Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Hackers Still Looking At Download Sites

When illegal downloading was at its peak about ten years ago, it was once of the first niches those hackers cut their teeth on. Is it possible to say that things were more innocent then and the viruses that they succeeded in slipping into innocents lovers of file sharing's computers were considerably less sophisticated than they are today, but that doesn't mean that they didn't succeed in doing a lot of damage and on a very wide scale. Thankfully today most download sites have gone legitimate and the pubic are prepared to pay a few pounds a month to access virus free music.

However there are always people who cannot resist the temptation of getting something for nothing, and will frequent the few "free" download websites that can still be found sprinkled covertly around the internet. And a whole new generation of hackers is lying in wait for those naively innocent people who are prepared to take unnecessary risks to save a comparatively low sum of money, and instead expose themselves to the clear and present danger of becoming victims of cyber-fraud. Not only are these sites a virtual loading bay for computer viruses and malware, they also house the launching pad for a real-live hand tailored scam designed to cause these illegal down loaders to believe that they have committed an online crime and have been fined for breaching anti-piracy laws. The message, which is believed to be generated by a Trojan horse downloaded on to the victim's computer that send them a named and addressed pop message stating that they have been traced downloading illegal torrents and they have been found guilty and charged in their absence, with refusal to pay the fine resulting in a jail sentence. The fine, of course, is to be sent by credit card only to a foundation established specially to deal with cyber crime. The foundation is of course fictitious and the information sent is then used to withdraw as much money as possible from the victim's credit cards.

The hackers base their theory on the assumption that the people, who are still prepared to download music illegally, probably won't have enough presence of mind to install anyway proper anti-virus software. If you fall into that category, or fear that someone in your family might be tempted to download music or films illegally, at least do yourself a favour and install the best and most powerful anti virus software that you can find to keep these hackers at bay.

 

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