Stoke Web Services

22/12/2024

Heads up on a scam, again.
Today I have received notification of me winning the postcode lottery, its a scam. I know this as the email is written wrong for any kind of real notification, and I dont do the postcode lottery.

If you open the mail you will see the image below which if you click on it takes you to a fake phishing attempt page.
Please let people know about scams like these and try to help people to not fall for it, dont presume they are smart enough to fall for it, just talk about it to make them aware.

The website URL has been reported to Google and Bing and I have reported it to the server provider, so hopefully it will be removed/blocked soon ... unfortunately there will be many more like this out there.

24/10/2020

QR Code scams:
I have received an email from the good people of Malwarebytes alerting me to the QR code scam being on the rise again due to Covid.
Whilst most of the advice is pretty common sense on how to protect yourselves, the one I think that most people could fall for is the sticker over the original QR code.
As it advises, please try to check the address that the code is trying to open on your device before you click to go there and its it where you are expecting to go.

Be safe and stay alert to scammers.

Their original post:

With QR codes being used more as a means to help create a COVID-19 proof environment, we're also seeing a comeback of QR codes scams.

05/08/2018

Another quick heads up for a scam/phising attempt. I received a mail today pertaining to be from Microsoft and needing me to check my email account and using the new GDPR rules as their worm for you to bite upon.

The text of the mail goes as:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Microsoft account team"

Subject: Verify your email address due to new GDPR regulation

Content of mail:
Microsoft account
Verify your email address
To finish setting up your Microsoft account with our new GDPR regulation we just need to make sure this email address is yours.
To verify your email address click here.
Thanks,
The Microsoft team
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Which is all complete tosh. The link on the 'click here' text does not take you anywhere near the microsoft site.

If yuou get this mail, please just delete it and dont worry. If you have clicked the link go to the proper microsoft page and change your password immediately.

As usual, if you have a friend or relative that may fall foul of these horrible people, please try and teach them how to spot these fraudsters.

As Shaw Taylor would have said 'Keep 'em peeled!'.

27/03/2018

First of all, all of my appologies to you all that have BT as your ISP as my computer - router - and/or ip number has been hacked and because I wouldnt let them iinto my computer apparently the whole of your internet might go down.
Just another scammer phone call that ended up with him being offended that I called him out, still .. I did waste a half hour of their time so I hope I may have stopped someone getting scammed by them.
Listen if you wish to their lies and tosh, its a half hour sound file that is of use only to learn their scare tactics.
I am daft, but I am not as daft as I made out to them .. just trying to make their lives as difficult as possible.
https://youtu.be/rxJThUX-Lac

Scammers pretending to be from BT and 'fix' my computer issues as I am hurting their network ..

17/07/2017

Another scam attempt today, probably a very old one but I would rather me tell people twice (or more) than none at all.
Today's attempt is a supposed fax message that I have received and to see it I just need to give them my details, wifes cats maiden name, power of attourney .. the usual mining questions ... er, no. Not today.
Warn anyone that might fall for it that these are total nonsense and to delete it straight away.

28/06/2017

From Malwarebytes ..

'A new strain of ransomware, a Petya-esque variant being called Petya/NotPetya, is swiftly spreading across the globe today, impacting tens of thousands of computers as of 2:00 p.m., PST. More powerful, professional, and dangerous than last month's WanaCrypt0r attack, the Petya-esque ransomware uses the same EternalBlue exploit to target vulnerabilities in Microsoft's operating system. However, unlike WanaCrypt0r, this ransomware instructs you to reboot your computer and then locks up your entire system. Long story short: if you get this infection, you're hosed. '

For more (scary) information, see their page about it:
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2017/06/petya-esque-ransomware-is-spreading-across-the-world/?utm_source=outbreak&utm_medium=email-internal-b2c&utm_campaign=Petya&utm_content=petya-esque-ransomware

23/06/2017

Well, a new word for the day. Smishing ... the sms, or text alert version of phising.

Today I received a smishing attempt reportedly from the number: 07849666731 and the text in it was as follows:

Your PayPal Account for is temporarily locked.Follow the verification process and give us your correct info to unlock it:
http:// bit. ly / 2s38Rmz

If you click on the link you will get taken to a site that will rob your login details for paypal by pretending to be the real site, but its actually:
http:// paypal. co. uk. dws2. us /m/
(note the .dws2.us AFTER the paypals .co.uk bit )

Please make everyone aware that any bank, any isp, paypal, apple or probably any other way to spend or move money will NEVER ask you to put your details into a page that's linked from a communication.

If you do feel the need to check that what you have been told is rubbish, open a new browser window and type the address in yourself into the address bar of your chosen browser. This ensures that you will go to the intended site.

I have added a screengrab of the actual scammers site that you would land on so you can see that at a glance it looks legit. A good spotting point for this one at least is the lack of links on the Privacy and Legal at the bottom. Also the forgotten password link takes you no where as all of these would loose you from their control.

Be vigilant.

22/03/2017

eFax email scam: If anyone receives an email with the subject line similar to 'efax message from 029-2038-1245 - 3 page(s)' but the number could be different and the number of pages may change, please do NOT open it as this will take you to a page that will harm your computer.
Warn anyone who might fall for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: "eFax"
Subject: efax message from 029-2038-1245 - 3 page(s)
Text: Fax Message [Caller-ID: 029-2038-1245]

You have received a 3 pages fax at 22/03/2017 1:34:19 PM.

* The reference number for this fax min1_did44-02920381245-2017032210-08.

View this fax using your PDF reader.

Click here to view this message.

Please visit if you have any questions regarding this message or your service.
Thank you for using the eFax service!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Its all tosh and should be deleted straight away. I repeat, DO NOT click ANY links in the mail.

All the best.