Last month I got an email from my ex-wife, offering to give me the low-down on a GREAT money-making opportunity working at home!
After I quit laughing, I emailed my ex. She replied that she hadn't sent it to me, and didn't know anything about it. So I deleted the email, and quit worrying about it.
A few days later I received an email from a high-school friend, offering to give me the low-down on ... yep. You guessed it, another GREAT money-making opportunity working at home. So I deleted the email.
Two days ago I received an email from my daughter, with the heading "blessedday". The email contained absolutely NO content! So I wrote to her (did NOT replay to the email) and said "No content? What's with this?"
This afternoon when I got back to the range I found a reply from my daughter. She said it was news to her, she had scanned her computer and found no virus or bugs, but she did change her password and hoped that would clear up the problem.
I wrote back to say her mother had a problem lately too with her email address book being used to send bogus emails (one of which was sent to me), and concluded with the smug assurance that "... you didn't get that from MY side of the family!"
Smug didn't live long. The very next email I read was from a utility vendor informing me that the credit card I used to pay my bill was due to expire next month and I should change my payment information in order to continue uninterrupted service.
I don't pay that account with a credit card, and even if I did, it wouldn't be expiring. SO I contacted the vendor directly (via email ... not by replying to the original email) forwarding the 'bogus' email and asked them to please investigate and LET ME KNOW whether they had screwed up or whether this was just another "Phishing" attempt.
(Look up the term "Phishing" if you're not sure, but generally speaking it means someone is trying to get me to reply to the EMAIL rather than directly to the vendor ... who can NOT be reached using the email address provided. The hope is that I will provide private information including credit card account number, etc.)
What does this mean to you?
In case you haven't been attacked before, please be aware that there are naughty people out there who would LOVE for you to reply directly to their emails. Always verify the source of dubious emails even if they seem to come from a friend or family member.
Oh, and I checked my AntiVirus provider (Symantic) and they have no reference to a virus identified as "blessedday". Doesn't mean there isn't one ... just means it hasn't been identified as a "virus". That is, there is no software embedded in the email by that name. This should NOT be taken to mean that there's not someone out there sending apparently innocuous messages which, if YOU reply to it directly, will consider this a confirmation of your email address as an "active and legitimate" email address and continue to send you unsolicited messages ... or send you an email message which DOES have a virus.
As Sgt. Phil Esterhaus use to say in almost every episode of Hill Street Blues:
"Let's be careful out there!"
(Sigh!)
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