Social Security scam?

[dennis thompson]

I got an email ,supposedly from Social Security, to review my account. It included a link to verify my information. I did not and will not click on the link. I am pretty sure it's a scam, has anyone else gotten this email?

[Mike Kreinhop]

There are lots of phishing attacks claiming to be from the SSA. You are wise to not click on the link, but the SSA recommends you forward the email to the U.S. Computer Emergence Readiness Team:

phishing-report@us-cert.gov


Here is a link to the SSA Phishing webpage:

https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/internetphishingalert.html

[George Bokros]

I have not received an email of this nature.

[Ronald Blue]

It's been said many times that no government agency or most businesses will send an unsolicited email asking you to verify anything. Plus if you "mouse over" the link it will show the actual address it is trying to take you to. Often they look similar to the real thing but have an extra couple letters added in the web address. Here is a link from SSA addressing this and all you really need to know. Sounds like a fake email.
https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/internetphishingalert.html

I guess Mike already provided it.

[Bert Kemp]

2 things
1. never ever answer unknown numbers, if they want to talk to you they will leave a message telling you who they are and a call back number +

2. Never ever click on a link from an unsolicited email PERIOD

[John K Jordan]

2 things
2. Never ever click on a link from an unsolicited email PERIOD

And that includes an innocent-looking "Unsubscribe" link in an unsolicited email. It might be a lie. If I were an evil spammer or virus distributor that's the way I would program it.


The Gmail spam filtering is so good I might see one suspicious email every few months.

Occasionally I'll look at the spam folder. I see Gmail itself caught this one and dumped it in the folder. I wonder what it is that looks suspicious - the hidden reply to "babestation24.com"? The sender's email address, especially redirected through imlive.com?
(From a web search: ImLive.com is a website providing live webcam performances by models, typically featuring ["adult" things].)

from:
GoogIemail Team <vpKXEQwC@guiklfno.bs> via imlive.com
reply-to:
GbR <r----@ronnili.com>,
VOK <e-----@arcamax.com>,
NLv <t----@babestation24.com>
subject:
IMPORTANT Security Alert! Your mail account is in DANGER.

"Help! Keep your account safe and secure
Unsubcribe from unauthorised spaming list"

To unsubcribe from spammer's list You need to "reply" this mail ASAP.
We are trying our best to make your mailbox secure and clean.
This action is secure. For any query regarding this action please send feedback in reply.
G M A I L T E A M


A look back shows several of these emails, each a little more sophisticated, all with the same reply-to addresses.

One hint: When a commercial web site requires an email address insert a "." at some illogical place in the email address you supply. The period will be ignored but left alone by the email servers. If a spammer harvests or buys that site's mailing list you can tell it might be suspicious by looking at the address they used.

JKJ

[Bruce Page]

One of the emails that shows up regularly in my gmail spam box:

“I would like to meet up - Don't want to get further email? Unsubscribe here. Simply Click the button below to find out how it works”

It’s hard to believe that people will “click the button” but some do. Bert’s advice are words to live by in today’s digital society.

[Bert Kemp]

I believe the old saying Curiosity Killed the Cat, Well it KILLS Computers too. :D:eek:


One of the emails that shows up regularly in my gmail spam box:

“I would like to meet up - Don't want to get further email? Unsubscribe here. Simply Click the button below to find out how it works”

It’s hard to believe that people will “click the button” but some do. Bert’s advice are words to live by in today’s digital society.

[Kev Williams]

Been waiting for a bad email to show up, just got it!

Here's a screenshot of the email--
365642

Looks pretty official, but many dead giveaways. First, the 'release' and 'report' links.

Second, top left corner: from Office 365 engraver1.com. Umm, nope. Not only do I not use Office 365, engraver1.com is MY domain. If it had come from a gmail, hotmail, or shared business account, it might look a bit more official. But engraver1 is MY baby :)

Next, look at the headers- many ways to do this, you can right click the email, click 'properties' and and chose to read the headers and/or source. Both are the basically the same, but 'source' is much more detailed. My email (OE Classic, a clone of OE that works on newer computers) makes it easy with headers and source tabs at the bottom.
So here's a shot of the top half of the headers, which is all I need to see...
365643

-everything looks pretty kosher, many 'standard' looking items, but the giveaway to me in this mess is the 'verify@mcrosft.connect.com' email address-- why would MICROSOFT bother to abbreviate their email address to 'mcrosft'? I'm kinda thinking they wouldn't... ;)

In many other fraud emails, the sender's email address will be manipulated like this one to kinda-sorta appear to be legit, sometimes there's nothing resembling an email address that matches the sender.

I don't even have an antivirus program on this computer yet, but I will shortly and test these links, which may do no good. My big fear is the ransomware crap going around :eek:...

-2 links AND an attachment, from my email domain... this is a bad email...

[John K Jordan]

My big fear is the ransomware crap going around :eek:...
-2 links AND an attachment, from my email domain... this is a bad email...

I talked to one of the guys at the government facility where I worked about investigating such things. He evidently routinely clicks on links and actively searches out things that can harm in order to know how to protect the servers and the employees.

They do it right: they have isolated machines and network just for testing. After every test and analysis, they wipe and restore the HD to a pristine state. Ransomware, viruses, trojans, bring 'em on! It sounded like an interesting job.

JKJ