Be careful Jaqui H and others!

[BM06]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374009/M-S-customers-hit-email-hack.html  

[Jacqui Harvey]

I think we all know about internet safety, and know how to be careful.  Lets face it we all buy on the internet, from holidays to make-up, it's not going to stop because of people scamming.  My daughter had her mail taken from a mailbox in a block of flats and her account was emptied, so theft will go on anywhere not just the internet.  I have a webshop myself so I don't want people to stop buying on the internet.
We all have to be careful.  Look at the people who use Paypal. (Has anyone every read their Terms of Service) This is a company based abroad who make up all their own rules you only have to look at www.paypalsucks.com to realise this, but it will not stop it being the biggest method of internet payment in the world.

[BM06]

I was only trying to be helpful!

[Colwyn]

I don't think this is anything to worry about really. Before I retired my employer published the email addresses of all members of staff, we were required to have our own webpages with our addresses on them, and every time I went to a conference the organizers published the addresses of all the participants. It wouldn't take a "hacker" to harvest any of these. I think people should assume that their email address is public - just as their house address is - and be careful about any unsolicited mail received either electronic or paper.

[Rindaloo]

Yes, it really would be intelligent and considerate if people would put everyone's address into the bcc field only, when sending mail to a group of people.  Its not a problem to do and that way the addresses are invisible.

[Old Daffodil]

I had a big warning sign come up with a very convincing lot of stuff on it to say that the computer had viruses and I needed to download a file to get rid of them. It was a scam and is quite well known (I have forgotten what it is called now). It looked so convincing and with all the flashing signs I was in a panic for a while but did not download anything. Perhaps someone knows what this scam is called!

[nichola]

Thanks Steve, it is useful to be reminded to be cautious; I have seen an increase in emails "reminding" me that a payment for some such thing is due.

Usually poorly constructed with typos and words like IMMEDIATELY spelt in capitols are a bit of a give away but the last one I received was fairly plausable!

[kayakebab]

I am expecting a tax rebate and had an email yesterday from the Inland Revenue telling me my rebate needed to be claimed and there wouldn't be any more reminders.
The weird thing was the amount 'due' was about what I had calculated so I clicked on the link and the computer told me its probably a phising scam.
I'm usually very hard to fool with these things but am slightly believing it could be real, but just don't remember giving them my email address, although its possible my old emplyer might have done.

[Jacqui Harvey]

The Revenue do not send emails to tell you that you have a rebate.  It's a scam.  I get them all the time.  Be careful if you have clicked into this site as some of these scams try to get access to your computer though you clicking into them.
Go to the H.M.Revenue website where you will see a warning about these scams they also give you an email address to send scams to so they can deal with them.
If you suspect a scam, click into "File then Properties then Details then Message source" at the top of your page, it will give you exactly where the email came from. Often you see it's coming from abroad, last one I got came from Denmark.   When you report these scams you should send a copy of the "Message source" with the original mail. I always do.

[scooby doo]

Thank you BM06, im sure most of us appreciate your comments. As not all of us are aware of these viruses, i for one do a lot of internet shopping. But that doesnt make me a computor whizz, unlike Jacqui.