OT - Does this sound fishy to you?

[Doc Hudson]

Or pehaps I should say phishy.

Got the e-mail below this afternoon.

never mind the e-mail, when i tried to coppy and paste it here it came out all gobbledygook.

It purports to to bee from USAA Savings Bank and warns me that "your account has been accessed by an unauthorixed computer" i goes on to warn me about not sharing paswords and such. it also invited me to follow a link for more information.

Oddly enough i don't have an account at USAA Savings Bank. Furthermore the entire message seems to be a hotlink. When I tried to copy the message to post here, i had to stop a link from opening several times.

I'm reasonably certain that this is some sort of con. I don't think I've let a monster into my confuser, but if you are in my address book, be wary of any odd messages from me with links.

[Old Savage]

Uh, yes.

[JohndeFresno]

...I'm reasonably certain that this is some sort of con...

Bet on it. Scams abound, with or without your "help" - the clowns get your address by hacking and by crooks working within various online agencies, to name two sources. There are many banking-related phishing scams extant.

When in doubt: If your bank is named, call them. If it isn't your bank, delete before opening the e-mail. Many banks and banking related agencies (such as PayPal) have sent out repeated e-mails that nobody should ever be asked for any account info to "verify status" or "rectify a situation."

[J Miller]

Definitely a scam. One way to copy an email without opening it or doing a copy and paste is to do a "Print Screen". All that does is capture an image of what's on the screen.

Joe

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[lthardman]

BEWARE!!!! That sounds just like an e-mail I got. When you click anywhere on it, it downloads a virus and/or worm or some other little nasty onto your computer!!! I got hit with this in the early Spring, and it cost me $99 to get rid of it. Ironically, the text within the e-mail was advertising a virus protection software, when in fact it was a virus. The only way out of it was to agree to pay their "license fee" of $49 and then you could get rid of it. Instead, I paid $99 to get it removed, as I did not want the senders to be enriched in any way for sending the darn thing. Furthermore, I had a feeling the $49 was just "Round 1," with more demands to follow once they figured they had a sucker.

[AJMD429]

Definitely a scam. One way to copy an email without opening it or doing a copy and paste is to do a "Print Screen". All that does is capture an image of what's on the screen. Joe

And you CAN then scan that screen as a JPG file and send (for 'evidence' or diagnostic or informational purposes) it as a scanned screen image totally without harm, that is IF your computer didn't already get infected and is 'contagious'.

[JohndeFresno]

I see talk about scanning the screen. The only problem with that is that you have to open up the e-mail, which may in fact activate the worm/virus/malware, according to the way things have evolved. I would not do that - just erase it. Or if you have "sandbox" type software that you can activate to create a snapshot, then turn it on, first.

"Sandbox" software comes in various forms. Basically, it creates a "virtual" system that does not allow changes to it, and allows your computer to return to its previous state once you turn it off. If you are unfamiliar with this type of program, it is highly unlikely you have it installed.

Keep your antivirus software and firewall software updated, and a lot of grief can be averted; but be aware, too, that the protection software (even the "intelligent scanners," much of the time) is only as good as the data fed to it. So at first outbreak, no "cure" has been created and downloaded as an update, and you can still be infected.

You can look for a spook behind every curtain and go overboard, of course, As for me, I don't see the percentage in tempting fate. I don't open all of those cutesy spam messages forwarded to me by friends and assoicates unless I am darned sure that the sender is selective in what he/she passes on. 99% of the folks don't seem to be careful at all; so I rately open up "shared" (spam) stuff, even from closest friends.

My browser labels multi-recipient mail with the prefix "[Bulk]"; a strong indicator that it is spam and therefore highly suspect. You might wish to look into using this device as a warning of gross mailouts at the onset.

[Hankster]

Use Mozilla "Thunderbird" for you e-mail. T-Bird will NOT allow a virus into you computer from an e-mail. The only way you can get a virus in T-bird is if you install whatever is sent, THEN open it........

[Jaguarundi]

Make simple..use a linux OS.

[nwtradegun]

ya. i ve gotten a ton of them supposedly from the banks they say. there just cons tryin to get ur info. when i called the banks they said thay dont email they call or cancel ur account if it gets acceseed i know my acount for my card was declined found someone had tried to order 600 in merch. from england.

[Malamute]

Another scam that's been going around is related to hacking someones e-amil. It purports to be the person in question, and comes from their e-mail to a group, or directly to a friend, and asks for help, as they got stuck in England on vacation, or they got robbed, lost their wallet etc, and if their friends can just help them, they'll pay them back when they get home, or back on their feet etc. When the person changes their password on their e-mail, it all stops. So, just a reminder, change your e-mail password now and then, and use a password that has at least 8 characters, as they are much harder to "pick" than a short one. Also, using your dogs name for a password isnt a good diea, especially if others know things like that about you, and can guess, or figure it out from public information, like pics you've hosted online somewhere, or your facebook or myspace.