Exids IT Solutions

It’s time for another round of sample email fraud!  If anyone has any other fraud emails they would like to have posted, just contact me and I will get them up as soon as posible with a full description.

In the meantime, here’s another one for your reading enjoyment!

From the Desk of:
Mr. Peter Ekeh

With great pleasure I Mr. Peter Ekeh, working with a bank here in Nigeria as a Manager. I am writing you in respect of a foreign customer (an Oil consultant/contractor with our National Oil & Liquidified Gas Sector) whom made a US$25M (Twenty five Million United States Dollars) depository for an investment program that has remained dormant for years now. Hence, I have decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you’re wondering “how to make my computer boot up faster“, you really only need to look as far as what programs are starting up when you computer is turned on.

To make your computer boot up faster, you don’t have to wave a magic wand, or even hire an expensive tech.  Instead, you could learn a bit about the way programs start up in your computer and see if there is a way you could eliminate them from stating to make your computer boot up much faster.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

“If you forward this mail, you will be PAID MONEY!!!”  - Look familiar?

Do you often get emails claiming that when you forward it to your entire contact list you will somehow receive a cheque for each email sent?  Well, I’ve gotten a few and I just want to clear something up:

You will not get any money for sending an email to someone.  There is no way of tracking these emails and there is no way of knowing where the money can be sent to.  Please stop forwarding these lame emails.

One of the benefits of sending these emails to entire contact lists is that eventually, those email addresses will come to good use for a virus or spammer.  Yes – that’s right; believing that the email money fairy is going to miraculously appear in your house with a bag o’ cash won’t happen – but you might just make a virus’s day.

You see, some viruses that infect your PC (and some spyware) scan you computer for email addresses.  These lovely emails that you have been forwarding and receiving from your “pals” have tons of other email addresses in the CC line and the body.  When the virus scans them, it send itself out (replicates itself) to these anonymous victims in hopes that they will get infected, and basically follow the same routine on their system.

Another awesome thing that could happen is that spyware could scan your system for all of these email addresses, upload them to a spammer’s server somewhere for safe storage until they are ready to send out their next blast of spam.

So please, understand, unless Bill Gates is actually sitting in your house with a cheque book waiting for you to forward these emails – don’t waste other’s time with these silly emails.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Once again, here’s a classic example of email fraud from our dear friend Susan Harrison-Justain (what a wonderful person! — [not])

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

It not really a question of “how secure is personal internet security”; it’s more of a question of whether or not you ARE secure and aware of how to control your internet security.

With so many scams floating around on the Internet (Like phishing, email scams and spyware) the simple answer to the question of how secure is personal internet security is not very secure.  Taken in the context of scams you are only as safe as what you know.  This is why I preach to people about learning how cyber criminals work, and learning how to detect fraud before you become a victim.

A great place to start is the PC security Secrets Security Guide, which gives you a general overview of some things you will want to do to your computer to make it secure.  Once you’ve gotten you PC locked down, it then comes down to information.

I am currently putting on the finishing touches to a book about internet and computer security and privacy.  I you would like to know more about this book, please contact me, I would be happy to discuss it.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I am going to continue to post sample scam emails in my blog as I have had several requests from you on what the current email scams are.

I’ve created a new category called “Sample Fraud” in my blog that allows you to look through some of the other sample frauds floating around on the internet.  To view them, just click the link “Sample Fraud” on the right hand menu from my blog homepage www.pcsecuritysecrets.com/blog.

This fraud email is from “Mother Sherry booy Jaunther”: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hehehe… here’s a creative list of computer virus names if they were named after someone famous…

Popularity: 1% [?]

One problem with spyware is that it can be very hard to tell when you have been infected.   It can also be extremely difficult to remove.  A few tell tale signs you may have been infected with spyware are:

• Your homepage has changed
• You have MANY pop-ups, sometimes even when you aren’t doing anything
• You have weird search bars in your web browser
• Your system seems very sluggish
• Your internet connection seems slow
• You have weird icons on your desktop

Popularity: 1% [?]

It never fails to amaze me – in this email the individual claims to be one of the Accounts Directors to Mikhail khodorkovsky, the richest man in Russia.  He uses a technique to build credibility by linking to news articles about Mikhail khodorkovsky’s arrest on high profile legitimate news sites like the BBC.

This is a fairly stale scam, where they promise you money if you help them get some of the assets out through a government loophole – the catch is that you usually need to put some of you money up at some point.

I’ve posted the scam email below if you want to read more…

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 1% [?]

Identity Theft Protection Information

It’s a sad day when you are scammed purchasing identity theft protection information – at least for some people.

It’s important that you understand that finding information on how to protect yourself from being a victim of identity theft is not going to happen overnight.  There’s a ton of new scams being dreamt up every minute – unfortunately someone has to falls victim to the new devious plot before anyone recognizes and educates the public about the scam.

I could seethe on for hours about how there just doesn’t seem to be enough Identity theft Protection information available to the public, but I won’t.  Instead, I’m going to show you a few simple things you can do to protect yourself.

Identity Theft Protection Information Tips

Let’s talk about the 5 obvious things you need to know about preventing identity theft.

1. You decide who to give your information to.  You NEVER have to give out personally identifiable information to ANYONE. 
2. ALWAYS question why someone wants your personal information.  NEVER hand it over without knowing why or how it is going to be used.
3. If you believe someone is impersonating an authority figure to get personal information, IT IS ok to withhold information – you WON’T get in trouble.  If they have the authority to get your personal information, they will prove it to you with legitimate sources
4. Learn about Phishing.  This is one of the easiest ways for criminals to ruin you financially.
5. SECURE your PC.  You’re literally asking to be a victim if your PC isn’t secure.

Identity theft is a growing concern for many people, and so is the lack of information.  Hopefully you will find these 5 tips useful – print them out and put them on your fridge – they may save you one day.

Popularity: 1% [?]