Number 304 - September 2008

Possible Phishing or Malware Link in E-mail
by Carl Tenning, Tacoma Open Group For Microcomputers
I received an e-mail from what appeared to be a friend. It contained his name in the "From" line and my name in the "To" line. I did not notice it immediately, but his e-mail address contained an extra character. The e-mail asked me to add his e-mail address to my "Trusted" list. Here is the text of the e-mail:    "Carl "I use a good spam filter, and you probably do the same. I have whitelisted you and that means that I will receive all the emails you send to me. I would appreciate it if you would whitelist my email address: (bogus e-mail address) in your spam filter.    "If you don't have a spam filter, I can recommend SPAMfighter. It is a highly effective free spam filter for Outlook and Outlook Express.    "You can get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/Pro	"I hope that you will whitelist me, so we can continue to communicate safely via email in the future.    "Best regards    "(my friends name)"    Well, of course I thought it was authentic and went ahead and added the subject e-mail address to my "Safe Senders" list. Then I clicked on "Reply" to let him know I had complied with his request. Just a few minutes later, however, the Postmaster replied that it was undeliverable. So I went back and examined the e-mail address. Sure enough the e-mail address was not his. This is what got me to thinking the e-mail was bogus. I noticed the link in the e-mail to Spamfighter, but fortunately I had not clicked on it. Who knows where the link really leads to. Links can be spoofed so it is not usually advisable to click on links in e-mails. I guess, in this case we'll never know.
Number 304 - September 2008