The bad guys keep getting better. Please be aware of a couple of points.
There are several scammers sending around notices about appearing in court, or court proceedings. These will include a .zip file. Do NOT under any circumstances open the attachment. It contains malware and will ruin your computer.
We now know of a couple of users who have become infected with the CryptoLocker malware. This one is particularly ugly since it encrypts your entire hard drive. There is absolutely no way to decrypt the hard drive. They will ask for money to send you the keys. (Sending money doesn’t work, it just gives them even more information – and money).
Of course, you should always have a back up of your data. Having one copy means that you don’t have it at all. If you only have one copy and the hard drive goes bad, your data may be completely lost. You should always have at least a second copy in another physical location.