Virus emails

I've been getting a lot of emails from people I know, but they're obviously not from them...........and they all carry a very dodgy looking attachment - I delete the whole thing very quickly, but am left wondering why I suddenly seem to be targeted. Any ideas?

Re: Virus emails

If your friend's email account has been hacked everyone on their contacts list will be targeted ... and anyone who opens the link on the email will have their email account hacked ... and so on ....

My email account was hacked last year because I stupidly opened the link in an email from a friend .... what a nightmare trying to let my friends know not to open the link.

Re: Virus emails

So I have to assume that someone's contacts list has been hacked and that contains all the emails I've been receiving.......... BUT, there is no connection between these people. The only logical conclusion from that, is that it is MY email that's been hacked!! Or has it??

Re: Virus emails

I don't think your email account has been hacked unless you have opened a link on one of these spam emails.

The way I understand it is this .... I received an email from a friend because her account had been hacked (she had no idea and still won't acknowledge it) .... I clicked on the link which then added all the contacts from the previous recipients of the email who had done the same to my contacts list and the email was forwarded (without my knowledge) to all my contacts .... and so it continues to spread.

The only reason I found out is that one of my friends contacted me to ask if I'd sent her the email .... it was then I realised what had happened. I had to create another email address very quickly to let my contacts know about the spam email and warn them not to open the link .... a few already had .... eeek !!!! I also changed my password on my "spammed" email account.

There are bound to be people on the forum who can explain it better than I have ... but the important thing is that you have deleted these emails. Maybe your friend(s) who they are allegedly from do not know they have been hacked ... maybe you should contact them just in case.

Re: Virus emails

E-mail accounts can get hacked but there is also such a thing as e-mail address spoofing:

https://help.aol.co.uk/articles/what...s-been-spoofed

I've long since stopped wondering how or why with most questionable e-mails but just ditch them without further thought.

E-mail is good for e-mail receipts when it comes to online shopping but not so good these days for personal communications. It has been taken over by spam or questionable e-mails too much. We (family and some friends) mostly use Skype for talking. If not wanting to talk, use the instant messaging function Skype has. Files (like e-mail attachments) can be sent via Skype too.

This probably also has its pitfalls but it seems a lot better than the spammy, often dangerous, service that e-mail has become.

Re: Virus emails

Thanks for your replies. It seems strange that I've had so many of these emails just recently.

Re: Virus emails

I have noticed others on a different forum saying much the same thing. There seems to be an increase of spam lately. I'm getting some unsavoury messages myself that I never used to get. One of these appearing to be from a relative's e-mail address who I know would never have sent me such an e-mail (with a link). Oh well, just another e-mail for deletion.

Re: Virus emails

In all honesty, it doesn't surprise me

You were advised not to go to Win 10, but you tried anyway.

Re: Virus emails

Why do you say that is because of upgrading to W.!0? All people are doing, regardless of the operating system, is accessing their ISP's e-mail servers.

Re: Virus emails

How funny you are!

I took advice to stop Win 10 installing ...........until I wanted to install it!
When that time came, I took advice about my work software and took that advice. It failed!
So............I decided against installing Win 10 !