Today’s discussion is a continuation of an article from a few weeks ago, where we talked about messages arriving in your email from someone you thought you knew. Based on recent messages, we have some more items to watch out for.
On March 2, 2018, one of my clients sent me a copy of a voice message that came thru Ring Central. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Ring Central, it is a telephone answering system that will record voice messages and send them to you using email. You either click on the voice message attachment or click on a web link to listen to your message. Let’s look at a few things that should flag these messages as FAKE.
In the image below, you will see the voice message.

Look at the time the message was sent (March 2, 2018 at 9:28am). Now look at the voice message, stating that it was received today at 10:50am. I agree with Joel (recipient) that this email was for a message that will be sent in the future.

When you place your mouse over the weblink where it says “View Number”, this is the website that you will immediately be taken to. This website is the same for all links in this message. And to make this message more authentic, it has the wording “This is not a phishing email”.
Also on March 2nd, I received a message stating that I have received a message via Dropbox.

Let’s look at the address line. Note that it came from Dropbox (note the spelling of Dropbox – the b looks like a combination of a p and b). That’s the first thing that I saw. Next, look at the subject. How often do you receive a message where all the characters are squashed together?

The incorrect spelling of Dropbox continues in the body of the message. Usually, when you receive a message from Dropbox, you are given more than 48 hours to download the attachment.
Last, let’s look at a message that was received while I was typing this newsletter. I find it interesting that it was sent at 4:57pm, yet the salutation says “Morning Jon Isenberg”.

Looking at the sender’s email address – the name “Santosh.shaw@” does not look like Heather DeRose. Even the weblink does not look right. The “xn” in the weblink is a Korean weblink. It doesn’t look like this is legitimate.
So the best solution is to just delete the messages. If you are a Windows user and are using Outlook, you can mark these messages as junk mail and any future senders with the same email address, will automatically be sent to junk mail and you will never see them again. To mark a message as junk, simply close the open message. Then right click on the message and left click on junk. Then left click on Block Sender.

Important: If you get an email from someone you know that asks you to click on a link for a “Docu-Sign” document, DO NOT open it without checking with the sender. This is the latest malware infection that is causing major problems for the users, as it will install malware on your computer that will do several of these items:
1) Send an email to everyone in your mailbox, with the same message that you clicked on;
2) In Outlook, it will add a rule that moves all new messages directly to your deleted item folder (so it appears that you are not getting any new mail);
3) It will install a credential stealer on your computer.
Elite Networking & Consulting offers their clients a cloud-based software product that provides a high-end security solution that stops infections from attacking your data, including an Anti-Ransomware module that stops this horrible infection from attacking your computer. This is the benefit of working with an IT Professional.
If you would like additional information on the Security Solution that is offered by Elite Networking & Consulting, please either call us at 855-767-9685, ext. 700 or send an email to service1@elite-nac.com.
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