In WBON-TV9’s continuing coverage of area scams, details of this one comes from our friends at the Georgetown Police Department.
Although they state “We have not had reports of this in Georgetown, we want to remind you don’t insert USB drives from unknown sources, even if they’re addressed to you in the mail.” Ransomware attacks with USB drives can be delivered as “gifts” using the US Postal Service & UPS. Once you insert your USB “gift,” it automatically installs ransomware on your PC and then tries to spread to other computers on your network.
These cyber-attacks aren’t new, but now using a ruse with a shipping service. They use stolen credit cards to pay for the shipping, so ultimately it costs the scammers nothing for potentially a significant return on their efforts. Older but still existing methods of this scam include dropping one at the entrance door of a business, where someone will pick it up and put it in a computer to find out who’s drives it is. Then, surprise, you are infected. Ultimately, the lesson is, do not plug a USB drive or an external drive of unknown origin into your computer. Click here to file a ransomware complaint with the (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) https://www.ic3.gov/Home/Ransomware
