Another email scam

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I received an invoice from a subby after a recent job, 24hrs later I get another email "from him" titled Urgent - response required!

 

"Can you let me know when you're paying the invoice because we're changing our bank details."

 

First off, since I'd seen him a day or two before, he'd have told me if there were any specific day/dates he needed paying by, and secondly, it just wasn't written in a style he would use in an email between us.

 

I called him and he said it was not him. I sent him the email, definitely not him. I got the IP and actual name of the thieving scum from the email header.

 

Yesterday, I get a call from the people I recently sent an email invoice to asking for my new bank details.

 

They've received exactly the same email supposedly from me saying Urgent blah, blah, blah.

 

Take care out there, there appears to be a rush on "ghosting" emails...

 

I read up a bit on it, apparently it's quite common once your email address has been "harvested" and there's not much can be done to stop it.

 

If anyone has any experience or tips to avoid / counter this please do share!

[Gary Prentice]

After my recent hacking, I've started to use the two-step log in process. It's a bit like the internet banking log-in with a password and an app that generates a numeric code that changes every thirty seconds. You can log in from your own devices and say that that address is trusted and you only re-enter the numeric every thirty days.

 

I'm assuming that someone has unauthorized access to your email account and then follows up on what you are sending or receiving, so this should deny that access?

 

Have you looked into where your email account has been logged into from? Mine was Singapore and Nigeria, 6.30 AM (our time) both within half an hour.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Yes, it was US Gary according to IP trackers.

 

Time to start a new email account with 2 part authentication as you say. Will just monitor old account for incoming messages from legacy users.

[Gary Prentice]

Yes, it was US Gary according to IP trackers.

 

Time to start a new email account with 2 part authentication as you say. Will just monitor old account for incoming messages from legacy users.

 

You can, at least with gmail, add 2 part authentication to existing accounts. If you don't or can't protect that account it can still be accessed and used maliciously against everyone you've ever corresponded with!

[NFG]

Hmm,

 

Unfortunately e-mail is fairly vulnerable to alls sorts of abuse, for example e-mails sent by estate agents/solicitors which get changed, redirecting funds to hackers account.

 

Its no bad thing to consider reading mail in plain text as there are so many html & word macro expoits around & when a questionable e-mail arrives look at the full headers - there are also a few free trackers so you can trace the origin of the e-mail see where its really come from.

 

Trace an e-mail back to its geographical location including spam filter being fairly good

 

If in doubt delete & call them. Oh & +1 for two factor authentication

 

Mailwasher Pro quite good for intercepting spam MailWasher Pro | Firetrust

Edited February 14, 2017 by NFG