Taking young people’s safety a step further - www.cyberfraud.org.uk – a Public Service website assisting in the fight against Cyber Crime launched its first ‘free of charge to schools’ initiative on Thursday 15th January 2009 at Balcarras School, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham.

Founder, Caroline Coats attended Balcarras School as a speaker on Young People’s Safety online, and held open discussions with Year 11 and sixth form students.

Supporting this initiative and the launch of Cyberfraud as a Public Service website, the Conservative Front Bench and shadow Minister for E-Crime, James Brokenshire MP, also addressed the ever increasing threat of Cyber Crime and the danger it poses to our young generation. Local Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Mark Coote, who has supported the Cyberfraud initiative since its inception, also helped to host the event and has brought the interested parties together.

The Cyberfraud website has received huge interest, not just locally (as reported by the Gloucestershire Echo before Christmas) but also from CNN, ITV and the Sunday Times.

Caroline Coats said, "Sadly it is estimated that one in seven children and teenagers are, at some stage, approached by online predators. On the positive side the Web is an exciting experience, and gives everyone an opportunity to increase our level of knowledge at the click of a mouse."

"However," adds Caroline, "chatrooms and social networking sites pose a high level  threat for our children and we need to ensure that young people are educated about this and can make educated and informed choices."

Mark Coote said, "The Cyberfraud website launched by Caroline Coats is a fantastic initiative, borne out of the trauma of being a victim herself of serious cyberfraud. This website provides a public service of protection. I have invited the shadow Minister to Balcarras to see what the website contains and to listen to the experience of young people. It is important that a future Government tackles what is a growing trend in cybercrime, and we are all potentially victims."

Read the article in the Gloucester Echo to find out more....

From: G20 Info [inforv11@bluewin.ch]

Sent: 01 June 2009 12:56

Subject: GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS RELIEF AID FROM THE OFFICE OF THE MANAGEMENT AND PAYMENT

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS RELIEF AID FROM THE OFFICE OF THE MANAGEMENT AND PAYMENT BUREAU FOREIGN/COMMONWEALTH

King Charles Street London SW1A United Kingdom

RECESSION RELIEF PROGRAM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS VICTIMS            ============================================================

Attention: Beneficiary,

As part of ways to assist victims of the global economic recession and also in accordance with the just concluded G20 meeting held over here in London, England, I wish to happily inform you that you have been issued a payout sum of (US$2, 500, 000, 00) Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only as you are one of the first beneficiaries of this recession relief program jointly organized and funded by all nations of the G20 and the Commonwealth.

Having gone through our records, we discovered that you have in one way or the other in the past contributed to the welfare of your local environment and community at large.

You are therefore advised to contact the officer immediately as stated below;

Contact Person: Jonathan Burns Funds Disbursement Officer RECESSION RELIEF PROGRAM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS VICTIMS, Email: cust.care@inbox.com

Please provide them with the under listed information’s below as soon as possible as the method of disbursement are thus: ATM CARD DELIVERY.

1: Full Names

2: Delivery Address

3: Phone Number(s)

Thank you

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. Philip

England  G20 Secretary

One of our visitors received this email supposedly from Lloyds TSB - But just check the spelling....... AND NEVER CLICK ON THE LINK!!

One of our visitors received this email, and we think it is rather suspect, so if you receive any mail of this nature, best IGNORE IT!

-----Original Message-----
From: kaeley.tang <kaeley.tang@hknsc.org>
To: seymoursolutions <seymoursolutions@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, 21 May 2009 13:12
Subject: Your Domain name (seymourfinancialsolutions)' Register notice

Dear CEO/Manager,

We are a domain name registration center in Hong Kong, mainly dealing with domain name registration and internet intellectual property rights protection. On May. 20,2009 we received a formal application from a local company of your country who is applying to register some domain names with the keyword “seymourfinancialsolutions” and register it as their internet keyword. After investigation, we find that you are the original user of the keyword. As this refers to your company name or trade mark, and in order to avoid the confusion and dispute on the internet, we inform you and would like to know your ideas, if you agree about this issue, we will finish the third company's registration, If you don't agree the third company to register, please inform me. looking forward to your reply. thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

Kind Regards,

Kaeley tang

This Scam alert was forwarded by David, one of our visitors...

