An Attempt to Take Over Your Emails
By Terrence McCarthy
A user recently reported receiving an email with instructions on how to update her email credentials on her mobile phone. It required new mail server addresses, username and password. On closer inspection the address was a misspelling of the legitimate vendor.
Always check the return address of the email. It may look legitimate at first glance, but you may see odd or unusual words and letters added to it. Here’s a real example: Networksolutions.com looked like this: account@eml.networksolutionsemailhlogicgroup.com. Had the user followed the instructions, her emails would have gone to hlogicgroup.com first and then they would have forwarded to her email to her. She would never have known someone else was monitoring and collecting her email.
Never click email links. Always start your research by going to your provider’s website directly. In this example you would open a web browser and type in the address, networksolutions.com. No cutting and pasting!!
The insidious part of this is that your email would still work but it would be relayed through the hacker who could then use your address for all sorts of illegitimate purposes. You would never see those email exchanges because the hacker wouldn’t forward them to you.
We are in an era when we cannot operate on autopilot. Assume everything is illegitimate. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to give your IT service provider a call even for personal accounts.
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