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Posts Tagged ‘Spam’

New Virus Amongst Us

January 10th, 2010 |

Author: Kelly Ifrah

: Image via Wikipedia

Further to my spam post a few days ago I thought this was relevant.

I received a message, from someone that I subscribe to, about a new virus so I checked it for myself and thought you’d like to see the results.

This is the message I got …

“HUGE VIRUS COMING! PLEASE READ & FORWARD!”

Hi All,

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!

I checked Snopes, and it is for real. Get this E-mail message sent around to all your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days.

Do not open any message with an attachment entitled ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK,’ regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens A POSTCARD IMAGE, which ‘burns’ the whole hard disc C drive of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address on his/her contact list. That is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it!

If you receive a mail called’ POSTCARD,’ even if it is sent to you by a friend, do not open it! Shut down your computer immediately. This is the worst virus announced by CNN.

It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

After a little digging I found the following …

a squidoo lens related to it offering virus software via clickbank, which is an affiliate program for those new to internet marketing. (This was my favourite because it shows the initiative of an affiliate marketer cashing in on something that they know people will search for after getting an e-mail. Think outside the box guys.)

about.com said … The Postcard from Hallmark hoax includes a link to a Snopes article which is worded in such a way that it appears the hoax warning is legitimate. It isn’t. While greeting card scams do exist, they don’t bear any resemblance to what’s outlined in the hoax. Following is one example of the Postcard from Hallmark virus hoax. Then had the same message as above following.

about.com also said on another page … False email alert warns of ‘the worst virus ever’ circulating in the form of an attachment labeled ‘POSTCARD’ or ‘POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK.’

Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Feb. 2008 (this version)
Status: False, although real e-card viruses resembling this do exist

IMPORTANT NOTE

Some versions of this hoax claim the information was “verified” on Snopes.com. This is NOT true. What has been verified on Snopes.com is a different e-card virus threat with a similar name.

DO beware of phony “Hallmark” (or other) e-card notices — they may carry a real virus.

You can read the whole story on snopes.com, but the gist of it is that … Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn’t a “BIG VIRUS COMING” (it’s already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not “burn the whole hard disc” of your computer, CNN didn’t classify it as the “worst virus” ever, and it doesn’t arrive in messages bearing a subject line of ‘Invitation.’

So there you have it, like with my previous post, the spammers/virs senders/hackers/phishers are getting cleverer, we just need to think before opening an e-mail or clicking a link that we are not sure came from where it says it comes from.

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Posted in News |

Tags: computer virus, hallmark postcard virus, Spam |

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How Do I Stop The E-Mail SPAM

March 19th, 2009 |

Author: Kelly Ifrah

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I don’t know about you, but I have just about had enough of this e-mail spam.

I recently changed hosts, which actually really cut down on the amount of sex and weight loss products spam I was getting, but now I seem to be getting ‘make money online’ related spam.

Today I got one for a $7 youtube product if you can believe it. They sent an html e-mail, but because my junk folder caught it it showed me the source and I could see the e-mail address tacked onto the end of it. The e-mail address is bizlady09@gmail.com, but it will not help anyone as it is probably not linked to anyone real. They are collecting money via paypal and as far as I know there is a limit to what you can receive before they put a stop on withdrawals for you to complete a telephone or address verification. Not hard to overcome I presume if you spam for a living. Also, if they know the level they can pull the funds out before it happens.

Having recently found out that someone filed an untruthful scam complaint against me in 2006 I think that these sorts of people should be punished to the full extent of the law. People that spam via e-mail are the ones that give honest marketers a bad name.

I am awaiting legal advice on what to do about the untruthful scam complaint against me. If anyone has dealt with anything like this before, please post a comment or send me an e-mail about what you did to overcome it.

I have forwarded the spam e-mail to paypal, so hopefully they will be able to do something about it.

You need to be very wary of these spam e-mails because they come in all sorts of shape and sizes and they can be very convincing and look very authentic, especially when they imitate paypal and banks. These are often referred to by the banks as ‘phishing’ e-mails.

Always keep in mind that neither paypal or your bank would ever ask you to log in using a link in an e-mail.

I do not know of a way to stop this kind of spam other than having some sort of spam stopper like mailwasher or spamfigher on my e-mail addresses, but then you have the problem of not being able to sign up to lists and such if the person on the other end does not confirm who they are.

Are you using something to cut down on the spam in your inbox? If so, what and how is it working out for you.

Enough of my rant now.

Speak soon