Today’s Scam of the day comes, as so many do, directly from my own email.  I received an email today that is reproduced below.  DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK.

“Please view the document I uploaded for you using Google doc CLICK HERE sign-in with your email to view the document, it’s important.”

The email was signed with the name of a real friend of mine although she was not the person that sent the email.  If I had clicked on the link in the email it would have downloaded keystroke logging malware that would have stolen all of the information from my computer and used that information including credit card numbers and bank account information to make me a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

The particular email that was sent me was particularly flawed in that the email address from which it came did not match the email address of my friend, whose name was signed in the email.  This was enough to let me know that the email was not legitimate.  However, a more savvy identity thief might hijack someone’s email account so that when they send out emails with the hijacked email address, people receiving the emails will be more willing to trust them and click on links contained in the email because they appear to be coming from a trusted source.  This is obviously a big mistake.  You should never click on any links in any emails unless you have confirmed that they are legitimate.  Merely because the email may appear legitimate and appear to come from a trusted source is not enough to trust the email.   Always confirm that the email is legitimate before considering clicking on any links.