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RE: (erielack) computer scare

Hi all,


If I may add my bit here, I am new to this site and have made contact with one or two people here, but I also get all the emails sent to the list (I think) but my computer will sometimes throw up a warning when a message comes in from individuals stating; "This message looks very suspicious to our SmartScreen filters, so we've blocked attachments, pictures, and links for your safety." Now I don't know whether to mark them as safe or not, but they seem to be genuine members of this site (I won't name the most recent one so as not to offend). Pictures are regulalty blocked as a precaution as well. If there has been a thread I will consider the person as safe, but I suppose there's always the chance of your mailing list being infiltrated. This happened to me recently when everybody on my list got emails purported to be from me suggesting they might need Viagra! I had to change all passwords etc to hopefully stop this action (so far so good), but still don't know how it happened.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Chris


 
> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:28:01 -0400
> From: joebraun_@_optonline.net
> Subject: (erielack) computer scare
> To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
> 
> 
> [From: Paul Brezicki Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 4:11 AM
> To: EL Mailing List; Paul Tupaczewski; Janet & Randy Brown; Joseph A.
> Braun Subject: RE: (erielack) Who is Richie Batra?
> I was one of several people who received an email from Mr Batra asking
> what appeared to be a legitimate question about operations in the
> Suffern area. I didn't respond but Joe Braun did.] 
> 
> I want to give a very brief summary of the subtle concerns voiced here and
> the direct concerns voiced privately amongst the persons above. 
> 
> I went along with this person's request with minimalistic responses. I
> didn't want to risk turning somebody off to our organization or hobby. After
> one email exchange, I was still not sure whether I was dealing with a young
> railfan with "rough edges" or someone with a con side that was starting to
> show. I experienced a strange mix of him knowing specific stuff but being
> really off-base on other facts -- and also a mix of subtle wiseass responses
> intermingled with some serious comments. When I upped the level of talk
> about the Erie lines east of Suffern by recommending that, since he
> expressed an interest in history, he purchase the Wilson Jones book, that
> became the end of the interchanges.
> 
> An email from him thanked me for the recommendation. A final email, to which
> I did not respond, said only "YEAH, I ordered it from Amazon". BUT - the
> "YEAH" (underlined) flipped my cursor to an arrow, indicating that that word
> was a link to something. I did NOT click. I did not get seduced with
> curiosity. That is always the danger. Never click on a link on a strange
> email, like the phoney PayPal and credit cards warnings that still are sent
> out looking for prey. 
> 
> I had no idea what that "YEAH" link was about. But, if this was some
> confidence con game of phishing, my making the link would have been the
> portal he needed.
> 
> Others have warned that the individual's email address was from a foreign
> country. That to me is not an automatic red-flag. As I have been selling off
> all my non Erie and EL locos on Ebay, 70% of it is being bought out of the
> country -- for example, to a PRR fan in the UK, a Milw Rd fan in Canada, a
> GN fan in Japan, a Frisco fan in Deutschland!! This could be an expatriot in
> the Philippines who loved the Erie.
> 
> But the following warnings are also on target:
> 
> From Frank Adams: "Mails having hyperlinks tied to specific words, well now
> that's a different story. Depending on your browser security settings,
> displaying a page can download nasty things." 
> 
> From Paul Tup: "The fact that it's an E-mail that ends with a country
> specifier (".ph") makes it immediately suspect in my mind. By replying to
> this person, you might have just confirmed to them that your E-mail address
> is valid and being used - since Joe replied and immediately got back what
> sounds completely like a phishing E-mail ("Click here!" - which will
> undoubtedly redirect you to one of their servers to enter your credit card
> info). So yes, there IS a danger in replying to an E-mail. This is how these
> people start to get a foot in your "door", so to speak. It looks like this
> person must have gone through the list archives and scraped the names of
> people who posted, and sent his E-mail off to them. I'm betting that the
> content of his E-mail must have been extracted from an old list post. 
> 
> I also ran the entire thread from this gentlemen past someone I know whose
> job is computer security in a research facility with tons of servers heading
> out into the world. My contact had the wherewithall to safely open up the
> "link word" in the final email to me. The response I got was: "There's
> nothing so far to worry about. That link is simply a mail link to that
> person's supposed email address. If you click on the link, it will simply
> start composing an email to him. Reading the emails, I think this guy is a
> little hot-headed and wet between the ears, especially since he has a handle
> of HAMMER. But these aren't virus messages or some phishing trick that will
> take you to a bad website. Seems perfectly harmless, although his tone could
> be a bit irritating." However, my contact did add the following which is
> good for all of us to hear and rehear: "I'm glad to keep you paranoid and
> help whenever you have questions. It's always good to be cautious when
> dealing with strangers on the Internet. It's still the wild, wild west and
> people will always find new and clever ways to trick you into giving out
> your information or getting you to unknowingly infect your computer."
> 
> So that's the story. And, who knows? Maybe I've made someone a Wilson Jones
> fan!
> 
> Joe Braun
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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