Just opened my emails for today and one claims to be from NSW Government OFFICE of State Revenue- State Dept Recovery: Penilty Notice Exceed Speed limit by more then 10Km but not more then 20km.
No Details of offence OR View Camera Images.Infringement NO:87815212589 We will contact State Dept recovery office tommorrow Ph:1300138118 to confirm that it is a SCAM!
We have never received any mail via the post etc.
regards Jim
Bruce and Bev said
09:08 PM Feb 11, 2015
it'll be a scam - how would they get your email address otherwise
You are smart enough Jim - but how many dopes will pay it???
Thanks for the warning to all about the latest scam :)
Hey Jim said
09:14 PM Feb 11, 2015
hi Bruce & Bev,
Such low lives in our soicity.I hope the Law catches up with them sooner then later.
Jim
-- Edited by Hey Jim on Wednesday 11th of February 2015 09:15:12 PM
Dougwe said
10:53 PM Feb 11, 2015
I had my first ever scam yesterday.
I got an email from a transport company saying they couldn't deliver a parcel to the PO address I gave. As I was expecting a parcel from Aussie Post I rang the company only to find out it was a scam and to delete the email then run a check on my poota. All seems good and my parcel arrived at the PO by Aussie Post.
Low life scums for sure.
tiger5 said
11:29 AM Feb 12, 2015
It is a SCAM. Our daughter got one & she opened it then a message came up saying her computer was locked &
she would have to pay an amount to get the lock removed. The state dept. recovery unit told her that they do not send emails.
SO DELETE IT STRAIGHT AWAY.
Jeff
deverall11 said
06:39 PM Feb 12, 2015
Want a scam? 99.9% guarantee: Put an ad in Gumtree to sale a car at a reasonable price.
Larry
Hey Jim said
10:13 PM Feb 12, 2015
Hi all, Yep it's a scam. They have encriypted my lap top and demand money to get the pass word to unlock it. BLOODY BASTARDS.
Does anyone know any computer people in Sydney who can help ME PLEASE?
All my photo's are in it and I have never backed it up. I have this IPad our son gave to us. I use the laptop 98% of the time as I'm used to it. It has made me very depressed today.
regards Jim
cultana said
12:54 AM Feb 13, 2015
A small point for most of you:
Store ALL document/pictures etc on a USB drive attached to your laptop/PC.
Only attach it when you need it.
Also have a second USB drive with a full hard drive back up made by such programs as Acronis.
If you don't have this type of back up you are done and dusted by these scams.
No I don't have anything to do with that software but it works well and saves a huge amount of anguish like now.
cultana said
12:57 AM Feb 13, 2015
Further note:
I run an iMac, Mac Power book and both have a Bootcamp Windows addition.
I use Apples TimeMachine to back up the mac and Acronis for Boot camp.
I am not hardware biased. Just careful.
03_Troopy said
08:22 AM Feb 13, 2015
And a further note:
Don't just have one backup on a USB stick. I had a 16GB usb drive die on me a few weeks ago.
It was a drive I used to store all the Tech Info I have gleaned from the WWW over about the last 10 years and took ages to collate from where it was spread out over 4 computers. I was able to recover 90% of the data, but it took ages because I could only transfer data for a few minutes at a time before the USB drive would overheat and lock up.
Now I have 3 copies of the data spread over USB, microSD and computer HDD.
dorian said
08:57 AM Feb 13, 2015
Hey Jim wrote:
Hi all, Yep it's a scam. They have encriypted my lap top and demand money to get the pass word to unlock it. BLOODY BASTARDS.
It sounds like you may have been stung by ransomware. There are free solutions for some variants of Cryptolocker, but more recent ransomware cannot be cracked. Some versions of Windows have a Shadow Copy feature which allows the user to recover infected files from automatic backups.
Long Weekend said
09:47 AM Feb 13, 2015
Re the undelivered parcel scam I have had a number of them - but I have immediately deleted them without opening as I knew of the scam.
