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Post by Raymond on Jun 7, 2007 16:07:51 GMT
Hi all,
Yesterday, I received an email from something called Umusic. In the email, it said they have my email address because 'This may have been collected from a concert, on one of our artist websites, through a competition outside a theatre, or a reply slip from one of our releases.'
The email said they want an update of my details and asked me to click a link and update my details. I originally thought it is really from Universal Music. However, I suddenly noticed and remembered that I never give this email address to Universal Music. I didn't click the link. I went to check the sender address and found that it was not from Universal. It is a strange address.
In order to get your details, this email looks like a real one as it has many pictures of Universal artists including All Angels, Katherine Jenkins etc... It said if you update your details, you may get the chance to meet them or get other prizes.
Please don't reply or update your details if you get this email.
Raymond
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Post by gordon on Jun 7, 2007 16:24:26 GMT
Hi Raymond,
Yesterday I received this email myself and thought it was a bit strange. I took no action and thanks to you have now deleted it.
Gordon
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Post by roger on Jun 7, 2007 16:35:39 GMT
Thanks very much, Raymond. I received the email too and chose to ignore it.
Roger
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 7, 2007 17:11:49 GMT
Yes indeed everyone. if Universal Music (also known as UMusic and of which Decca is part) are daft enough to send out such emails, they should not be surprised to find them ignored. However, it *may* be genuine as I know Universal use vvhp.net (Vice Versa Hosting Platform) for marketing pushes and forums. The domain is vvhp.net; the subdomain is zaphod.uk.vvhp.net. Myself, as always, I deleted it *almost* straight away but I have to admit, unusually for me, I did read it all first!  Does anyone have direct evidence that it is a phishing/scam email or is it just a concern that it *could* be? Because if it's genuine, we might look a bit silly if we overreact. Meanwhile, I have added a question mark to the thread title  Cheers, Dave |
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Post by Raymond on Jun 7, 2007 17:29:46 GMT
Does anyone have direct evidence that it is a phishing/scam email or is it just a concern that it *could* be? Because if it's genuine, we might look a bit silly if we overreact. Meanwhile, I have added a question mark to the thread title Cheers, Dave Hello Dave, It is safer if we don't reply the email, ,right?  Another reason I think it is not from Universal because Hayley's pic and Hayley's name isn't included in it. As an famous singer of Universal(Decca), Hayley should be in it. As the email doesn't have Hayley, I think it is a phishing email. Raymond |
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Post by Dave on Jun 7, 2007 17:48:51 GMT
Yes indeed Raymond, it's always safer not to reply! And I rarely do... however, we need to take care to differentiate between phishing emails and annoying but genuine marketing emails from reputable Companies. The reply address on the UMusic email I received is: zaphod.uk.vvhp.net/quest/scripts/qtemplate.pl?questid= ...(I chopped off the ending so clicking on it won't work ) The address of Hayley's official forum is: bb02.sov.uk.vvhp.net/hayleywestenra/YaBB.plIn both cases, the main domain name is vvhp.net. They also knew my home address post code and my date of birth. Here is part of the questionnaire: I think it's just a typical email update questionnaire/prize draw... annoying if you don't like that sort of thing but otherwise genuine and originating from Universal's marketing people. They didn't ask me for my credit card number, any passwords, or anything like that. Members must, however, make up their own minds about it what they received... which may be different.But I probably wont be replying to it it's currently sat in my "Deleted" box Cheers, Dave |
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Post by grant on Jun 7, 2007 18:34:47 GMT
Interesting Raymond!
I got this Email yesterday but it came straight into my spam folder. Reputable companies NEVER ask for updated details in this way!!
I deleted it without opening and suggest anyone else who receives it do the same.
