Internet scam/internet security. Should I be worried?

[I like Skol]

I received an email yesterday. At first glance it looked like the typical pathetic scam attempt like "I have a family member who is a high ranking African government official and needs to transfer money out of the country etc...." but when I looked more closely it was much better than the usual attempts (although not without the spelling/grammatical errors )

Hi, xxxxxxxx!

I am bothering you for a very critical cause. Allhough you don't know me, but I have a lot of information concerning you. The matter is that, most likely mistakenly, the data about your account has been sent to me.

For example, your address is:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I am a law-obedient citizen, so I decided to prevent may have been hacked. I attached the file - xxxxxxxx.dot that was sent to me, that you could examine what data has become obtainable for fraudsters. File password is - 9xx5

Best regards,

Ngoc Yenney

The attached file is 48kb and file extension is .dot, obviously I am not going to open it or enter any PIN number as who knows what that may unleash on my computer?

My oldest son was quite worried that they could know my name and full address with house number and postcode until I showed him how with just my name, within 3 google searches I had name, full address and D.o.B, and that is without knowing what I am doing

I was about to delete the email when I noticed something that is bugging me. The email was sent to my main account email address, the one I don't use except for my ISP account and a few other official things like government agencies and similar. I'm reasonably paranoid so am not too lax about online security so will not click strange buttons, pop-ups, web links and attachments but I accept that there will be a pool of random data floating around out there that would piece together to make a reasonable dossier about me.
I cannot for the life of me workout how they have connected all that data to the email address that has been used, except for one thing. In the last two weeks I applied for a job through online job agency Indeed and I have a suspicion (that I am about to go and investigate) that they may have plastered my CV all over the internet......

 

[Bimble]

I cannot for the life of me workout how they have connected all that data to the email address that has been used, except for one thing. In the last two weeks I applied for a job through online job agency Indeed and I have a suspicion (that I am about to go and investigate) that they may have plastered my CV all over the internet ....

I'm no Sherlock, but this seems to be a very astute deduction and a perfect starting point.

 

[raleighnut]

I received an email yesterday. At first glance it looked like the typical pathetic scam attempt like "I have a family member who is a high ranking African government official and needs to transfer money out of the country etc...." but when I looked more closely it was much better than the usual attempts (although not without the spelling/grammatical errors )

Hi, xxxxxxxx!

I am bothering you for a very critical cause. Allhough you don't know me, but I have a lot of information concerning you. The matter is that, most likely mistakenly, the data about your account has been sent to me.

For example, your address is:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I am a law-obedient citizen, so I decided to prevent may have been hacked. I attached the file - xxxxxxxx.dot that was sent to me, that you could examine what data has become obtainable for fraudsters. File password is - 9xx5

Best regards,

Ngoc Yenney

The attached file is 48kb and file extension is .dot, obviously I am not going to open it or enter any PIN number as who knows what that may unleash on my computer?

My oldest son was quite worried that they could know my name and full address with house number and postcode until I showed him how with just my name, within 3 google searches I had name, full address and D.o.B, and that is without knowing what I am doing

I was about to delete the email when I noticed something that is bugging me. The email was sent to my main account email address, the one I don't use except for my ISP account and a few other official things like government agencies and similar. I'm reasonably paranoid so am not too lax about online security so will not click strange buttons, pop-ups, web links and attachments but I accept that there will be a pool of random data floating around out there that would piece together to make a reasonable dossier about me.
I cannot for the life of me workout how they have connected all that data to the email address that has been used, except for one thing. In the last two weeks I applied for a job through online job agency Indeed and I have a suspicion (that I am about to go and investigate) that they may have plastered my CV all over the internet......

Agencies are terrible for selling details, phishing and scam e-mails. Not the companies but the sods who work there.

 

[Globalti]

The agency staff will be on a commission to trawl their database for client details. It happens everywhere in this sh!t world.

 

[I like Skol]

I suppose the agency is the obvious one. A silly oversight on my part and annoying because I have tried to protect that email address, whereas I am perfectly happy to burn the others if needed.
No real harm done as the email is linked to so few things that it won't get them into anything financially rewarding. Lesson learned!

 

[Inertia]

A colleague at work got a similar mail with her old address on it. It warned her that her Paypal account may have been compromised and prompted her to open a .dot word file. Her suspicions were aroused because she doesn't have a PayPal account.

 

[Bimble]

It's a revelation to me though - I wouldn't have expected an agency to sell or pass-on my details to anyone other than prospective employers, so it's a sobering reminder to all CC'ers to be cautious and perhaps use a temporary or disposable email address for such things (especially as a lot of online services want your email address as your login these days).

 

[Globalti]

One clue is the phrase: "I will not want you to worry". I guess the Irish missionaries gave Naija the Guinness but not the subjunctive.

 

[Jody]

I am a law-obedient citizen.......

At this point, if not earlier it would have been deleted and forgot about.

 

[classic33]

Indeed have been "hacked" already this year.

Received news of a vacancy at my local Tescos yesterday, Undertaker. £42,000 a year, to start.

@Bimble, see "Late for my own funeral". They were somewhat annoyed I phoned them.

 

[swee'pea99]

Let this be a lesson to you...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh4Q3A0jvKY

 

[PhilDawson8270]

It's a revelation to me though - I wouldn't have expected an agency to sell or pass-on my details to anyone other than prospective employers, so it's a sobering reminder to all CC'ers to be cautious and perhaps use a temporary or disposable email address for such things (especially as a lot of online services want your email address as your login these days).

Recruitment agencies are also known for advertising fake roles with the sole intention of collecting data.

Also, a good tip for email is that if you have an account with GMail or GoogleMail. You can add +whatever onto it and you will still receive the email. So if your email is MyName@gmail.com you can send an email to MyName+cyclechat@gmail.com or MyName+RecruitmentAgency@gmail.com or MyName+facebook@gmail.com and they all come through to your MyName@gmail.com account.

It makes it easy to filter out spam that way too, and also lets you identify who exactly has passed your details on.

 

[psmiffy]

It makes it easy to filter out spam that way too, and also lets you identify who exactly has passed your details on.

Can you use it like that to create one off logins?

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Can you use it like that to create one off logins?

It's pretty much what I do, unless it's something important I do a +site on the end of it. Annoyingly though, some sites don't accept the use of + in an email address for some reason.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Recruitment agencies are also known for advertising fake roles with the sole intention of collecting data.

Also, a good tip for email is that if you have an account with GMail or GoogleMail. You can add +whatever onto it and you will still receive the email. So if your email is MyName@gmail.com you can send an email to MyName+cyclechat@gmail.com or MyName+RecruitmentAgency@gmail.com or MyName+facebook@gmail.com and they all come through to your MyName@gmail.com account.

It makes it easy to filter out spam that way too, and also lets you identify who exactly has passed your details on.

I didn't know that, that's very useful.

I keep a couple of similar email address, one for trusted family/friends: name_surname@[myisp].com and another for others: name.surname@[myisp].com.
That Gmail solution is much neater.