virgin media email again

[meles]

We've been with NTL/Virgin for 10 years. Generally they're not bad (OK - not a huge recommendation!) They work well for most of the time. About once a year we get a huge breakdown with no e-mail/TV/etc for 12 hours.

I can live with that. We even remember what it's like to talk to each other! 

meles

[Calverley Lad]

The problem was reported as being out of the control of Virgin.
The attack was on the company supplying the service,'Tucows'.
This only effected service via telephone line, not via cable.
 Brian
(Happy user of Virgin services)

[Guy Etchells]

I don't normally post such warnings but due to the failure of virgin emails I am making an exception.

There is a fraudulent  email circulating stating -

"Dear Account User,

This Mail is from Virgin Webmail and we are sending it to every Virgin User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of webmail accounts so we are shutting down some  accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.We are sending you this Mail to so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account.If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name,password,date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Virgin Webmail users, There will be removal of all unused Accounts, Virgin would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* User name:...............................
* Password: ...............................
* Date of Birth: ..........................
* Country Or Territory: ...................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Sincerely.
Virgin Webmail ! Account Service.
Customer Care"

This does not come from virgin do not reply to it
Cheers
Guy

 

[downside]

Thanks Guy - although I am somewhat confused, when did you receive that email?

I was led to believe that this was a massive spam attack but it looks like it was a phising attack instead.  Phising is fraudulent whereas spam is normally an annoyance, so there is a major difference.  They have listed some examples here:

http://www.virginmedia.com/customers/servicestatus/phishing-email.php

[RJ_Paton]

The initial attack was spam based ...... these latest emails are attempting to take advantage of the outage. The originators of these must read or watch the news as they appear to keep up with current events in the approach they take

[Guy Etchells]

Thanks Guy - although I am somewhat confused, when did you receive that email?

This morning.
Cheers
Guy

[jukebox]

Re:  Phising:

Am I at risk from this, I have Norton on my computer but experienced problems with virgin as reported in message on previous page.  The virgin webmail page kept asking for my password, also Outlook  Express kept throwing up a message that my password wasn't recognised when it tried to download my messages from Virgin.

I am the first user on the account, but I was able to access my husbands emails both via Virgin webmail and also by downloading to Outlook Express.

Jukebox

[downside]

Re:  Phising:

Am I at risk from this

Yes and Norton probably won't protect you either.

Phising (or fishing as it is pronnounced) is an email scam in which someone pretends that they represent a company like a bank and asks you to enter your account number and password on the security page of a fake website.

Your main protection is common sense.  No legitimate organisation will send you an email asking you to enter your account details as your password is secret even from them.  If you forget your password then they can reset it - which means removing your old one and then they will give you a new temporary one which you should change immediately.

[jukebox]

Phising (or fishing as it is pronnounced) is an email scam in which someone pretends that they represent a company like a bank and asks you to enter your account number and password on the security page of a fake website.

I wouldn't give details via an email, it was just the fact that my password wasn't recognised to access my emails that worried me.

Thanks anyway

jukebox