Mint Card ???

[lost thought]

Ibgit this e-mail from Mint !!, I don't have a mint card and have never applied for one so why do they think I'm a customer.
But should not the e-mail be through my banks e-mail address or should they not be asking us to go to or through the banks normal procedures.
I smell a scam.....O0
Screen shot of e-mail.

[Trinoc]

A standard phishing email - I'm surprised you haven't seen dozens of them!

If you go to the (real) Mint web site you may find a place where you can report the scam and forward the email, so that they can investigate further.

PS. Whatever you do, don't click on the link they provide. It almost certainly contains a coded tag that will identify you as a valid email recipient, which will release a flood of similar spam. If you must visit their web site out of curiosity, copy and paste the url and delete anything following a question mark before pressing Enter.

[ianj5150]

Yep, that one has definitely gone phishin'. No financial institution asks any personal data via email, ever.

Suggest that you forward the email to Mint who will undoubtably have a department that investigates these things.

[tolman]

Most of the phishing emails I get seem to be 'from' Abbey National, with a few Barclays and RBS/HBOS.

Oddly, I don't remember ever having phishing emails purporting to come from any of the banks I do actually have accounts with.

[tkingdoll]

Same here tolman, I only get phishing emails from institutions I don't bank with.

[Mulder]

Simple rules -

a) never follow links in emails unless it is a known, trusted source that you are expecting
b) never put any password into ANY site unless you went there yourself

[Trinoc]

Simple rules -

a) never follow links in emails unless it is a known, trusted source that you are expecting
b) never put any password into ANY site unless you went there yourself
c) never type a password into any non-encrypted site, i.e. one which does not start with "https".
d) don't trust a site that confirms your password to you in a plain text (non-encrypted) email. If you can read the email, it's quite probable someone else can as well.

[Mulder]

c) never type a password into any non-encrypted site, i.e. one which does not start with "https".
d) don't trust a site that confirms your password to you in a plain text (non-encrypted) email. If you can read the email, it's quite probable someone else can as well.

e) don't trust emails, allegedly from big companies, that contain spelling mistakes!

[Croydon Bob]

I used to get lots of fishing emails from American banks that I had never even heard of, let alone banked with. But it is easy to spam millions of addresses and they only need a couple of successful hits for it to have been worthwhile.

[lost thought]

No problem with phising or sleepers, they just make me laugh I usually delete them but it was a quite weekend and nothing much happening.
I got no money, Its not my bank and I don't give a figs arse the banks had enough tax money from me.

[Tony Williams]

Funny thing about spam. I've had my email address for many years and it's seen a wide distribution, so it has attracted a lot of spam. And by a lot I'm talking of typically 1,500 emails per day, 98% spam. This was up to a year ago. Curiously, and without my doing anything, the number has dropped steadily to only a few dozen a day.

Getting a lot of spam does have one benefit: it means I get multiple copies of spam emails, so I can instantly identify them...

[Mulder]

Credit crunch hits spammers?

[farmersboy]

I've always used Hotmail for my personal e-mail, and I've found that ervery few months I get hit by new spams, but once they've been assigned as junk the filters do their job very well.

I don't get spam about bank accounts, but I do get ones about EBay account details, and of course the occasional 419 scam.

[Mongrel]

Funny thing about spam. I've had my email address for many years and it's seen a wide distribution, so it has attracted a lot of spam. And by a lot I'm talking of typically 1,500 emails per day, 98% spam. This was up to a year ago. Curiously, and without my doing anything, the number has dropped steadily to only a few dozen a day.

It may well be your ISP implemented better spam filtering at their end. I had a similar problem (on a smaller scale) until they upgraded the filters and the number dropped from 150-200 per day to maybe 2-3 a day.

May also be your e-mail software working as well. As spam became a large problem filtering was introduced and normally gets updated regularly as well as being adaptive. If you're clicking the "Spam" or "Junk" button when it comes in then that item and e-mail gets added to the list. Depending on how it's set up you may never see the crap.

[Dubious Dick]

Saw a report recently that one major network distributing spam/phishing etc emails had been shut down and this meant a huge drop off in spam immediately. Predictions are it will creep back up again as new gangs enter the market.

Have forwarded a few to the banks in the past and get a thanks but have given up, especially as have dropped ramatically recently.

[Tony Williams]

May also be your e-mail software working as well. As spam became a large problem filtering was introduced and normally gets updated regularly as well as being adaptive. If you're clicking the "Spam" or "Junk" button when it comes in then that item and e-mail gets added to the list. Depending on how it's set up you may never see the crap.
It can't be that, since I'm in the habit of checking mail on my ISP's server first and deleting the trash before downloading the messages to my PC.

