[Anonymous]

[SergeantMajor]

I had an email purporting to be from BA, but with a .zipfile attached.

Seem to be a few doing the rounds as others mentioned they had received similar this morning, too.

Sender is: <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected]

Heading was: Your Order #70391830 / 25 feb 2014

Do not open!

[nmh1204]

Just so everyone knows – BA tweeted that these are fake yesterday

For anyone in doubt to the authenticity of any email, not just from BA:

One way to tell it is fake is no real company uses CustSrvcs in an email address.

Secondly, if it has .zip files, they normally are viruses of some sort. A real company will never send something in a .zip file, it will generally be a .pdf or .doc file (or .docx for the newer versions of Office)

[MartynSinclair]

I had a very convincing email from companies house yesterday – something though didn’t look right..

put the heading into google and there was a website dedicated to this kind of mail…

The other clue on the BA mail is the “order number” – flight bookings generally come with a locator ID..

[valbtab]

Thanks for the pointers about zip files and senders address, etc. That’s very useful. Yes, I had a suspicious email purporting to be from BA this morning. But not sure if it’s because we are business travel agents that I quickly received a follow up email from them with a message confirming these are spam messages, etc. and they were investigating, etc.

valbtab
http://www.btab.co.uk

[conshaldow]

I’ve had a few clients who have received these (not just from BA) over the last few weeks. Any suspect emails should be passed onto the airline for investigation and hopefully no damage come of it.

Here is the response BA sent out via a Trade Support email earlier today…

“A number of customers have received emails with the subject line of ‘Your Order #83902919 / 24 Feb 2014’ even though they have no booking with us.

The booking reference in the email is not valid and the email does not show any flight details.

These emails are not from British Airways and customers should not reply to them.

Customers should delete the email and be assured that no data has been breeched.

This issue is being investigated by our IT service centre.

Regards,
British Airways.”

[skywards]

I received a fake American Airlines email last year regarding a booking that also had a .zip file attached…I don’t fly with A.A. and it was in my junk mail so I knew it was fake.

[heathrowflyer]

Over the years I’ve seen a couple of fake bank websites. They look completely realistic – beware – just one letter was off in the URL.

[MartynSinclair]

“Customers should delete the email and be assured that no data has been breeched”.

the term “be assured” – is that BA assuring clients that no data has been breeched, OR BA suggesting the owner of the computer assured themselves no data has been breeched.

If it is the latter, how do you check? How can anyone know if “data has been breeched”??

[skywards]

heathrowflyer. I’ve had the bank ones as well asking me to update my details…but the worst one I’ve heard of is not an email scam but a live call scam which goes something like this…People are being phoned to be told that it looks like fraudulent activity could be taking place on your bank account so a few recent transactions need to be looked at…the fake fraud department bank worker then asks you to answer some security questions which you always pass…to make it look real…at that point he/she asks you to give your bank account details over and advises to reset your passwords which can be done over the phone to save you time, being the caring bank official he/she also places a temporary hold on your account so no transactions can take place…suddenly the systems goes down so the fake fraud on your account can not be looked at…the fake bank official then advises you that he/she will contact you when the systems start working again at the same time putting your mind at ease because of that temporary hold placed on your bank account. The next day you find out that your bank account has been cleaned out!.

[BigDog.]

Scam emails usually (though not always) do not use your name. Anything starting Dear Customer or similar is usually a scam.

Drifting slightly – also avoid telephone calls claiming to be from Microsoft and alerting you to problems with your computer. They ask you to install ammyy.com so they can fix it – don’t, the program will allow access to everything held on your computer- it is a scam.

[conshaldow]

One of my clients last week had a very realistic looking email that included…

His name, date of travel, actual route of travel, mileage membership info as well as having correct information relevant to the airline (i.e. airline email address looked realistic).

As BigDog says it usually states “Dear customer” and such but on this occasion the scam email was very informed. Thankfully on this occasion my client informed me of this and we were able to inform them not to action.

Scary to think where this information was obtained and if this will be a growing trend in the future. My advice is never presume, always scrutinize!

[ImissConcorde]

I knew that email from H.M.R.C was a scam as it was signed “Our best regards”!!!!

[Author]

Posts