Suspect email

22 Oct 2005

I've got an email in my inbox from
Subject "Warning Message: Your services near to be closed"
It's 74k with an attachment.
I had several others the other day in my Bulk folder, one of which I remember was entitled something like "your password has been verified". I deleted them without opening as I considered would not send emails to my bulk folder.
I'm highly suspicious of this latest one, not least because the grammar is less than perfect in the wording of the subject and also because the ones in my bulk folder were 74k as well.
What's your opinion folks? Genuine or not?
Thanks
ES

22 Oct 2005

Delete it!!! confused

:? :?

22 Oct 2005

Spam that almost certainly contains a worm, don't open it and just delete it. Worst thing that can happen if it's genuine, is that your account will be suspended, but you can always re-activate it.......... most likely though is that it's a mail worm
M

22 Oct 2005

like most ISP's they should have you name or some private details on it. if not bin it

22 Oct 2005

Thank you all. You've confirmed what my instinct was telling me. :cheers:
It's (unopened) history! :twisted:
UES lol

:lol:

23 Oct 2005

I would have just replied to it and sent it back rotflmao

Shireen
xxx

23 Oct 2005

I got one of them in my email account the other day....just deleted it as it didn't look right due to the grammar and salutation etc.

23 Oct 2005

Had one yest evening from what looked legit, advising me that someone was trying to access my account, sent a 72kb report to me at the main account email address. I clicked on the report, luckily my antivirus kicked in and wouldnt let me open it, the virus was deleted.
The virus is>>>>>>>>>
MytobZIP!generic worm
obviously doing its rounds dunno

23 Oct 2005

I was getting alot of that nonsense for months too. I called my server direct and asked if they were sending anything out. They said to send it to them, and never open them. In other words virus.

23 Oct 2005

Get Mailwasher and "bounce" things like that back.
That is assuming the senders address hasn't been spoofed and some poor guy is going to be inundated with bounced mails.

23 Oct 2005

normally pretty good, i've been on there for some time and had no problems.
it looks like someone has got hold of your e-mail address and targeted you. forward it to for them to trace the sender.

23 Oct 2005

it happens on broadband to similar thing your password has been updated, your account has been closed etc check spelling may only be a Z changed to a z or similar just delete

23 Oct 2005

Eager....I am with BTinternet and had same except saying it comes from services or support at BTinternet. You will actually continue to recieve them I fear. i have had 36 of them now.....and yes they contain a virus. I checked with BT as they don't normally send attachemnets and they confirmed it was not from them.

23 Oct 2005

Quote by EagerSlut
I've got an email in my inbox from
Subject "Warning Message: Your services near to be closed"
It's 74k with an attachment.
I had several others the other day in my Bulk folder, one of which I remember was entitled something like "your password has been verified". I deleted them without opening as I considered would not send emails to my bulk folder.
I'm highly suspicious of this latest one, not least because the grammar is less than perfect in the wording of the subject and also because the ones in my bulk folder were 74k as well.
What's your opinion folks? Genuine or not?
Thanks
ES

From what I've read ........
Yahooo will be closing its unmoderated chat service doors and moving the whole chat service over to the moderated Lycros because of its issues with the pedophiles and kiddie porn freaks swapping pics.
It's because of that reason they closed the user rooms.
I doubt very much would send you an email given they only seem to take action when they can be bothered or when the issues are serious enough to affect them as a company.
It seems to me you've been randomly mailed, (your screen name was probably harvested from the profiles page, or you being in a chat room), and I'd say you've been sent a password sniffer.
I used to use mail, but started to get loads of them so I started a new mail account.

23 Oct 2005

Quote by Shireen_Mids
I would have just replied to it and sent it back
Shireen
xxx

I'd never recommend doing this - a lot of these emails are spam trying to confirm whether they have identified a real email address. If you reply, they know that your mail address is live and you end up getting more spam. For this reason it's also not a good idea clicking on any "unsubscribe me" links on emails from anyone you don't know or suspect may not be genuine.
If you have messages from organisations like about your account, you can normally check whether it's genuine by going to their website and looking through the technical support section or signing into any services (such as Messenger) and contacting their help people that way.
Something else to bear in mind with email:
If you have an option to preview messages (e.g. you'll see the list of folders like Inbox down the left, a list of mail messages at the top and the content of the currently selected email at the bottom), it's the same as having opened the mail message. If you have enabled HTML (so you see font formatting, animations, pictures etc), you run the risk of scripting code automatically being run on your PC.
What to do:
Ensure you've got a good anti-virus, spam/adware detector and firewall installed AND updated regularly.
Disable the option in your email software to automatically preview mail messages in your Inbox, disable the display of HTML (or possibly both if you want).
Always delete things from people you don't know or that you think are spoofs without reading them.

23 Oct 2005

In a nutshell, anything I'm not expecting that contains an attachment, and anything from someone I've never heard of with a subject title that doesn't immediately make sense to me, gets blocked and deleted without opening, simple as.
If I'm specifically asking people to send me attachments, I usally ask them to put some random word of my choice in the subject header.
If I get an attachment that appears to be from someone I know but I'm not expecting it, I will call and ask if they sent it before I open it.
Also, be wary of emails that don't have attachments but are unusually large... 100k of pure text for example will almost certainly have something hidden in it.
And finally, if you're using a reader like OE, turn OFF your preview panel... some nasties can get through that way even if you don't open them.
Golden rule - if you have any doubt at all, bin it.