In February, we “recommended” that cybercriminals save time and money by using LinkedIn as a way to harvest email addresses and details about corporate employees. Instead, they have added LinkedIn to the pantheon of trusted brands being used to scam unaware recipients.
Thanks to the simplicity of the LinkedIn design, spammers have had an easy time [...]
Perhaps you’ve gotten used to phishing, spam and scams supposedly coming from Facebook, Apple and Google. Now, though, even trusted brands that we thought were safe are being used in an attempt to get recipients to click the embedded URLs. Check out the emails below, both related to “recent account opening activity”.
Wikipedia and WordPress, whose [...]
On the eve of the Soccer/football World Cup 2010 in South Africa we spoke to Mr. BuyVi@ GraNow the head of the NGO “WESPAM” (Worldwide Excess Senders of Phony Applications and Mail). WESPAM claims to represent most of the evil Internet. Mr. GraNow said, “Events such as the World Cup represent a unique opportunity for [...]
No – of course it’s not a new product from our favorite tech trend-setters – but it’s not surprising to see the Apple name being used to generate subjects for pharmacy spam messages. It’s even less surprising to see the new iPad being used to attract curious clickers – especially as the millionth unit was sold. The iPad [...]
Spam does not deserve its bad reputation, says a Russian “mass-email” provider. Yeah, right. We strongly, but humbly, disagree. However, to debunk this spurious logic, we have reprinted his letter titled “Seven Myths about Spam” with our comments in italics. For some of the “myths” we will let the email speak for itself. (Thank you, [...]
Spammers are just like you and me – they love Mom. So when Mother’s day rolls around they spare no effort in letting Mom know that she’s the best. They will help you buy flowers – just look for emails that start with a random name prefix followed by some flower offer such as these:
alan$20 [...]
Part 2 in a series of examples where the legitimacy and trust conferred by the Google name has been misused
2) Misusing Google Sites
In Google’s words, “Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share webpages”. Of course there are loads of spammers seeking free webhosting for the usual pharmaceuticals, replicas and porn [...]
Spammers have predictably used the eruption of <insert Icelandic name here> as well as the ensuing large scale disruption of European air travel to spew ashloads of pharmacy related spam. The outbreaks have been erupting (.. couldn’t resist ..) for a few days now with automatically generated titles that combine volcano subjects with random words:
fears [...]
Phishing is the easiest way for criminals to find out your username and password; they simply ask you for it.
Many password thieves send emails pretending to be from your bank, Facebook or PayPal, among others. These messages explain that a problem exists with your account and include a request that you “verify” your username and [...]
No, not really – but a recent outbreak seems to use no technique at all to get recipients to click on a link to a malware-hosting site. The emails (samples below) have no subject (other than RE: or FW:), no text telling you why you should click on the link, no hidden URLs behind on-screen [...]
