topic Re: Taking Your Files Hostage in Electronics

Taking Your Files Hostage

Jordan2 — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 01:42:01 GMT

I was watching my local news and they had this story of two different women who got a message on their computers that their files were encrypted (I think that's what it said) and if they wanted them back they needed to pay $400. One woman paid and got her files back.I think she had to pay by a gift card.The other woman had a friend who knew a lot about computers but he couldn't figure it out. She refused to pay and lost all her pictures, recipes, etc. I don't understand how someone can get away with this. I just hope this isn't going to become something we all must worry about.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

scotnovel — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 01:50:25 GMT

I am pretty sure this is a scam.

Don't ever pay an anonymous source to do anything with your computer especially based on an email or computer screen message. If you don't know what to do at least check with someone who actually knows something about computers - your local computer store (don't use mom and pop computer repair shop unless you know they are legit).

You should also have a security program that scans for viruses regularly and also picks up on new threats to your computer.

Also your computer can quit at any time so you should never ever lose anything like picture etc because you should ALWAYS have some kind of regular backup system. If nothing else at least put copies of your pictures and other items that you don't ever want to lose on flash drives (this isn't hard to do - I am in 60's and do it all the time and I have an aunt in her 80's that does it).

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

dooBdoo — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 01:54:48 GMT

On 3/7/2014 jordan2 said:
I was watching my local news and they had this story of two different women who got a message on their computers that their files were encrypted (I think that's what it said) and if they wanted them back they needed to pay $400. One woman paid and got her files back.I think she had to pay by a gift card.The other woman had a friend who knew a lot about computers but he couldn't figure it out. She refused to pay and lost all her pictures, recipes, etc. I don't understand how someone can get away with this. I just hope this isn't going to become something we all must worry about.

Was this a pop-up message? Or did it arrive in an email?

It's important to avoid clicking on anything like this in email or in pop-ups even if they look official or reliable. Even those that tell you to update your Adobe Flash should be avoided (go directly to the website to see if there's an update available), since there are unscrupulous people who have created pop-ups that look identical to the real thing.

The criminals are getting away with this because most of them are located outside the U.S. and it's very hard to find or prosecute them.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

Nightowlz — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:05:48 GMT

It is a scam. DH got one that says it's from the FBI & he needs to pay $$$ to fix it. They even put a pic of him on the screen using the webcam on his laptop. DH fixes it himself. I think his is from going to what I call sm~ut sites. LOL!!! Don't ever click on pop ups or click links on emails that you don't know who they are from. I wonder if they were talking about Cryptolocker? We have an external hard drive we use for backup in case we need it.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

dooBdoo — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:09:12 GMT

On 3/7/2014 Nightowlz said:
It is a scam. DH got one that says it's from the FBI & he needs to pay $$$ to fix it. They even put a pic of him on the screen using the webcam on his laptop. DH fixes it himself. I think his is from going to what I call sm~ut sites. LOL!!! Don't ever click on pop ups or click links on emails that you don't know who they are from. I wonder if they were talking about Cryptolocker? We have an external hard drive we use for backup in case we need it.

That sounds like the FBI ""Ransomware"" scam:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2012/august/new-internet-scam/

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

Buck-i-Nana — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:49:06 GMT

Those of you saying it's a "scam" comes off sounding as though you don't believe it, but it is in fact happening as the fbi report dbd posted reports. The files are encrypted with a military grade encryption that so far nobody has been able to unencrypt. Paying the ransom is no guarantee they will unlock the files either.

Best thing is to be smart. Back-up regularly so if something like this does happen to your system, you haven't lost anything. Be very careful about clicking on ANY links even from people you trust and on sites that you trust.

Too many people are vulnerable because they have their user account on their computer set with full administrator rights. The smart thing to do is to set your account without admin rights, that way even if you click on a link that tries to install something on your computer it cannot be done because the authority is not there.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

jackthebear — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:04:27 GMT

I saw the end of that story channel 2 or 4 NY @Buck I Nana. I had read the same re admin account too! although transferring all my data over to and 2nd user account has not been easy to do. I started to do it.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

Mindy D — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:13:56 GMT

People do not usually get anything in return for paying. This is an international scam, with servers in countries such as Russia. The US can't do anything unless the country where the criminal ring is works with the US. You may have to wipe everything off your computer and restore again. My BIL is a systems engineer working on a major govt. program. It happened to him, and when he couldn't get anywhere the security person for the place where he works has to wipe his computer and then put his work and personal things back in his computer. He works from home and his company restored everything for him. He is an expert's expert and even he was a victim.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

In-x-s — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:19:16 GMT

It is the new cryptolock (or something like that) virus. In some cases, they only give a certain window of time to pay or the files are locked for good. If you pay, you get the key to unlock the encrypted (password protected) files.

Another good reason you should BACK UP YOUR FILES. But since some of these also hit network drives, you shouldn't keep your back up drive attached to the computer.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

IamMrsG — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:19:31 GMT

Read about CryptoLocker at Snopes.com.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

In-x-s — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 03:22:37 GMT

On 3/7/2014 IamMrsG said:
Read about CryptoLocker at Snopes.com.

Exactly, read what IamMrsG linked to!!

Thank you, MrsG.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

Nightowlz — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:29:52 GMT

On 3/7/2014 In-x-s said:
On 3/7/2014 IamMrsG said:
Read about CryptoLocker at Snopes.com.

Exactly, read what IamMrsG linked to!!

Thank you, MrsG.

