Internet Security and email Protocol....posted Ian Chambers.
Affecting some the Congregation members who are in each others address books (It is not a Virus related to the Knox Website)
Dec 30, 2011
I have received two emails in the last week from Church members that suggested I click on a "Large Font" link to view photographs. The first one looked highly suspicious, so I do not click on it and deleted it. A short while later I received an email from the person advising me and they included their whole address book* in the email warning their friends that the original email with the link was not from them.
Yesterday I received another email addressed from another Knox member who had spotted they were also the fake source of identical emails, and they advised their whole address* book not to open the first email from her.
*See below on protecting the privacy of your friends
The wording in the emails looks like this:
If you click on the email it will steal your address book and spread the connection to your friends like a spider's web. Often there is "Malware" (bad software or cookies) hidden in the link. This is really bad stuff or code that may steal personal information from your PC or Laptop, including perhaps information e.g. on bank accounts etc. The MALWARE will also probably plant a cookie on your computer that tracks your internet activity and reports it back to the abuser.
In computer speak it is also called Phishing (pronounced fishing)...trying to hook onto information that could/may/will be used to steal your identity.
* Protecting the Privacy of your friends/contacts:
Many do it, but one of worst things you can do is to warn all your friends by sending them an email with your whole address book or selected names in the "TO:" box. INSTEAD, to protect your friends' privacy, please send an email TO: your own email address and then Blind Carbon Copy (BCC:) the list of email addresses you wish to include in a single communication. As a result, the recipientswill not see the content of your whole email address book.
TD Bank I just found this example from yesterday in my spam folder
An email from TD bank????? It might be!? rdwayne@tdbank??? The fact that it is in the SPAM folder is enough reason to ignore it or call TD before opening it. two clues that is fake is there is a spelling mistake in paragraph 3.... Your are advise Vs advised. Also the form to be clicked on or downloaded has a generic name Vs a name that would indicate the subject matter or actual name of the form. You can also report spam to the banks at special email addresses that show on their website
TD Confirmed the above email was fake.
In the case of TD the link to report fraud/fake emails is found under "Contacts":
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/customer-service/contact-us/email/contact.jsp
Hunting Down the Culprit
The origin of the hack is http://nkuzrk0a7koeyz.xm5.me a new site that was created on the www on December 21, and is hosted on a service called eNom. I have reported the abuse to the website/email hosting service. You see this information when you HOVER you mouse over a link (but DO NOT CLICK IT).
Often emails will appear in your mailbox (or spam folder hopefully) and seem to be legitimate emails from e.g. banks like TD or Scotia and the source website has unusual structure sometimes with ".ru" for Russia in the address.
Never Never Ever click on a links that look suspicious.
More Information on Avoiding Viruses:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-ways-to-avoid-viruses-and-spyware/813
https://www.tdameritrade.com/security/knowTheThreats/howToSpotPhishing.html