Reports of frauds, deceptions and scams keep appearing, weekly even daily, on
major news channels and newspapers. Some of these frauds seem just too big and remote to be of immediate, direct relevance to our daily lives. But, we will eventually pay for the consequences and damages, in taxes, costs of goods and services, regulations, copy-cats etc.

I hope we can collect, in one thread, frauds and scams, reported or heard. We must become more aware and more educated to guard against frauds and scams
which impact upon the health, well being, and wealth of ourselves and our families.

Skinny,

Are you serious?

Hmmm?

I have a money am support email in my spam box , it says website security best practice , has anyone else got this ??? I have not opened it .

Its genuine.

Rather stupidly, I didn't have the 'MoneyAM Announcements' box ticked in the

My Account
EMAIL BULLETINS section.

I've just ticked it but am probably 'after time' and won't receive this 'website security best practice' e-mail from MoneyAM.
I would be most interested to read what it has to say.

Questions:
1. Are these messages stored on site anywhere? If so, where?
2. What did this last message say?

Dear MoneyAM user,

We thought we would send you a few ideas and some suggested account security and privacy best practices that we recommend for our users:

CHANGING YOUR PASSWORD

Never change your password by following a link in an email that you did not request, since those links might be compromised and redirect you to the wrong place.
You can change your password on the MoneyAM My Account section, once there use the Login Details tab to change your password.
If you don't remember your password, you can get instructions on how to reset it by clicking on the Forgotten Password? link on the Home page.
In order for passwords to be effective, you should aim to update your online account passwords every few months or at least once a quarter.
CREATING A STRONG PASSWORD

Variety - don't use the same password on all the sites you visit.
Don't use a word from the dictionary.
Length - select strong passwords that can't easily be guessed with 8 or more characters.
Think of a meaningful phrase, song or quote and turn it into a complex password using the first letter of each word.
Complexity - randomly add capital letters, punctuation or symbols.
Mix capital and lowercase letters.
Substitute numbers for letters that look similar (for example, substitute "0" for "o" or "3" for "E".
Never give your password to others or write it down.
DON'T BE A VICTIM OF EMAIL SCAMS

A popular scamming method with criminals is to send fake emails, pretending to be from a company you trust. They do this to access your personal information, such as your bank details, names and addresses. These emails usually include urgent payment requests and generally may include some of the following:

A link to update your payment information.
You may be threatened with consequences if you don't.
A link to take you to a false website.
A few other account security and privacy best practices to keep in mind are:

Sign out of your account after you use a publicly shared computer.
Keep your antivirus software up to date.
Don't put your email address, address or phone number in your MoneyAM Bulletin Board profile.
Only connect to people you know and trust.
NEW MONEYAM PASSWORD PROTOCOL

As part of our ongoing review of security we will shortly be asking our users to follow good password management practices. When you login to MoneyAM you will be asked to reset your password and we ask that your password has the following characteristics.

Must be at least eight characters in length.
Must include one upper case and one lower case letter
Must include one number.
For your security, we recommend that you don't reuse passwords associated with your email address or any other type of account. Additionally, if you enter your original password as your new password, you may trigger an error message. Create an entirely new password the next time you sign in.



This email has been sent to you by AJ Bell Media Limited as you have requested to receive information from
Shares magazine, MoneyAM, Stock Market Wire, other AJ Bell Media websites or have registered for one of our events. If you would like to stop receiving emails, you can unsubscribe here.

Cheers skinny .

My password of YouwonTguessSsmyPPassword4545++$everbecausei'mtoocleverforyou656777):*^%$))""!scammers

is a really secure one i'm using it for everything now including banks etc because no one will ever get it even hackers ,how clever am i .

What, all of it? Or just the '!scammers' bit?

Got a strange message on my PC, had a box come up in the middle of the screen and the background faded. It said my chrome browser had been compromised by a Trojan and I should ring a number in the US starting 203 to correct the fault. I could not get rid of this box by trying to close browser, so ran Norton scan which reported no threats. Fortunately the shutdown button worked as normal and I restarted and the PC worked as normal.

Any one else had this issue or something similar. I assume it was just a scam, but looked realistic. Thanks. H

On a visit to a friend's Facebook page, my eye was attracted to a box saying something about Melania Trump was filing for divorce against her husband, Donald.

As the box was a link and seeing how Donald had only just been elected as the new President just the day before, I clicked on it to read more.

I was immediately 'hijacked' by something similar to what you experienced, sutherlh1.

I couldn't shut the page down or move away from it. Aaaargh! The page was telling me to phone a number, pay a fee, etc, etc, etc. Well, I wasn't going to be doing any of that stuff, so here's what I did.

I hit Ctrl/Del to bring up the Task Manager to then use it to completely shut down the Chrome browser. Sorted!

Then I ran an AV Scan: Nothing to report.
I then cleaned the PC with CCleaner.
I then searched for Malware with ADW Cleaner and did another clean with what it found, which was nothing much, really.

