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davidinva

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I have received a couple of email messages recently from Verizon (my internet provider) me to change the POP and STMP port numbers for my Verizon account. Tried the changes and my email doesn't work. Today, I received a sort of official looking email purportedly from Verizon saying that they needed to verify my email and asked for my zip code and email address. This last message looks like spam to me. It's kind of sparse. I use Apple Mail. Opinions? Thanks.
 

MisterMe

macrumors G4
Jul 17, 2002
10,709
69
USA
Oh, for Heaven's Sakes. This is one of the oldest and lamest phishing schemes in the books. Do you also send money to get your friends out of Nigerian prisons?
 

davidinva

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oh, for Heaven's Sakes. This is one of the oldest and lamest phishing schemes in the books. Do you also send money to get your friends out of Nigerian prisons?

Thanks. Not really. The first two messages looked quite good, but I do get email messages from Verizon. The third was the tipoff. No information was provided. And, for my lame excuse, I just returned home from a 12 hour drive before checking today's email.
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,328
4,716
Georgia
Not sure if Mail does this. In Thunderbird I just hover my mouse over links. The bottom of Thunderbird, the status bar, will show the address of the hyperlink. If it isn't what I would expect (ie http://www.verizon.com) I look no further.

Even if it looks legitimate I never click on a link unless I am explicitly expecting a message with a link. Otherwise I manually navigate to the company and log in to check whatever account status they are talking about. So that I can be sure I'm not being tricked.
 

DarkoDonnie

macrumors member
Jun 18, 2013
78
3
note: do not judge official-ness by the looks of an email. it's getting eaiser and eaiser for amatures to make perfect looking emails. rule of thumb: do not take action (click a link) from an email unless you specifically requested it (like signing up and verifying your email).
 

eXan

macrumors 601
Jan 10, 2005
4,731
63
Russia
Not sure if Mail does this. In Thunderbird I just hover my mouse over links. The bottom of Thunderbird, the status bar, will show the address of the hyperlink. If it isn't what I would expect (ie http://www.verizon.com) I look no further.

Even if it looks legitimate I never click on a link unless I am explicitly expecting a message with a link. Otherwise I manually navigate to the company and log in to check whatever account status they are talking about. So that I can be sure I'm not being tricked.

Apple Mail does show addresses if you hover the cursor over links, or if you (like me) don't want to wait for it to appear, just try to drag the link and it will show the URL.

I do agree that scammers are getting a bit better, but it's still very easy for me tell legit or not. Maybe its my extensive experience =). I can see how they could trick my grandpa though (and they did).
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
I have received a couple of email messages recently from Verizon (my internet provider) me to change the POP and STMP port numbers for my Verizon account. Tried the changes and my email doesn't work. Today, I received a sort of official looking email purportedly from Verizon saying that they needed to verify my email and asked for my zip code and email address. This last message looks like spam to me. It's kind of sparse. I use Apple Mail. Opinions? Thanks.

Never click on links from emails asking to input / change data.

Always go to company website to confirm email contents.
 

960design

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2012
3,691
1,548
Destin, FL
The bad guys are indeed getting trickey.

Rule 1: Don't send/change/reply to any email that you didn't specifically request.
 
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