The Internet Patrol » Spam

The Western Union Money Transfer Scam Spam

The Internet Patrol — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:05:15 +0000

There is a new Western Union money transfer scam spam making the rounds. It thanks you for “using Western Union Money Transfer”, and gives you a fake confirmation receipt transaction number (”control number”) - in our case the Mone Transfer Control number used was 1629752260. The spam includes an attachment that is an HTML file named something like “WU account.html” - don’t open it! … [visit site to read more]

How to Stop SMS Text Spam and How to Report SMS Txt Msg Spam

The Internet Patrol — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:17:46 +0000

If you’re being plagued by cell text message spam (cell txt msg spam) like this one we received from 702-541-4047 - “Do you have $20,000+ in CREDIT CARD DEBT? Our national program REDUCES it by HALF! Reply “DEBT” to see if you qualify! (cuturdebts.com-optout,reply:out)” - you’re not alone. (What is SMS? Short Message Service SMS service is a way to send short text messages directly to a cell phone). The problem is that those unwanted SMS messages that you see as cell phone spam, the sender sees as an SMS campaign. Those rude SMS text messages - often anonymous SMS text messages - are bulk SMS messages sent by the SMS sender as a text message advertising campaign (often facilitated by free SMS text message services). Sending SMS text messaging spam is illegal in most states, but figuring out how to go about reporting spam received on your cell phone can be tough. Here’s how to submit your spam that you receive via SMS message to the right authorities, as well as how to stop it. (Bonus: The elusive Verizon customer service phone number!) … [visit site to read more]

Fake Amazon Cancellation Email Hides Canadian Pharmacy Spam Links

The Internet Patrol — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:39:05 +0000

Not content with sending fake Amazon confirmation emails, the outfit sending out the Canadian pharmacy spam is now sending out fake Amazon.com order cancellation emails, too, claiming that your Amazon order has been cancelled. “Amazon.com - Your Cancellation (0046-68878-96071)” says the email’s subject (although the “order number” may change) - but of course the link to check “ORDER INFORMATION” really takes you to a Canadian pharmacy spam site, hawking Viagra, Cialis and the like. In the example below, the fake cancellation contains links to http://www.dinnerinperu.com/quadratical, which redirects to http://weightbreezy.com, which is a Canadian pharmacy spam site. … [visit site to read more]

On Canter and Siegel and the Green Card Spam

The Internet Patrol — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:02:22 +0000

Now here’s a blast from the past. I was trolling Usenet recently (many of you may know it better as Google groups since Google borged Usenet), and I came across the letter to the editor that I wrote in reponse to a letter that the American Bar Association Journal had published, written by Martha Siegel (she of the Cantor and Siegal Green Card Lottery Spam infamy). In the letter, Ms. Siegel attempted to justify the mass-spamming of Usenet that she and her associate had done in the name of trying to drum up business for their law firm. It was, if not the first mega-spam, certainly the most high-profile of those among the first. … [visit site to read more]

Project Honey Pot Reveals Where the Spammers Are and Best / Worst Countries for IT Security

The Internet Patrol — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:17:53 +0000

Project Honey Pot has just announced over one billion served - one billion pieces of spam served to Project Honey Pot that is - and with that milestone they have released their analysis of global spam trends and patterns, and it’s very interesting. … [visit site to read more]

Getting Spam from Frappr? You’re Not Alone

The Internet Patrol — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:34:52 +0000

We’ve seen some idiotic mailing practices in our time, but of all of the dunderheaded bulk mailing “policies” we’ve seen, this one may take the idiot-cake: “You are receiving this message about Frappr because your name and email address were submitted to a Frappr Guest Map at some point in the past 5 years.” (”Frappr” because, presumably, frapper .com is owned by a domain squatter.) … [visit site to read more]

Florida Man Files Patent for “Lather-Rinse-Repeat” Method of Spamming, Loses Infringement Claim against Spammer

The Internet Patrol — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:58:53 +0000

Back in 2000, Thomas L. DiStefano, III, of Boca Raton, Florida, filed a patent for a “Method For Managing Bulk E-Mail Distribution”, in which the ‘invention’ was described as a method in which if not all email in an email run was delivered the first time, the sender would repeatedly send the email to the undelivered addresses, again and again, until all of the email was eventually delivered. In 2007, DiStefano’s company, Perfect Web Technologies, sued InfoUSA, for patent infringement. InfoUSA is the parent company to such email entities as YesMail, who famously sued anti-spam blacklist MAPS for calling them a spammer, and who in 2006 paid a $50,000 fine to the Feds for violations of the CAN-SPAM Federal anti-spam law. … [visit site to read more]

Twitter Gets a “This is Spam” Button

The Internet Patrol — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:36:38 +0000

Twitter is fed up, and their not going to take it any more. The thing with which they are apparently fed up is spammers polluting people’s Twitter streams with everything from “make money fast” scheme sites to porn. And so Twitter has added a “this is spam” button (well, actually a “report for spam” link) to everybody’s profile, so that now you can report them to Twitter HQ with a single click. … [visit site to read more]

Viagra Increases Spam’s Staying Power

The Internet Patrol — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Ever wonder why there is so much spam for Viagra? Ever wonder “Who would ever buy this stuff?” Well, while the specific details of the “who” aren’t available, there are enough of them buying it to make spamming about Viagra and other similar meds very financially rewarding. … [visit site to read more]

The Newest Scourge: Vacation Reply Messages Used for Spamming

The Internet Patrol — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:17:31 +0000

It’s one of the newest spam tactics - spam vacation messages. Here’s how it works: spammers sign up for mailing lists, never intending to read them. Instead they put themselves on permanent vacation status, create one of those infernal “I’m on vacation” messages full of their spam message, and let the vacation program do their spamming for them. If they’re lucky, the mailing list is one where the vacation message goes back to the entire mailing list. So far we’ve seen spam vacation messages hawking mydosell.com, wholesaler-electronic.com, qigefa.com, and easevshop.com. … [visit site to read more]