[Magdalen] can't open photo attached to email...

Sibyl Smirl polycarpa3 at ckt.net
Wed Nov 23 16:23:09 UTC 2016


On 11/22/16 9:21 PM, Lynn Ronkainen wrote:
> I have received an email with a photo (jpg) attached - It is from a safe
> source.  When I open the email
> the attachment appears below the subject line and then,  below the text,
> a small black square with
> an X in it appears centered in the email. Can't save the jpg, can't open
> it, can't forward it.
>
> What's up? Any suggestions?

My suggestion is that you delete it fast, then get in touch by telephone 
with the "source" that it looked like it came from and ask about it. 
Even if your "From" column said that that's where it was from, it 
probably wasn't.  I've got a plague of these, sometimes a dozen in a 
day, probably a plague because I've asked to be disconnected from my ISP 
filters: they were too unreliable, and frequently deleted real e-mails 
from real people important to me.  So I do a lot of deleting.  I think 
these things are viruses or other malware, and I know they don't come 
from the places that the "From" line says that they do: they're master 
spoofers.  Some of them say that they're from my ISP itself, about 
various important matters, and that one's very easy to check on the 
telephone with my helpdesk. Others say that they came from some person 
or company I never heard of. The attachments usually have .zip 
extensions, but .jpeg is very common.  The body of the e-mail might be 
blank, or might say anything, such as that I owe them a lot of money, 
and the invoice is attached, or that they're transferring a lot of money 
to me, and the papers relating to it is attached, or they're a tax 
statement that I definitely don't owe (I owe taxes to AUSTRALIA??!) or 
something.  Anything to get me to open that attachment: they're 
amazingly creative.  None of them know my name: if they did, they'd use 
it, but if there's something in the body in plain text or html, 
supposedly personal, it says "Dear polycarpa3."  It's no good trying to 
reply to them by e-mail: attempted replies just bounce or disappear. 
Since you've already tried to open it, better get someone to check you 
out for malware.


-- 
Sibyl Smirl
I will take no bull from your house!  Psalms 50:9a
mailto:polycarpa3 at ckt.net


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