OT: Warning for airlines customers

CaptHenway · January 20, 2012 3:29AM

Not coin related, though many people on here buy airline tickets to coin shows.

Late last year I bought an American Airlines ticket for a friend, and this week both the friend and I received bogus phishing-type email purporting to be from American Airlines (AA.com) confirming a ticket we each had just bought. Mine was to Toledo, Ohio. There was a link to click on for details.

Neither of us clicked on the link, but when I wrote this on the dealer-to-dealer network this morning, one dealer responded that he had received the same email, and, because his family had recently bought American Airlines tickets, he clicked on the link. It immediately took over his computer, and he had to pay for a tech to come out and fix his computer.

I love American Airlines, but their computers may have been hacked. Be careful opening any email purporting to be from them.

Edited to add: there are many reports that this scam is nothing new and not specific to American Airlines. They just seem to be the current target. Be very careful opening ANY attachment.

commoncents05 · January 20, 2012 3:33AM

Never flown AA, but I got the same email from them a few days ago.

-Paul

Priller · January 20, 2012 3:37AM

<< I love American Airlines, but their computers may have been hacked. Be careful opening any email purporting to be from them. >>

It's not coming from the American Airlines email system. I've received a couple. They are originating from Japan .... the ocn.ne.jp domain.

JamesMurray · January 20, 2012 3:39AM

Thanks for that , it's possibly how we got our computer infected.Ive spent a day and a bit now clearing it,i wish now i'd made a note of the virus but only know it's a trojan horse variety and standard anti virus can't remove it.In order to clear it one must sign in as a power user(admin) and edit the registry.I suspect it's the same as we booked several flights over the holidays with AA,i'd need to ask if my other half did open an email like described but i think i already know the answer.It's a real bugger to remove.

Coinosaurus · January 20, 2012 3:40AM

Thx Tom. And I do fly AA to just about every coin show.

Bochiman · January 20, 2012 4:09AM

There is a slew of these things right now.....and I don't think there was any hacking specifically done.
They are sending out a TON "from" AA, "from" Bank of America, "from" almost any big name....financial/travel/etc

If they send out 10,000 and only .01% respond, they still win

Swampboy · January 20, 2012 5:18AM

Got one this morning from the "BBB" to my business email.....

Here with the Better Business Bureau would like to inform you that we have been filed a complaint (ID 97788997) from one of your customers in regard to their dealership with you.
Please open the COMPLAINT REPORT below to find the details on this matter and suggest us about your opinion as soon as possible.
We hope to hear from you shortly.
Regards,
Rebecca Wilcox
Dispute Counselor

19Lyds · January 20, 2012 5:47AM

<< Not coin related, though many people on here buy airline tickets to coin shows.

Late last year I bought an American Airlines ticket for a friend, and this week both the friend and I received bogus phishing-type email purporting to be from American Airlines (AA.com) confirming a ticket we each had just bought. Mine was to Toledo, Ohio. There was a link to click on for details.

Neither of us clicked on the link, but when I wrote this on the dealer-to-dealer network this morning, one dealer responded that he had received the same email, and, because his family had recently bought American Airlines tickets, he clicked on the link. It immediately took over his computer, and he had to pay for a tech to come out and fix his computer.

I love American Airlines, but their computers may have been hacked. Be careful opening any email purporting to be from them.

Edited to add: there are many reports that this scam is nothing new and not specific to American Airlines. They just seem to be the current target. Be very careful opening ANY attachment. >>

Never, ever, ever open an attachment in an email before it has been scanned. Even from trusted sources since you never really know if your "trusted source" opened some attachment which took over their system and is now propogating the virus out to their email lists.

There is no such thing as being "too safe" and unless you're a Windows Guru, you're just asking from some expensive problems.

MikeInFL · January 20, 2012 6:24AM

Never.... I repeat... Never click a link in an e-mail.

ricko · January 20, 2012 6:29AM

I have also been receiving several of the "I need to get $16 million dollars out of my country..." emails... different sob stories, but always a huge amount of money, of which I would get a substantial portion. Must be the season..... Cheers, RickO

toyz4geo · January 20, 2012 6:29AM

<< Never.... I repeat... Never click a link in an e-mail. >>

Capitalize that and underscore it many times.

I get phishing emails purporting to be from Paypal telling me my account has been limited. "Just click on the link and we will clear things up for you"

Yeah, right

SmEagle1795 · January 20, 2012 6:42AM

It would be prudent to disable HTML in emails as well as external images unless you trust the sender and are expecting the message (the latter clause is key as the sender can be spoofed). While most are patched now, in recent years there have been several exploits within image formats (JPEG, ANI, and WMF to name a few of the most prevalent ones which have been exploited).

Updating your operating system and any popular applications - most importantly anything by Adobe, including Flash and Reader - is crucial to not getting infected.

Recently, infections have been coming via maliciously crafted PDF files, so it isn't just limited to "don't run an executable program that's emailed to you" anymore.

If anyone has questions or concerns about anything computer related, feel free to PM me or reply - I'm a VP Engineering at a major computer security company (and I actually still do a sizable portion of the real work, not just the people shuffling

).

johnny9434 · January 21, 2012 1:38AM

thanks tom, thats good info. to use in the future

astrorat · January 21, 2012 1:49AM

<< Here with the Better Business Bureau would like to inform you that we have been filed a complaint (ID 97788997) from one of your customers in regard to their dealership with you. >>

Poor grammar is an easy red flag.

dragon · January 21, 2012 3:12AM

<<< Poor grammar is an easy red flag. >>>

I was thinking the same thing.

Most are a dead giveaway because of the broken english and/or awful grammar.

DHeath · January 21, 2012 3:32AM

It is often useful to use the rollback feature to restore to a previous state and then take corrective action.

mingot · January 21, 2012 3:51AM

<< There is a slew of these things right now.....and I don't think there was any hacking specifically done.
They are sending out a TON "from" AA, "from" Bank of America, "from" almost any big name....financial/travel/etc

If they send out 10,000 and only .01% respond, they still win >>

This.

I get lots of these emails from companies I do business with and many that I do not.

The companies have not been hacked.

My computer has not been compromised.

It's just spammers casting a wide net.

OT: Warning for airlines customers

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