RE: O/T: BEWARE

Had an e-mail this morning, supposedly from AMAZON.COM, advising they were going to ship an order placed May 3 and to confirm.

I receive ALL e-mail as straight text so get an attachment if file uses HTML.

This e-mail had an attachment containing a *.zip file.

Immediately dumped the whole thing.

What makes this one so nasty is that I had a transaction with AMAZON during early MAY.

Tricky little bastards.

Beware.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett
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You can never be too careful. And like tele market calls.... I am a General Contractor and take all calls.

55% or so are tele calls..... I get totally disgusted with their ways of getting in, and anytime of day, and evening....with a recorded operator and then menu's choices... I have been actually downright rude....but it does no good. They keep coming like lemmings..... Luckily, I have not had too many e-mails..... Yes, I have been on a do not call list......it does no good. john

Had an e-mail this morning, supposedly from AMAZON.COM, advising they were going to ship an order placed May 3 and to confirm.

I receive ALL e-mail as straight text so get an attachment if file uses HTML.

This e-mail had an attachment containing a *.zip file.

Immediately dumped the whole thing.

What makes this one so nasty is that I had a transaction with AMAZON during early MAY.

Tricky little bastards.

Beware.

Lew

Reply to
jloomis

Me also, but I only answer calls from area codes that correspond to the areas I work in. If not I let them go to voice mail. No message, no call back.

One of the things I like about an iPhone, let's me block calls via caller ID. That has made a big difference the past two years since I switched.

A bigger problem for me is junk faxes in the office. Most of my subs still use faxes for things like bids, insurance certs and invoices, so I really need to maintain that capability. Although more and more are switching to email just in the last year or so, if not exclusively.

Occasionally I'll call, or fax back, a local company that sends me unsolicited fax/ads and assure them no way I'd do business with anyone who is guilty of theft of my phone service and office supplies. About as much effect on most of them as a popcorn fart in a hurricane, but I have had a few apologize.

Reply to
Swingman

Me also, but I only answer calls from area codes that correspond to the areas I work in. If not I let them go to voice mail. No message, no call back.

One of the things I like about an iPhone, let's me block calls via caller ID. That has made a big difference the past two years since I switched.

A bigger problem for me is junk faxes in the office. Most of my subs still use faxes for things like bids, insurance certs and invoices, so I really need to maintain that capability. Although more and more are switching to email just in the last year or so, if not exclusively.

Occasionally I'll call, or fax back, a local company that sends me unsolicited fax/ads and assure them no way I'd do business with anyone who is guilty of theft of my phone service and office supplies. About as much effect on most of them as a popcorn fart in a hurricane, but I have had a few apologize.

Reply to
jloomis

On 5/24/2014 12:00 PM, Swingman wrote: [snip]

Do a bit of research on that, Carl. I forget the name of it but the Feds passed a fax spam law a number of years ago that is really kinda neat.

Can't send Faxes to folks without their permission OR unless they are existing customers.

The fun part is that though it's federal, your right to redress is in YOUR local court in much the same fashion as a small claims action. A successful case will net you the costs of the suit and, IIRC, $450 minimum for EACH unsolicited fax.

The trick is identifying the company sending (but there are ways and not all will hide it - plus if you play along with them AFTER THE FACT to get their identifiers, that does NOT negate your claim).

I know several individuals and a couple of lawyers who've made a hobby of these types of cases and made a fair amount of money. One has gotten the check for the $450 (or whatever) just by writing a letter threatening suit.

Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

Too bad it doesn't work. Costs are much higher than the return. DAMHIKT

For years I collected unsolicited faxes and send them to various lawyers and entities that were supposed to be collecting them for litigation purposes, including reporting them to the government.

This is just the last batch of wasted time:

formatting link

Monumental waste of time. Scofflaws outnumber the rest of us.

Reply to
Swingman

to the text if file uses HTML.

--------------------------------------------------------------- So the question:

If you only receive text e-mail, how does the hacker get to you?

Understand all kind of nasty things can be buried in HTML files so I am very careful handling them.

So far so good.

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

On Sun, 25 May 2014 20:53:50 -0700, "Lew Hodgett"

If he's receiving *anything*, then he's vulnerable to being hacked.

Reply to
none

------------------------------------------------- "Edward A. Falk" wrote:

------------------------------------------------------- Sorry for any confusion, but AMAZON had nothing to do with my question.

I'm running OE6 and XP.

I have OE6 set to send and receive text only.

A HTML message is received as a text only msg along with an HTML attachment which I never open unless I know who sent it.

So how does a hacker get thru the above.

I supposedly got a msg from Amazon (which it wasn't).

I checked the attachments and found a "*.ZIP" file.

I immediately trashed the total msg.

The hacker was unsuccessful.

Back to the first question.

How does a hacker get thru my version of OE6?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

You still get html, you just chose to view the text portion only. It's mime content and there are 2 parts text and html. you read the text.

Reply to
woodchucker

I asked:

----------------------------------------------- "woodchucker" wrote:

--------------------------------------------------- OK that makes sense.

As long as I DO NOT open the HTML attachment, how does the hacker get in?

Or have I been enjoying a very long string of good luck?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

On Mon, 26 May 2014 17:27:01 -0700, "Lew Hodgett"

Lew, if you receive an email, whatever form it takes, then there's the possibility you can get hacked. You're in effect, opening your computer to someone or something from outside. The attack can come in the form of messages, attachments, viruses, worms, whatever.

It's a sad fact, but no one is really safe from outside attacks unless they're in a truly closed system.

All you really can do is to take a certain level of precaution. Hackers generally prefer to go for the easier systems to invade. The more difficult your system is to attack, the greater chance a hacker will go after some other system.

Reply to
none

well it's really if you allow active x to run . They can attack you with that. I am not an OE6 user. So I can't tell you all the ways.

You see MS allows vb scripting and active x. Turn the security feature on that blocks those.

HTML in and of itself is not the danger. I use Thunderbird and it blocks remote images until I ok them. I like the fact that I can hit control u to open the source of a message. So I can see what they are sending me without opening the message. If I don't see any bs I might open it. Usually its bs... and I delete it w/o opening.

Do a google search on OE6 security and you probably will find a way of hardening it. Or find why you should not be using it.

Reply to
woodchucker

Quite the opposite. Some of the hackers prefer the hardened systems believing there is more value there.

So you are not safe regardless.

Reply to
woodchucker

It's *NOT* quite the opposite. Sure, there's hackers that like a challenge, but we're talking about generalities, not unusual circumstances. In general, hackers go after systems where there's the hope of some type of gain. The average nobody (Sorry Lew), doesn't have near as much to worry about if they're decently protected and judicious about where go and what they do online.

I never said or even suggested that he'd be safe, quite the opposite actually, as I quoted below.

Reply to
none

Lew you would have to open the zip file. There are also scams that use funeral annoucements. Windows will also tell tech support to call you.

No hacker got through.

Mark

Reply to
Markem

I asked:

----------------------------------------------- "woodchucker" wrote:

---------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------- "Markem" wrote:

--------------------------------------------- I understand not opening the *,ZIP file.

What about other HTML attachments as a general case where *.zip files are not involved?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

There are certain dangers with images, and videos. But generally I don't worry about them. I use thunderbird which gives me the option of displaying the images. I permanently ok certain senders. So it asks on senders I have not ok'd yet.

A good virus scanner like avast protects. Before opening the file is copied to a temp area and scanned. Avast also notifies me of viruses in emails. And it's way faster than the popular anti virus's

Reply to
woodchucker

----------------------------------------------------- Will try avast.

Thks for the help.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

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