can i trust this email?

Factual Questions
1

I got an email today that looks like it’s from Microsoft saying that I need to open the attachment. There’s no text in the email, just the attachment titled “Installer.exe (21 KB)”. I’ve cut and pasted the headers to the email. I’m more then a little suspishious of this email. Any one have any idea what the attachment could be?

Return-Path: <support@microsoft.com>
Delivered-To: @mprdmailbe.nwk.myway.com
Received: (qmail 211 invoked from network); 19 Aug 2003 23:27:07 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com) ([10.50.30.230]) (envelope-sender <support@microsoft.com>)
by 0 (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP
for <@mprdmailbe.nwk.myway.com>; 19 Aug 2003 23:27:07 -0000
Received: by mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com (Postfix, from userid 871)
id 1470B1711C; Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:27:03 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from 207.191.208.97 (207-191-208-97.cpe.ats.mcleodusa.net [207.191.208.97])
by mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 368E91711A
for <@myway.com>; Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:26:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: “Microsoft” <support@microsoft.com>
To: “Ace Ace” <@myway.com>
Subject: Security Risk Please Read Now
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:26:49 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
Message-ID: <463422205261082@microsoft.com>
Reply-To: “Microsoft” <support@microsoft.com>
Organization: Microsoft
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----_NextPart_688582784304829"
X-FII-Tracking: 0.500458

2

NO! Do not open that attachment! If you really want to know why Microsoft sent you something, go ahead and mail them and ask. Microsoft would never send you an email; they would just release a patch for whatever needed fixing (or breaking).

3

Emails of this nature are always, invariably, and without exceptions, scams, a virus, or malware.

4

Microsoft does not deliver software updates via e-mail

5

Tried briefly to analyze the headers there, but why bother… if you wanna know what it is, check out the front page of http://www.stopspam.org/ at the moment.

As with most unsolicited e-mail, take a moment to realize that nobody wants you to move 500 million in gold out of Namibia, that herbal concoction isn’t gonna give you a 12" schlong, and if Microsoft wants your machine to do something, hell, it’s already running their software! So bin that e-mail and forget it. :slight_smile: