Question Did someone phish my gf?

[Horrti]

Hello,

Bit of a strange one and rather serious in my opinion. I hope it is in the right place.

In short a young gentlemen contacted my partner in the early hours of the morning, the weekend just gone. He sent her a gmail login link and asked her to sign in after creating a panic and suggesting all will become clear after you sign in using the link.

I advised her to refuse to do so and ask for an explanation or another way of doing what he’s suggested. He refused to answer at which point he started referencing my children, Madeline McCann and also sent a link to the new report of a death of someone with the same name as my partner.

I feel like he was trying to phish her gmail and take photos of either her or my children.

How can I check this link? This person has some form of computing degree which makes me very worried.

 

[richiestang_78]

Sounds like a scam, as far as getting names its really not hard these days when people put all sorts of personal information online. Remember even a "private" social media account really isnt private.

If this was a legitimate inquiry about pretty much any matter it would not be so cloak and dagger.

In short DONT CLICK THE LINK or SIGN IN via the link. In-fact you may want to contact whatever applicable authority in your country about this.

 

[Math Geek]

100%, most certainly this was phishing.

if she actually logged in to the link, then you are 100% compromised and wide open for all matter of attack/data theft!!

you need to completely format your whole system and start over. change EVERY password used for any service and so on and so on.

if she did not use the link, then still change the passwords just to be safe. no one legit will ever call you out of the blue like that. even the gov would notify you by mail if there was an issue that needed your attention.

 

[Horrti]

Sounds like a scam, as far as getting names its really not hard these days when people put all sorts of personal information online. Remember even a "private" social media account really isnt private.

If this was a legitimate inquiry about pretty much any matter it would not be so cloak and dagger.

In short DONT CLICK THE LINK or SIGN IN via the link. In-fact you may want to contact whatever applicable authority in your country about this.

I suspect so, the person involved is actually an associate not a stranger which worrying thanks for your reply.

 

[Horrti]

100%, most certainly this was phishing.

if she actually logged in to the link, then you are 100% compromised and wide open for all matter of attack/data theft!!

you need to completely format your whole system and start over. change EVERY password used for any service and so on and so on.

if she did not use the link, then still change the passwords just to be safe. no one legit will ever call you out of the blue like that. even the gov would notify you by mail if there was an issue that needed your attention.

Is there anyway a link can be verified with certainty?

 

[richiestang_78]

If this link requires you to sign in to a google account, then its not a legitimate link.

The only thing I can think is to make a fake Google account and use that, even then I still wouldn't sign in to such a strange link.

 

[Math Geek]

you have to look close at the url you are taken to once it is clicked on. for stuff like this i use a vm or a test system to follow and see where a link goes. this way i can see what happens and inspect everything before ever trying it with my real system.

a good spoofer can mask where it goes until it is too late. best thing is to never trust anything you did not ask for specifically and then still be wary. i do not know of any legit entity out there that monitors the entire internet and then is nice enough to call you specifically when they find a problem to help you solve it. it's just not gonna happen as there are too many users out there to pay attention to. MS, Apple, Facebook and so on got too much to do to monitor every user for suspicious activity.

anything suggesting they did is a scam waiting to happen.

 

[USAFRet]

Is there anyway a link can be verified with certainty?

Verified for what?

Don't click on these...just examples.
ClickOnThisLink
Click0nThisLink

"In short a young gentlemen contacted my partner in the early hours of the morning "

If you didn't initiate contact, it is almost certainly a scam.
If you did start the conversation, it is slightly less likely to be a scam. (but probably still is)

 

[Horrti]

Verified for what?

Don't click on these...just examples.
ClickOnThisLink
Click0nThisLink

"In short a young gentlemen contacted my partner in the early hours of the morning "

If you didn't initiate contact, it is almost certainly a scam.
If you did start the conversation, it is slightly less likely to be a scam. (but probably still is)

Verified for legitimacy so I can find out if this person who knows where we live etc has attempted to steal her password.

This is much more of a personal attack as opposed to the generic phishing email sent to thousands.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Get the law-enforcement after them

 

[USAFRet]

Verified for legitimacy so I can find out if this person who knows where we live etc has attempted to steal her password.

This is much more of a personal attack as opposed to the generic phishing email sent to thousands.

And you still wouldn't be able to tell.
A link is just a link. It says nothing about the person on the other end.

What you're seeing is spearphishing. Phishing, targeted at a specific person. Details of a person can be quite easy to discover. facebook, instagram, twitter....all likely contain pictures relevant to the target.

With the proper scare text, those pics can be used quite deviously.
"Click here and all will become clear"....and at that point they have the gmail username/password you just entered.
Which is then used to log in to that gmail, and discover all sorts of other info.
Which is then used to access your Amazon or bank account.