A newer type of Spam scam

[BFlinn181]

Anyone else notice the trend towards spams with "Notice to Appear in Court" or "Your Amazon (FedEX, UPS) Order invoice"?? They always have a file attached that has the suffix .exe or .zip so they most likely contain harmful viruses. I have a few different accounts on various servers and they are all getting this stuff. Almost as many as the offers to share in some ill-gotten money if I help smuggle it out of the country of origin.
I'm slightly surprised that folks still fall for these strategies but they must ensnare a small percentage of folks like those who still think their email address won the Microsoft or British National Lottery without having even entered! It's guess it's sort of the modern version of being offered partnership in the Brooklyn Bridge Owner's Club, popular more than a century ago.

What type of offers have you gotten lately?

[Wayne M]

Many years ago there was a study done on Internet users and viruses. It was unbelievable the high percentage of users that would open a virus, even knowing it was a virus. When questioned the replied that the just wanted to see what it did.

I'll wager that today's users are the same. Many have no knowledge of the Internet and the harmful things out there. They just fire up the computer and log into their Internet email account like their children taught them. They don't know how to update programs or do any computer type stuff.

Now-a-days they log into social networks besides their email. It's the same with forwarding their emails. They don't know how to forward an email without all the email addresses attached. One of the easiest way that spammers harvest email addresses.

So when it comes to spam to make money, many are very gullible. You can go back to the Nigerian 411 scam of "yesteryear" when it was done by facsimile until spam/scam by fax was made illegal, then they used telephone, and still use today, but email has become the norm for spam/scam artists. There are so many that fall for it.

[wa8yxm]

Have gotten several of the "Your Amzon order" or "FED-EX Shipment" (or UPS or ____) lately.. They all were processed the same way (DELETE). I never download those types of attachments.

Since my mail is pre-screened, I can safely download but... I never have.

Sometimes they come with .PDF on the extension, but those too can be infected I'm told by experts.

RECOMMENDATION:
1; WEB mail.. i once tried to download a known infected file,< There were so many pop ups asking if I really wanted to do this evil think that I finally gave up.
2: GOOD Anti Virus software of the resident kind, Avast, AVG, I do not care for McAffee and never have (This has nothing to do with his current legal problems and much to do with what I believe he SHOULD be charged with, which I'll not post) or Nortion (Too resource intensive) backed up by something like Malware Bytes which runs only when I need it.

And a good fire wall.. none better than Zone Alarm.

On all the above.. I like the FREE versions. if you pay for it then there is an incentive for them to "Seed the market" shall we say.. (Plant viruses on the web). I strongly suspect that in the early days at least one company did just that. Possibly more.. Im told by folks who know him Norton did NOT.. but, Well.. I believe our mutual friend. (Who says he did not) but.. Still, his software hogs too much processor time.

[seoagency]

Originally Posted by Wayne M

Many years ago there was a study done on Internet users and viruses. It was unbelievable the high percentage of users that would open a virus, even knowing it was a virus. When questioned the replied that the just wanted to see what it did.

I'll wager that today's users are the same. Many have no knowledge of the Internet and the harmful things out there. They just fire up the computer and log into their Internet email account like their children taught them. They don't know how to update programs or do any computer type stuff.

Now-a-days they log into social networks besides their email. It's the same with forwarding their emails. They don't know how to forward an email without all the email addresses attached. One of the easiest way that spammers harvest email addresses.

So when it comes to spam to make money, many are very gullible. You can go back to the Nigerian 411 scam of "yesteryear" when it was done by facsimile until spam/scam by fax was made illegal, then they used telephone, and still use today, but email has become the norm for spam/scam artists. There are so many that fall for it.

My research cam up similar, good rule of thumb never open any attachment ever.

[wildmandmc]

i fix pc's for last 15 yrs, an im a national webmaster for law enforcement club and my name is at bottom of 63 sites, my spam box is always full. 100's of dif spam (scammer emails), from post office notice, fed ex,won the lottery, ect. one of latest is you get an email from a friend/family member, no text in email just a link, which has a php extention, which is code for writing to root of program, clicking on this will send your email password to them, as for maintaining a pc, (keeping it clean), always have to keep programs up to date and run them once a week. superantispyware free version is great, malwarebytes another great one, i use avira for last 14 yrs, free version, light wieght an updates auto/by itself. just have to run system scan yourself.

