Bergie needs your help...

[Bergie]

Hello,

I hope everyone had a splendid weekend.

I received a hoax e-mail this morning and it got me thinking that other Trains.com users may also be receiving this type of e-mail and assuming it's a legitimate e-mail from Trains.com, when it's not. Here's how it looks:
______

From: [e-mail]

Subject line: Email Account Suspension

E-mail text: To safeguard your email account from possible termination, Please follow the instructions in the attached file.

Attachment name: email-doc.zip

______

Two things: First, this e-mail isn't legitimate, and we did not send it. Hopefully, it's simply targeting other e-mail addresses with the extension @trains.com. Second, I'm currious to know if any of you receive similar e-mails like this from an [e-mail] e-mail account (which, by the way, I don't believe even exists). Please let me know if you have.

Thanks for your help!

Bergie

[bbrant]

Bergie -

Must be some scam going around because I received the exact same type of message at my personal e-mail but from [e-mail] - a domain I own!!. Don't know how people are doing it but it does seem to be some type of scam.

Also, I didn't open/unzip the attached file when I got the e-mail. I urge anyone else who may have received this type of scam: DO NOT OPEN THE E-MAIL as this is a way for virus to be spread and delete it immediately!!!

Although it's not exactly the same e-mail sent to you, I received one that is on the same principal. Hopefully nobody gets taken by it.

Brian

[Anonymous]

The biggies I keep getting are from the admins at E-bay and PayPall telling me that an unauthorized attempt was made to access my account, and that i need to update my account info immediately, or risk having my account suspended PERMANANTLY!!

Horror of horrors! I've never had an account either place..[:O]

That's why they call them "phish scams"...they bait the hook and see what bites

[fuzzybroken]

Probably not all that different from the e-viruses and e-worms that are spread around "using" normal e-mail addresses. I know I've had my e-addy "harvested" for this use 'cuz some of the e-virus messages have bounced back to me! [:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!] Yahoo has been pretty good as far as blocking most of the bad stuff/spam/other e-crapola that is being passed on to me, although I can still catch 'em when they let one slip thru!

Of course, it's always gotta be some *knob* that ruins the fun for the rest of us! [:(!][:(!][banghead][soapbox][soapbox][tdn][tdn] [sigh]

-Mark
www.fuzzyworld3.com
www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken

[Anonymous]

I delete that stuff on sight.

Not much gets thru to my email box these days.

[eolafan]

Thanks for the warning, I will delete and send a signal to AOL telling them anything from this sender is spam, that will hack them off!

[chad thomas]

My network has a really good firewall. I never get junkmail, spam or viruses. But thanks for the warning.

[Anonymous]

I have been getting some popups that say community .trains.com or something like that, so this latest attempt doesn't surprise me.

[jchnhtfd]

Ingenious buggers, aren't they? This looks like a variant of one of the phishing scams -- there is one wandering around now and then on att.net.

If you don't know the sender... use caution. Never give out account or personal information to one of these sites. And as Brian says -- never open -- or if possible even click on (even once) the attachments!

[tree68]

And if you're going to send something to me unannounced (and you're not one of my usual correspondents), be sure to have a subject that makes sense. I just deleted a "no subject found" message. The obvious stuff gets deleted immediately. The other stuff I think about for a moment before deleting...

[adrianspeeder]

All that crap gets one thing from me. BALETED!!!!

Will watch out for that one though for ya good buddy.

Adrianspeeder

[Modelcar]

Nothing yet, but thanks for the caution....we'll delete if we see any.

[Junctionfan]

I have 2 powerful firewalls. If it gets past the network firewall, Zone Alarm blocks it. I also have several virus and worm removal programs.

I am a citidel of security here but I will keep an eye out for it. Do you want me to notify you if I get it or the F.B.I or R.C.M.P?

[cherokee woman]

Thanks for the heads up Bergie! At present, we have a really good
firewall installed. But we'll keep on the lookout, anyway. We changed
browsers earlier in the year, and don't get as much of that cr** anymore,
but always better to be safe than sorry.

[Anonymous]

I do not open any e-mail that does not look right. It get's deleted right away.
BNSFrailfan.

[miniwyo]

If my email doesn't recognise the adress as a one I have deemed safe, it puts it in the spam folder and thne i can either report it, delete it, or save it. Havent ogtten anything like that at all, wll let you know if I do. BTW, everyone Im using Gmail and if you want an account email me at [e-mail] and i will send you an invite!

[MP57313]

[:(!]I have not received this message, but I did receive something else at work with a .zip attachment. My employer's firewall detects and blocks all emails with .zip attachments, as they have advised us that these are "high risk" for potential viruses.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MP57313

[:(!]I have not received this message, but I did receive something else at work with a .zip attachment. My employer's firewall detects and blocks all emails with .zip attachments, as they have advised us that these are "high risk" for potential viruses.

