And receiving this email on my Apple machine made it slightly harder to detect – the link that is in the email has the anchor text of order information and unlike in Outlook, hovering the mouse over the link does not show where it actually points to. However, pressing the link could be fatal.

So, being careful and looking without pressing the link, I managed to confirm that the link does not go to the Apple store, but to a third party website. What happens when you click the link I did not want to find out. Maybe the site collects your logon information, or it could immediately install a virus. Let’s not find out.

Here’s the content of one of the two emails that I received over night:

Apple Store
Call 1-800-MY-APPLE

To purchase by phone, please call 1-800-MY-APPLE

                          

Quite cleverly it was aimed at the email address that is displayed on my contact page, which is (of course) a website design site. However, that’s a receiving email only and doesn’t associate with PayPal, so I knew straight away that I was receiving a Phishing email!

Obviously, it is trying to look as genuine as possible by providing plenty of details, however, any PayPal email will always start with your name, not “PayPal Member”.

Whatever you do, do not click on the link in the email. It certainly won’t take you to the PayPal website!

Here is the email’s content:

Dear PayPal Member,

–
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content and is believed to be clean.

                          

It is estimated that some 3,000 online banking customers have been affected by this extremely complicated virus. It first checks to see if there is at least £800 in your bank account and if so performs a transfer of the money.

But to hide its tracks, when you access your online banking it hides the withdrawal and shows you a fake statement to fool you into believing that nothing is wrong.

It is so bad that £675,000 is said to have been stolen from one unnamed British bank, according to internet security firm M86 Security.

Experts are warning that you should take all possible steps to protect your PC and to be aware of your bank balance and to confirm it in other ways, for example when withdrawing cash from the cash machine.

At the moment this virus does only affect Windows machines, but Mac users are being warned that they should also be wary as attacks against them could start soon as more people are using Macs regularly.

If you are concerned in any way about transactions in your bank account, contact your branch immediately.

                          

This is, at first, a frightening figure – something around 0.5% of the UK’s households could contain an infected machine. But, experts expect that the situation might not be as bad as it seems.

The software specifically targets UK computers and attempts to track logons to UK banks. It resides on Windows machines and is a variant of the Zeus malware.

It has probably been installed on the infected machines after the users clicked on email links or visited infected websites. Simple safety precautions, such as not opening unexpected email attachments, being careful with popups on websites (even trusted websites) and installing browsers with protection can all prevent problems as can running anti virus and anti spyware software.

It is not yet known if anyone has been a victim of this software.

                          

“Hello!

You have recieved a Hallmark E-Card.

To see it, click here,

There’s something special about that E-Card feeling. We invite you to make a friend’s day and send one.

Hope to see you soon,
Your friends at Hallmark

Your privacy is our priority. Click the “Privacy and Security” link at the bottom of this E-mail to view our policy. “

Apart from the careless spelling of ‘received’, it looks good. But follow that link and you have just installed a virus. Instead of going to the Hallmark website, it goes to http://211.137.202.133/hallmark.exe. An anonymous website and that hallmark.exe will no doubt be a virus. Click the link and you could have spyware, keystroke logging or anything installed.

For me, it was simple to spot. It was sent to a rarely used email address. It didn’t include the name of the sender or recipient, and putting the mouse over the link showed it was nothing to do with Hallmark.

The email has been binned. Do the same if you receive one of these fake emails.

                          

DEAR CUSTOMER,
paypal is pleased to notify our online banking customers that
we have successfully upgraded to a more secure and encrypted
SSL servers to serve our esteemed customers for a better and
more efficent banking services in this year.
Due to this recent upgrade you are requested to update your
account information by following the reference below. using our
new secure and safe SSL servers. To validate your online banking account
click on Update Online Banking .

This Email has being sent to all our paypal customers, and it is
compulsory to follow as failure to verify account details will lead to
account suspension.

Thank you.
PayPal Online Banking Security Team
2009 paypal© internet Banking . All rights reserved. Version 1.0 31w23m3

If you receive this email, or anything like it, please do not click on the link. It is not authorised and the actual target website of the link is zionwaterville.com. At best, the destination page will look like PayPal and attempt to collect your login details so that the phisher can clear your PayPal balance and use the account for money laundering and other illegal activities. At worst, it could immediately download a virus to your machine.

If you are worried that you might have disclosed your login information, type www.paypal.com into your browser address bar, sign in and change your password. Never click on links in emails to PayPal (or any other financial sites). Always use a bookmark or type the URL into the address bar.

Stay safe…