Best wishes
Grant
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Post by comet on Jun 7, 2007 21:13:35 GMT
Oh silly me ! I replied but it kept sticking on "you must enter a year" blah blah blah ! I do get e mails from Universal so I thought nothing of replying  comet |
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Post by Richard on Jun 8, 2007 8:14:54 GMT
Hello everybody!  I started filling in the questionnaire yesterday, but I decided they were asking for too much information and gave up. Whoever sent it knew my date of birth and post code, so it could well be a genuine email from Universal. Anyway, I won't be replying now, and the email can sit peacefully in my Universal Music folder, where it will soon be forgotten!  Best Wishes, Richard  |
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Post by postscript on Jun 8, 2007 14:31:08 GMT
Hi all, Yesterday, I received an email from something called Umusic. In the email, it said they have my email address because 'This may have been collected from a concert, on one of our artist websites, through a competition outside a theatre, or a reply slip from one of our releases.' The email said they want an update of my details and asked me to click a link and update my details. I originally thought it is really from Universal Music. However, I suddenly noticed and remembered that I never give this email address to Universal Music. I didn't click the link. I went to check the sender address and found that it was not from Universal. It is a strange address. In order to get your details, this email looks like a real one as it has many pictures of Universal artists including All Angels, Katherine Jenkins etc... It said if you update your details, you may get the chance to meet them or get other prizes. Please don't reply or update your details if you get this email. Raymond Thanks for this timely notice, Raymond. It is a very old trick but it does not do any harm for people to be reminded. What these tricksters rely on is that the recipient is in (or thinks he is in) an environment in which he/she is emotionally or ideologically involved and their guard is down. The worst of these is actual representation of sites but as long as you are on your guard as commonsense and don't do things 'instinctively' there is no cause for concern. I was once caught out by this on a fake amazon.com site. It was a unique situation but there was cause for amazon.co.uk to ask personal questions, odd though that may sound--we had been having technical problems between us. Suddenly, when they were asking for a US Social Security number I realised I was on amazon.com not co.uk and that this was in fact a false site. As a precaution it meant not only reporting the fake site, changing passwords but also having to change the credit card I used which happened to be my main one. I wouldn't want a timely reminder like this to panic anyone but just that, a 'timely reminder' doesn't do any harm Peter S. |
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Post by postscript on Jun 8, 2007 14:43:04 GMT
Yes indeed everyone. if Universal Music (also known as UMusic and of which Decca is part) are daft enough to send out such emails, they should not be surprised to find them ignored. Cheers, Dave The point I may not have made clear on my post on this was, was it the site it claimed to be in the first place? My interpretation is that is was a rogue site masquerading as Umusic. I had this happen to one of the web sites I run and had to get involved in complex filtering to eliminate it. It is achieved through the hosting ISP where there is an electronic tag which identifies the domain host with the domain registrant and the email source. Once this has been done, ultimately (and it takes time) all ISPs learn to relate the apparent source as bogus (it doesn't carry the electronic tag) and eliminates at source. These rogue sites are only eliminated when recipient ISPs receive sufficient complaints from customers as to block at source. Then the legitimate site learns emails aren't being accepted and starts an investigation. The problem is that this is rarely done to spam. It is done for the purpose of fraud. Peter S. |
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Post by postscript on Jun 8, 2007 14:50:20 GMT
The safest response Raymond is: - Have good security software. I won't name names as people have their own preferences and all software companies leap frog one another. I wasn't going to renew my Norton but in fact did because the upgrade package had changed, incorporating resources others already offered and providing cheap access across more than one PC.
- I always manually update before opening any access to the Internet (other than for the update), not relying on automatic updates.
- When you get a question mark, set your software to at least put future emails from that source into a holding box so you can check superficially or, as in fact I do, deny it further access ever again.
Peter S. |
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Post by Dave on Jun 8, 2007 23:02:39 GMT
Yes indeed everyone. if Universal Music (also known as UMusic and of which Decca is part) are daft enough to send out such emails, they should not be surprised to find them ignored. Cheers, Dave The point I may not have made clear on my post on this was, was it the site it claimed to be in the first place? My interpretation is that is was a rogue site masquerading as Umusic. Hi Peter, As I said in my earlier message, the return address is the web domain vvhp.net and that is used by Universal Music for much if not most of their promotional activity... including Hayley's offiicial website. So it's genuine, albeit annoying as the questionnaire is far too long. However, no sensitive personal information was requested on the email I received. The most sensitive persnal details in their email to me were: - my email address - my home post code - my date of birth. All these were provided by UMusic to me and were correct. Richard commented that they got his details correct, too. I do not believe this is a phishing email and we must be careful not to continue to suggest this without confirmation. It is an annoying but probably genuine email (well mine is) and anyone who thinks otherwise must provide the evidence or stop suggesting it or we could get in trouble with Universal. This is, however, a good thread for reminding people of the dangers. Cheers, Dave |
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Post by grant on Jun 9, 2007 0:26:49 GMT
Hi Dave and everyone
I think the problem here may lie with Universal. In the knowledge that there is so much spam around and so many viruses, worms, moles, budgies etc. they could have found a less worrying - perhaps more informative title for their Email so as not to create the scare that it has.
Maybe someone should tell Universal what has happened because this thread certainly seems to indicate that the majority of people who received it here have been very concerned by it.
Best wishes
Grant
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jun 9, 2007 0:29:51 GMT
Hi Grant,
My thoughts exactly and i have already planned to do that early next week. They need to use a more meaningful return address.
Cheers, Dave
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