Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
Phishing Warning
4 Answers
I suspect that most people here are far too intelligent to fall prey to the phishing attack that I've spotted in my email - but just in case anyone's a bit sleepy when checking their mail I thought that I'd mention it here anyway.
(NB: My screenshots refer to my GMX account but the same trick is probably being tried across ALL email providers).
I received this email, apparently from my email provider (GMX):
http://
I was immediately suspicious because
(a) it wasn't addressed to me by name ;
(b) the English wasn't particularly impressive ; and
(c) it contained a link.
Looking at the extended headers
http://
showed me that
(a) the email had been sent from an AOL address (rather than from GMX) ; and
(b) it had been sent to an 'alias' that I sometimes use here on AB (from where it could easily have been captured by web-crawling software), rather than to my 'main' email address (which is the one GMX would have used).
Hovering my mouse over the link showed that it went to an external survey site, rather than to anything from GMX. Knowing that particular site to be safe enough in itself, I decided to click on the link to see where it led. This is what I found:
http://
So I was being asked to provide my email address and password.
In order to find out if I was expected to provide any other information, I filled in the form:
http://
(I obviously didn't provide my real details! Even if I'd managed to get that far without suspecting anything, I should still have been alerted by the fact that my password wasn't starred out as I typed it).
Clicking on 'Submit' simply told me that I'd completed the survey:
http://
So, if I'd fallen prey to the attack, I'd have opened up my email account to the tricksters.
Take care, folks!
(NB: My screenshots refer to my GMX account but the same trick is probably being tried across ALL email providers).
I received this email, apparently from my email provider (GMX):
http://
I was immediately suspicious because
(a) it wasn't addressed to me by name ;
(b) the English wasn't particularly impressive ; and
(c) it contained a link.
Looking at the extended headers
http://
showed me that
(a) the email had been sent from an AOL address (rather than from GMX) ; and
(b) it had been sent to an 'alias' that I sometimes use here on AB (from where it could easily have been captured by web-crawling software), rather than to my 'main' email address (which is the one GMX would have used).
Hovering my mouse over the link showed that it went to an external survey site, rather than to anything from GMX. Knowing that particular site to be safe enough in itself, I decided to click on the link to see where it led. This is what I found:
http://
So I was being asked to provide my email address and password.
In order to find out if I was expected to provide any other information, I filled in the form:
http://
(I obviously didn't provide my real details! Even if I'd managed to get that far without suspecting anything, I should still have been alerted by the fact that my password wasn't starred out as I typed it).
Clicking on 'Submit' simply told me that I'd completed the survey:
http://
So, if I'd fallen prey to the attack, I'd have opened up my email account to the tricksters.
Take care, folks!
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Right into a playback position, https:/
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