ROB BRADFORD - BEWARE SCAM EMAIL FOR HELP

[UlrichS]

Hi all,

Rob's email account is not necessarily been hacked. All information for sending these emails can also come from an email address book that has been hacked. Almost all email programs include the email address and the recipient's name. The email address books are normally not secured by a password. Especially Windows' own Messenger has frequently been exploited by malicious software.

What made me suspicious with this email was the fact that the return email address was different to the sending email address. Also I would never expect someone who is asking for help doing this without addressing me with my name.

Rob,
apart from changing your password - for your email account and if possible for the email client on your computer - you should not be too worried. I presume that your security software is up-to-date anyway.

Best wishes,

Ulrich

[JimN]

I got the email twice, but Outlook recognised it as spam (presumably because of the copy list) and relegated it to the "Bulk Mail" (ie, spam) folder.

[Didier]

Hi Everyone,
There are some devious and evil scammers out there!!! I am fine...but, obviously.. my account (despite just about every possible precaution possible!!!) has been hacked / compromised. This isn't Hotmail...it's BT!!!! I will get onto this shortly...meanwhile....any IT 'experts' with any tips / advice if there's any 'simple' way to fix this???

Not sure your email account has been hijacked, as others already said, the first thing to do is to change your password.
Last year my wife's email correspondants all received the same kind of scam, saying she was stuck in Africa et needed money to come back !
She closed her mailbox and opened a new one.

Didier

[MartcasterJunior]

Worth mentioning that you don't actually need someone's password to send an email from their address - only to read emails sent to that address. If people are receiving rogue emails from your account, it doesn't necessarily mean that you've been "hacked".

Cheers

Matt

[noelford]

The thing is, you can put anyone's email address on a scam email without needing access to any secure info. However, the fact that quite a few forum members are being sent these scam emails points to the probability that Rob's address book has been compromised.

[Detailed Infinity]

Rob - first step - CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ASAP

something really obscure, using combinations of Caps, numbers & special characters etc

eg. tEa=4cUp

Ooops. Don't tell him Pike

[Detailed Infinity]

It's round robin's that I find are the culprits. Always moaning at the wife when she gets a mail from one of her coven with half of the village included.

[Shadow Steve]

Feeling a bit left out as I have not had the email sent to me.
Glad to know that you made it back from your virtual trip to Italy safely.

When sending bulk posts out to groups I always try to BC them rather than CC, this ensures that everyone email address remains secure from others and stops certain people adding an address onto chain letters or scams.

[RayL]

As another recipient of the scam email, the worrying part of the message is that it ends with 'Bests', an ending that is used frequently by Rob and which makes the message seems more real. The scammers were actually using Rob's 'style', not just his address list.

Ray

[Arpeggio]

Ran full computer scan.....no viruses /Trojans / other threats detected. Changed password (it wasn't straightforward & everything had to be done via BT Helpline in the end)....so assume everything is now OK. However - all of my contacts were deleted as well as the contents of 10 other folders (much of it not exactly vital, thank goodness). Set BT Help team onto the task of retrieving as much data as possible. So far....my Contacts List (yippppppeeeeee!!!!) - viz: 'Address Book' and 'Messages Sent' data has now reappeared. So.....what exactly happened....who knows? (Some of you IT experts out there may be able to work it out.)

I may have to get onto BT again though (groan), unless anyone on this board knows what to do. My 'In Box' had also gone temporarily empty (even though I knew there were messages in it). This morning....those messages reappeared (+ a few new ones). I replied to a couple of messages & then decided to move any more that I needed to keep into their appropriate 'Folders' (Joe Meek, Shadows, Music etc) & then delete any irrelevant ones (by the usual method of clicking on the relevant messages - which I have done tens of thousands of times down the years). So....imagine my surprise when I clicked on a message to move (which had already been viewed) as per usual....strangely when I did that.....every remaining message in the In Box suddenly vanished. I promise you that I hadn't marked them all & pressed 'Delete Messages' followed by 'OK'. No....definitely not. Then...in the sidebar, I noticed that the Inbox was showing that there were still 2 (2) Unread Messages (which was correct - as there were 2 I hadn't read at that point....not destined for Spam....but not vital reading either). However - when I clicked on the InBox (still showing that there were 2 Unread messages) - the text 'There are no emails in your Inbox Folder' appears (even though the sidebar shows that there are Unread messages). Help! Anyone know what might be causing this??....otherwise it's BT Help (Mumbai!!!!!!!) again.

Bests (genuine!!!! LOL) Rob