AFVN Group Conversations

    From:  Ken Kalish

     Date:  January 3, 2020

Subject:  More on Computer Scam

There’s another one going around in which a sender pretending to be a tech from your anti-virus service sends an e-mail announcing that your computer’s device ID has shown up on a dark website, and that you may have been hijacked. The key to spotting this one is the sender’s e-mail address.  Look for the number 2 after the @ symbol but before the .com part.  If you call the provided number a phony “tech” will offer to go into your system via something like RescueMe and clear the problem.  Don’t do it.  They’ll steal everything but your toilet paper.  I bumped into this one when I got such an e-mail and called my provider to ask what was up.  They knew about it and explained everything that had been going on.  They can’t kill the fake, because coming from a server in the Middle East. 
Ken


    From:  Steve Sevits

     Date:  January 3, 2020

Subject:  More on Computer Scam

The computer scam I referenced several hours ago is worse than I thought, when I went to reboot this AM 'the desktop wouldn't display.  Apparently just by opening the attached .PDF it got me. Now I've got to go through a reload. 
Steve


    From:  Steve Sevits

     Date:  January 3, 2020

Subject:  New Scam

I just fell for a new scam unseen by me before, and worth warning everyone about. 
It appeared to be an email from Amazon saying that an order had been placed on a computer which had not been used previously for ordering from Amazon. I thought it might have been a credit card fraud. 
The email had a .PDF attached to it. I opened the .PDF and it appeared to be for a $50 gift card from Petsmart, ordered from Amazon for email delivery. Naturally I hadn’t ordered any such thing. There was a blue line of text on the .PDF for me to click to change or cancel the order. I didn’t click on that. 
I did call Amazon 888-280-4331 and they confirmed that no such order was placed and no such email was sent to me. 
Examining the email closer the sending address didn’t look right, and the email was addressed to “undisclosed recipients.” As close as I can figure, it was an attempt to get me to click on the “change or cancel order” script. Gosh knows where that would have taken me. 
Beware of emails addressed to “undisclosed recipients” and with strange appearing sending addresses. Be careful to thoroughly read the headers on any unexpected emails and delete those not specifically addressed to you. 
Hopefully this will save some from an unwarranted computer intrusion. 
Steve


Computer Scams - Amazon and Others

January 2020