Explore the latest news and trends  

Sign up for our weekly security newsletter


Be the first to receive important updates on security





Send

Shropshire Residents Cautioned over Email Scams

Recently, Trading Standards Chiefs cautioned Shropshire (county of England) residents to be protected against the e-mail and the postal scams as the Christmas is approaching near and the probability of such scams is more during the festive season, as reported by Shropshirestar on November 18, 2010.

According to them, during this season, generally there is an increase in the number of scams. Besides, officers are requesting everybody to be extra alert while opening e-mail attachments or links, which they are not expecting.

According to the Telford & Wrekin Council Trading Standards Officers (Telford, Shropshire, UK), presently, scam e-mails are quite prevalent and pretends to come from DHL or FedEx.

Commenting on the scam, Council Spokeswoman Rebecca Parry stated that, these fake e-mails claim that a package could not be delivered and has been sent back to the DHL/FedEx office because of a wrong address. Apart from the content, the mail also contains an attachment, which is claimed to be a mailing label, but is actually a virus. She further added that, the e-mail urges the readers to get a print of that attachment along with them for receiving the parcel, as reported by Shropshirestar on November 18, 2010.

Councillor Miles Hosken, Telford & Wrekin Council's Cabinet Member for Community Protection and Cohesion stated that, if users are not expecting a delivery they should straight away ignore all such e-mails as it might be a scam, which may cause them severe financial losses.

Security experts highlighted that that the main problem with such fake e-mails is that they frequently continue to propagate for months or even years after the described threat has vanished for once.

Hence, due to the maliciousness linked with such kind of scam e-mails, security experts suggest netizens to install and frequently update their anti-virus software. Besides, they should update the software that is installed on their system like, browser updates, Adobe software, or applications. They further recommended that users should protect their computer with the help of both anti malware programs and firewall.

Furthermore, they suggested netizens to avoid opening random e-mail attachments or links sent by random or unknown users as they might be infected with viruses and other types of malware. Besides, anyone doubtful regarding any e-mail or who feels that they can fell prey to a scam should immediately contact consumer Direct on their hotline numbers.

Related article: Service-Denial-Attacks in the UK Now Attract Stricter Penalties

ยป SPAMfighter News - 11/30/2010

3 simple steps to update drivers on your Windows PCSlow PC? Optimize your Slow PC with SLOW-PCfighter!Email Cluttered with Spam? Free Spam Filter!

Dear Reader

We are happy to see you are reading our IT Security News.

We do believe, that the foundation for a good work environment starts with fast, secure and high performing computers. If you agree, then you should take a look at our Business Solutions to Spam Filter & Antivirus for even the latest version of Exchange Servers - your colleagues will appreciate it!

Go back to previous page
Next