Company email abuse

[pomtzu]

Warning - this is a rant of sorts - so if you don't like rants this is not for you.
This a.m. I had an email in my in box, and not in spam. It was another internet money scam, but this time mailed by an employee (?) of a U.S. company, as I verified this. At the end of the mail it had that blurb where they say the info enclosed within is private and to delete if you are not the intended recipient, yadda-yadda-yadda, and named the company. Out of curiosity I Googled the company name, and it is a legit company with a rather large website, and listing many offices in the U.S., and 4 in the UK. They listed some general email addresses, and I compared it to the sender's email name, and saw that it genuinely was sent from one of their company computers.
So I decided to contact them and give them a heads up as to what at least one of their employees was up to. I was wanting to talk/forward mail to someone in HR, but it didn't list any email that I could forward this scam to, except for media and the like, so I called the corporate office which had a toll free number. It caught me off guard because a real person answered, and I didn't get a recording. Told her I needed to speak to someone in HR or someone else in authority (after telling her briefly why), and she connected me. Unfortunately I got a voice mail, but left my name and number and requested a call back. So far I have not heard back, but surely hope that I do. It's bad enough that we get all the scummy scams from Nigeria, and now people here in the U.S./UK are sending it out at their employer's expense??? What a bunch of lowlife scumbags!!! I'd surely like to see this person at least reprimanded for her actions, if not fired!
I believe it might have originated in one of the UK offices too, since the money amount was referenced in Euros and not dollars. Also the reply to name was not hers, but a man whose address and phone number was in Brussels, Belgium.
So does anyone think I am wrong to want it reported? It appears that this person has too much time on her hands, and is also putting a very big blemish on the company she works for, not to mention being a lowlife in general. When anything similar happened where I used to work, the offending party would be out the door before they knew what hit them. There were a couple of instances where this did happen to a couple of long time employees. One was for inappropriate email sent within the office, and another one for ordering illegal drugs from overseas on her computer, and having them delivered to the mailroom. Not too bright.....

Okay - rant over. Sorry I rambled, but this whole thing really offended my sense of decency. What the h3ll is wrong with people these days? What a bunch of common thieves - trying to make a killing at the expense of honest and hard working people, and those of us that were all of their working lives!

[Karen]

It is likely that that person did not send the email, but that his or her email address was hacked and stolen. Years ago, people got an email purporting to be from me for one of the scam things - it was not, and I never sent it, but the spammers found and used my email address as the "sender" - did you check the "blah blah blah" text - the full email content? Sometimes it will list the actual machine that sent the mail, and you can see it had nothing to do with the "sender's" email address.

[pomtzu]

It is likely that that person did not send the email, but that his or her email address was hacked and stolen. Years ago, people got an email purporting to be from me for one of the scam things - it was not, and I never sent it, but the spammers found and used my email address as the "sender" - did you check the "blah blah blah" text - the full email content? Sometimes it will list the actual machine that sent the mail, and you can see it had nothing to do with the "sender's" email address.

Yes - the machine that sent it was the same as the company name - using initials instead of spelling it all the way out. This is also how email addresses were listed in their website also, and this person's email address also.

[happylabs]

I agree with Karen. Most likely hacked or stolen email address. I understand how frustrating spam is though.

And, also, you can feel free to rant all you want. It always makes me feel better.

[Prairie Purrs]

A marketing company called Epsilon, which is used by many companies (including Citi, Chase, Walgreens, and Krogers) recently had its files hacked. Millions of names and email addresses were stolen, and an increase in spam and phishing activity is expected:

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...ecurity-breach

[Freedom]

I too think the email was hacked.

Rather than reporting it to HR, it should go to the IT department; they have a security issue.

Rant away, lord knows I do! Hee heeeeee

[pomtzu]

I just received a return call - it was from the director of their corporate internet security. They will investigate as they have had issues such as this in the past. I forwarded the email to him, and he said he would let me know the outcome.

[Taz_Zoee]

What tells me it is a hacked email address is that the reply to email is different than the email that sent it.
I get emails here at my work and it looks like it was sent from a previous employee with the company email address. But when you open the email the email address next to the name is not the same.

But at least they can look into it and maybe figure out what's going on and get it fixed.

[pomtzu]

What tells me it is a hacked email address is that the reply to email is different than the email that sent it.
I get emails here at my work and it looks like it was sent from a previous employee with the company email address. But when you open the email the email address next to the name is not the same.

But at least they can look into it and maybe figure out what's going on and get it fixed.

Yup - I know what you're saying - but the reply to was typed into the body of the email - not in the sender's email address. Her name and her email address matched and supported the fact (?) that it was the company's, just as the "mailed by" line did. That's what made me think in the first place that it wasn't hacked.

Who knows??? - I'll let their security sort it out since I'm no computer guru! I'll let you know what I find out.

[kokopup]

I just got an email today from Best Buy warning me of a security breach with the company Epsilon that handles all of their internet dealing. They were trying to convince me that ONLY my email address was compromised and not my credit card info. I was warned to be extra watchful of my emails.

I keep getting emails from my sister that she did not send. These emails have a link that sends you to a porn site. I have gotten to the point that I recognize a phony message by the title of the Email. I just delete them now.

[pomtzu]

I just got an email today from Best Buy warning me of a security breach with the company Epsilon that handles all of their internet dealing. They were trying to convince me that ONLY my email address was compromised and not my credit card info. I was warned to be extra watchful of my emails.

My son also got warnings from Best Buy, Citi, and Chase. I have an account with Chase, but never received anything from them - only from Walgreens. I found that rather strange.

[Grace]

I just got an email today from Best Buy warning me of a security breach with the company Epsilon that handles all of their internet dealing. They were trying to convince me that ONLY my email address was compromised and not my credit card info. I was warned to be extra watchful of my emails.

I got one like this yesterday from Ethan Allen. And I know it is only my email address as we did not charge what we bought from them.

[pomtzu]

The notice I received from Walgreens said that only email files were breached, and that no personal data is contained in those files.

I guess I believe them..........

[Karen]

I keep getting emails from my sister that she did not send. These emails have a link that sends you to a porn site. I have gotten to the point that I recognize a phony message by the title of the Email. I just delete them now.

Your sister needs to notify her ISP about this, while she still has access to her account, as she's being used by a spammer.

[Grace]

I received another email yesterday about this Epsilon thing. This email came from TIAA-CREF which is where my pension comes from. I called them today - to verify the email came from them. It did, and I was reassured that none of my financial info would have been involved - just name and email address. And even that may not have been accessed.

Congress is looking into this - Epsilon