Why you should think twice before putting a DVD you were mailed into the computer

Another scam has led officials to issue a warning.

A woman in Maine was sent a DVD from a “friend of a friend” earlier this month. A note on the disc encouraged her to view and share it. She reported it to police, who warned others about it on Facebook.

“While the police department has not received any other similar calls, we suspect others may have or will receive this type of mail. If you do, please don’t let your curiosity get the best of you, instead immediately dispose of the (DVD),” police said.

“Information gathered from a list of ongoing scams indicates this (DVD) was likely ladened with malware and other programs that can infect a computer and allow hackers to gain access to and steal personal information from the recipient’s computer.”

While no cases have been publicly reported in Georgia, it’s still good to be aware.

The FBI has a list of warnings about other scams, such as ransomeware, which could be what was on the DVD.

To avoid ransomware, the FBI says to keep software and applications up to date. It advices to regularly backup data, double checking that they were complete and securing them. It also says to make sure to run automatic updates for anti-virus and anti-malware solutions.

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