Another scam warning

Reports have reached AudlemOnline of another scam that has caught out at least one local resident both financially and having large parts of their computer locked down and, in part, taken over by scammers.

An email was received from an organisation calling itself the Metropolitan British Police and Serious Crime Agency saying that the recipient had been found to have viewed dodgy images and that they had to respond by clicking on a link.

To encourage people to click on the link, the so-called Metropolitan British Police say they can use screen-blocking messages to collect fines for violations such as allegedly downloading pirated music, videos, or in this local instance, the viewing of banned pornography.

AudlemOnline has viewed a version of letter sent out, seemingly with Cheshire Police's name included, and it is convincing enough to take in many people quoting, as it does, numerous articles of law, penalties for non-response and much legal jargon.

Clicking on the link, of course, then blocks your computer screen and demands payment of £100 fine to unlock the system and giving ways to pay up. Payment, of course, does no such thing. Paying up is simply sending your money to cyber criminals.

Unfortunately for the local user, they then contacted their Virus protection company to be met by yet another demand for money.

Doing anything other than immediately zapping emails from British Metropolitan Police, Cheshire Police PCeU Police Central e-crime Unit or the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – all names used by the scammers – can be both expensive and very inconvenient.

There are various ways to unlock your computer and doubtless, a local enthusiast will send us a recommended way to do this – alternatively some can be found by Googling but we presume they need to be treated with caution too.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.