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Am I being paranoid?

kitkat
Grafter
Posts: 58
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎14-05-2012

Am I being paranoid?

I really do not know if this is the right site to ask this question. I have just noticed this email sent to me but had been automatically been put into junk folder. I have not opened it yet because of the heading. It has my email address then this "US. Must join Allies Now to Destro........" Then
"Hi . (Again my email address). Urgent News if  you're A  God-Fearing Americ........"
I have written it exactly so hence the bad spelling. There is an attachment with it but I have not or intend to open it. With all that is going on in the world, I might be paranoid. I have no idea how they got my email address. I don't know what to do about it. To either delete it or report it to someone.
Could someone please give me some advice.      KK
3 REPLIES 3
gleneagles
Aspiring Legend
Posts: 11,105
Thanks: 2,459
Fixes: 17
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Am I being paranoid?

As it has an attachment it is likely to have some malware or a virus.
The clever bit is to put something in the email that tempts you just to check the attachment.
Chances of it being a mistyped address whilst possible are very small, mark its spam and delete it
If I ever get anything I don't recognise and in particular if it has an attachment then it gets deleted.
We are born into history and history is born into us.
spraxyt
Resting Legend
Posts: 10,063
Thanks: 674
Fixes: 75
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Am I being paranoid?

@kitkat
Rather than simply deleting the email I suggest reporting the scam attempt to Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud - click the right-hand red button. This will take you through a short dialogue to record background information.
The dialogue will conclude by asking you to forward a copy of the email to a suitable authority. For this one probably the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau run by the City of London Police. Forwarding is best done as an attachment to preserve all the headers. How to do that is email client dependent but in Thunderbird one can right-click the email subject in the Inbox message list, then select Forward As->Attachment in the menu.
Once this is done, delete the message from your Inbox (and the message from your Sent folder if you store these).
David
David
kitkat
Grafter
Posts: 58
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎14-05-2012

Re: Am I being paranoid?

@ Sprexyt. Thank you so very much for your reply and have done what you suggested. I feel better that it has now been sent to the people that can investigate it.  KK