Today I got the nastiest spam message yet. Here it is – I removed my name from the image:
Even though I am pretty savvy with email and experienced in recognizing spam, when I got this my reflex was to open it immediately. It looks legitimate and threatening.
Then I looked at the sender’s address at information358@har.com and I got suspicious. Of course, the zip file attached gives it away. Anyone clicking on this file and opening it would undoubtedly unleash havoc on their computer. And I am sure with a message like this, it happens to a lot of people.
When I Googled har.com it didn’t take long to find other people who have the same problem. Here is a link.
The key to remember is: Anyone that legitimately needs your attention isn’t going to do it via email. So there should never be a reason to open up an email with any attachment from any stranger.
Delete!
That’s really good advice. And you’re right; this particular message does look legitimate. I often detect spam by picking out spelling errors and grammatical mistakes which are dead giveaways. But this email is flawless on both scores. Except for the address as you’ve pointed out.
With havin so much content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement?
My website has a lot of unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced
but it looks like a lot of it is popping it
up all over the web without my permission. Do you know any methods
to help reduce content from being stolen? I’d definitely
appreciate it.
How do you know it’s popping up elsewhere? Do you have an example?