Tag: SPAM

If you're an avid reader or a compulsive video-on-demand customer, chances are that your inbox sees a pretty regular flow of e-mails from Amazon. Not all of them, though, are legit. A recent wave of malware has been sneaking its way into inboxes, under the guise of Amazon's trustworthy name. The e-mails appear to be order confirmations from the online store, but beneath that facade lies a nasty ...

Previously, spammers have tried to spread malware by enticing Twitter users with promises of beautiful women and breaking news. Now, according to a report from Trend Micro, they're taking a different approach: using vague, random "@" replies to flood users with malware. Blogger Rik Ferguson was tagged Tuesday morning in a tweet embedded with a shortened URL. After some research, Ferguson ...

Share What do you have to do to leave your mark on Major League Baseball's official site? You could hit your local batting cage, weight room, or Mexican pharmacy. Or, you could just flood the site's messageboards with porn, as a group of knuckleheaded knuckleballers recently did. Since July 2009, MLB's message boards have been flooded by dozens of "threatening, abusive, obscene, vulgar, ...

Even though Facebook is loaded with spam and scams, the service has maintained a reputation as being the trustworthy social network, largely thanks to its requirement that users post their real names. The public's trust makes hacked Facebook profiles a valuable commodity for those who make their livings in the Internet black market. Researchers at VeriSign are tracking one hacker's efforts to ...

It appears that Gmail has been hit with a broad, while crude, attack that has hijacked a number of user accounts, sending spam offers of cheap Viagra to the hacked person's contacts. The first reports trickled in about a week ago, but the level of spam seems to have increased in the last couple of days. We contacted Google, and the company urged anyone who believes their account has been ...

Back on August 21st, federal investigators in New York issued a search warrant against Levi Beers and Chris di Diego, both of whom were accused of masterminding a spam operation called Pulse Marketing. Instead of just seizing the suspects' e-mails, though, police went one step further and snatched all files saved on their respective Google Docs, as well. Ten days after FBI officials issued the ...

Since first breaking out on Facebook in 2008, the Koobface worm has occasionally reappeared, each time with a slightly different approach to infecting Facebook users. Now, it seems that it's back and in full force. Researchers from online security company ESET discovered the reappearance last week, after noticing a slew of similar e-mail worms invade Facebook users' inboxes. According to ESET's ...

Insomniac television fans know Kevin Trudeau predominately for his infomercials that tout wondrous products and miraculous money-making schemes. He will soon be known, though, as the guy who went to jail for spamming a judge. Trudeau, who is apparently no stranger to the clink, was facing a civil lawsuit when he urged his radio and TV followers (people actually like this guy?) to petition the ...

Share Given the barrage of viruses and scams that have hit Facebook recently, it would only seem like a logical solution to download some sort of anti-virus application specifically designed to combat Facebook-oriented malware. The only problem, though, is that the latest anti-virus app to pop up on user profiles is a total fraud. As AllFacebook reports, the application does a great job of ...

The BBC's Jude Sheerin recently penned an interesting article about the problem of spam filters when it comes to a language rife with double entendres. Sheerin tells the tale of one of Canada's oldest magazines that has recently been forced to change its name due to constant spam warnings. The moniker in question: The Beaver, that grand animal dear to Canada's heart. Most of the 30,000 viewers to ...

Share It doesn't take long for little kids to figure out that when they touch a hot stove, they get burned. For whatever reason, though, older human beings still haven't learned that clicking on spam can burn them with equal ferocity. According to a recent report from the Ipsos Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), people are continuing to intentionally open spam e-mails and even click ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... CTIA has released the results of its semi-annual wireless survey, and every usage statistic continues to escalate. The most astronomical figure, of course, relates to text messaging, as carriers reported an incredible total of 1.5 trillion text messages sent during 2009. That breaks down to 5 billion texts per day. [From: CTIA] ...

Let's role play a bit. You're a hacker and a spreader of malware. Your specialty is hijacking Twitter accounts and using them to spread spam and links to malicious sites. You've just managed to take over the Twitter page for United Airlines. In the meantime, we'll play the role of the hapless United Airlines follower who is constantly hoping to see a deal for cheap flights pop up. So, what ...

Not even a month ago, Twitter took radical steps after a phishing attack hit the site -- locking down many accounts and requiring users to reset their passwords. Now, another pesky attack is plaguing users. According to Graham Cluley's Sophos blog, Wednesday saw a flood of tweets containing a malicious link and reading, "This you????" Clicking the link -- surprise, surprise -- sends you to a ...

M86 Security has released a study (PDF) of the current state of spam, and some of the numbers are quite disturbing. At the end of 2009, 3 billion spam messages were being sent each day. That's a 500-percent increase from the daily amount sent during the first half of 2009. Equally worrisome are reports that the five most popular botnets are responsible for almost 80-percent of spam, indicating ...