[access-uk] Re: Headsup: bogus and dangerous emails purporting to be from 'her majesty's corporate tribunal service'
- From: Shaun O'Connor <capricorn8159@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:29:02 +0100
good alert
I would also recommend in addition users have their email clients set
to receive plan text only. not HTML as some emails may contain content
that executes a program remotely simply by passing the mouse or pointing
device over any links within the body of an email.
On 09/09/2014 19:34, Barry Hill wrote:
> Sneaky. Thanks for the warning, Mike. Would you be able to post a copy of
> the email, without the attachment of course, so that we can see exactly what
> to look out for?
>
> Cheers
>
> Barry
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Mike Ray
> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 4:11 PM
> To: Access-UK
> Subject: [access-uk] Headsup: bogus and dangerous emails purporting to be
> from 'her majesty's corporate tribunal service'
>
> Hello list,
>
> I generally have no trouble spotting bogus emails when they arrive.
>
> Before now I have only ever seen emails which use our darkest desires as
> the bait. Emails with 'I love you' and similar stuff in the title.
>
> And of course emails from that nice Nigerian gentleman who always seems
> to have ninety-thousand pounds in his pyjamas he wants to share.
>
> This morning I received an email whose subject line suggested it was
> from Her Majesty's Corporate Tribunal Service', if there is such a thing.
>
> The body of the emailsounded very convincing, and extremely threatening,
> suggesting some judgement had been made in my failure to appear.
>
> Enough to make my blood run chilly for about ten seconds since I have
> run companies in the past.
>
> Sure enough there was an attachment, which was a zip file.
>
> The zip file contained a file with the extension .docx.exe.
>
> Of course I did not execute it and I am in no doubt the .exe extension
> means it is definitely bogus.
>
> But the text of the email is enough to scare the pants of you for a while.
>
> I am sharing this on here because, as we are blind and visually
> impaired, and as such find it hard to get a job, it means a lot of us
> are self-employed and as such, such things as court summons documents
> for late submission of statutory returns etc. is often in the backs of
> our minds.
>
> So...if you receive such an email, always, but always check the file
> extension of any attachments, and don't execute anything.
>
> I have always configured ANY Windows PCs I have to show file extensions.
>
> The file in the zip attached to the email in question was:
>
> something.docx.exe
>
> On a PC with hidden file extensions, this file would appear as:
>
> something.docx
>
> Making you think it is a Word document.
>
> Double clicking on that file would no doubt leave you with something
> nasty on your computer.
>
> If you don't want to always be able to see file extensions, or if you
> cannot work out how to configure your PC to show them, check the
> properties of any suspect file by using the context menu and selecting
> 'properties'. This will tell you the nature of the file.
>
> Don't make it easy for the bad guys.
>
> Mike
>
>
--
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