# Hinky email?



## Nealtw (Jun 22, 2017)

Why would you not just send her a regular Gmail and ask what was in her gmail that might be a problem. She may have sent you a link to something with a problem.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I have received emails allegedly from friends, but the email address following their name was from Italy or some other rathole country. It contains a virus, so I blocked the sender and deleted them.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

You can normally hover the cursor over any active link and see where it responds to. When in doubt, delete it. If you even think you might be just a little bit in doubt, delete it.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

I would delete it and create a new email to your friend telling them what happened and they should check their email account for activity from strange IPs and possibly change their password. 
Wouldn't hurt to change your email password as well. They could have pulled your friends email from your address book to try and spoof you.


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## KaseyW (Nov 23, 2012)

surferdude2 said:


> You can normally hover the cursor over any active link and see where it responds to. When in doubt, delete it. If you even think you might be just a little bit in doubt, delete it.


Thanks Surferdude, that much I know. My concern is that hackers have become so sophisticated that I'm not sure whether to distrust just the one who spoofed my friend's email account, or whether the Gmail Team address, which looks legit, might also be a big, fat lie.

I'm wondering because, on the face of it, the situation looks like my friend's computer is compromised, in which case I need to let her know. On the other hand, the information could have come from my files, in which case, *I* need to take action.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

KaseyW said:


> Thanks Surferdude, that much I know. My concern is that hackers have become so sophisticated that I'm not sure whether to distrust just the one who spoofed my friend's email account, or whether the Gmail Team address, which looks legit, might also be a big, fat lie.
> 
> I'm wondering because, on the face of it, the situation looks like my friend's computer is compromised, in which case I need to let her know. On the other hand, the information could have come from my files, in which case, *I* need to take action.


Not to worry. I downloaded the info from the redirect and checked it for critters > then sent it to notepad for parsing. The body of the text was in Italian and translated as follows:

Tiscali Dominio was born from Tiscali's over ten years of experience in the field of Internet domain registration. It is the web hosting service that includes the registration of a domain name or the transfer from another maintainer of an already domain; existing, the maintenance at the authoritative Tiscali DNS servers and the complete and personalized management of DNS records (for example A Record, MX Record, CNAME), through a convenient web control panel. "/>
<meta name = "keywords" content = "domains, domain, housing, hosting,"

From this:
Tiscali Dominio nasce dall'ultradecennale esperienza Tiscali nel campo della registrazione dei domini Internet. E' il servizio di web hosting che comprende la registrazione di un nome a dominio o il trasferimento da altro maintainer di un dominio già esistente, il mantenimento presso i server DNS Tiscali autoritativi e la gestione completa e personalizzata dei record DNS (ad esempio A Record, MX Record, CNAME), tramite un comodo pannello di controllo web." />
<meta name="keywords" content="domini, dominio, housing, hosting,"

Don't over react... it seems to be junk mail with no payload. (this time) May be kids playing around... may be someone checking to see if you're careless so they can put you one a list for more action.

Delete it.


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## KaseyW (Nov 23, 2012)

Nealtw said:


> Why would you not just send her a regular Gmail and ask what was in her gmail that might be a problem. She may have sent you a link to something with a problem.


Normally that's what I'd do but she's severely computer-challenged and just had her second hip-replacement on the same hip so she's currently on heavy-duty happy pills.:sad:


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

I have much more if you'd be interested in seeing the senders complete resume' say so and I'll hook you up.

I think the problem was caused by your friend's account getting cracked. I advise that nobody should store e-mail addresses on the net based servers, regardless of how handy that is!!! Keep it on your local mail client, if you use one, or copy on your stacking clipboard, if you use such (and you should), or else make a paper copy and do it the hard way by typing it in when needed.

edit: The best way is to use a local client and configure it to remove all message copies from the server when you download them. No addresses to exploit and no messages to get addresses from to exploit. If your account gets cracked, they get nothing!!


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## KaseyW (Nov 23, 2012)

surferdude2 said:


> Tiscali Dominio was born from Tiscali's over ten years of experience in the field of Internet domain registration. It is the web hosting service that includes the registration of a domain name or the transfer from another maintainer of an already domain; existing, the maintenance at the authoritative Tiscali DNS servers and the complete and personalized management of DNS records (for example A Record, MX Record, CNAME), through a convenient web control panel. "/>
> <meta name = "keywords" content = "domains, domain, housing, hosting,"


Ohhh ........ Huh?????!:vs_worry:



surferdude2 said:


> Don't over react... it seems to be junk mail with no payload.


I know I'm paranoid, but I've been working with computers since 1982 and I've seen too many disasters not to be a bit of a worrywart. Thanks so much for clearing this one up.


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## KaseyW (Nov 23, 2012)

surferdude2 said:


> I have much more if you'd be interested in seeing the senders complete resume' say so and I'll hook you up.


No thanks. My head is already overloaded with useless information.:glasses:



surferdude2 said:


> I think the problem was caused by your friend's account getting cracked. I advise that nobody should store e-mail addresses on the net based servers, regardless of how handy that is!!! Keep it on your local mail client, if you use one, or copy on your stacking clipboard, if you use such (and you should), or else make a paper copy and do it the hard way by typing it in when neded.


Excellent advice. I keep all my passwords air gapped on an old Dell Axim, but I hadn't thought about protecting email addresses. Guess that'll be my project for tomorrow.


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## huesmann (Aug 18, 2011)

chandler48 said:


> I have received emails allegedly from friends, but the email address following their name was from Italy or some other rathole country. It contains a virus, so I blocked the sender and deleted them.


Hey! Italy is not a rathole country.


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## surferdude2 (Nov 21, 2019)

huesmann said:


> Hey! Italy is not a rathole country.


That's right! The Family takes care of the rats! :wink2:


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