Malware

[Panther]

Warning Warning. I'm not a computer expert, but just had a PM from "RazorMan" advising I have virus' on my PC. Followed prompts and a link to some innocent looking program that turned out to be malware. Kept invading the PC and required credit card details to download a program to remove. Had to take the PC to a computer expert and part with some cash to fix the problem. SO be carefull

[dbjac]

Sorry to hear your computer was compromised.

There have been two spammers in the last day or so.
Seems they sent quite a few PM's about.

Just a warning, don't open anything suspicious. Rather, report it or bring it to the attention of Admin.

See this thread for more detailed warning:
http://www.archery-forum.com/showthread.php?t=31748

[Samuri]

I received a PM from Razorman too advising the same. I'll delete it.

[PR-Moller]

why didnt he send me one?

[Progen]

Originally Posted by PR-Moller

why didnt he send me one?

You're not that hot. I got the same nonsense from him. Been getting similar rubbish from another forum where the moderators are either dead, slack or know nuts. Every section's filled with rubbish over there.

[shannonhearse]

Originally Posted by Panther

Warning Warning. I'm not a computer expert, but just had a PM from "RazorMan" advising I have virus' on my PC. Followed prompts and a link to some innocent looking program that turned out to be malware.

No offence, but you dumb ass.

As they say, good judgement comes from bad experience. Hopefully your judgement just improved

[mrlogan]

Yeah, I got a pm from him too, just disregarded it as it was spam.....wonder how he managed to get a list of people to send to ?

[Andy!]

The simple rule of the Internet is that "Until you know absolutely for certain that everyone isn't out to shaft you, expect that they are."

How you implement that rule is up to you.

[Panther]

Yea, sucked in by a very well disguised message. Goes to show how careful you have to be.

[DICER]

Originally Posted by PR-Moller

why didnt he send me one?

I believe he did, but it was vaporized by Marcus or dbjac.

Sandy Hancock, mrlogan and I, amongst others were targeted. It was only a few listed in his post to me. I think he just went random and postal.

I ignored it and sent it on to Marcus.

They seem to be getting closer and very cunning.

[Progen]

Well disguised? Cunning?

Those two adjectives are the most inappropriate for such childish pranks. What's suitable would be :-

• Juvenile
• Unoriginal
• Stupid
• Boring
• Lame
• Waste of time

It's just meaningless spam and you can add meaningless and spam to the above list too.

Why are you guys acting as if you were conned by some well conceived plan to infiltrate your systems?

[shannonhearse]

Originally Posted by Progen

Well disguised? Cunning?

Those two adjectives are the most inappropriate for such childish pranks.

These are not childish pranks Progen.

They are very well conceived methods of earning money and getting credit card details out of people. They are more often than not run by some of the major crime consortiums and are well funded and organized.

Really, it’s quite a good idea; encrypt someone’s data and then make them pay to get it back. It’s been occurring for quite some time and companies are willing to pay big money to get their data back.

It’s the whole international borders and countries’ not cooperating that is making this sort of thing so hard to stop.

[James Park]

We need to bring back the village stocks and tubs of horse manure for such scum. It is exactly what they deserve.

[Progen]

Originally Posted by shannonhearse

These are not childish pranks Progen.

...

What I meant was the approach of going into a forum, registering oneself and then start sending out the invitations via private messages? You'd have to be rather Internet inexperienced to accept such rubbish.

I have to admit I did get conned once but that was via email. Buddy of mine was infected and sent me something. I accepted because it bore his name and came from an email address which was in my address book. Lost access to my ICQ account for a week or two but after verifying I was the rightful owner, they resetted the password and I was alright after that.

Originally Posted by James Park

We need to bring back the village stocks and tubs of horse manure for such scum. It is exactly what they deserve.

And giving them a dose of the whip wouldn't hurt too, right? Or will it?

[shannonhearse]

Originally Posted by Progen

What I meant was the approach of going into a forum, registering oneself and then start sending out the invitations via private messages? You'd have to be rather Internet inexperienced to accept such rubbish.

Actually, it’s quite a good one and obviously works. The evidence is in this thread.

I believe it’s called "Social Engineering" and is no different to knocking on someone’s door, pretending to be from the power company and requiring their credit card number to verify they are the account holder.

[Progen]

So what you're saying is that if someone you don't know offers you something which is supposedly beneficial to you, you'd accept it? Without hesitation and a few moments with your brain department?

ps. I have 6 million Euros which I'd like to give to you, shannonhearse but I'm having a bit of a problem with red tape at the bank so could you advance me just 5 thousand Euros to ease things over there? I'm kind of tight now because I'm in a legal battle with my siblings over the 2 billion from our inheritance.

pps. Most things in life aren't free and the Internet is no different. If you want to go snapping things up without using your brains first, then too bad.

Last addition.

The main reason why I think this particular incident is SO SILLY and JUVENILE is because the private messages originated from an unknown handle which I believe was registered only recently for this particular purpose. I mean if somone hacked into the forum, started sending off such rubbish using our moderators' handles and folks fell for it, then we MIGHT have a right to whine about it. Otherwise, the moral of the story would be to HTFU and get on with your lives.

[shannonhearse]

I agree with you on this one Progen.

However, about 1 in 1000 people are dumbasses; and these are the people targeted.

Most people will have a slight brain fart every now and then. These brain farts are also targeted.

As for the 5 thousand Euros, that will be available as soon as I sell any of the paintings I have saved to my hard disk (I have attached one, and if you download it, you owe me 2 million AUD).

[Progen]

Damn! I'm in debt already!

[DICER]

Progen this was the PM message... read it for yourself

"Hello, friend. There are viruses' activities from your computer in last few days. Strongly recommend you to check your computer. You can find a report about your computer's security and solve every problem with it here: SNIP Hancock;Hidden Hippo;biggp;ausarcher;DICER
Thank you. Forum member. "

I disabled the link by removing and inserting characters.

[dbjac]

While I know you mean well, if you're going to repost something like that, at least remove the spam hyperlink so as not to inadvertently lure other readers into the same fate.