Taking Your Files Hostage - Page 2

In-x-s · ‎03-09-2010

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

Exactly, read what IamMrsG linked to!!

Thank you, MrsG.

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

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.

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

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.

hckynut(john)

In-x-s · ‎03-09-2010

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.

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

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.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

voyager1980 · ‎09-14-2013

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.

scotnovel · ‎12-31-2013

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.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

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?