Facebook: I am not on Facebook, and yet I got a message saying I asked for a password reset. (Arrgh). Help?

If it is an official message from Facebook, the e-mail address will say “Facebook.” I would not click on any links in the message.

Seems like password thieves were using random email addresses to phish for possible Facebook passwords.

Most likely you haven’t compromised anything just by opening the email, because the purpose of that email was to get you to give them your password, which you apparently didn’t do.

I once got a similar email asking for “my” Bank of America account password, even though I’ve never had an account there.

Don’t open the link!!!!. It is a Phishing attempt. Just delete!

As far as I know (this is always subject to change with technology) you don’t get in trouble, security-wise, by simply opening and reading an email. Clicking links can be a bad thing. Attachments can have viruses. Replies you make to emails can be read by others than the recipients, or may not even go to whom you intend. But reading the email? Not a problem. Not yet, anyway.

It is a phishing scam. Whoever sent it is trying to get you to give them information. You are not the only one who was hit. My university’s computer security group just sent out a warning about this one.

@LuckyGuy…and everyone, I didn’t open the link. I will delete the email.

Thanks so much for the warning….remember “landmins.com” that’s where it came from…not “facebookmail.com”...for anyone else coming up this one.

You guys rock…thanks sooooooo much. Lurve coming to all!

landmins.com will turn out to be a fake URL, too. No company will be registered under that name.

Phishing is a way of convincing you to voluntarily give up your info. Of course, you don’t have info to give up. Which is a dead giveaway.

I would doubt that phishing scams could hurt your computer or give you a virus. They work differently.

Thanks @wundayatta….I am sure if anyone else searches your answer (and the others on this topic) it will be of great help. Really appreciate that. Lurve coming.

Rules to remember:

1. No legitimate company will ever send you an unsolicited email requesting password reset or for any kind of personally identifiable information (social security number, birthday, etc.)

2. Receiving a malicious email (phishing, spam, etc.) does not automatically mean that your email account has been compromised.

3. The from: address on an email is NOT secure or verified in any way whatsoever. In 30 seconds, I can craft an email to you that’s from “barry@whitehouse.gov”. For those who know how, the from: field is just as open as the to: field.

4. Yes, it is possible that simply opening an email can cause an automatic infection of your computer by virus or trojan (see Flashback)... however, most modern email clients will now automatically block the initial download of images from other sites unless the user approves it… so that’s where you want to be careful.

5. Just because a link in email says it’s at “facebook .com”, don’t believe it. The text that you see and the hyperlink defined are two separate things. Like this fakeurl .com <—hover your mouse over that and you can see it’s actually a link to my personal tumblr at a completely different url. Be especially wary if the actual url is a blind IP address (e.g. 128.37.12.2 or some random alphanumeric like ru8654xy.ru)

I would highly suggest that you not open the link. It is a common practice for “fishers” to use fake URLs to gain access to personal data. Do not input your password or email identification.