Confusing One

[Casscat]

I can't really work out how this one came to be and what the aim is.

Last night I received the well worn "We have decided to book your property. There has been a complete change for my work here which affects the plans we had for our holiday and we have changed the dates! I have attached in the document dates with full info of our party members so you can edit the booking contract properly. We want to book our flights next days."

So far so scammy, spammy and unwelcome, but the strange thing is that this 'enquiry' purported to come from my finca web enquiries address, mailed to my finca web enquiries address and was signed off with my name, i.e. it was from info@ to info@ where normally the sender's own email address is shown. There was no attachment. I have looked at my finca web page and there is no record of any enquiry having been sent last night. The web page is run via Promote My Place but the 'enquiries' email addy is linked to the domain name which is registered via Namesco. Is this a Namesco vulnerability? Should I change my password? I never log on to Namesco because I have no need to and the password is a very difficult one to randomly hit upon.

[kevsboredagain]

Don't worry, it was me. I wanted to see the reaction and also to demonstrate how easy it is to fake an email. I did not go to any elaborate lengths, so it should have been easy to analyse the header to determine the true source.

I believe that if the email and name had not been yourself, you probably would have posted it on LMH.

[Casscat]

The email address was info@finca-cars-bonaira.com and the alleged sender was Susan Cambridge. Happy now?

[kevsboredagain]

And if you analyse the email header using a tool such as the one below, does it reveal any more information?

http://www.gaijin.at/en/olsmailheader.php

[Casscat]

I don't know what an 'email header' is and I have deleted the message.

[kevsboredagain]

I think I've proven my point. Sorry to have freaked you out a little in doing so.

[Casscat]

Kev you haven't changed my point of view one iota. I am not a techie and you are, but I am representative of the vast majority of holiday home owners whose computer skills are fairly basic. I don't know the first thing about drilling down into 'headers' and what have you, so my first port of call is a simple Google search when something troubles me. It is a simple Google search that brought me to LMH in the first place. I think that what you did was actually pretty nasty to be honest.

[Cassis]

One way to check headers if you use Outlook is to right click > Message Options. But most people would not know what it all means.

I would be pissed off if someone on here tried to use me as the subject of some sort of "social experiment" or to prove a point like this. I think it's ill-judged.

[kevsboredagain]

I think posting the faked email addresses of innocent people is nasty and ill judged, if you are not able to determine if it's fake in the first place. I had an account ruined because of such vigilantly behavior.

[joddle]

I would be pissed off if someone on here tried to use me as the subject of some sort of "social experiment" or to prove a point like this. I think it's ill-judged.

+1

[Cassis]

I think posting the faked email addresses of innocent people is nasty and ill judged, if you are not able to determine if it's fake in the first place. I had an account ruined because of such vigilantly behavior.

Posting email addresses of scammers and phishers may be ill-judged but it's not "nasty" - it's just pointless since it's the message content that is important, given that scammers use multiple accounts. Surely that doesn't make this right, though.

[chipiechoo]

I would be pissed off if someone on here tried to use me as the subject of some sort of "social experiment" or to prove a point like this. I think it's ill-judged.

+2 In extremely poor taste

[FelicityA]

Sorry Kevin but that's +3 from me. I would be extremely p*****d off if you did that to me. Please don't !

[apexblue]

Disgusting behaviour kevsboredagain you should be ashamed.

[Casscat]

What really disturbs me about this is the fact that I appear to have been singled out in spite of not being active on the forum of late. It may have gone unnoticed but I have not posted for the best part of a month until today. I have a lot of less than enjoyable stuff going on in my private life and I had decided to 'retire' from active posting because there is too much stress in my world right now. However as a continuing member of LMH I sought specific advice regarding what I perceived as a possible hack of my Namesco account only to discover that this was perpetuated by a fellow member to 'make a point'. As this was initiated several weeks after my last presence on this forum I can only assume that it was a deliberate baiting tactic or some kind of vendetta. The method employed is at best creepy and at worst criminal. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and on an open forum they are entitled to share that opinion. What they should not be entitled to do is use their own computer expertise to intimidate and manipulate others into adopting their perspective. Where I come from that's called bullying.

Ironically I was one of those who posted that I rarely receive spam/scam emails and the number of posts that I have placed on this subject is correspondingly small. I still have no regrets about flagging the names of the patently scam emails I have received as a signpost for others Googling their own concerns.

And with that I am well and truly out of here. I have to believe that I can get solid advice and share my own views within a friendly, non-threatening environment. What I have done to warrant this kind of intimidation I truly do not know, but I am left very, very saddened by it.