Computer Spam

Bank says its e-mail too important to be spam

Posted: Tuesday, June 9 2009 at 08:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Kevin, a 40-year-old from Sacramento, Calif., likes to keep a tidy inbox. He's very deliberate about removing himself from mailing lists and anything else that might clog up his e-mail. So recently, when he received a marketing pitch from his credit card company, Capital One, he quickly asked to be removed from its list. The response he got surprised him.
"We bring these offers to customers as part of our customer agreement and therefore do not provide a means to prevent this valuable information from reaching them," the firm responded.
In other words: "No."
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Spam campaigns target msnbc.com, CNN

Posted: Wednesday, August 13 2008 at 01:55 pm CT by Bob Sullivan

Spammers have upped the ante in their efforts to trick news consumers, switching from e-mails with tabloid-style headlines to impersonating major online news services. On Wednesday, e-mails that appeared to be from msnbc.com landed in inboxes worldwide, promising breaking news and confusing some recipients.
The spam unleashed Wednesday follows a massive campaign last week in which spammers impersonated CNN.com. That campaign saw 250 million spam messages sent in one intense 24 hour period, according to spam-fighting firm MX Logic Inc. Those e-mails appeared to include links to CNN's top 10 stories, but Internet users who were tricked into clicking on those links were sent instead to Web sites overseas that were booby-trapped with malicious software.
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‘Tabloid’ spam is worm’s newest turn

Posted: Tuesday, July 15 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

No, presidential candidate Barack Obama was not found dead in a "shock accident." John McCain was not “found unconscious in a toilet.” Will Smith wasn’t "found dead in bathtub" either. And Britney Spears has not broken her arm in a "freak poolside accident."
The truth is quite a bit more subtle. A Microsoft security upgrade in April largely dismantled a network of hijacked computers used by criminals to send spam, and the hackers are desperately trying to rebuild it. To entice users to click on the links that will infect their computers with the notorious Storm worm, they have dispatched an avalanche of e-mail with fantastic news headlines in recent weeks. The average Net user is getting about 60 of the phony news bulletins per day, says the security firm MessageLabs.
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9 a.m.: Don't forget to read annoying spam!

Posted: Tuesday, April 22 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Thank goodness the reminder popped up at 9:15 a.m., just a few minutes before my "meeting." Otherwise, I might have forgotten to claim my winnings.
"[Invitation] CLAIM PRIZE," the meeting reminder said. And when I opened the appointment, I was reminded of my good fortune. "Attn: Winner, We wish to congratulate you over your email success in our AMSTEL LOTTO balloting. ... You have been approve for the star prize of Euro 750,000."
I've received several such meeting invitations in recent days, and so have e-mail users across the Internet. Combine two of your least-favorite things -- unwanted meeting invitations and spam -- and you've got a major new Net nuisance. Computer security folks have taken to calling it "calendar spam."
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http://redtape.msnbc.com/spam/index.html