Common Scams Section

[GiveMeABreak]

Was a payment taken and if so did you cancel it?

Some of these 'phishing' emails are just that and don't actually do anything, relying on you to go to the 'Cancel Your Subscription' green box link in your image, which is invariably where they try to get more info out of you to scam you.

PayPal should contact you to authorise a payment if you have 2FA (2 Factor Authentication) on, so that no payments are taken unless you confirm the payment Steve.

I suspect your email has been used to try and bait you.

[myglaren]

Quite likely but I cancelled my PayPal account just to be on the safe side. Hasn't been used in ages anyway.
Tried to contact the bank to ensure no payments could be taken by PayPal and they were no help either, need to phone them and there is nothing I hate more than having to speak on the phone.

[CitroJim]

Lots of 'hits' in a quick and dirty Google search to suggest Letterboxd is nothing more than a scam.

I've 2FA set on my PayPal account (which I use frequently) and indeed have 2FA enabled wherever it's available...

[GiveMeABreak]

For any Twitter users out there, be aware of the latest breach:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... ion-users/

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/19/ ... sued_data/

[GiveMeABreak]

This is the latest TV Licensing Scam:

This email uses the logos and a narrative that although you can't see it as I've removed all the HTML content, is a reminder to update your direct debit. Looking into the detail, although not shown when it arrives, you can see after peeling away the mask that the origin is from a Japanese email account!

There is an attachment that shows another badly worded paragraph that has the dangerous button that will take you to the scammers site.

As we choose not to fund the BBC nor watch any live broadcasts, we haven't had a licence for years, but I can see some pensioners and any other potentially vulnerable people getting duped, so do be aware.

Sent off to Action Fraud in any case.

[myglaren]

I still have a licence as I am equipped to receive the Beeb and others, but don't, just use iPlayer occasionally.
But the licence fee always just updates itself, although I get a notification of the increase in advance.

Will watch for this though, best to know of these things.

[myglaren]

There was recently a report on stealing Teslas by taking over the entertainment system and from there the rest of the car.

Here is another but there are far more cars vulnerable to this one.

Automotive security experts say they have uncovered a method of car theft relying on direct access to the vehicle's system bus via a smart headlamp's wiring.

It all started when a Toyota RAV4 belonging to one of the tech gurus suffered suspicious damage to the front wing and headlight housing, and was eventually successfully stolen. Some sleuthing and reverse engineering revealed how the motor was finally nicked.

Ken Tindell, CTO of Canis Automotive Labs, said the evidence pointed to thieves' successful execution of a so-called CAN injection.

A Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is present in nearly all modern cars, and is used by microcontrollers and other devices to talk to each other within the vehicle and carry out the work they are supposed to do.

In a CAN injection attack, thieves access the network, and introduce bogus messages as if it were from the car's smart key receiver. These messages effectively cause the security system to unlock the vehicle and disable the engine immobilizer, allowing it to be stolen. To gain this network access, the crooks can, for instance, break open a headlamp and use its connection to the bus to send messages. From that point, they can simply manipulate other devices to steal the vehicle.

Full article in The Register

[CitroJim]

Gosh!

[GiveMeABreak]

Then it's badly engineered software-wise, as there should be security protocols in place to prevent this sort of thing.

In Scotty's immortal words:

The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain

[Stickyfinger]

Well I bought a 3d printer....bloody Russian web sites !

[Hell Razor5543]

There was recently a report on stealing Teslas by taking over the entertainment system and from there the rest of the car.

Here is another but there are far more cars vulnerable to this one.

Automotive security experts say they have uncovered a method of car theft relying on direct access to the vehicle's system bus via a smart headlamp's wiring.

It all started when a Toyota RAV4 belonging to one of the tech gurus suffered suspicious damage to the front wing and headlight housing, and was eventually successfully stolen. Some sleuthing and reverse engineering revealed how the motor was finally nicked.

Ken Tindell, CTO of Canis Automotive Labs, said the evidence pointed to thieves' successful execution of a so-called CAN injection.

A Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is present in nearly all modern cars, and is used by microcontrollers and other devices to talk to each other within the vehicle and carry out the work they are supposed to do.

In a CAN injection attack, thieves access the network, and introduce bogus messages as if it were from the car's smart key receiver. These messages effectively cause the security system to unlock the vehicle and disable the engine immobilizer, allowing it to be stolen. To gain this network access, the crooks can, for instance, break open a headlamp and use its connection to the bus to send messages. From that point, they can simply manipulate other devices to steal the vehicle.

Full article in The Register

MSN have an article on this as well;

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/thi ... d5a1&ei=24

[Huskyxantia]

Nothings really safe .

[Huskyxantia]

This guy is good .

[myglaren]

Netizens urged to disconnect kit after 40,000-plus devices found riddled with dumb bugs

A handful of bugs in Nexx's smart home devices can be exploited by crooks to, among other things, open doors, power off appliances, and disable alarms. More than 40,000 of these gadgets in residential and commercial properties are said to be vulnerable after the manufacturer failed to act.

After the Internet-of-Things biz reportedly ignored attempts over three months by Sam Sabetan, who discovered the vulnerabilities, and the US government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to help fix the flaws, both Sabetan and Uncle Sam have gone public with the details so users can minimize their risk.

From The Register.

[GiveMeABreak]

I don't use any of those branded smart plugs, I only use the Meross and Nanoleaf devices with Nanoleaf being sold by Apple themselves so don't have any issues. But those Netizen smart plugs are now very well rated with 30% giving 1 star - with those ratings I would even give them a second look.