The Desert Computer Tutor

Tag: AOL

  • AOL Phishing Scam

    AOL Phishing Scam

    One of my clients sent this to me yesterday. It’s a Phishing scam, just as she suspected. Good job Harriett!

    AOL HELP.

    Your two incoming mails were placed on pending status due to the recent upgrade to our database,In order to receive the messages Click Here

     to Login and wait for response from  AOL Mail

    .We apologies for any inconveniences 

    Best Regards,

    The AOL! Mail Team
    I was suspicious because of the reference to holding back only two emails.  A big company like AOL doesn’t have time to notify people of small stuff like this.  (Most of the time, companies don’t even notify us of big changes!  LOL )  Mail held up by a “data base upgrade” would most likely just come through later, after the upgrade was completed.

    Of course, being the intrepid, curious researcher that I am, I just had to click on the link to see what would happen.  This is what showed up…

    URL Terminated  

    The TinyURL (p95eoub) you visited was used by its creator in violation of our terms of use. TinyURL has a strict no abuse policy and we apologize for the intrusion this user has caused you. Such violations of our terms of use include:

    • Spam – Unsolicited Bulk E-mail
    • Fraud or Money Making scams
    • Malware
    • or any other use that is illegal.

    If you received spam, please note that TinyURL did not send this spam and we do not operate any email lists. We can not remove you from spammer’s database as we have no association with spammers, but instead we recommend you use spam filtering software.

    This confirmed my suspicions.  I let Harriet know and thanked her for letting me know.

    You are always welcome to email me when you have a concern like this. My mission is to make your computing experience more enjoyable and to help others as well.

    Please forward this to everyone you know so they can be safe and feel relaxed, happy and confident with their computers and techie gadgets.

    Thoughts or comments about this topic?
    Please comment below.

    Thanks!