Needless to say, if you receive ANY mail looking like this - IGNORE IT! Never answer back, as the scammer will know that your email address is "live"

-----Original Message-----
From: foladay dagogo <foladay.dagogo0045@msn.com>
Sent: Sat, 9 May 2009 4:49
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU? I HAVE A BUSINESS PROPOSAL FOR YOU.

 Iam DR.FOLADAY DAGOGO.I want to enquire from you if you can handle this transaction of $19.3m dollars belonging to our bank deceased customer who died along with his family during their vacation,i will give you more details and what will be your percentage for your assistants as soon as i receive your reply

If you are interested, please forward me the bellow information's;

Your name: ............................Sex.............
Your country: .........................
Your phone Number: ......................
Your Tel/fax: ...........................
Your age: ...............................
Your occupation: .......................
Thank for your anticipated co-operation

Yours Faithfully,
DR.FOLADAY DAGOGO.

BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER  AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB).

PRIVATE TELEPHONE; +226-78508147

E-MAIL ID dr.foladay_dagogo104@ymail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: lloyds TSB <security@lloydstsb.co.uk>
To: wlldav332@aol.com
Sent: Thu, 7 May 2009 3:51
Subject: On-line Banking Urgent Security Message

Dear Customer,

Lloyds TSB. Always look forward for the high security of our clients. During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, we have detected a slight error in your account information.This might be due to either of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information.
2. Submitting invalid information during the initial sign in process.

Due to this, you are requested to update and verify your information by clicking the link below:

https: //online.lloydstsb.co.uk/customer.ibc/

*Important*
We have asked few additional information which is going to be the part of secure login process. These additional information will be asked during your future login security so, please provide all these info completely and correctly otherwise due to security reasons we may have to close your account temporarily.

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Jennifer Putinski
Security Advisor
Lloyds TSB.

We received this from one of our visitors, it shows this age old scam is still about.  The visitor has written back to inform them that the police have been informed, but it's unlikely to stop this problem.

We are taking the step of informing MSN that the registered email account is being used by a cyber fraudster. MSN can take up to three months to even investigate our registrations so it’s likely people will receive more of the same.

I NEED TRUST
 
Dear Friend,

Let me start by introducing myself, I am Mr Kalila John the Bill and Exchange Manager of Africa Development Bank Burkina faso.
 
I am writting you this letter based on the latest development at my Department which I will like to bring to your personal edification.($29.2million transfer claims).
 
This is a legitimate transaction and I agreed to offer you 40% of this money as my foreign partner after confirmation of the fund in your bank account, If you are interested,get back to me immediately  for more details,
 

Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Kalila John.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER  AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB).
PRIVATE TELEPHONE; +226-76 46 88 50

Cyberfraud warns.....

Opening, responding to, or clicking on attachments contained in unsolicited e-mail is particularly harmful and should be avoided.

Computer security top guns around the world watched warily as the dreaded Conficker worm squirmed deeper into infected machines with the arrival of an April 1st trigger date. 

The malicious software evolved, as expected, from East to West, beginning in time zones first to greet April Fool's Day.

Dear HSBC Bank UK Cardholder,

DON'T click – that's the message from the founder of a website alerting people about cyber fraud.

With a growing number of online scams being reported each year, Cheltenham computer whiz Caroline Coats wants to warn people to be careful when they click.

"It could be a simple email claiming to be from a supermarket, but one false click can a let a virus into your system," said Caroline.

"From there it can access a whole host of information, even recording the pattern of keystrokes. They can log the keystrokes and recognise when an account number or sort code is entered – it's that easy.

"When you get an email, ask yourself 'Can it be trusted?' before clicking in."

Once a false click is made, the consequences cannot be stopped and the damage is beyond repair.

While email scams are one way of the fraudster targeting potential victims, Caroline warns that uploading information yourself can also leave you exposed to fraud.

She became victim to fraud herself when her CV was accessed by a fraudster and personal information was used to steal her identity and access bank records.

   Read the complete Article....

Following  a letter received from a French Victim (found on our victims page), we have investigated, ands would advise the following:

The company email address sales@syndeck.com is no longer operational:

'(The following recipient(s) could not be reached: sales@syndeck.com on 25/02/2009 16:14
The destination server for this recipient could not be found in Domain Name Service (DNS).
Please verify the email address and retry. If that fails, contact your administrator'

The website is no longer live.

This victim lost  Euros 548 to a website scam.