On a similar thing we all know of the phone calls telling us that our computers have a virus. My wife used to get alarmed but luckily she always called me and I got rid of them. (I said to the last one that it seemed that they knew about computers and I was thinking of buying one and could they give me some advice? They hung up immediately.)
But I got a new (to me) scam phone call yesterday. A person claiming to be a lawyer wanted to talk to me about my accident in the last year. Apart from the caller having a very heavy Indian sounding accent I have never had an accident for many years so I told him that he must have the wrong person - he quoted my name - and hung up.
Obviously a 'phishing' phone call - anyone who had an accident recently could be taken in.
If I get another such call I'll probably tell them that I cannot discuss it over the phone - without even admitting there was an accident - and insist that they send a letter with the details. I imagine that they will try and bluff me but I'll stand firm - a letter or nothing.
Then again the last time I engaged a lawyer some ten years ago every time I rang them for an update they charged me $20 for 'attending to client's phone call.' So I'll insist on payment of $20 before I speak with them.
Murray
Retired - A Long Weekend Lasts All Year
Santa said
10:53 AM Feb 13, 2015
Hey Jim wrote:
Hi all, Yep it's a scam. They have encriypted my lap top and demand money to get the pass word to unlock it. BLOODY BASTARDS.
Does anyone know any computer people in Sydney who can help ME PLEASE?
All my photo's are in it and I have never backed it up. I have this IPad our son gave to us. I use the laptop 98% of the time as I'm used to it. It has made me very depressed today.
regards Jim
I realise its to late now Jim, however as a warning to others
Under no circumstances open open email attachments or click on links from unknown senders, its not the email that does the damage but the attachment/link that the sender is hoping you will click on/open.
Here is a quote from a web page on avoiding these situations, will publish a link below (yes, this one is safe) its well worth reading, may well save a lot of time and heartache.
"Email provides us a convenient and powerful communications tool. Unfortunately, it also
provides scammers and other malicious individuals
an easy means for luring potential victims.
The scams they attempt run from old-fashione
d bait-and-switch operations to phishing schemes
using a combination of email and bogus web s
ites to trick victims into divulging sensitive
information. To protect yourself from these scams, you should understand what they are, what
they look like, how they work, and what you can do to avoid them. The following
recommendations can minimize your chances of falling victim to an email scam:
Filter spam.
Dont trust unsolicited email.
Treat email attachments with caution.
Dont click links in email messages.
Install antivirus software and keep it up to date.
Install a personal firewall and keep it up to date.
Configure your email client for security.
These recommendations are explained in the sec
tion What You Can Do to Avoid Becoming a
Victim. Ignoring them may leave you vulnerable to identity theft, information theft, the abuse of
your computer for illegal activity, the receipt of
Our daughters brother-in law works in IT for a new paper & said there is no help.
sorry.
Jeff
Plendo said
09:18 PM Feb 13, 2015
Jeff,
it is not quite true, we had the virus go through some of our PCs at work, and we searched the web and found the unlock key. Is there a virus name, or some descriptor to search on ?
Jeff, get someone to have a look at this site for you:
Hi All,
Just opened my emails for today and one claims to be from NSW Government OFFICE of State Revenue- State Dept Recovery: Penilty Notice Exceed Speed limit by more then 10Km but not more then 20km.
No Details of offence OR View Camera Images.Infringement NO:87815212589 We will contact State Dept recovery office tommorrow Ph:1300138118 to confirm that it is a SCAM!
We have never received any mail via the post etc.
regards Jim
You are smart enough Jim - but how many dopes will pay it???
Thanks for the warning to all about the latest scam :)
hi Bruce & Bev,
Such low lives in our soicity.I hope the Law catches up with them sooner then later.
