Malicious email question

[BlackHatCoiner]

In my country a hacker hacked someone's bank account and withdraw all the money. He sent a phishing email to him and he clicked it. Just a link. Nothing else. No forms.

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

[Nanoverso]

I think these kind of threats really exists, affecting mainly specific non updated systems with no security enabled (antivirus and firewalls). Better be sure to keep systems updated and use good sense with security measures.

[UserU]

In my country a hacker hacked someone's bank account and withdraw all the money. He sent a phishing email to him and he clicked it. Just a link. Nothing else. No forms.

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

Yes, however the machine has to be infected prior. In other words, if your system is healthy, merely visiting an infected link won't do anything unless you allow some dodgy plugin or extension to execute, or open a malicious file through drive-by download.

For phishing, if the person managed to submit his or her personal details on a fake login page, it's pretty much game over unless a quick password change across affected sites is acted on.

[jrrsparkles]

Yes they can, by simply clicking a link a hacker can get the access of you whole device and can monitor everything you do with the developed technologies so he will wait for you to enter into internet banking and will not the login details so he can enter on his own and loot all your money.

[Phil Smith Strong]

I've heard about it as well. I think it's best to use some kind of anti-malware software that can actively recognize phishing sites.
They say that new bitdefender can analyze and identify suspicious network-level activities and block sophisticated exploits, malware, or botnet-related URLs.
Read more here: https://websitehowto.org/bitdefender-vs-avast/
Better to be prepared.

[boyptc]

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Giving various malware to the computer and make it infected.

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

AFAIK, it won't do if you just clicked a link that's a website. But if you click a link that automatically downloads a file to you, you better stop the download quickly and never launch that program.

[militiariko]

In my country a hacker hacked someone's bank account and withdraw all the money. He sent a phishing email to him and he clicked it. Just a link. Nothing else. No forms.

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

This is a situation that happens often time, and it is due to naivetivity, irrespective of the email source, whenever anyone sends you an email asking for personal information, contact your bank first, contact the platform officials customer care number first. And remember nobody will ask you private informations from the payment platform companies

[inanilujimi]

maybe it could have happened, but it would be nice for each bank to always ask for an email confirmation when making a transaction to avoid something unpleasant.

[peter0425]

This may serve as experience  and learning Guys,that clicking links/sites is really not safe in internet world.
Just click the links when you expected this or coming from people you really know.

sorry for the victim but this happens here all the time.
so expect another victim until we finally learn what and how to treat these kind of problem and victimizing inside.

[Artemis3]

I remember an exploit that executed code just by looking at the email. If you are looking at it from a browser, its a browser flaw. If it was a a standalone email client, it was the client flaw.

Best client is the one that doesn't interpret html at all, that only displays text and doesn't try to interpret anything, that won't let you click at links either. Something like mutt

So yeah, it can get worse. MUCH worse. It depends a lot in what software you use, and the operating system.

There were also exploits involving the rendering of images, so just by trying to look at the attached image using the wrong OS, was enough. Its both funny and sad to see some of those returning again in Android and iOS.

Better switch to Free and Open Source software ASAP, it reduces the chances.

[seoincorporation]

It's totally possible you can redirect with the link to a PHP payload and exploit a browser vulnerability or exploit a system vuln. It's possible with tools like Metasploit. That's why it's really important to have updated software, because in those updates there come vulnerability fixes.

[UserU]

I remember an exploit that executed code just by looking at the email. If you are looking at it from a browser, its a browser flaw. If it was a a standalone email client, it was the client flaw.

Best client is the one that doesn't interpret html at all, that only displays text and doesn't try to interpret anything, that won't let you click at links either. Something like mutt

So yeah, it can get worse. MUCH worse. It depends a lot in what software you use, and the operating system.

There were also exploits involving the rendering of images, so just by trying to look at the attached image using the wrong OS, was enough. Its both funny and sad to see some of those returning again in Android and iOS.

Better switch to Free and Open Source software ASAP, it reduces the chances.

I believed that's some email pixel. Difficult to spot with the naked eye since it's a 1 x 1 but it tracks our behavior.

[josephsonand]

This is a prevalent thing that happens all the time. It's a little strange that this is perceived as something that never happened.

[Cryptoababe]

In my country a hacker hacked someone's bank account and withdraw all the money. He sent a phishing email to him and he clicked it. Just a link. Nothing else. No forms.

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

Wow.. Probably, a file might have been automatically download or an extension as been automatically added to the persons browser. Merely clicking on a link? If that will happen there will should be trough any of what I've said.

[BlackHatCoiner]

In my country a hacker hacked someone's bank account and withdraw all the money. He sent a phishing email to him and he clicked it. Just a link. Nothing else. No forms.

Can he really do anything by visiting a URL? Even if it's a blacklisted link. What's the worst thing that can happen?

Can a program run into your computer by simply clicking a link?

Wow.. Probably, a file might have been automatically download or an extension as been automatically added to the persons browser. Merely clicking on a link? If that will happen there will should be trough any of what I've said.

Even if a file was downloaded instantly, what exactly can a file do? A file that no one ran it.

[boyptc]

Even if a file was downloaded instantly, what exactly can a file do? A file that no one ran it.

AFAIK, as long as that file is automatically set by the hacker to run after the download, it shall run even without you noticing.

I don't know if that's possible but most likely yes. Otherwise, it has to be executed and launched by the PC owner where the file has been planted or downloaded.

[Kamilaz]

Yes. That's why you don?t just click on random links online. Actually, never click on random links online. I did once, it redirected me to a video of someone hanging himself. Traumatized me for 3 days. Never again.