Cheshire police issue computer warning to Crewe residents (From Crewe Guardian)

Cheshire police issue computer warning to Crewe residents

10:15am Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News

CREWE residents are advised to be aware of malicious computer software (malware) currently circulating the internet.

Cheshire Constabulary has issued a warning to computer users across the county following reports of malware scams purporting to be from law enforcement agencies.

The specific type of malware locks computer screens and requests the victim to pay a fine to get their machine unlocked.

A police spokesman said: “This is a fraud and users are advised not to pay out any monies or hand out any bank details.

“Cheshire Police would never contact members of the public via email and demand funds in this way.

“We would advise anyone who has been deceived by such a message and parted with any money to report the offence to their local police by dialling 101.

“In order to reduce the chances of being infected by this or similar malware, police strongly recommend that anti-virus software is both used and, importantly, routinely updated to keep pace with new threats as they are discovered.”

Operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS also routinely issue updates that patch potential vulnerabilities.

Advice can be found at www.getsafeonline.org Guidance on reporting specific cyber crime: Virus or malware infections where no money has been lost can be logged at www.actionfraud.org.uk/report_fraud PayPal or eBay related issues should be sent spoof@paypal.co.uk and spoof@ebay.co.uk Banking related ‘phishing’ emails to: reports@banksafeonline.org.uk