I must have gotten over a dozen of these in one months time or another.
I accadently opened one up at one time and thank God that Yahoo has virus protection or I would be in a world of hurt right about now. The Question I have is? Why are there so many viruses? And what are they trying to acomplish by spreading these deadly viruses over the internet?

[Anonymous]

Alan, apparently it must be FUN. I can see no other reason. And with summer here and everybody home from school and bored it'll probably get worse for awhile. ( am I targeting a specific age group? Nah, just getting old and cranky) Maybe if they got involved in MR they wouldn't have time to sit around and think up this stuff. Case in point, look at Tuesdays newswire about the BNSF train in NM. The ONLY part of the story I found humor in was the town in which it happened. Window Rock? Isn't that an oxymoron? No wonder I didn't have any luck when I was a kid. I was using the wrong kind of rocks! I doubt if Dad would have picked me up 5 lbs from the lumber yard though. [(-D] Willy

[dldance]

This may be a variant of the Mytob worm. The worm poses as a message from an IT administrator, warning recipients that their e-mail account is about to be suspended.

Possible subject headers for the worm include "*IMPORTANT* Please Validate Your Email Account" and "Notice: **Last Warning**."

It has backdoor capabilities and can open a random port, allowing a hacker to remotely access an infected machine. The variant also prevents the infected machine from accessing several antivirus and security Web sites.

Our site has been hit by the same worm.

dd

[JoeKoh]

Bergie
thanks for the heads up. haven't seen anything but will keep my eyes open.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

I haven't recieved this one yet but I do get many 'spoofs' each week.
A general rule of thumb is to never click on a link in a suspect email and remember that no respectable business is going to ask you for identifying info through an email.
Also, report all suspect 'spoofs' to your ISP. Most ISP's will investigate or forward to proper authoruties.

[UPTRAIN]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BNSF railfan.

I do not open any e-mail that does not look right. It get's deleted right away.
BNSFrailfan.

I'm on yahoo and that's exactly what I do...if I get one that says "[no subject]" I look at the sender's name, if that doesn't ring a bell with me, into the trash folder with you and off with your spamming virtual e-head!!! (which means I delete them)[:D] If anyone e-mails me anything....please...try to get a subject title that will strike a tone with my less-than-fully-functioning brain.

[Anonymous]

Recently, our corporate e-mail addresses were bombarded by e-mails written in German - the attachments contained a virus. A couple of weeks ago, my personal e-mail address received an e-mail that advised me my account info needed to be updated with Sun Trust Bank. Hmmmmmmm.....I don't have an account with that bank, and, I don't even know if that is a real banking firm.

I also recently had read our gov't. wants to impose huge fines (I believe it was $100,000 or more) for those who install "key logger programs" onto your computer. A key logger will save all of your typing so that these scammers can log into your computer to find account numbers, passwords, etc.

Everyone on-line should purchase some kind of anti-virus, firewall, and spy blocking programs for their home computers. Last month, a study was performed by the Baltimore Sun newspaper by placing 2 computers on-line without any type of hacker or spyware protection. They had found each computer was getting "hit" about 360 times per hour by hackers, scammers, etc.

I wi***hese so called "hackers" would spend their time on making "good programs" instead of making people miserable.

[Anonymous]

Another thought - I've read that most "free screen savers" and "Warning: viruses and spyware slows your computer down - check your computer now Free" are other gimmicks to infect your computer once you've clicked onto these "free offers". The "free computer check" got me once, and it hijacked my computer so that no matter what address I typed in, I would get the "page can't be displayed" and only "StopZilla's" anti-spyware web site would work. They were the ones who had hijacked my computer!

[Anonymous]

Amtrak- Tom, my 13 year old fell for the free virus scan/scam. Played hell getting rid of that one! I've been getting the one from the guy with the frozen overseas assets that wants my bank #'s so he can transfer it over. It's my favorite, but the sad part is that there are probably good trusting people that fall for that. Willy

[ValorStorm]

It's also wise to set your email preferences to "block html images." Altho it can make some email difficult to read ("Greenfrog" uses lots of html images, for example), it's worth it to block these, as they're a common way of installing spyware on your hard drive.

In any case, delete first, ask questions later. Html images can be virtually invisible. And once you've opened the email, it's already too late.

[Sterling1]

Even if wasn't informed of this I know I could talk to Bernie about my account if it ever got suspended . . . it never once got suspended but thre was a topic sometime ago about some people who went to forums only to spam and use fake emails . . .

But thanks for the warning I checked my emails gmail and yahoo nothing . . . I have that spam folder in yahoo . . .

But the coolest blocker is Jesus Christ . . .

The image of him holding on to the top of the car with wind blowing his hair and everything flying away from him . . .

Matt