a scam

some one has sent my son a message to his lap top saying he has carried out an illegal download on his laptop,the message said he has been fined £100 and should pay up within 72 hours or criminal charges will be made,untill it is paid his laptop has been locked.he took it to the police who said it is a scam [as i thought}but how does he un lock his laptop?by the way a friend had his laptop for a week to ""up date it"

What do you mean it's locked?

my laptop is blocked becausecomputer will only show main screen then puts a picture of met police

nicho216 wrote:my laptop is blocked becausecomputer will only show main screen then puts a picture of met police

Yeah, the computer has malware.

One moment.

I know sod all about technology basically, but I am very cynical, so I think the most basic lesson to anyone using their laptop is NEVER open messages from senders you don't recognize, just delete them without reading them. I've had quite a few, I suspect because I use the GLP forum which is huge. They're usuallly titled "your bank needs to contact you urgently" or something like that. Don't open them. Ever.

nicho216 wrote:my laptop is blocked becausecomputer will only show main screen then puts a picture of met police

This is a fake scam that has been running for sometime, in the uk it will claim it is from the met office.

This happened to my sister and the only way to get rid of this is to restart your computer from limited settings, thus only allowing basic programs to start and then you will have to do a system restore, which may lose you some files you have stored. Otherwise you will need to phone up an IT helpline which may cost you!

Tess wrote:I know sod all about technology basically, but I am very cynical, so I think the most basic lesson to anyone using their laptop is NEVER open messages from senders you don't recognize, just delete them without reading them. I've had quite a few, I suspect because I use the GLP forum which is huge. They're usuallly titled "your bank needs to contact you urgently" or something like that. Don't open them. Ever.

Better yet, use disposable e-mail for registering on sites. Such as http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
Have one e-mail account for sites that you probably need to hold onto your e-mail for, like your online banking or whatever.
Have another e-mail for personal things, like for friends.

I use so many different e-mails for different things.

thanks didge, my son is doing it now

by the way we have two laptops,thats how i can post.

Evening Tea wrote:

Better yet, use disposable e-mail for registering on sites. Such as http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
Have one e-mail account for sites that you probably need to hold onto your e-mail for, like your online banking or whatever.
Have another e-mail for personal things, like for friends.

I use so many different e-mails for different things.

Thanks Et. I'll use that one.

Didge wrote:

This is a fake scam that has been running for sometime, in the uk it will claim it is from the met office.

This happened to my sister and the only way to get rid of this is to restart your computer from limited settings, thus only allowing basic programs to start and then you will have to do a system restore, which may lose you some files you have stored. Otherwise you will need to phone up an IT helpline which may cost you!

I was looking through the setup menu earlier and couldn't find anything about that, how is he meant to do it?

Evening Tea wrote:

I was looking through the setup menu earlier and couldn't find anything about that, how is he meant to do it?

He will be unable to restart his laptop so will have to shut down via the on/off button. Thne turn the laptop back on and you will get an option of how you wish to restart the laptop and here needs to choose the option of starting limited startup, off the top of my head, sorry at work and unable to check. This will then only start up limited systems ont he laptop, but will stop the virus from appearing. Next go in systems for system restore, which will wipe out the virus, but may lose any new files saved to the laptop.

Sorry is difficult to say, when easier to show!

nicho216 wrote:thanks didge, my son is doing it now

Hope it works, am no expert, but from helping my sister this seemed the best way!

Didge wrote:

He will be unable to restart his laptop so will have to shut down via the on/off button. Thne turn the laptop back on and you will get an option of how you wish to restart the laptop and here needs to choose the option of starting limited startup, off the top of my head, sorry at work and unable to check. This will then only start up limited systems ont he laptop, but will stop the virus from appearing. Next go in systems for system restore, which will wipe out the virus, but may lose any new files saved to the laptop.

Sorry is difficult to say, when easier to show!

Oh, Jesus fúck, you're right.
I forgot that if you use the power button you get those options, I'm retarded.

Evening Tea wrote:

Oh, Jesus fúck, you're right.
I forgot that if you use the power button you get those options, I'm retarded.

Nah is easy to forget when you rarely have to use!

didge,laptop working ok now,son sends thanks.

nicho216 wrote:some one has sent my son a message to his lap top saying he has carried out an illegal download on his laptop,the message said he has been fined £100 and should pay up within 72 hours or criminal charges will be made,untill it is paid his laptop has been locked.he took it to the police who said it is a scam [as i thought}but how does he un lock his laptop?by the way a friend had his laptop for a week to ""up date it"

is his laptop actually locked?
if it is then he has got a virus, these sort of things happen from time to time and it is not a scam, but blackmail

nicho216 wrote:my laptop is blocked becausecomputer will only show main screen then puts a picture of met police

try booting in safe mode and then run a virus scan

hold the F8 key down while you start up the PC that will often get to the safe mode screen if you cannot access it.

Hi folks. I've said this before and will repeat it: Subscribe to a creidble security firm. I joined McAfee last year, I think it's about £45 a year. Since joining I get regular updates, no viruses, no intrusions or hackers etc. Believe me, it is well worth paying for. If I do a search for anything and get thousands of websites, any one I click on is vetted by McAfee and warns me if its suspicious, likewise emails.

