email is appealing as it is offering you a refund, but look carefully again and
see if you can spot the warning signs.
There are usually spelling mistakes and poor grammar in scam emails, and
there is always a “LINK”, or blue web address or words in blue and underlined which
the email asks you to click. HM Revenue
would not email, nor would Microsoft or your Bank, so ignore any emails from
them, even if they look official.
Never
click on links in suspicious emails, even if you know the sender. If the sender doesn’t usually email you, or
you have any doubts, give them a call to check first. Clicking on an unsafe link can download
malware, or nasty viruses onto your system.
You
can be a victim of this on Facebook too, so if there is a post from a friend
saying, please check out my private video, or tagging you in a post saying you
were there, and you weren’t, it is more than likely a scam. Don’t click or you will be infected and
infect all your friends.
So
what should you do if you think you might have clicked on something that you
shouldn’t?
This
free software is extremely good for Windows users. It is also free. https://www.malwarebytes.org/
It’s not a bad idea to run it once in a while to see what it picks
up.
If
your email has been hacked or you suspect someone else’s has, act
immediately. If you have received an
email from a friend with a strange link in it, and no subject, do tell them
right away.
I
had this from a client recently:
Subject: Re:bss18 f
huish773
1/19/2015
6:30:50 PM
The
client did not know she had been hacked.
Her friends didn’t know that they shouldn’t click on the link. It was an advert for slimming. I advised her not to click and to change her
email password. Make sure you know what
yours is, and when you change it, make a note somewhere. If you use email on computer and a phone, or
tablet, you will need to reset the password in all of them.
Finally,
do ensure you have a good antivirus on your computer and that you back up all
your files regularly.
Stay
safe online with Mrs PC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)