[Fuusm-l] Fake emails!

[Mike Bailey]

Hello friends, as your aging tech-spurt, I’ve been encouraged to put out a
warning about some recent emails we’ve all been getting, although if you
got one of these, you probably already figured out they are not from who
they say they are. (double dog guarantee this message is for real.)



You have probably had this happen many times in the past. The bad guys in
this case apparently aren’t vindictive, or at least weren’t in the past.
The emails you are getting may or may not contain viruses, but I’m sure by
now you know that if they are at all suspicious, you SHOULD NOT click on
them.



The current batch seems to be limited to members of the FUUSM email list -
but that doesn’t mean the problem lies at the server. The most common way
for this to happen is for the bad guy (or gal) to hack into your computer
or your own email server and steal all your contacts. Then they send out
phishing messages, and sometimes viruses, to all your friends using your
actual address as the “from” identity. With the messages many of us
recently got from (supposedly) Rev. Ev. They even contained his official
signature line. Even I responded to the first one. But when they start
asking for money, it’s time to bail.



So what can we do? There are many free anti virus apps that will protect
you from the worst consequences. Before installing any of them I advise
using an online free virus scan like this one -
*https://www.eset.com/afr/online-scanner/*
<https://www.eset.com/afr/online-scanner/>

The one time scan is enough, it takes a while because it’s thorough.



But not only might you need to beware when you are the recipient of one of
these fake emails, but, and I think this likely, one of your computers or
phones may be the SOURCE of all this.  Changing passwords will most likely
not help. I could sit at anybody’s computer and steal all their contacts
without knowing a single password. The hackers can do it just as easily
sitting at their computer looking into yours. There is free AV software
that will catch or block or at least specifically warn you when something
like this happens or could happen. You are more susceptible to this stuff
if you are still on Windows 10 or older or if you don’t have any virus
protection at all. Chances are high that you are NOT to blame and unless
you are a totally indiscriminate clicker, you have nothing to worry about
and there is nothing more you or I can do.



My apologies if I haven’t told you anything you didn’t already know, but I
hope this helps somebody.



Mike
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