That's what I mentioned in my above post. We heard about Cryotolocker last year. We use those external portable hard drives. We only connect it to the computer when we do a backup. DH does the backup usually every other month or if we have added something on any of our computers that we don't want to loose.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

hckynut — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 07:12:05 GMT

This is a scam. I got the same message about going to a certain store and purchasing a $300 card to get back online because of some law I supposedly broke. Looked realistic but I know enough about electronics and many of these scams are aimed at people over 65 years old, and I think most here probably know why they choose this age.

This only effected my Internet Explorer(IE)browser. Did not have an issue with Firefox or Safari browsers.

What I did was go back to a restore point(I make a restore point at least once every week)that was prior to getting this message. Did a restore that cost nothing but some of my time and everything returned back to the way it was. I got this on 2 different occasions and each time it was with the IE browser.

I even tried going to all the same websites with my Firefox and got no message or computer lock-up of my files.

If in doubt about something like this and you aren't sure what to do? Find someone that has a pretty good knowledge of computers to help you. If you are using IE 10 like I was using, try doing the System Restore, it worked for me both times.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

In-x-s — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 13:18:43 GMT

On 3/7/2014 hckynut said:
This is a scam. I got the same message about going to a certain store and purchasing a $300 card to get back online because of some law I supposedly broke. Looked realistic but I know enough about electronics and many of these scams are aimed at people over 65 years old, and I think most here probably know why they choose this age.

This only effected my Internet Explorer(IE)browser. Did not have an issue with Firefox or Safari browsers.

What I did was go back to a restore point(I make a restore point at least once every week)that was prior to getting this message. Did a restore that cost nothing but some of my time and everything returned back to the way it was. I got this on 2 different occasions and each time it was with the IE browser.

I even tried going to all the same websites with my Firefox and got no message or computer lock-up of my files.

If in doubt about something like this and you aren't sure what to do? Find someone that has a pretty good knowledge of computers to help you. If you are using IE 10 like I was using, try doing the System Restore, it worked for me both times.

That is totally different than the Cryptolocker.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

jackthebear — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:32:37 GMT

Thanks for this

I went in and changed my admin to user,

after researching it is simple to do, and I have been being to do it.

LMK if you want the info.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

151949 — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:44:00 GMT

I would normally say this was a scam - or an urban myth - but several months ago I had a file of nothing but recipes and i got this notice saying the file was gone from my computer and i had to pay to get it back. i did not pay - it was only recipes - and i did lose that file. Some people were on another website I go to saying they had lost much more important stuff - financial files etc. - and google tried to recover them to no avail,as far as I know. now i back up everything twice , once to the cloud and once to a USB plug in device, which fortunately my ASUS tablet has the capability to do. Not all tablets have a USB port. when my tablet had to go in for service and they wiped out everything I was easily able to reinstall it all from the cloud.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

voyager1980 — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:52:37 GMT

On 3/8/2014 happy housewife said: I would normally say this was a scam - or an urban myth - but several months ago I had a file of nothing but recipes and i got this notice saying the file was gone from my computer and i had to pay to get it back. i did not pay - it was only recipes - and i did lose that file. Some people were on another website I go to saying they had lost much more important stuff - financial files etc. - and google tried to recover them to no avail,as far as I know. now i back up everything twice , once to the cloud and once to a USB plug in device, which fortunately my ASUS tablet has the capability to do. Not all tablets have a USB port. when my tablet had to go in for service and they wiped out everything I was easily able to reinstall it all from the cloud.

We always plugged our iPads right into the computer & backup & restore ever since we got them a few years ago.Anyway this thread about computers not tablets.

Thanks OP for posting on this.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

scotnovel — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 16:39:13 GMT

On 3/7/2014 Buck-i-Nana said:
Those of you saying it's a "scam" comes off sounding as though you don't believe it, but it is in fact happening as the fbi report dbd posted reports. The files are encrypted with a military grade encryption that so far nobody has been able to unencrypt. Paying the ransom is no guarantee they will unlock the files either.

Best thing is to be smart. Back-up regularly so if something like this does happen to your system, you haven't lost anything. Be very careful about clicking on ANY links even from people you trust and on sites that you trust.

Too many people are vulnerable because they have their user account on their computer set with full administrator rights. The smart thing to do is to set your account without admin rights, that way even if you click on a link that tries to install something on your computer it cannot be done because the authority is not there.

I said it was a scam but that doesn't mean I don't believe it happened. The definition of scam is a dishonest scheme or a fraud or a swiindle which is what I think this was. I do however believe there are a lot of ways that you can prevent computer scams and can keep from losing your data.

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

151949 — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 19:40:20 GMT

On 3/8/2014 voyager1980 said:
On 3/8/2014 happy housewife said: I would normally say this was a scam - or an urban myth - but several months ago I had a file of nothing but recipes and i got this notice saying the file was gone from my computer and i had to pay to get it back. i did not pay - it was only recipes - and i did lose that file. Some people were on another website I go to saying they had lost much more important stuff - financial files etc. - and google tried to recover them to no avail,as far as I know. now i back up everything twice , once to the cloud and once to a USB plug in device, which fortunately my ASUS tablet has the capability to do. Not all tablets have a USB port. when my tablet had to go in for service and they wiped out everything I was easily able to reinstall it all from the cloud.

We always plugged our iPads right into the computer & backup & restore ever since we got them a few years ago.Anyway this thread about computers not tablets.

Thanks OP for posting on this.

how does an I pad plug into a computer since they don't have a USB port?

Re: Taking Your Files Hostage

glb613 — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 19:45:23 GMT

Use the charging cord and connect it to the computer. You need iTunes installed.