Jim
-- Edited by Hey Jim on Wednesday 11th of February 2015 09:15:12 PM
I got an email from a transport company saying they couldn't deliver a parcel to the PO address I gave. As I was expecting a parcel from Aussie Post I rang the company only to find out it was a scam and to delete the email then run a check on my poota. All seems good and my parcel arrived at the PO by Aussie Post.
Low life scums for sure.
It is a SCAM. Our daughter got one & she opened it then a message came up saying her computer was locked &
she would have to pay an amount to get the lock removed. The state dept. recovery unit told her that they do not send emails.
SO DELETE IT STRAIGHT AWAY.
Jeff
Larry
Hi all, Yep it's a scam. They have encriypted my lap top and demand money to get the pass word to unlock it. BLOODY BASTARDS.
Does anyone know any computer people in Sydney who can help ME PLEASE?
All my photo's are in it and I have never backed it up. I have this IPad our son gave to us. I use the laptop 98% of the time as I'm used to it. It has made me very depressed today.
regards Jim
Store ALL document/pictures etc on a USB drive attached to your laptop/PC.
Only attach it when you need it.
Also have a second USB drive with a full hard drive back up made by such programs as Acronis.
If you don't have this type of back up you are done and dusted by these scams.
No I don't have anything to do with that software but it works well and saves a huge amount of anguish like now.
I run an iMac, Mac Power book and both have a Bootcamp Windows addition.
I use Apples TimeMachine to back up the mac and Acronis for Boot camp.
I am not hardware biased. Just careful.
Don't just have one backup on a USB stick. I had a 16GB usb drive die on me a few weeks ago.
It was a drive I used to store all the Tech Info I have gleaned from the WWW over about the last 10 years and took ages to collate from where it was spread out over 4 computers. I was able to recover 90% of the data, but it took ages because I could only transfer data for a few minutes at a time before the USB drive would overheat and lock up.
Now I have 3 copies of the data spread over USB, microSD and computer HDD.
It sounds like you may have been stung by ransomware. There are free solutions for some variants of Cryptolocker, but more recent ransomware cannot be cracked. Some versions of Windows have a Shadow Copy feature which allows the user to recover infected files from automatic backups.
On a similar thing we all know of the phone calls telling us that our computers have a virus. My wife used to get alarmed but luckily she always called me and I got rid of them. (I said to the last one that it seemed that they knew about computers and I was thinking of buying one and could they give me some advice? They hung up immediately.)
But I got a new (to me) scam phone call yesterday. A person claiming to be a lawyer wanted to talk to me about my accident in the last year. Apart from the caller having a very heavy Indian sounding accent I have never had an accident for many years so I told him that he must have the wrong person - he quoted my name - and hung up.
Obviously a 'phishing' phone call - anyone who had an accident recently could be taken in.
If I get another such call I'll probably tell them that I cannot discuss it over the phone - without even admitting there was an accident - and insist that they send a letter with the details. I imagine that they will try and bluff me but I'll stand firm - a letter or nothing.
Then again the last time I engaged a lawyer some ten years ago every time I rang them for an update they charged me $20 for 'attending to client's phone call.' So I'll insist on payment of $20 before I speak with them.
Murray
Retired - A Long Weekend Lasts All Year
I realise its to late now Jim, however as a warning to others
Under no circumstances open open email attachments or click on links from unknown senders, its not the email that does the damage but the attachment/link that the sender is hoping you will click on/open.
Here is a quote from a web page on avoiding these situations, will publish a link below (yes, this one is safe) its well worth reading, may well save a lot of time and heartache.
"Email provides us a convenient and powerful communications tool. Unfortunately, it also
Our daughters brother-in law works in IT for a new paper & said there is no help.
sorry.
Jeff
Jeff,
it is not quite true, we had the virus go through some of our PCs at work, and we searched the web and found the unlock key. Is there a virus name, or some descriptor to search on ?
Jeff, get someone to have a look at this site for you:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cryptolocker-dead-heres-can-get-files-back/
-- Edited by Plendo on Friday 13th of February 2015 09:22:29 PM