Windows 7: Software firm says e-mails stolen in server breach

Quote:

Ashampoo, a German maker of Windows utilities and security software, warned this week that customer names and e-mail addresses were stolen and could be used in targeted malware attacks.

Read more at CNet

yes, i'm an ashampoo user (ashampoo burning studio 2010 - excellent burning/ripping app).

i received this email this morning:

I think Play.com was breached a while ago to

I gave a link to the Ashampoo company statemant over a day ago:- Ashampoo Data Breach It also gives details of affected programs.

Hmmmmmmmm, something fishy is going on. I received virtually TWO of the same emails from US Bank and one other company. The only difference was that each of the two emails was sent by a different company and had a different vendor's name. Plus, both of the emails had a LINK that the person is supposed to click on to check the validity of the email. I think these may NOT be legitimate warnings! I smell an attempted hacking going on. . .

Here's the text of the US Bank email. The other one was pretty much identical:

"As a valued U.S. Bank customer, we want to make you aware of a situation that has occurred related to your email address.

We have been informed by Epsilon Interactive, a vendor based in Dallas, Texas, that files containing your email address were accessed by unauthorized entry into their computer system. Epsilon helps us send you emails about products and services that may be of interest to you.

We want to assure you that U.S. Bank has never provided Epsilon with financial information about you. For your security, however, we wanted to call this matter to your attention. We ask that you remain alert to any unusual or suspicious emails.
Please remember that U.S. Bank will never request information such as your personal ID, password, social security number, PIN or account number via email. For your safety, never share this or similar information in response to an email request at any time. To learn more about recognizing online fraud issues, visit: [usbank link removed for posters' safety].In addition, if you receive any suspicious looking emails, please tell us immediately."

I think maybe time for a full scan with Malwarebytes....just to be sure!!

Imperfect, what do you mean by "different vendor"? Obviously the company you receive the e-mails from is different! Maybe US Bank just sent it twice to be sure? The URL looked totally valid, I tried it (not being a customer or US citizen ).

To "relieve" you: I got the same e-mail from "Polo Ralph Lauren USA" (ralphlauren.com), to which I had subscribed to, to receive their newsletter. I think they mentioned the same company "Epsilon Interactive", which you can find here: Epsilon | The Leading Provider of Multi-Channel Marketing Services

And here is their information about the incident!
"In response to the recent security incident involving unauthorized access of Epsilon's e-mail services platform, we remind consumers of precautions to help safeguard your information."

Best regards - and I think we should all stop subscribing to corporate newsletters!

I as well use a shampoo in the shower each day. Sorry......

By "different vendor" I meant that the 1st company that I received the email from did not use Epsilon as their multi-marketing vendor -- they named a different vendor. I had discarded their email before I received a 2nd very similar email notification from US Bank --- I don't remember the 1st company's name or the name of their multi-marketing service -- otherwise I would have named them in my post.

I didn't think too much about it until I saw the OP's post about receiving an almost identical email and then hearing about other similar incidents and I thought, hmmmm, I wonder if there is something fishy going on here. It just seemed a little too coincidental and unlikely that suddenly, there would be all these reports of unauthorized 3rd party access to customer's email information --- particularly since different vendor's were named.

PS I've had my PayPal account hijacked and lost $780 to some hacker who was able to gain unauthorized access to the bank account that was attached to my PayPal account. Since that happened, I've learned to be more observant of this type of 'unusual activity' and more cautious about it. Hackers are extremely skillful and clever these days --- we put ourselves at risk if we're too careless or unassuming about protecting our private information and money -- particularly if we're doing sensitive communications and/or financial transactions (e.g. banking, shopping, etc.) over the internet.