Scam e-mail! Please read and protect yourself!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I consider myself a smart netizen, but I got suckered; if I weren't a Mac user, I might have a serious problem right now! I got an e-mail that looked totally legit to me. I'll put details under the cut, but please read it!



The e-mail I got looked like this:
Mitch has sent you an ecard.  

To view your ecard, click on the following link:
http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com/view.pd?i=239695545&m=7163&rr=y&source=ghknp683


Please do not reply to this email.  To help resolve your issue or question, go to:
http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com/emailus.pd?source=ykdcm088
We have an extensive help center that may answer your questions, or you can choose to email us from there.

To read about email protection, type http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com/emailprotection into your web browser.


Thank you!
Your friends at Yahoo! Greetings

I know a Mitch! I thought, "Wow, that was sweet of him! Unnecessary, but awfully nice!" I know Mitch from work, and I got it at my work address. I clicked. I got a message that I didn't have the current Flash, and a link to download it. I tried. It wouldn't execute; it was not Flash! Goodness knows what I downloaded! Suspicious, I ran it through Firefox, where I have higher security, and it identified the site as a possible phishing scam.

Brilliant Husband points out that the URL reads:
http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com.site-check08.net/view.pd?i=055732491&m=2169&rr=y&source=cqsd933
"site-check" is a big clue something is wrong, though I didn't know it until he told me. It indicates that the page belongs to neither Yahoo! nor American Greetings. The page looks like Yahoo! as far as I know (I just joined Yahoo! two days ago). It even contains links to the main Yahoo! page, and possibly American Greetings--but if you click, it takes a while, and it changed URLs while switching to real Yahoo!

So please be warned, and pass it on. The program didn't execute because it wasn't written for a Mac, or I might be in serious trouble. I haven't fallen for one of these things in years. It's pretty sophisticated. (Yeah, I feel stupid, so no need to add comments to that effect. Congratulations if you wouldn't have fallen for it!)