I have something that can make your life worse!
The title for this post is also the title for an email which has begun to be received by residents in the Mackay district in the last few days.
This is the email:
The English used in this email is poor, crude and the author is obviously foreign, however, it is not difficult to follow the implied threat. The allegation is that a virus allowing remote access to a device’s camera has allowed a video recording to occur of a compromising circumstance for the recipient.
It’s my own opinion that 95 per cent of all recipients of this email will laugh it off knowing the contents are false and not true. But for the remaining 5 per cent who might be in a different circumstance, our advice is clear: do not reward criminals efforts, don’t give them your money.
Here are some tips for you:
- Be careful about what internet sites you visit – certain styles of websites are notoriously linked with viruses and malware.
- It’s a stark warning that in real life cyber criminals can access and activate your camera to video record or take images. There has recently been a movie made about this style of crime – it’s called Ratter, linked to the term RAT (Remote Access Tool or Trojan).
- Use your device camera responsibly. We tell school students that a golden rule is that any image or recording which you take with your device you should be able to show to your parents comfortably. This applies to adults also.
- Don’t allow cyber criminals to work in this field with low risk of prosecution – Report any incident of cyber crime to ACORN (Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network).
Many thanks to our friend LC for forwarding this information to us.
Source: Mackay Crime Alert
