How Stupid Do They Think I Am?

I got an e-mail today that is looking very helpful and suggests that I immediately update my browser from Internet Explorer to FireFox (stet) to help me be more secure online.

Here, let me show you:

Hi ,

As you may have heard in recent national and local news, almost all versions of Internet Explorer have serious security problems (go here for a full list), causing users to have their private information stolen.

Please make it a priority to update your browser to FireFox now, it will

* make your Internet usage more secure
* let you surf the web faster
* even make money for you as member of Radiux

This will only take a few Minutes, so please update your browser now.

Best wishes,
Emily
Radiux Customer Service

P.S. Make sure to forward this message to a friend!

_{This Message was sent to our member (XXX@XXXXXXXX.com)
If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please disregard. Thank you.}

Now, I did join Radiux a while back, so it makes me wonder a bit more on if this e-mail is legit, so I have gone and registered with their forum so I can make an inquiry on that. The trouble here is, the links on the e-mail.

I’m sure you fellow Firefox fans out there noticed that I made a typo on my first mention, the same typo that is in the e-mail. I wrote FireFox, not Firefox. When I checked the links in the thing they all wanted to send me to a website called fireknox …. woah, wait - fireknox? I don’t think so dudes! I’m not even going to look up Fireknox and see what it is, because sounds to me like someone with a grudge against Raduix has started targeting people. I’ll let you know what I find out from their forums later on about rather or not this is a legitimate e-mail, but for now, I am classifying it in the category of very suspicious probable scam that likely leads to a virus planting website. I’m not going there.

Besides, I already use Firefox, have used it for years, so have no interest in following their link to update anyway.

For those who want a legitimate link for where to update Firefox you can find it at the Mozilla website at: www.mozilla.com/firefox.

I checked my e-mail today after a week of feeling bad and was not at all surprised to find a Hallmark e-card in there. Of course, I do not know anyone that would send me a Hallmark e-card, and no one has said they were sending me one, so… easy to spot as a scam even before you see the sender is some admin at xs.ac92 dot com website.

(click to see full size image)

These are usually the sorts of e-mails that carry along a little trojan program looking to steal your information. What ticks me off about this one is that the thing is circulating around just before Mother’s Day, which means there are a lot of senior citizens out there that are going to assume their kids sent them an e-card and open it up.

Don’t fall prey to these suckers, if you have no idea who a sender of an e-card is - *DO NOT OPEN IT*. Make it clear to everyone that you know that might send you something like that, that you will only open such things if they have told you in a separate manner that they are sending it to you. I have made it clear to all of my friends that unless they tell me over AIM (AOL’s Instant Messenger) that they have sent me an e-card or other e-mail with some sort of website link or attachment, then I will not open it, even if I recognize the sender. It’s better to miss out on a cutsey card than to have your personal financial information compromised by a scammer.