October 2011: SCAMwatch is warning Australians to continue to be wary of phishing scams received by email or SMS following a twist which leads to fraudulent online banking transactions.

The new "Popureb" malware hides in the PC's Master Boot Record and fools cleaning attempts

By Gregg Keizer | Computerworld

Microsoft is telling Windows users that they'll have to reinstall the operating system if they get infected with a new rootkit that hides in the machine's boot sector.

New twist on computer error message/virus scams: joint warning

March
2011: SCAMwatch, Microsoft and the Australian Communications and Media
Authority (ACMA) are warning Australians to continue to be wary of scam
calls claiming that your computer is infected with a virus or is sending
out error messages.

In July 2010, SCAMwatch issued an alert regarding about these scams which continue to plague consumers.

Malware tricks are getting ridiculously elaborate, like this fake hard drive diagnostic check built to fool users.

Computer trojans that pretend you've suffered a virus infection are nothing new, but malware is also appearing that fakes hard drive errors. And they're getting increasingly elaborate.

Take this example in the video below: a seemingly fully functional hard disk diagnostic tool which runs a disk scan, complete with blinking blocks of what the non-technical person might assume to be hard disk sectors.