US watchdogs plan to refund victims of scareware scams using seized assets from a fake anti-virus peddler.

More than 300,000 consumers, taken in by a scam that warned them they needed to purchase dodgy software to get rid of non-existent security threats, are in line to get a slice of $8 million forfeited by Innovative Marketing.

The firm agreed to surrender the ill-gotten gains to settle FTC (Federal Trade Commission) charges that they used deceptive ads to trick marks into buying scareware packages such as Winfixer, Drive Cleaner, and XP Antivirus.
 The average amount of the cheques to be distributed will be $20, however the exact amounts will be based on the level of individual loss.

==== Notes:
The refund program itself may become a target of scam emails attempting to hoodwink victims into advance fee fraud.

Whenever an unwanted window pops-up, 1USA customers know to hit the Alt+F4 keys to close the window.

1USA customers know to protect their computers with the best anti-virus software that's out there (that is either free or $20), and they can ask for advice.

BarryZ
 

Police in the UK have shut down more than 2,000 websites believed to be
selling counterfeit or non-existent merchandise. The goods offered for
sale include clothing, jewelry and sporting equipment. In some cases,
payment was taken but the merchandise was never delivered.

Read the Story here...

Solution:  Buy from known merchants - and buy American-made goods wherever possible.
BarryZ

Bogus handbags no longer threaten the web

US feds seized control of more than 130 websites last week as part of a crackdown on counterfeit goods ahead of the Christmas shopping rush.
The seizures make up the largest individual haul yet under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's ongoing Operation In Our Sites campaign.

>From theregister.co.uk
 

http://blog.trendmicro.com/ has a few example scams.

Less than seven percent of emails that reached companies in the first quarter of 2009 were legitimate correspondence. Some 90.92% of messages were spam, while 1.66% were infected with some type of malware. This data has been compiled after the analysis of 69 million email messages in Q1 2009 by TrustLayer Mail, the clean mail managed service from Panda Security

The amount of spam detected between January and March 2009 has increased slightly with respect to the same period in 2008, when spam accounted for 89.88% of the email received by companies.

This is one of the reasons why 1USA Customers are better protected than at other ISPs.
1USA customers do not receive spams or scams in their In-Box ... unless they want to.
BarryZ

You might have a Facebook page... or a Twitter... or a blog somewhere.
Here are some of the dangers and some of the pick-up lines that thieves use... which usually end up with them having access to your bank information.
Story at NetworkWorld