My daughter has had an odd email - What's this all about?

Feek · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:18

What's this all about?

Hi, [her name was here]

I am disturbing you for a very critical occasion. Allhough you don't know me, but I have a lot of personal info on you. The matter is that, most probably mistakenly, the info about your account has been sent to me.
For instance, your address is:
[her full address, including postcode is here]

I am a law-obedient citizen, so I decided to personal information may have been hacked. I attached the file - [file attached, surname.dot] that I received, that you could view what info has become reachable for attackers. File password is - 5164

I look forward to hearing from you,
[There was a name here]

Obviously I've not opened the attachment (running a Mac without any instance of Microsoft Word so not sure I can even open a .dot file anyway). The email came from an @cekirgekalp.com address.

Clearly suspicious but naturally a little concerned that someone's got her name, email address and postal address. Googling her name doesn't bring up her address anywhere that I can see.

Caged · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:19

Data is from a dump, and the file has some dodgy macro inside it.

Begbie · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:20

Do you have a standalone machine of some sort you could use to put the file on?

Feek · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:23

Begbie said:
Do you have a standalone machine of some sort you could use to put the file on?

Hmm, I can throw a hard drive in an old laptop and slap Windows on but I don't think I've got Office kicking around anywhere to open the .dot file.

Brizzles · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:24

From Brazil ?

G-MAN2004 · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:25

Feek said:
Hmm, I can throw a hard drive in an old laptop and slap Windows on but I don't think I've got Office kicking around anywhere to open the .dot file.

Just download a trial.

Begbie · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:29

Feek said:
Hmm, I can throw a hard drive in an old laptop and slap Windows on but I don't think I've got Office kicking around anywhere to open the .dot file.

OpenOffice

Efour · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:30

Just delete it and get on with life

dymetrie · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:32

Is she with TalkTalk?

Could be a new angle on exploiting the breaches last year and this year.

Additionally, it wasn't me

Feek · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:32

@Efour, normally I would but this one is a bit odd. It's sent to an unusual email address (not something that anyone would guess) and her details are correct. I'm more concerned as to where the info has come from than anything else.

/edit @dymetrie No, she's not with TalkTalk.

edscdk · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:33

Begbie said:
Do you have a standalone machine of some sort you could use to put the file on?

No delete the email with attachment, if op has to ask the question he is likely to infect the standalone pc with something then accidently transfer it to another computer

Feek · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:36

Begbie said:
Do you have a standalone machine of some sort you could use to put the file on?

edscdk said:
No delete the email with attachment, if op has to ask the question he is likely to infect the standalone pc with something then accidently transfer it to another computer

Thanks for the vote of confidence :rolleyes:

paradigm · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:39

Just get a VM set up on your Mac, install OpenOffice or LibraOffice, open in there if you really want to see what the file is (or just open it in a text editor like notepad++, should still be able to glean some text from it).

I'd probably just delete it and make her change all of her account passwords on her internet services. Clearly she's been on some hacked database somewhere.

Landy · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:42

I was just coming on here to say that i have had the exact same email, but obviously with my details Email address it was from is [email protected] though so thats different

Feek · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:44

@Landy, that's interesting - Did it have your full postal address as well? Wording exactly the same?

Landy · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:46

Exactly the same including the mistakes, and yeah its my postal address, bit concerning to be prefectly honest.

FloppyPoppy · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:48

Sounds like the beginning of a Taken movie.

Phone them up?

Edit : Above seeing as Landy also has the same email it will probably be worth trying to compare to see whats the same. Probably an ISP or phone company. EE give my number and details to everyone on the damn planet.

Landy · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:53

Well funny you should say about EE, i've just transferred to them from T Mobile, isp and phone is BT, bank Santander, is it worth firing off a report to action fraud or is it not worth their time ?

holymonk · 28 Mar 2017 at 20:55

Shes been staring in amateur pornos

Angilion · 28 Mar 2017 at 21:12

Feek said:
@Efour, normally I would but this one is a bit odd. It's sent to an unusual email address (not something that anyone would guess) and her details are correct. I'm more concerned as to where the info has come from than anything else.

I'd be surprised if opening a suspicious attachment would tell you where the info has come from.