hacked?

[Zorro]

Hi all. I have gotten two emails lately from Tom Flynn, aka Southbranch, which I am somewhat afraid to open, as Tom and I have not corresponded recently. Has anyone else received emails from him and were they legit?
thanks

 

[JS]

Unexpected emails from someone with whom you haven't corresponded in a long time often mean a hacker has invaded his address book and sent out junk (at best) to everyone in there.

Tip-offs that they aren't legit:

1. Subject line is blank.

2. When you open it, the message is minimal -- just "Hi" or "Greetings" or something like that.

3, It will always contain a clickable link.

If that's how it looks, don't click the link. Just delete the email.

I've never had any problem just from opening the email. My browser declines to download anything suspicious, or to "allow remote content," however.

Others may have different cautions.

 

[JavaMan]

What he said.

​

...If that's how it looks, don't click the link. Just delete the email.

Also, I usually send the individual a separately generated email letting them know that I received this, because they may still be unaware that they have been hijacked. This way, they can send another email warning others not to open and apologize for the inconvenience ...because anyone who steps in it ain't gonna be happy.

Keep in mind, this hijacking also happens to people that you know well and communicate with often. JavaWoman got one from her sister recently. Don't assume that it is/was suspicious solely because you receive it from someone with whom you rarely communicate.

Kudos to you for making an inquiry before you opened it.

​

 

[Carnac]

Hi all. I have gotten two emails lately from Tom Flynn, aka Southbranch, which I am somewhat afraid to open, as Tom and I have not corresponded recently. Has anyone else received emails from him and were they legit?
thanks

Que pasa Senior Zorro,
I don't know Ton per se, but I can share with you some experiences I've had with people I know that I've exchanged e-mails with. Over the past few years, I've received e-mails that appear from someone I know. Like you, I was curious about the authenticity of that e-mail. It did not look like any I've seen before, especially from the purported sender.

I called this person to find out if he did send that e-mail, he didn't. His e-mail account had been hacked without his knowledge. The hacker sent emails to everyone in his e-mail address book. The body of the email will look something like this:
How to block the annoying robocalls that you keep getting

The above email is harmless. It was used for illustration purposes only.

It's a link that will take you to a website that may be malicious or not. Since I received the first one, I've received several others from people I know that have been hacked. They're easily recognizable now, and are immediately blocked and disposed of. There is no other greeting or message contained therein.

Two suggestions - 1. DO NOT open the email!!! 2. Permanently block incoming future emails from that person. Send that email to your trash can, then clean your trash can.

JavaMan and JS beat me to it, but I 100% concur with their post.

I hope this helps.

 

[dtbtbtb]

do not open it

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Just had a similar experience - someone I corresponded with some years ago sent me an e-mail reporting my address book was "hacked". The e-mail he got had the link as JS indicates.

Oddly enough, though, the return address was a forwarding service that I no longer use, linked to an address I never had. Really confused exactly what they hacked and I didn't hear from anyone else that they received spam.