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On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Neil Winchurst wrote: > I do not know if DHL do courier work for Amazon, but even so, they are > unlikely to email someone directly. Anyway, how would they know the > email address? > > How did the scammer know about the order anyway? And how did he know my > friend's email address? Parcel spam has been going around for years; quite commonly with malware attached. In some spam traps this morning I found "DHL Express Parcel Tracking Notification" and "DHL International Notification for shipment" - and then I only searched for DHL in the subject lines; they are common for other couriers too. Many people order things on the Internet and thus many people who receive such an email think it is about that order they recently placed. That is why this is such a successful way of making people open attachments. Did the email he received really mention his name, or his order or was it generic? I doubt the former was the case; I certainly have never heard of that for your average Internet user. I don't know if Amazon uses DHL; they use multiple couriers and change quite a lot. I also don't know whether DHL sends emails concerning the order (probably not, that would be Amazon's doing). What they, or any other courier, would never do* is require you to open an attachment rather than clicking on a web link/going to their website. * 'Never' as in: hardly ever, and if they would, they deserve you to discard the email. Your description of "his hard disk was trashed" sounds 'interesting' btw, as it's not quite common for malware to do serious damage (as it's hard, though not impossible, to monetize doing damage). > Yes, my friend does use Windows, though I do not know which version. If > he had been running Linux would the scam program still have run > successfully? I ask this because I could perhaps talk to him about > moving to Linux to avoid such problems, if it would indeed be safer, > once his computer is sorted. Yes, using Linux would have significantly reduced the likelihood of damage. It is hard to measure "security" of operating systems and I personally doubt Linux is more inherently secure than Windows, but its low market share, especially among the less tech-savvy, means it is uninteresting for those writing the malware. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq