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Panic Mail

Scenario: an email arrives from a complete stranger claiming there's a video of you online and you'll be in trouble. What do you do?

Well, don't panic! It might not be real. But surely you should at least look at it to check it out? NO! Don't! The links are not what they seem, and if you are duped into following a link just because some joker has managed to scare you, you could be going to anywhere, not necessarily what the link appears to be.

Let me show you an example...

Incidentally, I have adjusted this to make it generic and tamed it so the address goes to somewhere safe, while keeping the principle the same. Don't click on the link, but hover your mouse over it and see what comes up in the status bar. To make really sure, right-click on the link and look at "properties". See, it doesn't go to Youtube! Therefore the link is faked-up, so you can stop worrying.

Here's another one...

Even if you think the lifestyle fits you, remember that this is a hoax on two counts so far: 1. The link is not what it seems, and 2. It's from someone who you don't know personally yet who addresses you as if they are on familiar terms.

Let's put that to the test. We'll reply...

Response...

Bounced! Well that's quite conclusive really, as the sender was not real. It was a faked-up address, spoofed by spam senders.

Here are a few more examples of the same kind of scary messages...

That one was from some silly Yahoo address in Brazil. The next one is from Taiwan...

Of course it doesn't make any difference where the messages are from, nor do the messages depend on whether your folks are still alive. The messages are spam, sent out randomly, presumably hoping to scare you into taking them seriously enough to click on the link.

Is this some kind of Holy War against people who go to wild parties and are rash enough to put videos of themselves online?

And anyway, why am I saying "DON'T follow the links!"? You might be thinking "Why shouldn't I watch that alleged video at Youtube?". The answer is: Those are not links to Youtube! Out of the dozens of spam messages like this which I have received, the links go to http:// followed by four numbers with dots inbetween. These could be ANYTHING. There's no need to follow the links, because we already know the senders are up to no good.

Although the destinations could be anything, here's my own theory of what happens if you follow them: You end up at a website which inserts SPYWARE into your computer. Well, it might not be that. It might just be a scam site which tries to fool you into entering your bank details into a form, or it might be pornographic stuff that leaves incriminating evidence in your computer. Honestly, I'd not risk it. Come on, if a stranger came up to you in the street and said "You swine! You baked this cake and it tastes awful! Here, try some and see what I mean!", would you taste it?! No? What, you might get poisoned? Too smart to fall for that? Well then don't follow bogus links on spam e-mails!

If you have already followed a link on a panic mail, you may be interested to see the antivirus software, anti spyware, and virus prevention measures to see about cleaning your computer!

Meanwhile, the example scary messages on this page are like stuffed fierce animals which still look realistic but have been made safe. You can test the links on them by:

1. Hovering the mouse over the link and see what comes up in the status bar. If you have no status bar, see How To Get Browser Bars

2. Right-clicking on the links and checking "properties". This reveals the actual contents of the link, in contrast to what the link looks like.

The links on the stuffed versions go to panicmail2.htm which is an explanatory page. In contrast, the links in various panic mail you might receive could go to anywhere, so it might be best to avoid them.

Also see fake messages from banks, congratulations lottery scam, and the Rogues Gallery of suspicious emails

...

Death threats, eh? Evidently the relationships were not that good to start with?

Also see Message from the FBI!? It's not from the FBI, of course. It's from some Nigeria-scamsters!

Also see How to AVOID this sort of thing