Spammers and virus writers go hand in hand these days. Spam typically comes from machines that have been hijacked by viruses that get installed by tricking users into running them. The preferred delivery method is by offering up an interesting spam email message that simply CANNOT BE IGNORED OR THE WORLD WILL END!!!1!
Here’s what it looks like to be a victim.
Sites like MSNBC, CNN, and Facebook are partly responsible for mis-training people into installing software to view their sometimes custom-designed streaming videos, after clicking links in emails notifying the email reader of some interesting update to the website.
If you get one of these spam emails, you CANNOT UNSUBSCRIBE. Just delete the message(s) and go on with your day. If you’ve installed the virus-video player, you may want to leave a comment to get some assistance with cleaning up your computer.
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Just the other day I spoke with someone who had their email password “phished”. That means they responded to a spam email with their account username and password and other identifying information. This let a scammer log into the victim’s email account, change the password, and send messages to people in the address book asking them for money.
@hotmail.com
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bigcitylib | 15-Aug-08 at 11:57 am | Permalink
Good to know. I thought maybe I’d signed up for a news update service and forgotten about it.
Saskboy | 15-Aug-08 at 3:03 pm | Permalink
That’s what they are counting on people thinking. They made the unsubscribe links legitimate, to confuse spam filters and people. That could be changed at any time though.
Miss Cellania | 16-Aug-08 at 6:50 pm | Permalink
People really give their email password to someone who sent them an email? Wow.
Even if a legitimate feed sends me something, I go to the main site to log in instead of clicking a link in an email. If it’s not in my menus, then it’s not something I much care about.
Saskboy | 16-Aug-08 at 6:52 pm | Permalink
You have a good usage pattern Miss C. Many people trained by Facebook will readily log into a website they get a link to in their email. I even slip up occasionally, but it’s always been for a legitimate site, not a pharming fake.
The people don’t just hand over their password, they give credit card information and more when they get tricked too. Although it’s easier to just get a password, since more people are suspicious of handing out credit card details these days. The spammer just threatens the person with account closure or a kidnapping or something, and the victim caves when they don’t have to.