The ToiBocks Blog

Posts Tagged ‘holiday e cards’

Happy holidays!

A lot of people are choosing to send E cards for the upcoming holiday. I wanted to email you all a warning of what to look for BEFORE opening an e card.

Just today I got a very convincing VIRUS email designed to look like an e-card receipt and wanted to share some information with all with you so that you know what to look for.

The email I got “appears” to be an E-Card. There are a couple things that tipped me off right away that it was not.

• There is no “confirmation number” in this email. A legitimate email will give you the option to go directly to the card website and enter a confirmation number to receive your card.

• There is no “sender” in this email. Typically the emails will say “Betty sent you an e-card” or “betty@website.com sent you an e-card”

The email appears to come from e-card@hallmark.com, which is easy enough to fool.

Not so obvious were the hyperlinks embedded in the email. If I hover my mouse over the links embedded in the email, where it says “to see it click here” the link does NOT go to hallmark.com but another site. The header links take you to the right place, except for the “E-card” link that takes you to a website ending in “hallmark-card.exe” which is where the malicious code lies.

When you receive an e-card from someone, even if you recognize the senders name, DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THE EMAIL – copy your confirmation number and go DIRECTLY to the site that created the e-card (such as hallmark.com) and put in your confirmation number to receive your card. If the email does not have a confirmation number, it is not a legitimate e card.

Happy Holidays and Stay Virus Free!!
Dawn