NA Dangerous emails

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
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20,316
Location
west Texas
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Display name:
Dave Taylor
I got this email from an accountant I deal with.
I know it's bogus, I called him and they did not send it out.
It appears like some valid emails I have received in the past; you have to click a link in the text in order to access the information. Hovering over the link reveals jibberish; a multitude of random numbers and letters.
Being curious, I'd like to know what type of scam it is. An exe file? Crypto-locker? Spam? Is there any safe way to investigate it?
Anyone behind a Fort Knox Firewall want to give it a go?
Presumably it would be unsafe to post here?
 
Create a VM with none of your personal data in it. Copy the link there. Browse the link.

I promise you it will be anticlimactic!
 
You could copy the link and paste it into the box at Virustotal.com to see what it says. But, while the link might appear to do nothing, you may not approve of what the hackers would be using your PC for in short order.
 
Leave the stinky pile of poo alone. Stop playing with it with a stick. ;)
 
Normally these are phishing scams (yeah, retarded name), trying to look like a legit webpage.
Often they come from "your bank" and the link in the email looks like your bank URL but when you hover it, it is spoofed so it will actually take you to Ukraine, Taiwan, China or other non-US location. The webpage looks pretty much identical to your bank webpage and you log in with your bank credentials.
20 seconds later, your account is empty and you have no clue why.

Glad you asked.
Be careful out there, people. We are pilots, we are supposed to be the smart ones. :)
 
as a general rule I don't click on links in emails, even ones I'm expecting. case in point, yesterday I emailed my bank a question. today I got an email from my bank saying 'click here to view a response to your inquiry'. no thanks, ever. I logged onto my account and checked the message there.

I have an aunt that is email happy. she forwards any and every email she gets to the entire planet. almost all of them are 'click here to see the coolest something-or-other' or 'you gotta see this, click here'. when I see her she asks why I never respond to her emails and I say any email I get that says 'you have to click here' immediately gets deleted....yes, even yours. (especially yours).
 
I got one a day or two ago that claimed to be from a site I use (I deleted it so fast I don't remember which one) and asked for both my login and password to update to a new web site. Yeah, right.... I was born, but not yesterday.
 
I got one last week from @Greg Bockelman . I replied asking if he had sent it, but stripped the attachment from my reply. I never heard back, so maybe it was a fake Greg...

Greg, if you really sent me something, send it again with more explanation in the body of the email.
 
I am (now) in cybersec. Most people have no idea how cunning, sophisticated, and nefarious email is unless you are directly involved in this business. I honestly don't know how we get **** done using the web, there's so much badness out there. Basically China and Russia have made our PCs their tech-whores.
 
Everskyward said:
I got one last week from @Greg Bockelman . I replied asking if he had sent it, but stripped the attachment from my reply. I never heard back, so maybe it was a fake Greg...

Greg, if you really sent me something, send it again with more explanation in the body of the email.
Click to expand...
Mari, I didn't send it. Please delete if you haven't already. Sorry I didn't see your correspondence.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Mari, I didn't send it. Please delete if you haven't already. Sorry I didn't see your correspondence.
Click to expand...
I deleted it immediately because it looked suspicious. I think the email was titled "Dropbox".
 
iflyvfr said:
I am (now) in cybersec. Most people have no idea how cunning, sophisticated, and nefarious email is unless you are directly involved in this business. I honestly don't know how we get **** done using the web, there's so much badness out there. Basically China and Russia have made our PCs their tech-whores.
Click to expand...

The right guy to ask! Have you seen anything nefarious that can deploy from Outlook preview window? I was involved in a discussion about that a few years ago and the consensus then was No.
 
The link takes you to a malicious webpage where they will attempt to use known flaws in older browsers, Flash software, etc to download and execute some kind of virus onto your computer, perhaps a keylogger. Depending on your user settings and your level of knowledge in keeping things updated, it may or may not work. But it works often enough that they keep on trying.
 
bflynn said:
The link takes you to a malicious webpage where they will attempt to use known flaws in older browsers, Flash software, etc to download and execute some kind of virus onto your computer, perhaps a keylogger. Depending on your user settings and your level of knowledge in keeping things updated, it may or may not work. But it works often enough that they keep on trying.
Click to expand...

And they just automate it. There's plenty of systems out there that aren't patched to the latest versions of everything installed on them at any particular time, and once the exploits are known and published they're simply added to the automated hack systems. Automated destructive stuff always stays just ahead of the patching so computers continue to attempt to head back to the chaos and entropy from whence they came.
 
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