We've gotten a number of emails about a relatively odd kind of fraudulent message. These emails have no attachments, no links. In each case they state that you've ordered something from some company - and acts as a receipt. The questions I've gotten have been:
Are these messages legitimate? And if they are not - what is the point of them?
Since there's no links or attachments - they aren't distributing malware or doing traditional phishing (where they link you to a fake login page that is meant to trick you into inputting your username & password).
What are they doing with these emails?
They are trying to trick you into believing that a fraudulent order went through - so that you call them (at the phone number in the email) to inquire about it or to cancel it.
If you were to call the phone number - they would then ask you for sensitive information under the guise of 'verifying your identity' or using it to 'lookup your order' or something like that.
They would ask for your credit/bank account info - and they'll probably claim that they actually cancelled the order if you do provide that information. Of course - what they will really do is then use that credit/bank information that you provide to steal your money.
What can you do if faced with an email like this?
For the most part - you can ignore these emails.
In general, I always recommend people review their bank/credit card statements regularly for any fraudulent/suspicious charges. If there are - I recommend you call your bank. Don't call the number in the emails.
These emails aren't specific to New Paltz either. You may see emails like this on a personal email account as well. We are just likely to get these because (unfortunately) all our email addresses are public to the world for cyber criminals to target us.
What do these emails look like?
An example of one of these emails is below. Though the recent rash of emails have been talking about orders of hard drives, they could be for anything
A screenshot of one of these fraudulent order emails is below
