This is as good a place as any to post the following clip from an email that I sent to most of my contact list in order to alert them to the possibility of a fraudulent email:
I received an email from a third party announcing that a friend of mine had sent me a video, and provided the link to retrieve it. Because I trust my friend, I clicked on the link and watched an amusing video that pasted my name into a number of headlines, signs, and other places as the video proceeded. The video was apparently a joke, and the point of the joke was that [my name] was responsible for Obama losing the election.
As I have no problem with that, I laughed pretty hard, but when I replied to my friend he said he did not send the video. I then looked into it a little further and found that the email address associated with his name was actually the address of somebody or something else. That somebody or something else is bounces@list.moveon.org. Further search seems to point to moveon.org as the originator, but I cannot say whether that is true. In either case, I do not approve of the originator.
So if you see anything like the following in an email, please delete the email. I did not send it to you, and I do not approve of it.
And please do not click on the link. I have suffered no ill effects so far, but I am looking into ways I can lodge a complaint.
Dear [your name],
Your friend [my name] sent you the following video from CNNBC: "Obama's Loss Traced To [your name]"
Watch it here:
cnnbcvideo.com[and additional characters leading to the video, which I edited out to protect you]
It is entirely possible that the email was originated as a genuine and well-intended joke from one of my friends. The fact that it was NOT from the friend that is purported to be really freaked me out, and that's why I'm posting this here. |
