Just got an email with an attachment professing to be an invoice (but only an idiot would open an attachment from an unknown source).
The message reads :
Thank you for using our services! Your order #41472609943 will be shipped on 08.09.2014.
Date: September 02, 2014. 11:02am Price: £124.56 Payment method: Wire transfer Transaction number: BB4981EA1E413F
Please find the detailed information on your purchase in the attached file (order_2014-09-02_10-25-09_41472609943.arj)
The email address that it came to was the one attached to my website and is only used through the website for enquiries (I use different email addresses all coming to the same Outlook bucket for loads of different things).
I've done a search and its not coming up as a scam (although the request for a wire transfer means that its pretty much 100% definitely one).
Anyone else had anything similar?
Even if not, probably one to be aware of as it looks just like a normal invoice email except for the not recognising the sender/requesting payment by wire transfer/using an email address that I would not give to a supplier or client.
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Shaun, for the very special and discounted rate of just £120 I can find out for you using my special scam busting software. Please wire your remittance to......
I've been getting quite a lot of those (or very similar) lately. I suspect it's not so much a scam as a malware infection vector, attempting to exploit known security flaws in Adobe's software.
And to test that theory, I've just scanned one of the PDFs with my A/V software, and it immediately deleted it, saying "This file contained malicious software, so it has been deleted for your protection."
"The email address that it came to was the one attached to my website and is only used through the website for enquiries (I use different email addresses all coming to the same Outlook bucket for loads of different things)."
Very sensible. Unsurprisingly, I operate a similar system, with two whole domain names used exclusively for when I give an address to suppliers etc, so that they always have an address unique to them. The motivation was to catch out companies who don't respect the "I don't want your crappy email" and "Don't pass my address to other companies to send me their crappy email" options, or who just have crap security themselves.
All of these dodgy invoice emails I've seen have been to such addresses - but they're mostly ones I already knew were compromised. And those that previously weren't have presumably now been compromised - including, relevantly for this forum, the address that only Sage had.
Only Sage, that is, and the third party company to whom they provided contact data to send spammy emails on their behalf, even though I had opted not to receive such emails. (Yes, there was an argument with them as a result!)
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
I have had loads of email delivery rejections hit one of my inboxes, and dozens of phone calls.
It appears I am sending a message in exactly the same format as the one you received Shaun, except the amount, date and sender are different.
According to my web host, it is a spoof email, that disguises itself as if it is sent by me but infact is sent from a completely different email address but all replies come back to me.
Very annoying for the recipient, and a pain in the botox for me, emptying my inbox of rejected/ undelivered email reports.
'I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came down here to Kiev, Ukraine for a short vacation,unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed all cash,credit card and mobile phone were stolen off us but luckily we still have our passports with us.
We've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all the bad news is our flight will be leaving in less than 8-hrs from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills.
I'll need your help (LOAN) financially of £2,000. I promise to make the refund once we get back home. Please let me know if i can count on you and i need you to keep checking your email because it's the only way i can reach you.'
It's very convincing because everyone is flocking to Kiev for their Summer break!
I've just followed the path back through properties and the message seems to have come from a completely legitimate shipping company. Sure that they're going to be being hit with the same as you Bill as if I replied the reply would be routed back to them which does make it seem convincing.
Just noticed that the telephone number given is a mobile one. There's another sure sign of a dodgy email.
As Bill so aptly puts it. There are indeed some sad fox wits out there (lol).
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
plus of course in the event of a financial emergency the first person that we all turn to for a loan is our accountant!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Gussie Pobanz at Revolucion Records will be shipping something worth £135.12 to me tomorrow apparently. Think I'll wait to see what arrives before looking at the invoice!!!!