_________________________________________

This site even carried secure verification from
GoDaddy.com.
'Verified secure by GoDaddy.com
This Web site is secured with a GoDaddy.com Web Server Certificate. Transactions on the
site are protected with up to 256-bit Secure Sockets Layer encryption.'
Domain Control Verified
GoDaddy.com has verified that the certificate holder controls the domain: www.syndeck.com
Site Name
www.syndeck.com
Certificate Status
Certificate is valid (01/19/2009 - 01/19/2010)
Repository

_________________________________________

DOMAIN REGISTRATION INFORMATION
REGISTERED ON 10 JANUARY 2009
Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: SYNDECK.COM
Registrar: GROUP NBT PLC AKA NETNAMES
Whois Server: whois.netnames.com
Referral URL: http://www.netnames.com
Name Server: DNS0.EASILY.CO.UK
Name Server: DNS1.EASILY.CO.UK
Status: ok
Updated Date: 24-feb-2009
Creation Date: 10-jan-2009
Expiration Date: 10-jan-2010

>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:42:47 EST <<<

We received this from a trusted and regular source.

IF A PERSON CALLED SIMON ASHTON (simon_25_@hotmail.co.uk)  CONTACTS YOU THROUGH  EMAIL DONT ACCEPT HIM. DELETE HIM BECAUSE HE IS A HACKER!!   

TELL EVERYONE ON YOUR  LIST BECAUSE IF SOMEBODY ON YOUR LIST ADDS HIM THEN YOU WILL GET HIM ON YOUR LIST.

 
HE WILL FIGURE OUT YOUR ID COMPUTER ADDRESS, SO COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF YOU DON'T CARE FOR THEM AND FAST BECAUSE IF HE HACKS THEIR EMAIL HE HACKS YOUR MAIL TOO!!!!!...

Thanks to a new service, you may not have to ask or answer that question. Glympse, which launched on Monday, joins Loopt and Google Latitude as the newest location-based service that uses cell phones’ GPS capability to tell people where you are.

Glympse, which is free, has taken a different approach. Unlike Loopt, which requires the sender and recipient to sign up for service and download an application, Glympse requires almost no effort on the part of the person who is following you. All they have to do is click on a Web link on a computer or a Web- enabled phone to see where you are on a map.

To transmit your location, you need to download an application to your phone and use the application to send a “Glympse,” which authorizes that person to follow you for a specific amount of time and send them the link they need to see you on a map.

Another way it differs from both Loopt and Google Latitude is that Glympse can automatically time out after tracking someone for four hours. The person being followed can also choose a shorter monitoring window, like 30 minutes.

To its credit, Loopt is also permission-based and sends reminders that you may be sharing your real-time information. Google’s Latitude service, which also requires you to give permission to be followed, only displays your approximate location — within about a half mile — but doesn’t show precisely where you are.

With Glympse, you might not know the person’s exact address, but you’ll probably be within a hundred feet.

The coolest thing about Glympse is when you are following someone on the move. You can pinpoint them on the map, see their speed, and see when and where they stop.

I used it to follow Glympse co-founder Bryan Trussle as he rode in a car from my house to San Jose. I saw him get on and off the freeway and pull into a parking lot. At one point I caught his car’s driver exceeding the speed limit by a few miles an hour.

As he compared his actual location to what I saw on my PC, we found there only a slight lag between the two — a difference of 10 seconds on average.

While I realize that some will consider this technology a little creepy, there are practical uses for it.

Some police departments, delivery services and businesses spend a lot of money on equipment to do what Glympse could do for free.

For one thing, it can reassure parents and family members that their loved ones are safe.

I remember how nervous I was when my 16-year-old daughter would use the car or ride in other kids’ cars. We’d insist that she call us when she arrived and made her tell us where she planned to go. If she had a Glympse-equipped cell phone, we could have checked in on her from time to time — and we would have known if she was speeding too.

And rather than calling people to let them know you’re arriving in 15 minutes, they can track you online or on a Web-enabled phone.

The Glympse’s public beta currently works only on the T-Mobile G1, which uses Google’s Android operating system. The company is working on versions for the iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.

Video-sharing website YouTube has removed hundreds of pornographic videos which were uploaded in what is believed to be a planned attack.

The material was uploaded under names of famous teenage celebrities such as Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers.

Many started with footage of children's videos before groups of adults performing graphic sex acts appeared on screen.

YouTube owner Google said it was aware and addressing the problem.

