Re: How do I know if this email is legitimate Microsoft email?
From: Alun Jones [MS MVP] (alun_at_texis.com)
Date: 10/02/03
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Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2003 15:52:49 GMT
In article <085d01c38559$58ce1430$a301280a@phx.gbl>, "cyberpltops975" <cyberpltops975@aol.com> wrote:
> In my email inbox on my Yahoo account, I have had three
>messages telling me to use the Microsoft patch right away.
1. Did you subscribe to a Microsoft mailing list?
Are the emails from any Microsoft mailing list to which you subscribed?
While there are some suggestions that organisations on the periphery of
Microsoft (bcentral, say) are somewhat "loose" with their definition of
"solicited", the security unity at Microsoft are front-and-center when it
comes to user privacy. They don't send spam. At all. Even for patches.
2. Did the message have an attachment?
Microsoft don't send emails with attached executable content. If they want
you to run a patch, they'll tell you where to find it on their site, and
it'll be available in Windows Update.
3. Did Windows Update tell you that you need to be patched?
If not, then you most likely don't need to be patched. You can always visit
Windows Update any time you want, to see if there are any new patches - me,
I like to keep Automatic Update running on the machines I use, but then I
don't have to pay extra for bandwidth.
>The subject was preceded by the icon paperclip like one on
>a square white rectangular box. Since I understand
>Microsoft has been attacked by the awful virus, I am
>checking to see if this is a case of virus attack. I hope
>I can hear from you very soon because they are saying my
>computer has already been infected with Virus that cannot
>be fixed by the virus scan I subscribe to.
It's not so much that Microsoft have been attacked, as it is that _anyone_
can send messages pretending to be _anyone_, including Microsoft. In the
past, this has been pretty obvious, because the emails have been poorly
spelled, badly worded, and in general didn't look like Microsoft's output.
It's rather like someone knocking on the door, claiming to be a Microsoft
representative, but offering only a piece of cardboard with "Microsoft,
honest" scrawled on it in crayon.
The latest batch are more professional in appearance - as if the guy turned
up to your door with an embroidered Microsoft shirt, and had a van parked in
your driveway with professional looking Microsoft decals. But he's still
not from Microsoft, and he's still out to do you no good.
Delete the emails, and go visit Windows Update for your patches. Please.
[Because people who are running these viruses are now spending much of their
processor time and Internet bandwidth sending me thousands and thousands of
copies of the virus. And I don't appreciate that.]
Alun.
~~~~
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