[Clayobx]

I had a very peculiar one this AM. "Lil Angel" was inspired by GOD since the passing of her husband to share his estate with me. Of course there is no known Lil Angel. Just goes to show you their angles are so absurd I find it hard to believe any one with average mental capacity would fall for this scam? But as mentioned someone will!!

[BFlinn181]

I started this thread to bring awareness to folks that might be tempted by some of these come ons. I just got another new one from something called 'WhatsApp' (clever name) saying, "Your friend has just sent a picture. Open attachments to look at it." The attachment is a .zip file.

Come on, 'Your friend?'

My sister died a few years ago and months later I started getting emails from her! I was able to track them back to Russia. They had hacked her yahoo email account and were using her address book. Since then I don't keep anything in my account address books except the addresses of various fraud and spam reporting services.

Update: My virus blocker just labeled and quarantined an identical email from WhatsApp as containing a virus in the attachment.

[87Rockwood]

My email I preview on the server before I down load any of it. I have gotten the "Houston court" scam as well as the PG&E bill scam-and I live in New Hampshire! If I have any question about an email I go to the "site" its from to check out to see if they have a alert to a scam-like the Houston court does.

[Caveman CBB]

There was a report on the local radio station today warning about the "Notice to appear in court" scam. As for the Amazon order invoice scam I get a lot of stuff from Amazon how would I know which one is real.??I'm purdy sure though that when I order from Amazon and they send me a invoice it doesn't require me clicking on a link to open it. Hopefully that is the difference.

[Wizard]

Originally Posted by BFlinn181

Anyone else notice the trend towards spams with "Notice to Appear in Court" or "Your Amazon (FedEX, UPS) Order invoice"?? They always have a file attached that has the suffix .exe or .zip so they most likely contain harmful viruses. I have a few different accounts on various servers and they are all getting this stuff. Almost as many as the offers to share in some ill-gotten money if I help smuggle it out of the country of origin.
I'm slightly surprised that folks still fall for these strategies but they must ensnare a small percentage of folks like those who still think their email address won the Microsoft or British National Lottery without having even entered! It's guess it's sort of the modern version of being offered partnership in the Brooklyn Bridge Owner's Club, popular more than a century ago.

What type of offers have you gotten lately?

Just think, if I could get a couple $K out of one person, I could be set.

[BFlinn181]

Originally Posted by Caveman CBB

There was a report on the local radio station today warning about the "Notice to appear in court" scam. As for the Amazon order invoice scam I get a lot of stuff from Amazon how would I know which one is real.??I'm purdy sure though that when I order from Amazon and they send me a invoice it doesn't require me clicking on a link to open it. Hopefully that is the difference.

Amazon doesn't send .zip file invoices. They address you by name, which is not always a true sign of a legitimate email, but it's better than 'Your friend.' Also with Amazon, Ebay, etc. I can go in through their normal website, sign in, and access my account and check for notices, messages, shipping status, etc.
Clue that the "Notice to appear in court" was bogus to me was it was from San Francisco, and I've not been there for at least 5 years (except the International terminal at the airport) and didn't even get a parking ticket when I was!

[CLIFFTALL]

I just received this email from my local power co.

[djbmsu]

I received just last week alone, 12 emails informing me of the millions and millions and millions of dollars that were left to me from total strangers. I feel so blessed. You all are going to be sorry when it arrives and I am rolling in the green backs. We are going to order one of the top class A diesel pushers from every manufacturer in the market. We can't wait for the money to arrive.

[OrngTrillium]

This is part of the reason why any "real" hoa/bank/bills I still take physical mail option over "Save paper e-billing" option every time. I'm not *that* old but I do not want to deal with these scams. Actually if it's not a known recipient I probably won't read it at all. I don't think these scams will disappear any time soon sadly.