Scary scam email

donna1979

Hi
I have received a scam email today. I'd normally just delete it and think nothing of it but I have also had a security problem with my bank card which Natwest picked up. This is the email
ello, Richard!

I am disturbing you for a very urgent matter. Though you don't know me, but I have considerable ammount of individual info concerning you. The matter is that, most likely mistakenly, the information of your account has been emailed to me.
For example, your address is:
**********

I am a law-obedient citizen, so I decided to private data may have been hacked. I pinned the file - Lewis.dot that that was emailed to me, that you could explore what data has become reachable for attackers. File password is - 9234

Best wishes,
Gregory Uttley


Where I have put stars it is my actual address! The email is to my husband but we just use the same email address for home stuff.
Please can you offer advice?

Hoseman

Getting someone's address is not that hard and Im guessing this is meant to get your attention so you read and open the file which they have attached.

I would not under any circumstances open the file that was sent to you as Im sure that is their aim

donna1979

I haven't even clicked on the file. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that of all days today I've had the Natwest dramas. They have cancelled mu card so all should be good. I'll do a big password change when I get home too!

DoaM

http://filext.com/file-extension/DOT

The DOT file type is primarily associated with 'Word' by Microsoft Corporation. Office Word is an authoring program that gives you the ability to create and share documents using a set of writing tools. Note: This file type can become infected and should be carefully scanned if someone sends you a file with this extension.

(My emphasis)

forgotmyname

What links do you have with your email address and real address?

I use a different email for almost every account i have so its easy to trace where the source of the leak is.

People put so much information onto the internet these days its mental.

brainsys

I had an identical one today. The sender's email address was South African (.za) but the origin IP was 151.45.162.246 which is in Italy.

Conclusion: Attempted fraud. Ignore & delete.

donna1979

Thanks for getting back to me. I have used the same email address for everything for years! I think I'll look to setting a new 'home' one up and use this one for spam type stuff.

notbritishgas

Yes I received an identical email today.
Binned it.

Rev

I just posted an identical thread to you! Can I ask what your ISP is?

Rev

I forwarded the email to virus total which said it was clean. Not that I've tried to open it or will open it. It's been binned. But I had virus total scan it out of curiosity.

Somewhere must have had a leak for a few of us to get the exact email on the same day.

cookie365

Presumably this is a stolen customer database with tens of thousands or even millions of rows with matching names, addresses and emails.

Maybe TalkTalk, maybe somewhere else.

It's not personal, Gregory of course doesn't exist but whover is responsible didn't craft a handful of messages for a few targets. It's all automated.

Yes it's annoying to have this info stolen, and yes in theory if they wanted to put a load of effort for little or no reward they could use the info to cause you a bit of inconvenience, but in practice nothing is likely to come of it.

Nothing to worry about.