How would you handle this- Email virus

[john70t]

Out of the blue, I was forwarded an old email from an old business associate.
It was sent only to me.
That old email was valid and originated from myself.
We were once on opposite sides of a heated matter at some point.

The header indicated it originated from his personal website which is pretty basic.

The email preview said it was a 112kb .pdf and I stupidly clicked on it.
Firefox thankfully would not allow me to download it saying it contained a "virus or malware".
(Yahoo mail is supposed to virus-check and I'm a bit perplexed how it got into their system.)
Also notice the file is now a .zip.



This has all the hallmarks of a hacked account and possibly even a fake website in his name.
I emailed him asking if he sent it but have not received a response.

The possibility exists that he did it himself, but I doubt it.

Should I warn others in our group that his account is sending viruses?
I did a brief search, but without going too far into it was wondering what other people would do in a similar situation.

[aap1966]

Tell the others.

[masraum]

He probably doesn't realize that he's been compromised if he has or maybe he realizes and is having issues because of it. It could be someone spoofing his address too.

It wouldn't hurt to tell the others "I got a suspicious email that seemed to come from ______. It seems to possibly have a virus/malware attached. I tried to ask ____ about it but haven't received a response yet." or something like that.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by john70t

Out of the blue, I was forwarded an old email from an old business associate.

...

This has all the hallmarks of a hacked account and possibly even a fake website in his name.

Yup.

Originally Posted by john70t

(Yahoo mail is supposed to virus-check and I'm a bit perplexed how it got into their system.)

Oh, did ya blink?

Yahoo hasn't existed since 2017. They're owned by Verizon now, although they've kept the old branding for everything they gobbled up. The current CEO of Oath (the new group) used to run AOL.

So I guess it's all down to how much you trust "those guys" to run things.

[KFC911]

Ignore, delete, and move on....

[john70t]

I sent a brief message to the entire group, which the sender should also receive. Again.
(official bulk mail)

That should be about it.

[reachme]

just an FYI
you cannot trust the source address of an email [EVER]. in 5 minutes I could show you how to connect to a mail server, type in whatever source and destination email address you want and send. you can send an email from Trump@whitehouse.gov if you wanted. youtube could prob show you as well.
You can use other technologies like encryption with authentication that do this very well but never assume.
I would have followed KC911's advice to delete and move on

[john70t]

Thanks for the responses.

Originally Posted by reachme

I would have followed KC911's advice to delete and move on

The Tourette's in my brain could not let a huge public pothole remain un-marked.
Maybe somebody else might benefit from this.