Never open attachments from a dubious source! You may have heard this a thousand times before, but it’s better to repeat it over and over again than to risk having your computer infected because of carelessness or ignorance. Such an attachment from an unknown source can contain literally anything, and in most cases it’s not going to be a good thing: from a virus that completely disables your computer to a rootkit that attacks your system.
What can I do?
Pay attention! Check what email address is sending you the attachment, and it’s better not to open it if you’re not sure. A new phishing email has been circulating recently among the Gmail users. The email contains what seems to be an attachment, but it is in fact an embedded image. If you click the image, you will be taken to a fake page that asks you to sign in with Google.
From this point on, it’s piece of cake to get all the information the hackers need. They can get your password if you enter it, with which they can log in to your account.
How to Spot the Scam
If you don’t want to be a victim of this scam, learn to recognize the signs. First of all, the attachment is in fact an image, and if you have a high resolution screen, you will see that the quality of the image is pretty bad. After that, if you still clicked on it, the address of the page is not a HTTPS secure connection, as it would be on a normal Google login page, but a “data.text/html” one. As such, remember to always pay attention to any attachment you download. Even the ones from a trustworthy source may be infected, if the account is hacked!
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