back to article Web smut oglers accosted by bogus pop-up plod fines

Strathclyde Police are not levying fines on punters watching internet porn, the force has been obliged to explain. Scam messages, that often appear as pop-ups and pose as messages from the plod, claim a user's machine has been locked for showing adult content. Marks are told they need to pay a £100 fine over the phone in order …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Old.com

    Been seeing this scam for months, in fact a quick bit of Googling will show that this has been going on for over a year and the police have been made aware, they just dont care.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't care...

      ... just as likely the perp is out of their jurisdiction and the *INSERT DODGY COUNTRY HERE* police couldn't give a stuff.

      It's probably also a premium rate number that you have to call to pay your fee, so they sting you twice. That seems to be the usual way these things go...

      Remember people - backup to a non connected medium with history, so you can go back to a point in time before your files got held to ransom or recover when your PC gets hosed.

      The police would probably achieve more using the investigation budget for IT security awareness promotion.

    2. NinjasFTW

      re: old.com

      The police are probably unable to do much as its highly unlikely that the scammers will be within their juristiction etc

  2. a_c_g_t

    LOL

    One born every minute 100 log onto the net every second.

    1. Mr Young
      Holmes

      @a_c_g_t

      LOL not really - is there any point taking the piss out of people because they are less aware of technology than yourself?

      1. a_c_g_t

        Ermmmmm yes there is a point about taking the piss out of people. Don't know about you but I am always willing to be the 1st to stick my hand up and be counted as one who likes a little bit of schadenfreude especially when it comes down to technology.

        If it shames just one person into taking a slight interest in the tools they use rather than just having a bit of tube sock fun then it's a piss take well aimed In My Humble Opinion.

        I suppose they should just just stick to jubblies monthly

  3. irish donkey
    FAIL

    Police and cybercrime

    Just another excuse not to investigate.

    Anything more tricky than a speeding ticket and you might as well not bother.

    unless they can get their pictures on the TV in which case....... We're all coming.

  4. Toastan Buttar
    Holmes

    Thir's been a shufflerrrrrr

    "Yes, sir. You have contacted DCI Taggart of Strathclyde Police. Our HQ is by Loch Big Ben, next door to Sean Connery's flat".

  5. Keep Refrigerated
    Trollface

    A fine scam indeed!

    "...and that our organisation never asks the public for money"

    Finally a clarification on all those letters I get from Strathclyde Police that a camera has spotted me speeding and I should pay a £60 fine are in fact scams.

    Yes, the police never use automated systems to track people's activity and automatically fine them - what a ridiculous notion! However could smut ogglers have been caught out by this?

    1. asiaseen

      and indeed

      who pays their wages?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cleaned one earlier today

    I had a client with this earlier today. He had even called Strathclyde Police using the number on the screen. A screen accusing him of looking at Porn. And he should then pay £100 to the police to clean it.

    I know the police are short of funding... but that would be a little too far!!

    Not "ransomware". No encrypted files. Just a variation of the old Fake Anti-Virus scams. Easy to delete if you know how. (Though the well known brand of Anti-Virus on the PC couldn't do anything of use)

    Looks like it came in via out of date Java and Acrobat as both showed signs of compromise.

    Hard to tell exactly which other viruses had been installed at the same time as my client's computer was covered with many infections, of differing ages.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Police not interested

    The phone numbers on screen are actually for the real Strathclyde Police. Yet when my client phoned them this morning, they were not interested. Just told him to get it cleaned up as it was a common scam.

    So clearly El'Reg was contacted by a different PR division - the "caring" police PR department. Not the ones who answered the phone to my client.

    To be honest, I don't know why plod are wasting their time and our money on this. It is just the same old scams looking for the same old suckers to pick up the phone and hand over the credit card. I would love to know how much cash they make from these scams as it must be pretty lucrative. I have never really understood why so many home users trust what appears on their screens and just do as they are instructed.

    At least my client had the sense to call me instead. I was cheaper than the scammers :)

  8. John Munyard

    The Police investgate!

    So Police are carrying out a thorough investigation to find the perpetrators eh?

    So presumably that means everyone in Strathclyde nick is now looking at online porn all day eh?

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