Learn how to distinguish between real and fake reminder or messages to join LinkedIn network to protect your information from phishing sources. Visit http://blogs.totaldefense.com/securityblog.aspx for cloud-based endpoint security solutions for home and businesses.

1. Join my network on LinkedIn
Have you ever got a “Join my network on LinkedIn” email?
Do you know how to distinguish the real from fake?
It is easy to see the differences between real email from LinkedIn and a fake one.
The real one looks like this:
LinkedIn
<I know this person> has sent you a message.
Date: 4/08/2013
Subject: Welcome to my Network
Hi Alex,
Thank You for accepting to be part of my LinkedIn Network.
With Regards,
<I know this person>
You are receiving LinkedIn message emails. Unsubscribe.
This email was intended for Alex Polischuk (Senior Technical Manager at Total Defense). Learn why
we included this. © 2013, LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct. Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
And the fake one looks like this:
LinkedIn
REMINDERS
Invitation reminders:
From <some name> (Product Manager at BancTec)
Copyright © 2013 TotalDefense, Inc. | All rights reserved www.totaldefense.com
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2. PENDING MESSAGES
There are a total of 9 messages awaiting your response. <Go to inbox now>
This message was sent to username@domain.com. Don't want to receive email notifications? Login to
your
LinkedIn account to Unsubscribe values your privacy. At no time has LinkedIn made your email
address available to any other LinkedIn user without your permission. c 2013, LinkedIn Corporation.
Very easy for me to see that I’m not familiar with the sender nor with the initiator.
Even my own personal details that are mentioned at the end of the fake message are not true. I will
block the sender and remove this email immediately. But these phishing emails are very common and
continue to arrive to people all over the world. According to media: many people did this mistake and
became phishing victims.
LinkedIn company already released a blog that confirmed that many user passwords have been stolen.
Well, I think that the problem may became worse. It will be very easy for phishing writers to improve
their malicious work by making these messages more realistic. This may and infact did happen with
emails from all sources (not only from LinkedIn). Without any doubt, using good Anti-Virus and AntiSpyware tools would be very helpful.
But the ultimate solution for me (most likely) will be the analysis of any links from any email before
double clicking them. Exploring the source of the email as well as right clicking on any hyper link will
explore the real (actual) URL addresses. This way it is easy to see that the links from fake emails will
point to strange domain names that has nothing to do with LinkedIn or other legitimate sites.
In any case, if you get suspicious emails with attachments (most likely ZIP archives) please consider to
forward them to “virus@totaldefenselabs.com” for Total Defense full analysis of any future threats.
Copyright © 2013 TotalDefense, Inc. | All rights reserved www.totaldefense.com
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3. About TotalDefense:
Total Defense(@Total_Defense) is a global leader in malware detection and anti-crimeware solutions.
We offer a broad portfolio of leading security products for the consumer market used by over four
million consumers worldwide. Our solutions also include the industry’s first complete cloud security
platform, providing fully integrated endpoint, web and email security through a single Web-based
management console with a single set of enforceable security policies
Total Defense is a former business of CA Technologies, one of the largest software companies in the
world, and has operations in New York, California, Europe, Israel and Asia.
Visit http://www.totaldefense.com/ for web, cloud & mobile security solutions for home users and
businesses.
Copyright © 2013 TotalDefense, Inc. | All rights reserved www.totaldefense.com
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