More dangerous e-mails

[johnb]

I have recently had a number of extremely suspicious e-mails. Some with titles such as "Order for xxxx" and all from sources that I don't recognise.

Most I have deleted without opening but I did open one of the "Order for xxx" e-mails. It told me they were processing my order for 3480$, paid by "Master Card", and to open the attachment for details. Opening the attachment would undoubtedly have done very bad things to my computer!

Please be careful if you receive unexpected or strange e-mails. It is better to delete them without opening but whatever you do - please don't open any attachments to these e-mails.

[Serial_Apologist]

I had one yesterday purporting to be a reply from a friend to an email I had posted him 3 days earlier. To all intents and purposes it carried the same email address as his, and was a blank message with just a website link I assumed one had to click on to find out how to contact him. When I did so a big warning message came up on my screen informing me that my computer had just blocked a major Trojan virus. At least, I am assuming this was indeed a genuine sincere warning, having checked my online accounts and noted nothing untoward as of now, though I shall definitely be keeping an eye on them.

What worries me is, will my friends, acqaintances, or indeed anyone responding to my posts, here or anywhere, be in danger of contamination through me? I worry even more that one day these viruses will be enabled to invade people's computers merely by virtue of landing on the inbox mat.

[french frank]

What worries me is, will my friends, acqaintances, or indeed anyone responding to my posts, here or anywhere, be in danger of contamination through me? I worry even more that one day these viruses will be enabled to invade people's computers merely by virtue of landing on the inbox mat.

I've had a number of these and always assumed it was the friend's computer that had been hacked for their address book. But, yes, never click on those links. In fact you have to be 101% certain about any email before clicking on a link - copy the link manually into your browser if it looks to be a normal email address from a site you're familiar with.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I never open e-mails from anyone (on my private e-mail address) if I don't recognise the sender. However. I was almost fooled by an apparent message from an old school friend, claiming to be stranded in the Ukraine, having lost his wallet and passport, urgently needing funds to get back hope. I was slightly suspicious of the OTT emotional language used, but when I was about to send a reply, I noticed the return address had sneakily changed the letter "v" to a "u", so I knew it was a scam.
It turned out to be an e-mail account my friend had recently closed.

[Frances_iom]

.. I worry even more that one day these viruses will be enabled to invade people's computers merely by virtue of landing on the inbox mat.

they can - another MS decision (tho now I think altered) was to preview mail including images - these when opened triggered a trojan - one more of the many security stupidities in MS software - likewise the allowance of Javascript within mail.

You are probably correct that a friend's address book (or farcebook list of friends) has been hacked - common at this time of year with using an interenet cafe

[Jonathan]

I've had a lot of phishing emails pretending to be from my bank (and often not from a bank which I have an account with). I just hover over the link in the message and if it bears no resemblance to whom it is supposed to be from, i report it as a phishing scam and block it.

[Ferretfancy]

The simple solution seems to be ---buy a Mac.

[Don Petter]

I've had a number of these and always assumed it was the friend's computer that had been hacked for their address book. But, yes, never click on those links. In fact you have to be 101% certain about any email before clicking on a link - copy the link manually into your browser if it looks to be a normal email address from a site you're familiar with.

That's something I hadn't realised. How does copying a link manually into your browser differ from clicking it directly? I thought the latter would just fire up your default browser and have the same effect.

I agree about hovering over doubtful links to see what sort of site name they would lead to. I had a recent one with 'moldova' featuring strongly.

[french frank]

How does copying a link manually into your browser differ from clicking it directly?

Sorry, I mean you can enter it in your search window, not the location window, so you're not going to the address itself, just looking at what it might be.

I'm surprised at how many people forward those nuisance hoax emails that warn you that a virus can take over your computer and destroy your hard drive and no solution has yet been found &c &c. It's always satisfying to pick a key phrase, write 'hoax' after it in your search window and Hoax-Slayer appears.

[ahinton]

It's also a good idea to consign such suspicious emails to a spam folder if you have one in your email client.

[french frank]

It's also a good idea to consign such suspicious emails to a spam folder if you have one in your email client.

If it involves a bank/Paypal/ebay &c, I do usually add all the headers and forward it to them before deleting.

[Don Petter]

If it involves a bank/Paypal/ebay &c, I do usually add all the headers and forward it to them before deleting.

I started doing that, but there are too many, and it's a fag having to go and locate them on my mail site to be able to display the headers.

[gradus]

Not being IT literate I delete from the Inbox and then delete again from the deleted items, is this safe practice?

[french frank]

it's a fag having to go and locate them on my mail site to be able to display the headers.

??? On Mac mail: Mail > Preferences > Viewing > Show header detail - All. Keep the box open until you've sent it, then change All back to default. I don't have that many.

[Don Petter]

??? On Mac mail: Mail > Preferences > Viewing > Show header detail - All. Keep the box open until you've sent it, then change All back to default. I don't have that many.

Well, Macs always do it better, so we hear.

I couldn't find a switch in Outlook Express to show the headers, but there may well be one hidden somewhere. As to quantity/frequency, I'm not back at home for a week or so, but at that time I should be able to give an approximate rate by looking at my main PC.