Hi Folks,

I have had two emails in the last few days allegedly from Westnet and using a Westnet email address.

The first was shown as a Security Alert and gave a link to click onto to keep your email address secure (yeh, right...).
The sender was using a Westnet email address.

The second was similar except it said that to clarify your email address and account they would need you to click onto the link shown in the email otherwise your account would be deleted.

On both occasions I rang Westnet Helpline and they advised me to dump both emails and they were aware of the hackers and were attending to the problem. I may add that I did not click on either of the links provided in the emails and dumped them after reporting them to Westnet, they said they had received numerous calls citing the same senders Westnet email addresses.

They told me that those who are receiving these emails and clicking on the link then have their pc address book copied, so anyone in their address book (irrespective of internet provider) can be accessed.

If you get any of these emails and you are a Westnet user, dump them immediately.

Vic

Hi Vic,

After reading your thread the other day, alarm bells started to ring with regard to an email I received from RACQ Insurance after we had made some changes to our policy. It looked genuine, and not being overly tech savie, when they asked to confirm our email address, I did so. The on thinking about this, after reading the above, I rang them and their respeose was, and I quote: we don't normally send emails asking for confirmation - end quote! Thankfully, we don't make use of the 'address' area of our email address, nor do we do any internet banking etc.

Thought this was worth adding, as you said to warn others.

-- Edited by Pejay on Friday 18th of February 2011 09:23:24 PM

Thanks Pejay, any of these scams are worth letting others know about! I have an add online in the Quokka Newspaper and got three scam emails answering it, reported all (gmail addresses) to Gmail and then deleted them.

I have a separate email address (through my normal ISP) that I use only for "important" stuff and never for jokes etc or anything that may be forwarded on. I don't even give it out to friends and rellies unless needed for exchanging confidential messages. That way it never gets passed on to third parties.

Criminals can be very cunning, One trick is to redirect the potential victim to a website that looks exactly like a bank's (for example) own genuine website.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900 is an Australian Government  site that all internet users should check.

-- Edited by jimricho on Saturday 19th of February 2011 07:17:03 AM

Good advice Jim, Thanks for the link, Vic

Thanks for the link Jim.

We've had a couple of calls from a person with an Indian-sounding accent who claimed to be from Microsoft and warned us our PC had been sending signals to Microsoft that it may have problems... or something like that. I hung up on him. Later he called again, Mr D answered and asked was he the same one who had called earlier, then the caller hung up.

What was that all about? Do they want the code or whatever to get into our computers (for banking information etc)??

EDIT: I just noticed I'm a Guru! Woo Hoo! Actually that just means I have a lot to say.

-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Sunday 20th of February 2011 07:52:30 PM

Congrats Gerty! We're an elite group we "Gurus". I don't know if it makes us experts, being in mind an "Ex" is a has-been, and a "spirt" is a drip under pressure. Having a lot to say isn't a hanging offence. I think it's still about quality rather than quantity. So all we Gurus have to do is keep sounding clever, and convince everyone else, and that's not easy to do.

We continue to get calls.. at least once, sometimes up to four times a day from these scammers... how do you stop them from calling? I said very clearly "Do not call this number again!" hung up, and half an hour later they called again!

There seems to be a network of hackers who trade email addresses to push their products and scams. I keep receiving ads for Viagra from some pseudo pharmaceutical mob. I just delete. If I don't know the sender it goes. Just opening an email can confirm at their end that they've got you. I'd like to know how they access my email address in the first place, but that's another problem to deal with. Jim has the right idea.

Some years ago, I dumped Outlook Express and Internet Explorer for Thunderbird and Firefox. Since then, no spam or virus attacks. Very occasionally, my Thunderbird puts up a warning of a potential scam, but it is usually an email from a trusted site which I can let in. I'm using Vet Antivirus and Spybot Search and Destroy.