Joe Yates
Billions of people are at risk of being scammed out of entire life savings, as well as having their identities stolen, as the FBI urged Americans to take caution while surfing the internet
The federal agency this week alerted online users that cybercriminals were creating unverified websites and were likely paying for these fraudulent pages to appear towards the top of searches related to a specific topic.
The scam is simple, or at least simple to understand, these crooks are creating new websites to appear on search engines that target people looking to convert a file into another type of file - for instance, a .doc file to a .pdf file, or for MP3 or MP4 files.
Instead of doing this, punters are unsuspectingly downloading a malicious code that warps their computers, and once it's on there these con artists are gaining access to users' stored information, like social security numbers, passwords and banking.
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But there's a way to prevent it, the FBI has explained.
Well, unsurprisingly the agency has advised people against downloading files from unfamiliar websites.
If you have been stung, here's what the FBI urges you to do: "Run up-to-date virus scan software to check for potentially malicious software installed by the scammers.
"Consider taking your computer to a professional company specializing in virus and malware removal services."
It also advises victims to 'immediately' contact their bank and report the crime to IC3.gov.
Public affairs specialist for FBI Denver, Vikki Migoya, said in a press release: "Unfortunately, many victims don't realize they have been infected by malware until it's too late, and their computer is infected with ransomware or their identity has been stolen."
She told Bleeping Computer: "The scammers try to mimic URLs that are legit – so changing just one letter, or 'INC' instead of 'CO.'
"Users who in the past would type 'free online file converter' into a search engine are vulnerable, as the algorithms used for results now often include paid results, which might be scams."
It comes as millions of Google Chrome users were warned about 16 different types of browser extensions that had been comprised by hackers.
While Google confirmed to UNILAD that the 'extensions are removed from the Chrome Webs store,' the tech pros said people who have downloaded them already will need to manually delete them from their devices.