Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
General Topics => Computer Problems & Questions, Virus/Scam Warnings => Topic started by: JohnF on January 22, 2016, 12:16:40 PM
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I know most of you have the sense not to open email attachments from unknown senders, however the bad guys are getting smarter.
There has been an increase recently in the number of spoofed emails (i.e. it looks like the sender is proper business/company) being sent which have either MS Word or MS Excel attachments. The attachments contain code that will allow them to either steal info from your machine or for them to use your machine remotely (zombie style (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(computer_science))) or even both. They look genuine and have subject headings such as:
- Thank you for your order
- Your eTickets are attached
- Unpaid invoice
- Credit note attached
One of my old clients recently received one which looked like it was from o2, confirming despatch of his new handset. Fortunately, all his stuff is with another company and he didn't open it - he conceded however that if he'd been with o2 there is a likelihood he might have, it looked so genuine.
One quick test is does it have your actual name on it, that is your surname not forename. If it doesn't, chances are it is malicious - that's the test that PayPal also suggest and often remind customers that they never send out generic emails.
By the way, the malicious code is a Microsoft macro contained in the document - anti virus software will not pick it up so don't think by scanning you'll be safe to have a peek!
JF
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Many thanks for taking the time to post the warning. :)
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Thank you for the heads up.