Evening Tea wrote:

Tess wrote:I know sod all about technology basically, but I am very cynical, so I think the most basic lesson to anyone using their laptop is NEVER open messages from senders you don't recognize, just delete them without reading them. I've had quite a few, I suspect because I use the GLP forum which is huge. They're usuallly titled "your bank needs to contact you urgently" or something like that. Don't open them. Ever.

Better yet, use disposable e-mail for registering on sites. Such as http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
Have one e-mail account for sites that you probably need to hold onto your e-mail for, like your online banking or whatever.
Have another e-mail for personal things, like for friends.

I use so many different e-mails for different things.

that will not work on here as I block those sites as they are often used by scammers.
just set up a separate hotmail, gmail etc email for logging into other sites.

Tess wrote:

Evening Tea wrote:

Better yet, use disposable e-mail for registering on sites. Such as http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
Have one e-mail account for sites that you probably need to hold onto your e-mail for, like your online banking or whatever.
Have another e-mail for personal things, like for friends.

I use so many different e-mails for different things.

Thanks Et. I'll use that one.

theya re no good if you need an activation code and they take time sending it.

stardesk wrote:Hi folks. I've said this before and will repeat it: Subscribe to a creidble security firm. I joined McAfee last year, I think it's about £45 a year. Since joining I get regular updates, no viruses, no intrusions or hackers etc. Believe me, it is well worth paying for. If I do a search for anything and get thousands of websites, any one I click on is vetted by McAfee and warns me if its suspicious, likewise emails.

you mean the firm run by the bloke who developed virus's in the first place.


there is no real need to use a paid for virus scanner as AVG and others like them offer free scanners that will protect your PC for nothing.
they also get daily updates. Until AVG released a dodgy upgrade that caused crashes I have used it since about 2000 or so.
I have never had a virus affect my PC whilst using it, although it caught several attempts and removed them.
Most virus's get into peoples PC's because the user lets them.
Often by being tempted to get something for nothing.
virus's can be hidden in practically any file type. even pictures.
In nearly 30 years of use I have had one activate and that was in about 1985 on an atari ST.
just steer clear of russian download sites, porn sites and free games sites and of course cracked programs.

there was a popular game in the 90's called leisure suit larry, there were also many cracked versions. One of those cracked versions, when you completed the game erased everything on your hard drive.

A friend of a friend was playing it on his company's servers, the rest like him is history.

Flap Meister wrote:

you mean the firm run by the bloke who developed virus's in the first place.


there is no real need to use a paid for virus scanner as AVG and others like them offer free scanners that will protect your PC for nothing.
they also get daily updates. Until AVG released a dodgy upgrade that caused crashes I have used it since about 2000 or so.
I have never had a virus affect my PC whilst using it, although it caught several attempts and removed them.
Most virus's get into peoples PC's because the user lets them.
Often by being tempted to get something for nothing.
virus's can be hidden in practically any file type. even pictures.
In nearly 30 years of use I have had one activate and that was in about 1985 on an atari ST.
just steer clear of russian download sites, porn sites and free games sites and of course cracked programs.

there was a popular game in the 90's called leisure suit larry, there were also many cracked versions. One of those cracked versions, when you completed the game erased everything on your hard drive.

A friend of a friend was playing it on his company's servers, the rest like him is history.

Avast is also good, and has a free version.

wyatt1 wrote:

Flap Meister wrote:

you mean the firm run by the bloke who developed virus's in the first place.


there is no real need to use a paid for virus scanner as AVG and others like them offer free scanners that will protect your PC for nothing.
they also get daily updates. Until AVG released a dodgy upgrade that caused crashes I have used it since about 2000 or so.
I have never had a virus affect my PC whilst using it, although it caught several attempts and removed them.
Most virus's get into peoples PC's because the user lets them.
Often by being tempted to get something for nothing.
virus's can be hidden in practically any file type. even pictures.
In nearly 30 years of use I have had one activate and that was in about 1985 on an atari ST.
just steer clear of russian download sites, porn sites and free games sites and of course cracked programs.

there was a popular game in the 90's called leisure suit larry, there were also many cracked versions. One of those cracked versions, when you completed the game erased everything on your hard drive.

A friend of a friend was playing it on his company's servers, the rest like him is history.

Avast is also good, and has a free version.

there are many good free virus scanners, it is only a few extras that you have to pay for from mcafee and others.
I have had mcafee and norton products in the past but never thought they were worth paying for and I only ever used them during their free period.
AS I say up until a recent update I would have recommended AVG to anyone.
I really must check their user forum to see if the problem has been rectified.

Flap Meister wrote:there are many good free virus scanners, it is only a few extras that you have to pay for from mcafee and others.
I have had mcafee and norton products in the past but never thought they were worth paying for and I only ever used them during their free period.
AS I say up until a recent update I would have recommended AVG to anyone.
I really must check their user forum to see if the problem has been rectified.

I used to have AVG but tried Avast and really liked it, you should give it a try.