Hi Jennifer, And don't forget:
Even if the "from" exactly matches one of your actual friends/relatives, it does not mean that either your or their email accounts have been compromised - it is easy to send an email with any "from" address you choose (I demonstrated this in a WAMUG post quite a while back). All it really means is that your friend/relative has had their email address "harvested" and included in a list of "real" email addresses for spammers to use. Nothing you or they can do about that. The problems can arise when you start interacting with these emails: If they have an unsubscribe link, clicking on it just confirms that your email address is "live' you will probably get more spam. Clicking on links in these emails can result in downloading nasties or, more likely, being taken to dubious websites which try and "spoof" personal info from you. >From what you say, I imagine the email was just trying to sell you a green coffee bean supplement - a fad health/diet supplement - in the same way that lots of these scams try and sell us viagra. Scambook logs a number of complaints about these emails, check: <http://www.scambook.com/search/reports/p/1?search=green+coffee&sort=date> But only if you trust me ;o) I would suspect you have nothing to worry about provided you didn't actually go ahead and order anything ;o) HTH Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: n...@possumology.com on 10/4/13 10:40 AM, Susan Hastings at susanhasti...@mac.com wrote: > Hi Jennifer, check the email address carefully to see if it is indeed from a > relative. The SPAM may try to look like it comes from them, but vary very > slightly. > > If the email address is different you just need to move the two emails into > your SPAM folder. That will train your email app to do likewise when it sees > that address. > > If the emails do have the correct addresses that are in your contact list then > contact them to ask if they intentionally sent the links. > > Then it will be over to the experts if your email has been hacked. I don't > know of any solution beyond ditching that email address and starting a new > one. > > Susan > > > > Sent from my iPad > > On 10/04/2013, at 9:12 AM, Jennifer Lefroy <lefroy.jenni...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hello Everyone, >> >> I have now had two emails with a link to a site spruiking green coffee beans. >> Unfortunately, both seemed to come from relatives who often send links and I >> did not check enough before opening. (Don't say it. I know!!) >> >> >> My question is: have two address books coincidentally been used or have I >> compromised my own email? If the latter, what do I do? >> >> Many thanks, >> Jennifer >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Settings & Unsubscribe - >> <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: n...@possumology.com -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