What are the implications of being a victim of CYBER CRIMINALS?

Being targeted by IDENTITY FRAUDSTERS can result in the
following problems:

YOU COULD BE linked incorrectly to another person
YOU COULD BE refused a credit card
YOU COULD BE refused a mortgage
YOU COULD HAVE to pay legal fees to sort the identity problems out
YOU COULD RECEIVE bills meant for a previous occupier
YOU COULD RECEIVE A court summons meant for previous occupiers
YOU COULD RECEIVE visits from bailiffs looking for previous occupiers
YOU MIGHT HAVE to pay as much as £2,100 to clear your name

Out of a survey of 6,000 people carried out by the Centre for Economics
and Business Research (CEBR), 46% had experienced
some sort of credit problem.

A complex new malware attack is setting infection records and raising serious alarms in the security community. Skip related content

Known unofficially as 'Gumblar' for one of the attack domains, the malware uses prolific attack methods and carries a dangerous payload.

Researchers say that the attack spreads by compromising web sites and injecting malicious JavaScript code into certain components of the site. A victim runs the risk of the JavaScript attack simply by visiting the infected pages.

Once a site is compromised, the malware alters access credentials and folder permissions to allow an attacker a 'back door' for entry to the site even when the user has changed passwords. The malicious code is also altered in slight ways, preventing administrators from automatically searching out and deleting the scripts.

Because the infection is so hard to get rid of, researchers say that Gumblar has enjoyed far more success than previous malware attacks.

First detected in late March, researchers thought that the attacks had been halted by mid-April when Google delisted the offending sites.

However, a new variant of the attack arose early this month and has been spreading rapidly. Security firm ScanSafe estimates that Gumblar attacks have jumped some 188 per cent over the past week alone, and Sophos credits Gumblar with up to 42 per cent of all malware infections in the past seven days.

"The gross infection rate is exceptional, especially this late in the game," said Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. "Basically, it has been enjoying a free reign."

The payload is also believed to be highly dangerous. Landesman said that the malware intercepts web traffic such as Google search requests, and redirects it to fraudulent results. This allows the attackers to collect referral fees, and places the user at risk of further infection.

The malware also contains botnet controllers and is programmed to collect all FTP permissions on the infected systems, allowing Gumblar to infect any sites which the user administrates,

According to a survey carried out by Panda Security1, more than half of adolescents between 15 and 18 years old use the Internet daily, spending, on average, 18.5 hours a week connected. The survey revealed that some 32% of this online activity is dedicated to studying, while the remaining 68% involves leisure activities, such as playing games online, watching videos, listening to music, chatting, etc.

While 63% of parents declared concern for the online security of their children, in particular relating to the threats to which they are exposed (contact with strangers, access to inappropriate content, etc.), none of them expressed among their main concerns the risk that their children could be involved in illicit activities on the Internet.

However, some 67% of the young people surveyed admitted to having tried, on at least one occasion, to hack into friends’ instant messaging or social network accounts, etc. Similarly, 20% confirmed that they had sent compromising photos of friends over the Internet or published them on the Web without prior consent.

The survey also revealed a significant amount (17%) of adolescent users who claim to have advanced technical knowledge and are able to find hacking tools on the Internet. Of these, 30% claim to have used them on at least one occasion. When asked why, 86% said that curiosity had led them to investigate these public tools.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The advanced knowledge that many adolescents acquire through free tools and content available on the Web can often lead them into activities which are sometimes even illegal. We have found cases of teenagers using Trojans to spy on their partners, hacking school servers to see exam papers or even stealing the identity of friends or colleagues on social networks”.

While there are many initiatives aimed at educating and promoting awareness of threats on the Web, there are far less that focus on detecting and addressing illegal behavior.

“We should encourage young people to use the Internet as a channel for personal development, teaching them to use it in a healthy and responsible fashion. It is important to help them avoid participating in dubious activities which are made all the easier thanks to the anonymity afforded by the Web”, urges Corrons. “Even though the percentage is very low, we still come across too many cases of adolescent cyber-criminals, such as the recent high-profile case of the 16-year-old creator of worms for Twitter. We estimate that just 0.5% of these are detected by the corresponding authorities. Those who are drawn into hacking out of curiosity, may well end up discovering the financial potential of this activity, and becoming criminals themselves.”

Unlike other sites, we aim to update information on a daily basis, and we aim to reply to any communication within 48 hours.