E_TICKET scam?

[Tommy]

I have just received an email saying ''Dear customer, your payment has been successfully processed and charged from your credit card.

1 clue my name is not customer, and if it was the c should be upper case.
2 clue which credit card.
3 clue Departing Fort Worth and no destination.
4 I clicked on the e-ticket and it just showed gobly gook.

I did call my credit card and report it stolen and they are sending a new card number.

I suspect that orders@hartman-net.de wants me to contact them and pay to remove the ticket price.
Any one else seen this scam?

[Nanohedron]

Not yet.

While getting issued a new card number is a very good idea, do you have any indication that money was indeed withdrawn by the scammers? I ask because their saying so may only be a ruse to make you contact them out of curiosity, which could really open things up for them. I strongly suggest not making any contact with them, and especially not over the internet, because clicking on anything could initiate trouble. I got my computer locked down for ransom by falling for a bogus security scam, and though it all worked out in the end, they keep calling me every now and then saying I owe them money, which I don't. The calls are becoming fewer and farther between, which is kind of a shame because I like interrupting the poor guy with the barely understandable Indian accent, informing him that his name is NOT Kevin, and then hanging up on him.

No, actually, I don't like it.

[Tunborough]

I clicked on the e-ticket

Not a good idea to click on anything, neither attachments nor web links, in a suspicious e-mail. Do you have an anti-virus product installed? If yes, do a full anti-virus scan. If not, this might be a good time to install one.

[Nanohedron]

I agree that an anti-virus program is practically a must these days; I use Kaspersky myself, and can't recommend it highly enough. That said, scams to manipulate you out of your money would be out of reach of such programs, because on the other end must be a human whose job it is to trick you by means of an otherwise standard-looking piece of mail or notification that they hope you will answer and proceed, guided, to whatever clutches they've set up. If it's money they're after, sending your computer a virus is unlikely to help them and may even work against them if they want to try again. Scams are a predatory game that require some person-to-person interaction. Programs to jam you up may be involved in the process, but that's a tool and not the same thing as your average virus (if there is such a thing); the nature of scams is that you have to let yourself be led down the garden path for any of it to work, which may include letting them into your computer. Even Kaspersky couldn't prevent me from being scammed. You have to trust your gut, so if it seems fishy, don't engage it any further than to contact your bank to make sure that your account wasn't hacked (although scammers would probably need your account number or other personal information to do that). If your money hasn't been touched, then apart from a little inconvenience you came out well.

And that said: As Tunborough suggests, it's well known that the purpose of some fishy emails may be expressly to give you a virus/trojan/worm and nothing else. In that case you would be in serious need of measures to fix the situation.

So either way, don't touch it any further than you have, and in future preferably not at all.

[benhall.1]

I clicked on the e-ticket

Not a good idea to click on anything, neither attachments nor web links, in a suspicious e-mail. Do you have an anti-virus product installed? If yes, do a full anti-virus scan. If not, this might be a good time to install one.

Agree with this. There's potentially a bigger issue even than viruses though, which is that these links generally contain Adware which will seriously affect your machine and is often not detected by virus checkers. Some other types of this kind of bug deliberately disable the bits of virus checkers which might find them. There are decent - and free - machine cleaning tools available, and I would lose no time in using these if I were you. I've found the information on "anti-malwarebytes" to be useful.

Oh, and just a specific thing to look out for: there's a nasty little bug called the "Yahoo re-direct virus". It's like a combination of a virus and Adware. If you find that, without you doing anything, you are now using Yahoo as your default search engine, then you have this bug. You really need to get rid of the little blighter before it completely destroys your machine.

[Some of this has been said in different ways by Nano above.]

[david_h]

I get one or more of this sort of thing every day. Usually with an attachment that is said to be an invoice.

This is not quite the same, but it came in (from a .jp email address) while I was thinking of posting, so here is the start of it for your entertainment:

FROM .. HOME LAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT
State Military Department Washington Military Dept.,
Bldg1 Camp Murry ,Wash 98430-5000 USA

I am Mr Jeh Johnson . The secretary, to the us department of homeland security Washington DC, I am writing to you regarding your abandoned consignment box worth 5.7 million dollars.so kindly reconfirm your Full address,Full name, Phone number, and Nearest Airport.I wait for your urgent and positive respond.
You can message presidency officer Mr Martins Who is in charge of releasing...


How many millions do they have to sent out to find someone stupid enough to click the link that followed?

[Nanohedron]

How many millions do they have to sent out to find someone stupid enough to click the link that followed?

I shudder to think that the number may be smaller than we would hope. Anyone know anyone named "Jeh"? I'd like to give him a positive respond.

[david_h]

Anyone know anyone named "Jeh"? I'd like to give him a positive respond.

I forgot to say - the email address had Jen not Jeh.

[Nanohedron]

Anyone know anyone named "Jeh"? I'd like to give him a positive respond.

I forgot to say - the email address had Jen not Jeh.

Well, I don't know any Jen who could be called "mister", either. These guys crack me up.

[trill]

Anyone know anyone named "Jeh"? . . .

I did a double-take also. Actually, the DHS boss is named Jeh. In news, they pronounce it like "Jay".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeh_Johnson

trill

[Nanohedron]

Wouldn't you know it. I hate being no longer able to make easy assumptions.

[calanthrophy]

I work as an IT admin and constantly have users telling me they clicked on obviously bogus links that ended up infecting their computers because they "were curious."

[Nanohedron]

If that ain't natural selection, I don't know what is.

[ytliek]

Here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoYsfbq3vMc