Cheshire Police Computer Virus.

[Monk]

My laptop was hit with this last nig. Pretty 'scary' the content.

 

For vulnerable pc users, they could easily find themselves parting with £100-£300 in this hoax.

[Tokyo-Saint]

What is it?

 

Couldn't you just reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows if you get it?

[pap]

It's called ransomware.

 

Basically, they overwrite the boot routine on your PC, put a scary graphic up saying they've caught you downloading bombs on the internet ( or something similarly scary ) and say that of all things, a small fine will make it go away.

 

It's a load of crap. My daughter's machine was infected this way. People who make this sort of software are scumbags, worse than the scam artists who phone you up to tell you that you have "numerous errors" on your computer.

[Tokyo-Saint]

Oh yeah I know, wasn't there one about for Yorkshire police a while ago?

 

It was Yorkshire police but with a Nigerian twist, I think it may have gone online the lines of "greatings! You've been caught lookin a tut bloody porn. Pay £50 into Yorkshire polices western union account and all will be forgiven.

 

Blessings

 

Yorkshire police"

Edited 15 March, 2013 by Tokyo-Saint

[Bearsy]

you make them sound like me tokyos

 

They should do legislations for virus companies like avg and nortons to stop them making these sort of things. I'm surprised it's even legals.

[JPTCount]

How do people even get infected with this ****, i've been virus free since '09

[Whitey Grandad]

Track the bastards down and smash their knuckles to pulp with a hammer. Thinking about it, that's probably being too kind on them.

[pap]

Track the bastards down and smash their knuckles to pulp with a hammer. Thinking about it, that's probably being too kind on them.

 

They say you get more right wing as you get older

 

But I agree.

[JPTCount]

Track the bastards down and smash their knuckles to pulp with a hammer. Thinking about it, that's probably being too kind on them.

 

So violence is better than scamming...

 

This works both ways tho, if people were more willing to learn them they wouldn't end up with this ****. Regardless of the technology used there will always be scammers and those who fall for it.

 

IT is still just seen as a basic tool, a gimmick or an after thought. And people fall back on the the excuse they aren't very good with computers.

 

And even if you had this come up, all you'd have to do is Google this on another device...

[Tokyo-Saint]

Yes but they generally prey on the old, the knowledgeable (with IT) and the stupid, therefore it is very immoral. Tricking oldies like whitey and dumb people like bear just isn't on.

[Monk]

Here's the image.

[Whitey Grandad]

They say you get more right wing as you get older

 

But I agree.

 

I thought I was being lenient.

[SuperMikey]

I had that one, saying that I had been downloading animal porn!

 

....I had, but that wasn't the point.

 

My breath did catch in my throat while I was reading it though, scary sh!t until you realise that it's a hoax.

[dronskisaint]

Most worrying thing for me was that there was a pug-ugly pic of me at the top of the page that had obviously been taken as the screen was playing silly b*ggers. How do they do that?

 

I wasn't on my animal porn/letters to relatives about an inheritance computer so knew it was a hoax but how do they get through? I have a company anti-virus that's supposed to be the best?

 

Easy to get rid of though even for a Luddite like me...just downloaded a fix on to a memory stick on another computer and followed the instructions.

[stthrobber]

I hadn't heard of this until yesterday when a kid stopped me whilst I was on a foot patrol and told me he had received such a notice and asked if this was genuine. I told him it had to be a scam because the police will only write with summonses and fines and not hack into people's PCs and demand money via ucash or PayPal. I offered to have a look at it for him as he lived nearby but he declined. Wonder what sites he's been visiting.

 

I also reassured him that if he had been downloading child porn as the notice claimed, we would probably arrest him and seize the computer by use of the 'big red key'