Strange e-mail from Debbie Geiser

I’m thinking you have gotten scammed.  Someone else has captured her email address.  I suggest you immediately change the password on your email account.  Can’t be too careful now days.  

I just changed my password on my mail account.  I just hope mine did not get compromised.

If youve changed the password your account is ok. Any info within the account may be compromised/copied though. That's why a clean inbox and moving important things to a flash or external hard drive is a good idea.

You got Phished. And no, this isn't "hacking". You freely responded to someone trying (sucessfully) to trick you into revealing personal information.

Guys, it's 2020. Never respond to any email with your login, password, or account information. It doesn't matter who it looks like it came from.

As for clicking on a link, if it is not in response to a request you made, don't do it. There is a whole list of bad things that can happen.

Didn't we teach our kids to not talk to strangers? If you are clicking links, and revealing personal information via email that is exactly what you are doing. Stop talking to strangers!

@Gilly@N&W posted:

You got Phished. And no, this isn't "hacking". You freely responded to someone trying (sucessfully) to trick you into revealing personal information.

Guys, it's 2020. Never respond to any email with your login, password, or account information. It doesn't matter who it looks like it came from.

As for clicking on a link, if it is not in response to a request you made, don't do it. There is a whole list of bad things that can happen.

Didn't we teach our kids to not talk to strangers? If you are clicking links, and revealing personal information via email that is exactly what you are doing. Stop talking to strangers!

^^^^ This.

It's gotten to the point these days where if I have even the slightest suspicion with an incoming email I simply delete. That goes for ones coming from businesses or people that I recognize. And in most cases you can easily tell when it's a bad actor. Still, when in doubt, don't click links or reply. Delete.

Never, EVER, reply to an unexpected or unfamiliar email, or an email from someone you don't know. And absolutely never click on any links or attachments in an unexpected/unfamiliar email.

In this day and age, no legitimate business will EVER ask you for a user name or password in an email. It is just not done today by legitimate businesses. If someone does ask you for login credentials in an email, I guarantee it is a scam. DELETE THE EMAIL.

There are a few other things you can do to protect yourself:

• Check the "FROM" address.
  Does it look familiar? Does it match the person who is supposedly sending the email?
  If not - DELETE THE EMAIL.
  
  
• Check the links in the email.
  If there are links in the email, you can place your mouse over them (but don't click on them!) and your email program should show you the URL for the link. If it's a URL you recognize, such as traincollectors.org in this case, you're OK. But if the URL in the link shows a domain that is odd looking or totally unknown to you, DELETE THE EMAIL.
  
  
• Do not open any attachments in an unexpected/unfamiliar email.
  Some scammers will put malicious code into a file attached to the email. It may look like an innocent jpg image file, a Word file or a PDF file. Whatever it is, DON'T CLICK ON IT TO OPEN IT. If you don't open the attachment, nothing happens. And DELETE THE EMAIL.

@WaynePa posted:

I just changed my password on my mail account.  I just hope mine did not get compromised.

If you use the same password elsewhere, change those passwords too.

Before you open an email, hover your cursor over the sender to see the actual email address of the sender.  Most of the time it will be obvious that the message came from someone else.

And nothing is foolproof - lots of good tips above.

Still shake my head when I see a forum post that contains someone's email address and/or phone number.

Something strange happened to all of the e-mails in my in box.  They all suddenly were erased.  I thought that I hit a wrong key or something.  

I tried searching in my trash and junk files but they are simply gone.

I can't stress this enough, but for any personal accounts you own that are web based, please turn on Two Factor Authentication if it's available.

This is usually found under the security tab and enabling this means if your password is stolen, they would still need to authenticate again using a phone or authenticator app.

I am set up with two factor authentication and have been for years ever since we switched away from Windows to Mac Ios