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Mal-email - perhaps not preventable
Thread poster: Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 22:32
German to English
+ ...
Oct 7, 2015

I have received an email to an email address that I use in my Proz profile but nowhere else, so I assume this email was sent via that profile. This email must be some kind of malware or scam because:
  • it appears to be from MX-2600N@xxx (where xxx is the domain-name part of my email address)
  • the subject is "Scanned document from MX-2600N" (any email with a subject containing "scanned document" makes me suspicious)
  • it doesn't address me ... See more
I have received an email to an email address that I use in my Proz profile but nowhere else, so I assume this email was sent via that profile. This email must be some kind of malware or scam because:
  • it appears to be from MX-2600N@xxx (where xxx is the domain-name part of my email address)
  • the subject is "Scanned document from MX-2600N" (any email with a subject containing "scanned document" makes me suspicious)
  • it doesn't address me by name
  • it has an attachment with a filename ending ".xls", size about 140 kB (I have no intention of opening it!). The first part of the file name is the supposed "from" email address and numbers representing the date and time.
Examining the header reveals that it started at IP address 111.91.36.104, which is in India (I used http://en.utrace.de/ to find that out). Part of the email content is:

File Format: XLS MMR(G4)
Resolution: 200dpi x 200dpi

which might make the email look legitimate to some people. The only "instructions" about the attachment are:

Attached file is scanned document in XLS format.
Use Microsoft(R)Excel(R) to view the document.

Consequently, I wonder whether Proz can do something to prevent such emails from being sent. That might be too difficult in practice. I have (I think!) no problem in detecting such mal-emails, but there may be some Proz members who would open the attachment to see what it is. That would very likely cause something very undesirable to happen.

Also, providing unneeded confirmation that this is a "bad" email, I have received the same email but appearing to come from canon@xxx and sent to oga@xxx instead of proz@xxx. I have never used "oga" in my email address, but I sometimes receive emails sent to that address. I have a spam filter that detects this and puts them into a separate folder. This email was sent from IP address 82.77.137.80, which is in Romania!

[Edited at 2015-10-07 11:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 22:32
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Have you seen this? Oct 7, 2015

http://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/scanned-document-from-mx-2600n-excel-xls-spreadsheet-malware/
 
Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo
Local time: 22:32
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yes, that's it Oct 7, 2015

I had not until now known of the existence of
http://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/
The email described by following Teresa's link is obviously the same one that I received. I don't believe my computer has ever been infected by viruses or other malware, because I became aware of them years ago and I have learned to be suitably suspicious and sceptical about all email that I receive (and unsolicited p... See more
I had not until now known of the existence of
http://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/
The email described by following Teresa's link is obviously the same one that I received. I don't believe my computer has ever been infected by viruses or other malware, because I became aware of them years ago and I have learned to be suitably suspicious and sceptical about all email that I receive (and unsolicited phone calls, especially those claiming to be from "Windows technical department"). ▲ Collapse
 


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Mal-email - perhaps not preventable






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