1 in 1000 web sites are "evil"

Google finds that out of the billions of web sites out there, 3 Million are malicious and try to inject worms or viruses onto your computer, or try to steal information, such as credit card numbers etc., from you.
Read a report in MacWorld.

The number of malicious programs reaches new highs.

BBC reports that the number of malware programs has reached unprecedented highs. More than 3000 new samples are created every day. See the BBC report

wollenberginternational is also down

In case you have not noticed, well, not surprisingly, wollenberginternational.com is also down.

But new HYIPs will always pop up - perhaps the same guy under another name - to collect more money from gullible victims.
Don't fall for it.

ColonyInvest closed down, people loose millions in Thailand/Vietnam

Police have moved in on the ColonyInvest fraudsters, the Nation, Bangkok, reports. Many people have lost millions of baht in this fraudulent pyramid scheme. See The Nation.
Also in Vietnam people have been cheated out of Billions of VND by the pyramid scheme. Police have arrested 15 people. See Thanhnien News.com.

We have warned here against ColonyInvest since June 2007.
This just serves as a reminder that all these schemes that promise exceedingly high interest rates, these so-called HYIPs, are fraudulent. While they may pay some money in the beginning, this money comes from other investors, and not from proper investments, which never have such high rates of interest. The whole thing just collapses whenever the mastermind decides to run away with the money.

Warning on stealthy Windows virus: Mebroot

BBC News report:

Warning on stealthy Windows virus

The creators of the virus are after bank logins and personal data
Security experts are warning about a stealthy Windows virus that steals login details for online bank accounts.

Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its hidden position on the MBR as a beachhead so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.

Although the password-stealing programs that Mebroot installs can be found by security software, few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence. Mebroot cannot be removed while a computer is running.

Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.

Euro Business Guide / European City Guide SCAM

Euro Business Guide sends out spam emails of the following nature:

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Subject: European company registration 2007/2008

Dear Sirs,

If you like to have your company registered in the registry of European companies;

Please print out the enclosed form (PDF file), fill it and send it back to:

Euro Business Guide
P.O. Box 2021
3500 GA UTRECHT
The Netherlands

Updating is free of charge!!

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Attached is a PDF form that one can fill out.
Again, you will notice that the form states in bold "Updating is free of charge".


However, when you read the tiny small print, you will see that you are actually signing a contract for 3 years, and they charge you 990 Euro per year, see enlargement here:



This is a variant of the same scam as the "European City Guide".
If you mistakenly signed one of these forms, DO NOT PAY.
As the following web sites show, these scammers are after easy cash and not after law suits, although they use bully tactics to intimiate their victims. Check out Stop The European City Guide and Stop the European City Guide. In fact, they have already been convicted of fraud. To evade the law, they just move from one place to another.

aa419 back, CastleCops under paypal reputation attack

aa419 is back again, though still under DDoS attack, according to their web site on a CastleCops server. CastleCops itself has been and is still under DDoS attack. As of 18.September they are down, but supposedly because of a hardware failure, according to a comment posted in a washingtonpost blog. In that blog they also report that CastleCops is now subject to a different type of attack. The crooks use hijacked PayPal accounts to make donations to CastleCops. To users this makes it look like CastleCops are the crooks. CastleCops is working with the FBI, and they are working on returning the defrauded money.

Cyberwar for real.