About Spam Email
In recent months a number of people have reported receiving spam email that appears to come from addresses associated with FMCO. The message often includes an attachment or a link described as an invoice, and probably contains malicious code. If you receive such a message, DON’T click on the link or open the attachment!
Please be assured that these messages wer
e not sent by FMCO, and we are confident our email accounts have not been hijacked. The names in the “from” field and the email addresses shown there are both spoofed and have nothing to do with the actual sender of the message. The spammer hopes that the email will appear to come from a name you recognize and that this will fool you into clicking on the link.
Spoofing a fraudulent “from” address on an email is as easy as forging a false return address in the upper left corner of a piece of U.S. mail. The spoofed “from” names and addresses, as well as the addresses to which the spam messages were sent, might have come from an infected computer or mobile device that had those names in their contacts list. The messages were probably sent from yet another infected computer belonging to an unrelated innocent third party.
Unfortunately, there’s no way for FMCO to discover the source of the fraudulent messages and prevent future occurences. We strongly encourage all our board members, players, fans, and associates to make sure your computers are not vulnerable to malware. Please use common-sense measures to protect yourself and to ensure that you don’t enable malware to spread by operating an infected or vulnerable computer.
- DO make sure your computer and mobile devices have installed all available updates for your operating system and programs.
- DO use a modern, up-to-date web browser, and make sure your browser extensions and add-ons are all updated.
- DO install and run one of the major antivirus programs and keep it updated.
- DO use an email program that has a spam filter.
- DON’T click on links or open attachments that look suspicious, even if they appear to come from someone you know, especially if they’re unexpected and unexplained. Instead, contact the apparent sender and ask them to confirm or explain. Use a fresh message to contact them; don’t just click “reply” on the message you received, because the address you reply to might not be the person’s true address.
- DON’T make a habit of sending your friends links or attachments with no explanation.
Spam from your friends: hacked and spoofed email by Rich Pasco
How Spammers Spoof Your Email Address (And How to Protect Yourself) from Lifehacker.com
Email Spoofing in Wikipedia
Am I being spoofed or has my email been compromised in Hover.com’s help files