A new scam that is making its way around the country involves a phony “visual voicemail” in the form of a voicemail purportedly being attached to an email you receive.  To date, although this scam will morph and change as many scams do, the email presently appears to come from “Microsoft Outlook on Behalf of an Anonymous Caller.”  The emails contain email addresses that make the message appear to come from your place of work, but these are not being sent from your your employer.  The email asks you to click on the link contained in order to listen to the email.  Don’t do it.  If you do, you are not going to receive a voice mail message, but rather will download dangerous keystroke logging malware that will steal the information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

Never even consider clicking on a link from anyone described as anonymous even if it indicates it is from an email connected with your business.  Visual voicemail is a legitimate technology, but never even consider clicking on to a link to access such a voicemail unless you are positive that it is from a legitimate source and frankly even if it appears to be from a legitimate source, their email may have been hijacked so you never can trust these emails.  If you really want to be sure, just follow up the voicemail with a phone call to the person the visual voicemail is purportedly from.  And if it is from someone anonymous, just delete it immediately.