You’ve received A Hallmark E-Card!

You’ve received A Hallmark E-Card! – Or Have You???

Filed in Phishing, Scams on Dec.17, 2009 By Keith Lunt

The following email arrived overnight, and it looks very realistic. Sent from ‘hallmark.com’, with graphics that outlook blocked (and probably a good job too), it contains the following message:

“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.