Is the e-mail genuine?

[horseshoes]

This proably sounds silly, but I've had an e-mail fro DHL - USA. It is actually addressed to my e-mail, and not to the usual "undisclosed recipients" I usually get from scam or spam. There is an attachment to click on supposedly an address label they couldn't deliver to. I do post abroad on eBay but I don't use DHL. If it is a nasty thing will opening the attachment be enough to let in whatever nastiness gets in, or do you think that because it's addressed to me that it's genuine? Please advise. Thank you.

[craft1948]

Yes.....bin it.

[ChuckFickens]

Before I even read the question I knew the answer would be yes it's a scam. if you are not sure about an email, ever, then treat it as a scam.

Anyhow, as it goes the DHL one has been doing the rounds for a couple of months now, DHL even had a recorded warning about it on their phone system a little while ago.

[horseshoes]

but how did they get the correct e-mail address - that's really scary.

[horseshoes]

... and what DOES happen if you ever open something like that? If it wrecks your computer or whatever, would it be repairable. Sorry to ask so many questions but I don't have any idea; and thank you for your answers... and so quickly too. I appreciate it.

[Buenchico]

It's a well known scam.

Someone sends you an email, allegedly from a well-known delivery service, stating that they were unable to deliver something. You'll be invited to tell them when they can deliver to you but, at some stage in the process, you'll be asked to pay a small 're-delivery fee', which means providing your credit/debit card details, together with the security number on the back of the card. Result: No delivery (because there was never a package in the first place) and every single penny taken out of your account.

The emails are sent out worldwide but frequently use the US names of delivery companies. ('DHL' deliver in the UK, 'DHL-USA' don't). Companies who attempt deliveries to your door, but fail to do so, don't send you emails. (How would they know your email address?). They put a card through your door.

If you're still not sure, do this. (The instructions are for Outlook Express but other email clients are similar):
Open the mail and then click on File>Properties>Details>Message Source. Look for the last line starting with 'Received from'. That will tell you where the mail originally came from. I'll guarantee that it's not from 'dhl.com' or anything similar.

Chris

[boxtops]

It's spam,. bin it, I get them every couple of weeks saying "your parcel is delayed" or "here's news about your delivery". DHL won't email you. I get loads of spam each week (and yes sometimes they do have my correct email address, sometimes it's corrupted) but we invested in a good spam filter, so thankfully very few get straight into my inbox. Bin it.

[Buenchico]

With regards to your subsidiary question ("How did they get the correct email address"?):

Spammers and fraudsters generally get hold of addresses in two main ways. Firstly, they use software to scan web pages and forums (etc) to collect every address that they can find. Secondly, they simply generate millions of addresses at random, knowing that some of them will be genuine. Either way they're not specifically targeting to you. They just know that if they send out, say, 100 million emails, someone will fall for their trick.

You've also asked about opening an attachment. Ideally, you should never even open an email, yet alone its attachment, unless you're confident about the source. That means that you should always disable the preview pane in any browser (so that the email doesn't open in that pane as soon as you click on it). In Outlook Express the method is to go to View>Layout. Then click to remove the tick alongside 'Show preview pane', click 'Apply' and 'OK'. (Other browsers are usually similar).

Opening an email from an untrusted source can result in generally minor problems to your PC (although if they ultimately lead to you giving away your bank details, through key-logging techniques, they can still be disastrous). Opening an attachment can run a program which will do whatever it's designed to, including installing a virus or even wiping your entire hard drive.

Chris

[bigfoot3000]

I also have got the
Postal Manager Marisol Vargas-UPS Delivery Problem NR 06221. Many of times!

[sara3]

I get lots of these from many "delivery" companies. they all seem to have the same ref no in the title!

[ChuckFickens]

to give a little perspective on spam levels (and so some people might realise just how much there is out there)

I run a mail server for the company I work for which has one single domains email hosted on it, it precesses about 10000 - 15000 genuine emails a month, it filters out between 3 and 4 Million spam a month! (and at one point that included 10's of thousands of those DHL and UPS spam a day!)

[sara3]

Chuck, I get about 10 spam emails a day at work (they are filtered), but I don't know anyone else who gets them at work!

[bigfoot3000]

Just goes to show that these scammers mean business and are just waiting till we drop our guard!

[Mr k]

Taken from DHL,S web site..

http://www.dhl.co.uk/...n/new_virus.high.html

A message to our customers about a spam message and new virus
Please be advised that if you received an email suggesting that DHL is attempting to deliver a package, requesting that you open the email attachment in order to affect delivery, this email is fraudulent, the attachment is a computer virus, and the package does not exist.

Please do not open the attachment. This virus does not originate from DHL. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Additional Information
Fraud / Virus Emails

[bigfoot3000]

And here's the ups scam http://www.scambusters.org/upsscam.html

[horseshoes]

Well - it's a revelation to me. Thank you all SO much for your VERY informative replies. I don't quite understand the e-mail preview stuff but I shall certainly ask somebody to come and show me (I'm one of these people who only need showing once but am hopeless with a manual). Sara3 I used to work at a University and they had all manner of firewalls etc but still we used to get spam - usually the Viagra ones. Anyway, I shall definitely be on my guard. Thanks a million to all of you who took time and trouble to reply to me.

[bigfoot3000]

I sincerely hope that I don't have a trojan in my computer!