Help! I fell for a Phishing Scam! What should I do?

Ok, so this week at college we've been warned about phishing scam emails, however as we were learning about them I realised that I had fallen for one about 3 months ago.

Basically the email address was someone from work who I didn't know personally (it was the companies work address) and it was classed as an Urgent message.

There was just a link in the message saying 'Sent on behalf on DocuSign. I clicked on the link (which I now realise has a spelling mistake) and I can't remember what happened next but the computer wouldn't let me fully download the document for some reason. (Thank god, it didn't let me).

I don't remember entering any sensitive data, i.e. usernames or passwords at any point when this happened.

I replied to this person asking me if they can resend the document in a different format.

I did my research and it has become pretty obvious to me that the email was mostly definitely a phishing email.
However this was more than 3 months ago and I haven't had an suspicious activity since then.

Is it OK because the document wasn't able to be fully download? What should I do?

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Anonymous

I replied to this person asking me if they can resend the document in a different format.

* Sorry, I got my words muddled... I replied to this person asking them if they can resend me the document in a different format.

Reply 2

Doones

21

Original post by Anonymous

Ok, so this week at college we've been warned about phishing scam emails, however as we were learning about them I realised that I had fallen for one about 3 months ago.

Basically the email address was someone from work who I didn't know personally (it was the companies work address) and it was classed as an Urgent message.

There was just a link in the message saying 'Sent on behalf on DocuSign. I clicked on the link (which I now realise has a spelling mistake) and I can't remember what happened next but the computer wouldn't let me fully download the document for some reason. (Thank god, it didn't let me).

I don't remember entering any sensitive data, i.e. usernames or passwords at any point when this happened.

I replied to this person asking me if they can resend the document in a different format.

I did my research and it has become pretty obvious to me that the email was mostly definitely a phishing email.
However this was more than 3 months ago and I haven't had an suspicious activity since then.

Is it OK because the document wasn't able to be fully download? What should I do?

Run an antivirus/trojan check on your PC.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 3

LuigiMario

19

Original post by Anonymous

I did my research and it has become pretty obvious to me that the email was mostly definitely a phishing email.
However this was more than 3 months ago and I haven't had an suspicious activity since then.

Is it OK because the document wasn't able to be fully download? What should I do?

Hi, I worked for a while on internet security, ended up (almost) only using an fully updated iPad for anything on the internet.

Phishing links in an email can, in the worst case, lead to a polymorphic attack website (presents different appearence to different users) which features a profiling probe, then can 'drop' a carefully chosen background malware into your device. This malware can nowadays sometimes install then hibernate, whilst remaining in covert contact with its server, waiting until you browse to a bank website, or enter credit card details etc - these can be then whisked off and used illegally.

There are many silent virus installs that wake up when someone tries to buy a house, then changes slightly the email address of the professionals involved, so big sums can go missing from apparently uninfected systems. A friend lost £17000 through this phishing, but got it back eventually after about a year of polite but firm demands to the banks.

If instead it was a 'poisoned' pdf or .doc, then you might be OK, not having downloaded the full vector. If it was phishing, and you did contact the spammer, then your details will/might be sold on the black market for a tenner to other crims, so watch out for future attacks, Some malware laden email is now passing DMARC & DKIM email checks, so, yes - be very careful!

I suggest a few things,
a) talk to your college ICT dept and ask them for help,
b) update your OS & apps,
c) check your email identity on websites similar to https://haveibeenpwned.com/ just in case someone has snarfled your personal stuff and started to sell it, throw it at PasteBin. etc (you don't need to buy anything from HIBPwned - they used to give more info, but at least it's easy to check your email id)
d) back your important files up to a portable hard disk or DVDs etc, and store it approximately sixty metres away from your computer (data from insurance companies) I have seen a friend delete his doctoral thesis, accidentally, once.

Anti-Virus solutions don't always find the latest ransomware, but the built-in Win10 defender & macOS Gatekeeper/IPS are worth using. BitDefender (free trial) found some (windows) malware on my mac, that was a surprise, as I'm usually very careful. Other solutions are available, and if you have a suspicious document, or a bit of one, upload it to https://www.virustotal.com/en/ (owned by Google) and check it with 65 different antivirus products!
this website is also great for checking links before clicking, and needless to say, you should unfortunately only use "boring" email , with plaintext ON, and remote images OFF, html OFF, for maximum security.

have fun, dont panic!

Help! I fell for a Phishing Scam! What should I do?

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