Chain Letters used to be very common as physical letters , in the days before home computing. These do still exist but almost all chain letters these days are by email.

We’ve all received email chain letters – urgent messages that warn us of computer viruses, social media fraud, money making opportunities, urgent charity requests etc. Typically, these emails will exhort you to add your name and forward them to other people – DO NOT. Press the Delete button instead.

Some chain letters can be amusing, but others may contain security threats – viruses or phishing attempts etc.

In recent years, they have appeared on social media as well. Some are carefully crafted and similar to the physical letters but some are very different, consisting of just a few lines directly pitching “Money for Nothing” schemes unashamedly. It is surprising that people fall for these such obvious frauds but some do.  Unfortunately people are so used on social media to just retweeting or reposting without thought that these frauds can circulate quickly.

There are 5 main categories of chain letter:-

1. A sick child story. A story about how the child needs expensive treatment that the parents cannot afford. The message asks you to donate and to pass on the message so more people can donate.
2. Fake warnings e.g. that Facebook accounts can all be hacked within seconds or that a new virus is spreading or that an email with a specified title can wipe out all of your files etc.
3. Big money. A promise of a large financial reward if you take a list of specified steps. This is backed up by a celebrity name e.g. Bill Gates recommends this or Beyonce swears by this etc. Sign up and also your friends but only if you act fast. Always fake.
4. Petitions, which can be for something obvious such as ban all whaling or can be something very specific. In any case, the idea is to get your name and address which can then be used for a variety of fraudulent purposes.
5. These used to be very common but less so nowadays. The idea is to threaten bad luck if you don’t pass on the message.

Never forward any message you are unsure about.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

Scammers send out huge volumes of emails containing malware attachments and they try to get the recipients to open those attachments. Some of these contain programming code which activates as the file is opened, so this can be dangerous

You can avoid attachments that are actually programmes, but spreadsheets are very useful for financial documents e.g. invoices and statements.

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets usually have the file extension .xls but ones that contain macros are usually .xlsm

Macros are Excel programming code and can contain malware so you need to be beware of these.

e.g. an email claiming to be from Bank of America with a confirmation notice in the format of a spreadsheet with macros i.e. .xlsm format.

Some email systems will automatically turn off automatic macro activation and some anti malware services will do this, but best to be sure by not opening the attached file, however much you may want to know what’s in it.

One particularly nasty phishing campaign used spreadsheets with macros to install a remote access trojan  on the computer’s system. This trojan is known as Grace Wire or Flawed Grace.

That software then steals information from the system and sends it back to the scammer. The attachment also contained malware downloaders that install Dridex and Trick banking trojans.

Do not open attached files unless you are certain they are safe.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.