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Do Not Feed the Phish

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage BS.0144545

There has been a recent wave of phishing attacks that try to trick you into opening "secure documents". If you receive an email that looks like it is a DocuSign, EchoSign or Secure Adobe PDF notification with an important document attached that needs to be looked at.

My company has recently experienced this, but we caught it in time before anything major occurred. I really urge you to be careful what you are clicking on and make sure it is legit before you click. 

The bad guys try to trick you into opening and clicking the attachments, and "enable macros" or "enable editing" but when you do, your workstation gets infected with malware or ransomware.

In some instances, the attachments will not contain viruses, allowing it to bypass the anti-virus software.  However, the attachments will contain dangerous links that will open in your web browser and attempt to download the malicious programs.

If you receive this type of email, (which you did not ask for) and/or it's from someone you do not know, be very cautious.  My recommendation is to just delete the email.  If it looks like it comes from someone you do know, pick up the phone and call the person to verify, but use a number you know and not a phone number from the suspicious email itself. 

The link below is to a blog called KnowBe4.com.  It describes in great detail what to lookout.

https://blog.knowbe4.com/scam-of-the-week-secure-document-phishing-attacks-trap-employees

Stay Safe!

-Shawn

Cheryl Dukes . . . . . Intown Atlanta
Guaranteed Offer for your Home - eXp realty - Atlanta, GA

Thanks for this very important warning. I received an email just today from someone trying to pretend they were Docusign.

Mar 23, 2017 04:21 PM
Les & Sarah Oswald
Realty One Group - Eastvale, CA
Broker, Realtor and Investor

Thanks for the alert and warning. One can't be too cautious these days.

Mar 23, 2017 04:57 PM
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

    Today's emails:  CitiBank is closing my account.  ConEdison is having problems with my meter.  And FedEx can't deliver my package.

     The common thread:  I don't have an account at Citi, ConEdison is nowhere near here, and I am not expecting anything from FedEx!

Mar 23, 2017 06:20 PM
Ed Silva, 203-206-0754
Mapleridge Realty, CT 203-206-0754 - Waterbury, CT
Central CT Real Estate Broker Serving all equally

It is a big problem and scammers will try anything to get access to computers in order to steal

Mar 23, 2017 06:59 PM
Jayne Meaut
Exit Allstar Realty - Mobile, AL
Graduate of Real Estate Institute

I've received 3 phishing emails in the past month from people contacting me through zillow premiere agent.

Mar 24, 2017 07:46 PM
Mike McCann Nebraska Land Broker
Mike McCann - Broker, Mach1 Realty Farm & Commercial Land Broker-Auctioneer Serving Nebraska - Kearney, NE
Farm & Commercial Property For Sale 308-627-3700

I feel like the perennial large mouth Bass as I am constantly receiving phishing email and calls.  My name is all over the internet and it goes with the territory. Unless I know the sender...AND...know they are sending me an attachment I ...NEVER...open the link or attachment. Even so my Avast catches stuff all the time...about 10  minutes ago in fact.   

Mar 24, 2017 07:55 PM
Dorte Engel
RE/MAX Leading Edge - Bowie, MD
ABC - Annapolis, Bowie, Crofton & rest of Maryland

Dear Shawn,

There have been some really clever ones lately. From actual agents with paperwork for a transaction, I did not recognize. Luckily, my weirdo meter came on in time before automatically opening the attachement.

Mar 24, 2017 08:17 PM
Terry McCarley
Coastal Real Estate - Cape Coral FL - Cape Coral, FL
REALTOR, SRES, CDPE - Cape Coral, FL

I have been receiving these emails on a regular basis and I reply saying our company policy doesn't allow us to open attachments from unknown sources.  I then request they call me and they simply vanish

Mar 25, 2017 04:02 AM
John Wiley
Fort Myers, FL
Lee County, FL, ECO Broker, GRI, SRES,GREEN,PSA

My broker has been hacked several times and we get emails that say, there is some problem with out closing docs that we need to address now.

Thanks for the warning.

Mar 25, 2017 09:06 AM
Sandra Paulow
Aspen Properties, Inc. - Pinetop Lakeside, AZ
REALTOR, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR

Watch for a Mozilla Firefox update pop up too.  It is a trojen horse. 

Mar 25, 2017 11:28 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

They just keep coming - so we need to just keep refusing to open or click links. Love your graphic!

Mar 25, 2017 08:13 PM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Unfortunately these are pretty common but I never open any attachments unless I know the person. BUT sometimes people get hacked and I get an email from them - no content, just "though you woudl like this," etc. Same issue - don't open

Mar 27, 2017 07:38 AM
Anonymous
Big option scam

Thanks for posting
Big option scam

May 22, 2020 10:35 PM
#13
Anonymous
Adrian Willson

Good Info Morgan Financial Recovery, in order to save yourself from such Money Wire Transfer Scam , advise you to first deposit the check and then only reimburse the amount into the buyer’s or sellers’ account.

May 25, 2020 10:32 PM
#14