"It has come to Adobe's attention that e-mail messages purporting to offer a download of the Adobe Reader have been sent by entities claiming to be Adobe," the company said in a statement warning about it. "Many of these e-mails are signed as 'Adobe PDF' (or similar), and in some instances require recipients to register and/or provide personal information. Please be aware that these e-mails are phishing scams and have not been sent by Adobe or on Adobe's behalf."

The real Adobe Reader download page is on the Adobe Web site at http://get.adobe.com/reader

If you have been a victim of online fraud you can now report it to Action Fraud tel: 0300 123 2040

Never click on a link instead go to PayPal by typing in the URL (web address) into the browser.

Dear PayPal Member,

This email confirms that you have paid robertoelectronics (roberto211@aol.co.uk) £ 240.00 GBP using PayPal. This credit card transaction will appear on your bill as "PAYPAL robertoelectronics*".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PayPal Shopping Cart Contents
 
Item Name:  Nokia 8800 Brand New
Quantity:  1
 
Total:  £ 210.00 GBP  
  

Cart Subtotal:  £ 210.00 GBP
Shipping Charge:  £ 30.00 GBP
Cart Total:  £ 240.00 GBP 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shipping Information

Shipping Info:  Roberto Iank
540 Catherine Road
New York, NY 10018
United States
 
Address Status:  Unconfirmed  

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If you haven't authorized this charge, click the link below to cancel the payment and get a full
refund. Request a refund form. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

If you have become a victim of this scam immediately go to your PayPal account and change your password. If you can't access the account then report the compromised account to PayPal. Also, contact the credit card company or your bank associated with your PayPal account.

You should also change all accounts that use the same email and password as PayPal. We always recommend setting up multiple email accounts for friends, financial accounts and social networking. That way if one email account is compromised then not all of your online activity is at risk.

"Due to technical problems your purchse of *date* has not been charged. You are now being billed 4GBP. Apologies for the dealy. Help? 02032863990" Nextcard ltd.

Do not respond to this text. Report it to PhonePayPlus 0800 500 212.

Today, there is another warning about problems with Internet Explorer. SC Magazine reports that Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser suffers from several minor flaws, which, when combined, can allow an attacker to read all the files on a user's computer, according to researchers at penetration testing vendor Core Security Technologies.

Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina, a security consultant at Core Security Technologies, is scheduled to give a presentation on Feb. 3 at the Black Hat conference in Washington, D.C., demonstrating how an attacker could leverage four to five flaws in design features of Internet Explorer to read every file on a user's computer. Following  the presentation, Medina plans to release proof of concept demonstrating the attack, as well as further details on the flaws.

Perhaps it is time for users to consider using a new browser. Try FireFox or Chrome.

Times online reports that in 2008 there were virtually no Facebook phishing/spam messages. Today Facebook is the second most phished organisation online and, if current trends continue, is on track to take the top spot in 2010, according to a report from a voluntary community of web defenders called Project Honey Pot.

Spammers target Facebook because users trust their friends. If a friend sends a link or a message saying the need help then it is more believable.

Cyber criminals can access people's online identities by using password hacking software that tries millions of variants of everyday words in a few minutes. Because many people use the same passwords for all sorts of different services, this can help them gain access to social network profiles.

"The explosion of applications on Facebook and other services will be an ideal way for cyber criminals, who will take advantage of friends trusting friends to click links they might otherwise treat cautiously," a report from McAfee said.

Mr Prince points out that in the last five years cyber-criminals have become organised, well funded and sophisticated. It is a multimillion-dollar business that uses specialist agents to harvest email, creating the spam messages, produce the fake goods or pills and running the botnets that send the spam out.

Spam stats

— Spammers use dozens of tricks to get through e-mail filters that block messages containing
frequently used spam words. Project Honey Pot researchers counted 956 different spellings of
the word Viagra including V1AGRA, V1@GR@, V!AGRA, VIA6RA. Other words such as Free, Mortgage
and Rolex also have hundreds of different spellings.

— Monday is the busiest day of the week for e-mail spam, and Saturday the quietest. Spam
volumes peak around midday (GMT) and reach a low around 11pm (GMT). Spam volumes drop nearly
21 per cent on Christmas Day and 32 per cent on New Year's Day. Junk mailers take time off
over the holidays just like everyone else.

— It takes the average spammer around two and a half weeks from harvesting an e-mail address
to sending the first spam message to this address, according to Project Honey Pot. Every time
a user's e-mail address is harvested from a website, it results in an average of 850 spam
messages.

— Spam accounted for 87 per cent of all e-mail messages in 2009, according to Symantec.

— The death of Michael Jackson generated the most celebrity spam in 2009, accounting for just
under 2 per cent of all spam messages.

The Star.Com published an article highlights the problem of people not using secure passwords.

Most of us routinely use passwords so simple, a monkey could figure them out. In fact, “monkey” is one of our favourites.

Amichai Shulman is the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for thwarting hackers. Recently, he undertook a study of 32 million passwords stolen by an unknown hacker from Rockyou!, an online service that makes widgets for social networking sites like Facebook.

The list is depressing testimony to our collective lack of creativity in the arena of personal security.

“I guess it’s just a flaw in human genetics,” Shulman told the New York Times.

Bottom line, if your password is your first name and your secret first name isn’t NEhBuT3W4l.6, better think about making a switch.

Here they are, listed 1 through 32, in order of popularity:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

11. nicole

12. daniel

13. babygirl

14. monkey

15. jessica

See full list here

Scam 1

Dear PayPal Customer, recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account. requested information from you for the following reason: determined someone may have tried to access your PayPal account without your permission. is a third and final reminder to log in to PayPal as soon as possible. appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety. encourage you to log in to your PayPal account as soon as possible to help avoid this. www.paypal.co.uk thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. apologize for any inconvenience. Account Review Department

The scammers get zero points for grammer and punctuation. They are so impersonal "Dear PayPal Customer". I'm sure PayPal would use your name. The link doesn't take you to PayPal.co.uk but STARTDEDICATED.COM!

Scam 2

We recently have determined that different computers have logged into your account, and multiple password failures were present before the login. Therefore your account has been limited.

Please download the form attached to this email and open it in a web browser. Once opened, you will be provided with steps to restore your access. We appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure account safety.

          PayPaI All rights reserved

This email came from Korea. PayPal - a 100% Internet based company doesn't ask people to download a form to fill out! PayPal wouldn't miss spell their own name!

They ask you to go to your computer and follow their instructions. If  you do follow their instructions then you let them remotely access your computer. They claim to see the virus and will fix it for you for a fee.

It is a scam. It isn't clear if they actually load malware on to the computer but I suggest victims have their computer cleaned. Once the computer is checked then change all a passwords.

Contact any online bank/paypal and inform them that it the computer was compromised.

The UK phone numbers that the scammers are using are 01274 900834 & 01274 449373. They use different names and often claim to be from Microsoft. They use English names but speak with an Indian accent.

Here are some free scans