Today Jeff got an e-mail generated by hackers from my friend's e-mail. This reminded me of a similar one I got about 2 years ago. Somebody had hacked my sister's e-mail account and sent the same message to all her contacts, me included. It said it was from her, using her name, and that she was stuck in Europe without any money to get back, or get a hotel room, so it asked for some money. It was well-written; using expressions an American would use.
It seemed plausible, but I knew I should first call her home to see if she was on some trip. She was actually at home and not travelling. She then had to report the hackers to her provider. As for myself, had I responded, what would these hackers have tried to phish from me?
Well, this new e-mail was supposingly from some man in Cyprus taking care of his cousin. He said "he" (the cousin) suffered from a critical uterine fibroid and that "he" needed to have hysterectomy surgery immediately. He needed $2000 and would anxiously await any response on his e-mail. The friend whose e-mail was hacked actually responded to the e-mail and she got a reply that requested for personal information such as name, address, social security number, etc.
My husband quickly saw the errors in the message. Most adults know that men don't need a hysterectomy since they do not have a uterus! Nor do doctors generally describe uterine fibroids as "critical" in English. It is human tendencies to read e-mails from our friends, but be careful. Do not respond to these e-mails, especially with all the ways to infiltrate your personal computer.
No comments:
Post a Comment