The Email May Not Be From Your Friend

I recently received an email from a friend with a link attached for a questionable website and in the Subject line was the name of an unfamiliar person.

I thought it odd my friend had not begun the email with a shout out to me and an introduction to the body of the email.  We had not been engaged in an ongoing conversation recently therefore in my opinion I expected a lead in as to the purpose of the email. The body of the message included only the link to a website and at the bottom, an address signature block which included her first and last name, her business address and phone.   I checked the email address of the sender for this email I had just received against the one I have on file in my address book and it matched character for character.  Still I was suspicious.

Well, I was smart to be cautious, in fact what I did in questioning the peculiarity of the email was to create a whole new email addressed to my friend asking her why she sent me the link.  She in turn responded by telling me that she had not sent the email or the bogus link.  She has been the target of email identity theft.  Someone has been able to access her email name, password and address book of the people she communicates with via email.

Sad isn't it that you have to keep your radar up for everything, all the time, unable to trust a simple email note from a friend.  I have friends who send me cryptic email messages all the time which I laugh at; now I'll have to peruse them more carefully. AAAGGGHHH, from time to time I enjoy sending my own clever versions of emails that cause the recipient to stop, re-read and ask out loud WHAT?

So folks, if you receive an email and it has a funny ring to it when you read it, doesn't flow quite right or just seems a bit odd, my suggestion is to question it and don't open any links or attachments that arrived with the email.  Whether you decide to contact the person by email, phone or hand written letter (yeah I like throwing that one in, it's my favorite), by all means contact them as they may be the victim of email identity theft.  I probably should have called her instead of sending her an email, but at the time I didn't know the situation.  After all the thief may have figured out how to receive and respond to her emails as well.

Oooooooo this is creepy.