The ISP may well have done something, but if so they haven't made an announcement about it.

[Mongrel]

It can't be that, since I'm in the habit of checking mail on my ISP's server first and deleting the trash before downloading the messages to my PC.

The filter will take effect before the mail 'gets sorted' to your inbox. Some addresses\IPs will be automatically deleted as only spam comes from them.

[Tony Williams]

The filter will take effect before the mail 'gets sorted' to your inbox. Some addresses\IPs will be automatically deleted as only spam comes from them.
I check my ISP's mail server and delete the trash before I even switch on my own email system, so any filtering must take place at the ISP.

I do have a spam filter on my email system of course, but it doesn't get much business as very little gets that far.

[Matt]

I check my ISP's mail server and delete the trash before I even switch on my own email system, so any filtering must take place at the ISP.

I do have a spam filter on my email system of course, but it doesn't get much business as very little gets that far.

This isn't a case of spam being sent and then being blocked.

What we're talking about is a DNSBL like the ones provided by spamhaus.

When anyone tries to connect to you mail server it makes a quick check on the IP address that the conncetion is being made from. If the IP address is listed by the Block List provider as being a source of spam then no connection is made. The spammer doesn't even get to send the spam.

[Matt]

Also

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/14/botnets_of_2009/

[lost thought]

Its when I hear about these evil minded shits that I now have a policy of now and again I rip out all my software, format the drive then delete the boot sector and start fresh with a pristine drive.
Its a pain, but I cannot afford the most up to date software and I avoid torrents like the plague as it only takes one to be infected.

[Trinoc]

Its when I hear about these evil minded shits that I now have a policy of now and again I rip out all my software, format the drive then delete the boot sector and start fresh with a pristine drive.
Its a pain, but I cannot afford the most up to date software and I avoid torrents like the plague as it only takes one to be infected.
You seem to be under the impression that a computer can get infected by simply having a particular data file on its disk. The only ways infection can happen are either if you execute a program file that you have downloaded, if something like a web page exploits one of the many security holes in a program like Internet Explorer or Outlook Express, or if an incoming Internet connection exploits one of the many security holes in Windows itself.

You should always run a virus scan on any program before running it (something like Clamwin is free). You should avoid IE and OE completely (Firefox and Thunderbird are among many safe, free alternatives), you should connect to the net using a NAT router which blocks all incoming connections unless you specifically let them through, and you should use one of the many free firewall programs such as ZoneAlarm or Comodo.

It should never be necessary to completely re-initialise your system, still less to re-format the entire disk and replace the boot sector. Simply downloading a torrent file using reputable software can not cause infection - it simply transfers a string of bits from one machine to another, as data files. Even if a downloaded file contains malware, it can do nothing unless you run it.

If we must stick with medical analogies like "viruses", then some of the behaviour recommended by the "there is no way to protect your computer" brigade amount to hypochondria.

[lost thought]

Yes, I admit it I've been bitten so many times that I'm over warey. I do use the popular terms, I find expert languge gets a little technical for some. I got used to seeing the glazed eyes and the nods as my victims look for an escape but I'm better now.
Unfortunatly the pc's I've worked on have not had the luxury of "virus" inoculation or even spike protection as these people faint at the sound of £25- just to have an engineer open the case, You should see some of the things I've worked on, Hoover first then diagnose then watch the sad puppy dog eyes as you tell them how much it is costing to repair or upgrade. I'm still working on pc's that have dos 4 to 6 with win3.11 and they want it to run xp. I have learned to keep council and be kind.

[lost thought]

Oh dear what a shame.. A worm isn't that a small creature which lives in the ground and eats dirt. Certainly not a virus thats a medical term. Ah well thats experts for you. >:D

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2234186/windows-worm-hits-million-pcs (http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2234186/windows-worm-hits-million-pcs)
Windows worm hits 8.9 million PCs in past week
Infects unpatched networks and poor passwords

Security researchers are reporting that in the past four days a worm has infected 3.5 million Windows computers.
The worm, dubbed Conficker, Downadup, or Kido, spreads via a vulnerability that Microsoft patched in October 2008. Once on a machine it sets up an HTTP server and resets a machine's System Restore point to stop administrators deleting it.

[bobdezon]

Always check the header information in the email. It is usually a dummy account from an online web hosting service. For example nobody@freewebhosting.com The return email address is usually a legit banking one. So if you hit reply the bank will get it, not the orginal sender. Also these login details will then be used to actually access your account. To be honest I always fill them out. Incase anyone is wondering my email address is lol@f*ckyou.com and my password is rofflecopter.