Facebook Password Reset
Loyal readers will know what this is…
.. and how the paperclip will automatically put me on the Global Suckers List should I get curious and open the e-mail.
But in case you don’t know, this is a classic “phishing” attack. It is cybercrime. Click here and learn what “phishing” is.
(BTW, I have never had a Facebook account… But the mastermind behind this is hoping you do. Responding would give the criminal full access to my account.)
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
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Paul:
Concerning your post of Facebook password reset. I thought you could open these emails, it was only if you click on the link or opened the attachement you would be in trouble?
Is what you are saying, opening the email alone will either put malware or give your info to the “bad” guys?
Larry
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Larry Caplan,
Okay, there are several things going on: none of them “good”.. as you might expect, as the person behind this is a criminal.
There are small “triggers” in a lot of spam e-mail — such as JPEG’s (visible or invisible), and the inclusion of attachments, that because of the way e-mail works will signal to the Sender that your.address(at)isp.com responded (if you open and look at the e-mail). “Ah ha!” says they, “a live one!”
So now that they know that your.address(at)isp.com is a REAL person, not only that, but a real person who opens unsolicited e-mail,… well, you can expect to be on receiving end of a lot more phishing lures, and junk mail… after all, there’s fish in the your.address(at)isp.com pond. The criminal will sell your.address(at)isp.com to others of his ilk, who will pass it on to still others.
Actually going further, and being so *unwise* as to open the attachment, well, now you are really gambling. The attachment very well could be a script, or virus, or URL redirector which will take your web browser to a poison website, which will attack your machine and try to infect it.
So… no.. looking at the e-mail will (probably) not infect your machine… and looking at the attachment may not infect your machine.. (it may simply be a form to harvest your login credentials).
But.
Cybercrime is already bigger business than the illegal drugs biz..
Great question. Hope I helped clear things up.
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