{"id":887,"date":"2019-02-25T12:45:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T12:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owltech.co.uk\/?p=887"},"modified":"2019-02-25T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T12:45:47","slug":"scams-ransom-emails-dont-panic-but-take-action-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"Scams – Ransom emails \u2013 Don\u2019t panic \u2013 but take action now!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Ransom<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Have you received an email demanding ransom money in order\nto prevent the sender from telling all your contacts that you have allegedly\nbeen visiting adult sites ?? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cjust send xxx bitcoin\u201d etc.etc. usually in fairly poor English\nas well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, this type of vile email scam is on the increase, massively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s quite understandable that such an email can be worrying\neven for the most innocent of users and can put everything into question,\nespecially if the mail includes personal information, such as a password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer is, don\u2019t\npanic, but you must take some action \u2013 now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"www.owltech.co.uk\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Even though they may have obtained a password or other confidential information from one of the many data breaches that have happened, they really don\u2019t have any evidence of your activity and it is a scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IMPORTANT – Don\u2019t\nreply to them and don\u2019t try to pay them anything.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they have included a password on your email, it is likely\nit has been obtained from one of many data breaches. If you have had a\nlegitimate email from someone like Adobe or LinkedIn to change your password\nand haven\u2019t, that is because they lost vast numbers of logins and passwords so\nyou need to change them (and you can often add extra levels of security such as\nadding mobile numbers to check when you change passwords etc, or notify you of\nnew login locations). You can check if your email address was included in a\nbreach by going to this site: <\/span>\n and entering in your email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The likelihood is that your address will appear to show your\ndetails have been lost \u2013 yet again, don\u2019t panic as millions of people\u2019s\ninformation have been lost\/stolen, including mine. If you recognise any of the\nsites in the list, make sure you change your passwords on them. Also if you\nhave used the same password elsewhere, I would strongly advise you to change\nthem too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With passwords, please try to use a \u2018strong\u2019 password and\nuse different passwords on different sites. You can use a password manager like\nLastPass (I do and it\u2019s brilliant !!) it also has a secure password generator \u2013\ngo to https:\/\/www.lastpass.com<\/a> for a\nread and a trial. Google Chrome has integrated password management with Smart\nLock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a ransom email to you includes any bank details, make\nsure your online accounts are secure and speak to your bank if you are at all\nconcerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember to keep your computer updated and running up to\ndate security software. I know, we all hate Microsoft updates etc. etc. but it really\nis a necessary evil to keep your PC up to date and secure. I would advise not\nto rely only on Microsoft Security Essentials or Windows Defender but consider\na third party security solution with spam filters. Contact me (info@owltech.co.uk<\/a>) and I can help you\nwith this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is especially important for businesses who rely on\nemployees to keep a computer updated \u2013 owners should ensure this is done across\nthe board by speaking to their IT company and putting something in place. Statistics\nshow that businesses haven\u2019t reacted to the recent WannaCry and other\nransomware outbreaks to take these first basic security steps. If you don\u2019t\nhave an IT department or an IT company supporting you, feel free to contact me here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For businesses, I strongly suggest you use a good corporate\nsecurity software that reports centrally so any issues are reported and can be\nactioned \u2013 don\u2019t rely on a terrified employee reporting it to you. Bear in mind\nthat these emails won\u2019t be flagged as viruses, so you might want to make sure\nall your employees are aware of the latest outbreaks \u2013 these have included in\nthe past, emails pretending to be emails from other employees asking for money\nto be transferred to specified bank accounts or \u201cclick here to see the inoivce\u201d\netc. etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking it further, if you are a business and want to ensure\nyour employees can\u2019t access adult, gambling or other sites, you can use content\nfiltering software or hardware to prevent this, in line with your acceptable\nuse policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always recommend multi-layer security which includes my\noffering of Avast Business CloudCare, which includes traditional antivirus,\nsecondary security modules and optional content filtering, combined with\ncentralised control and monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are already a number of variations on the email\ndetailed in the article above and again, I received one of the versions with an\nold password a while ago. Needless to say, I have done all of the above !!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a personal note. \nI\u2019ve seen first hand with some of my customers the stress and worry\nthese type of scams can have on people \u2013 of any age and or any level of experience\nwith IT. Sadly the only way to counteract these vile, sick scammers is to raise\neveryone\u2019s awareness so please, please make sure everyone you know is aware of\nthe above and don\u2019t let them worry unnecessarily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can always contact the Owl for a reassuring chat as\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an article from the Daily Mail if you wish to read some\nmore<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/money\/beatthescammers\/article-6298379\/Pay-ransom-watch-wreck-life-Computer-menace-driving-victims-suicide.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ransom e-mail – vile and disgusting scam attempts. If you get one, don’t worry. read this post and take action ASAP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[46,47,63,86,93,94,95,98,100,102,107,109],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-repair","tag-antispam","tag-antivirus","tag-data-security","tag-password","tag-ransom","tag-ransom-emails","tag-ransomware","tag-scammer","tag-scams","tag-security","tag-spam-filter","tag-spyware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}