What concerned this gentleman, and quite wisely, was that he didn't know a "Catherine Patterson". While only one of many clues, it was enough to raise the caution flag and seek assistance. Fortunately he asked questions before clicking the links.
I shared the following; perhaps it will be of value to you as well:
You can check the validity of links in Outlook emails by holding your mouse over the link URL. If the URL shown in the mouse-over does not match EXACTLY the URL you’d expect (i.e. linkedin.com -> linkedin.com or at least somethinghere.linkedin.com) you can bet this is bogus. In the example you forwarded, the URL *displayed* is www.linkedin.com but the email code would send you to some crazy amrpartners dot com dot br URL.
While it’s POSSIBLE this is an email re-direct from their email provider, the “.br” domain, among other clues (i.e. you don’t know Catherine Pathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifterson) makes me confident it’s fraudulent. You can always log in to linkedin.com separately to see if Catherine HAS in fact sent you a message.
Short version: If the mouse-over URL does not equal the displayed URL (and the domain of the site you’ve heard of), simply press delete.
More information on this topic from anti-virus maker Trend-Micro.
What clever tricks have you seen from spammers? If you have a tech question, feel free to reach out: techexpert AT brianwestbrook DOT com
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