Spyware Warrior

bigguy · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:15 pm Post subject: BOGUS/Suspicious emails

In the past several weeks I have received several suspicious emails from people who I know, but they didn't send them. I do not open these emails until I check with the sender.

Any thoughts?

Gary R · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 2:10 am Post subject:

It is quite possible that the computers sending the e-mails have contracted an infection, and the owners of those computers should have them checked for infection.

As a means of propagation, it's quite common for infections to send e-mails to everyone in the Address Book of the machines they infect.
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suzi · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 7:27 am Post subject:

Are the emails coming from a free webmail provider like gmail, yahoo or hotmail? If so, the uses's account has been compromised and their password stolen most likely. They should change their passwords immediately from a clean computer.

If they are from an ISP email like comcast or whatever, then Gary's answer is the likely reason - they have a computer worm or their computer has been compromised with a backdoor.
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bigguy · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:23 am Post subject:

Actually, this is interesting. The sender's name, there were three different, just happened to be the name of an old student, or friend, that I had searched for on Facebook ... three different names, All showed they had attachments, which I don't open. One had five different emails in two days, one had three, on the same day, and the last sender just had one email. I don't search for a lot of people on Facebook, so the "common thread" stood out. Just for the fun of it I searched Facebook for a fictitious name, just to see if I get a hit.
Gary, I thought that my opening the first one, not the attachment, might have been the source of my recent problem ... that you helped me with.

This makes me wonder if I'm being targeted.
Will keep you advised
Tom

Gary R · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 9:34 am Post subject:

If you have html enabled in your e-mail client, then it's possible for an attacker to embed code in an e-mail that will be run when you open the e-mail.

Setting your client to open mail in plain text only will negate this kind of attack.

You don't get the fancy formatting that comes with html, but for many people that is not a problem.
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bigguy · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:09 am Post subject:

I don't think I do, but how do I know if "html enabled in your e-mail client"?

Gary R · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:23 pm Post subject:

Depends on which client you use.

I use Thunderbird, in which case the setting is .... View > Message body as > Plain text

It's a long time since I've used any other client, so quite what the setting is on them I couldn't say off hand, I'd have to Google to find out.
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