Though i found this news/article to be of great help, but what disturbed me was a comment (the 2nd) about nigerians..

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) has issued a warning to businesses over a wave of hacking attacks that have seen hackers take control of computer files and demand a £900 ransom to unlock each one.
The attackers use spam emails to target small and medium-sized businesses, with
attachments that look like invoices,voicemails or other business documents. The NCA says that 'tens of millions' of people may have been targeted in Britain, and noted that the attacks seemed to be aimed predominantly at companies.
It described the attacks as a 'significant risk'. The attachments contain a piece of malware called Cryptolocker - an automated piece of ransom software that, if activated, will search for documents and encrypt them so that they cannot be opened or read by the user. Microsoft Office documents were the most commonly affected, but different variations of the malware also searched for other documents, such as .pdf files. Cryptolocker then prompts the owner of the files to pay two Bitcoins (each worth £449 as of 19/11/13) for the key to unlock the files. Bitcoins are a private and anonymous digital currency that can be traded against other major world currencies. The exchange rate can fluctuate wildly. Ransomware has been on the rise since lastyear. A report from Symantec Internet Security noted that for a much cheaper ransom, of 5,300 computers infected,
'About three percent of victims paid the ransom, which netted the criminals about $30,000.' The NCA said in its statement that it 'would never endorse the payment of a ransom to criminals and there is no guarantee that they would honour the payments in any event'.
Lee Miles, Deputy Head of the NCCU says
"The NCA are actively pursuing organised
crime groups committing this type of crime.
We are working in cooperation with industry
and international partners to identify and
bring to justice those responsible and reduce the risk to the public."

The malware should be detected by up to
date antivirus software. Users should exercise caution over opening unfamiliar attachments.
Some of the attachments are notable for
having a double file extension, such as "
FORM_101513.pdf.exe."
Decrypting files that Cryptolocker has been
able to encrypt is 'not feasible', according to Symantec. But there are ways that affected users can recover their files even if they have been locked out, using free Windows tools.

http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/news/your-money-or-your-documents--how-hackers-can-hold-your-files-to-ransom-180113005.html?orig_host_hdr=uk.news.yahoo.com&.intl=GB&.lang=en-GB

the bad comment, made by one Blitz

Curiosity killed the cat? If its in the spam; don't get tempted by it, delete it. If its doing you a favour, it is not. If its African, its Nigerian, and they are a bent Nation full of thieves. In short; if you don't know the sender at all; bin it without being curious. If its important and you have binned it; it was probably a summons, so you did the right thing. Curiosity Killed the Cat; remember that, and you will never end up looking a right Pr--t.