Possible Email Scam ?

[wright241]

I have just received an email from XXXbriden21@aol.com and the name Bill Buehler is mentioned.
Is that another forum member? Because if it is, then his PC has been hacked. This also happened to my daughters PC recently and I received it (hers looked like a PDF file and another one from someone I know looked like an HTML one, but as I don't open attachments without doing some checks, I found out before it was too late.
For you non-techies out there, the bogus email contains an attachment which allows the sender to use your address book contacts and so it goes on and on.
Watch out.
Rgds, David

[ORISKANY]

Originally Posted by wright241

I have just received an email from XXXbriden21@aol.com and the name Bill Buehler is mentioned.
Is that another forum member? Because if it is, then his PC has been hacked. This also happened to my daughters PC recently and I received it (hers looked like a PDF file and another one from someone I know looked like an HTML one, but as I don't open attachments without doing some checks, I found out before it was too late.
For you non-techies out there, the bogus email contains an attachment which allows the sender to use your address book contacts and so it goes on and on.
Watch out.
Rgds, David

Thanks for the warning.

MW

[Peter Brydon]

David,

Over the last few hours I had an E mail suposedly from a member of the GWF ( no message in the E mail ),can only think it was another possible scam.

Peter

P.S. I have lost count of the number of E mails I have recieved in the last couple of weeks purporting to be from B.T. saying my account was in danger of being closed if I did not provide certain information.

Peter

[Mike]

I've been receiving this type of email for the best part of a year, and get them every day now allegedly from people I know.

As peter has pointed out it's got the potential to increase exponentially. Expect to receive them with the forum email address too as I know members on here have had their email hacked; therefore the harvested email addresses will include the forum.

Good thing is they're easy to spot so far, generally just a sentence and a link or attachment.

[wright241]

I should add that I am fairly IT literate - having worked with PC's/Applications from the early days of Assembler etc back in the 70's.
What I found odd was that the attacment filetype was named as a *.pdf file into which 'hacking code' is not normally possible - unlike .xls & .doc's for example.
What I found when navigating through the file (I have a licence for a very good 'forensic' based application, was that there is 'executable code' hidden in it and it is this which does the damage. I also use AVG (a paid for copy, not the free downloadable version)...
My suggestion is - if your are not 100% certain - is to save the attachment (and not open it directly) and run your security software on it.
I also noticed that the email address line contains more than one address and that to me, was suspicious.....
David

[jubilationtcornpone]

In February I am planning a program for my group of retired teachers on the internet. One of the topics will be email scams such as this. In the last 6 months I received an email from a friend stranded in the UK and could I please lend him some cash to get home. Trouble was I'd seen him a few days before. His email had been hacked. This is a fairly common scheme that only has to work once to pay off. Fore warned is fore armed.

Don