ScamsOnline

Trojan encrypts your files, holds them ransom for $300

There's a Trojan horse program going around that, if run, will put your files into an encrypted zip file and delete the originals. It also leaves a file called AUTO_ZIP_REPORT.TXT that contains instructions on getting your files back: send $300 ransom to an E-Gold account. The text file says, "If you really care about documents and information in encrypted files you can pay using electonic currency $300. Reporting to police about a case will not help you, they do not know password. Reporting somewhere about our E-Gold account will not help you to restore files. This is your only way to get yours files back."

Class action lawsuit filed against music industry

People have complained about the price of recorded music for decades. It's always seemed a little fishy that there was no price competition between the labels, and that CDs have always remained more expensive than cassettes, even though the discs are now dirt cheap to make. When music went digital, why did we see so few price points for individual tracks? Today, why are all the major labels simultaneously making noise about wanting Apple to offer variable pricing? The whole situation fueled paranoid claims about industry collusion and price-fixing that later turned out to be totally justified.

Now the sheep are waking up.

Full story

PIN Scandal "Worst Hack Ever;" Citibank Only the Start

The unfolding debit card scam that rocked Citibank this week is far from over, an analyst said Thursday as she called this first-time-ever mass theft of PINs "the worst consumer scam to date."

Wednesday, Citibank confirmed that an ongoing fraud had forced it to reissue debit cards and block PIN-based transactions for users in Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

But Citibank is only the tip of the iceberg, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner research vice president. The scam -- and scandal -- has hit national banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual, as well as smaller banks, including ones in Oregon, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which have re-issued debit cards in recent weeks.

Full story

Woman Googles her date - finds him on Most Wanted List

"He was the nicest guy you could possibly want to meet," Pam Smith thought of Fain after they met on her birthday, February 24. "Now, I feel like a fool."

Full story

Olympic Torch Hoax

The Olympic Torch Hoax is being spread through email. It has been reported that the following text of the hoax may differ slightly in the various messages going around. The email warns of a virus that burns the whole hard disk drive a computer. This virus does not exist. In fact, no program, virus or otherwise, is capable of burning a hole into a disk drive.

eBay Scammer Should Get A+++ For Honesty

Digg.com has an interesting story. It states, "Politicians should take notes from this eBay scammer who not only was courteous enough to tell the victim she was being scammed, but even continued to answer emails from the press! In the end, will it lead to her downfall?"

In fact, the victim did several things wrong. Most of her mistakes were well-known to experienced users of eBay and other online auction services. In fact, all of her mistakes could have been easily avoided.

Public warned about ID theft e-mail scam

BALTIMORE, Md. - A new e-mail scam has surfaced recently. The Social Security Administration has received several reports of an e-mail message being circulated addressed to "Dear Social Security Number And Card owner" and purporting to be from the Social Security Administration. The message informs the reader "that someone illegally is using your Social Security number and assuming your identity" and directs the reader to a Web site designed to look like Social Security's Internet Web site