Thanks Execline, I am currently running a full computer AV scan and will follow up with PC Cleaner and ADW cleaner which I currently haven't downloaded. My problem came up on a minor misspelling with a web address. I wasn't using chrome at the time. H

Careful what boxes you tick when you do the downloads.

There's generally a 'default situation' with downloads, where boxes are 'ticked already' for you and so, along with the download 'you DO WANT', you also get stuff downloaded and/or installed, that you DON'T REALLY WANT.

I've had this recently from a link on a MAM thread!

My son has had similar on his Imac - thankfully both amounted to nothing.

IMPORTANT

Autofill flaw lets scam websites steal internet users' credit card and contact details

Autofill on Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari could be giving sensitive details to phishers using a simple flaw

Telegraph
Cara McGoogan
10 JANUARY 2017 • 3:23PM

As the use of multiple usernames and passwords across different sites becomes common online practice, people increasingly turn to password managers and browser autofill in order to log in. While this is the recommended way to stay safe online, a newly discovered flaw in popular browsers and password managers could let scammers steal sensitive information, a researcher has found.

The flaw affects the autofill function, which saves personal information and automatically pastes it to prevent repetitive typing, on browsers including Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari. It also affects some plugins and add-ons including the LastPass password manager.

When a user starts to input information into a website, such as their name, autofill suggests information to paste into other boxes on the page. Once the user clicks on one of the suggestions the function automatically pastes information into text boxes on the site.

Security researcher Viljami Kuosmanen has discovered that autofill will also paste information into hidden text boxes, allowing scammers to steal information without users knowing. This could include name, personally identifying information, email address, phone number and addresses.

Credit card details could also be affected, although browsers tend to warn users before inputting this information on insecure sites.

As an example of how the scam could work, Kuosmanen created a website that asks for a user's name and email address but contains hidden boxes that are automatically filled with address, organisation and phone number.

The attack only works if users select one of the autofill suggestions, meaning the best method of protection is to avoid clicking on these until a fix has been released. Disabling autofill is also a possibility, as is managing security settings. For example, Chrome users can deselect "Enable Autofill to fill out web forms in a single click" in Settings -> Advanced.

It doesn't affect Mozilla's Firefox browser as this autofills each field individually.

Here's a very long list of the scams which are around at the moment, kindly collated by Coventry City Council:

http://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/30/trading_standards/412/scams_and_warnings/7

I have a BT e-mail address and actually have had a few problems of late, in that too much stuff ends up in my Trash folder and is treated as Trash by BT when it shouldn't be.

This morning I received an International Call (with no visible caller number).

Well, that sort of call immediately puts me 'on my guard' and 9/10 I would immediately drop the call after lifting the receiver off its charger cradle by putting it straight back on the cradle again. This time I hung on to see who was calling.

A young lady, definitely of 'international origin' and with good English, quickly explained she was from BT and that she was calling me because they had experienced lots of 'errors' on my account.

She then asked if I had a PC? (Hmmm? My curiosity is being aroused) "Yes."
She asked if it would be possible for me to switch it on? (Hmmm? Well BT, and myself too, certainly do have a few e-mail problems. But I know for a fact, that BT don't go about solving them like this) "Sorry, I am not going to do that."

I then hung up.

I've had Scottish area codes used for cover I dare say , it looks as if it must be an ok call to the receiver legit lets say , but I used to make a note of every number i received from these crooks and it was in the hundreds . Some people fall for it and i suppose that's how they work , numbers .

few days ago I received this email below
I reported to Itunes " I have no account with you and did not purchase any of the "netflix", so I suspect is a PHISHING"
I did not click any of the links send to me, as I suspect is what they wanted


Receipt - LON662756610819016464
I
Itunes ®
Reply|Sat 07/01, 14:15
You

iTunes. . . .

Dear XXXX.com
This email confirms your purchase of the following subscription
Name of Subscription: Netflix 1S Plan
Name of Application: Netflix
Content Provider: Netflix, Inc.
Date of purchase: 05 January 2017
Subscription Period: 2 month
Price: 66.99
Payment Method: iTunes account
The subscription period will automatically renew unless you turn it off no later than 48 hours before the end of the current period. To cancel auto-renewal or manage your subscriptions, click below and sign in.
You can cancel a Subscription at any time: Cancel / Refund Subscriptions
Regards,
The iTunes Store team

My son received this text earlier - the page linked looks very convincing!

FINAL REQUEST:DVLA
Swansea have been trying to contact you,
Click below for more information.

http://tax-disc.gov.uk.dvla.ma1.pw/info.html

also see Scam warning for DVLA customers

Warning over fake bank websites targeting British savers

Hundreds of fake websites that appear to be owned by major high street banks have been discovered online, raising fears that fraudsters are targeting UK savers.

Researchers found as many as 324 sites that look like they are run by respected brands including Natwest, HSBC and Barclays, but are in fact owned by individuals.

Internet security firm Domain Tools found web addresses including hsbc-direct.com, barclaya.net, barclays-supports.com and lloydstsbs.com are all owned by third parties rather than the banks themselves.

Telegraph - Warning over fake bank websites targeting British savers