New Rash of “Welcome to” Spam Brings Unwelcome Storm Trojan and Controls Your PC   - 4,928 Views,

A new wave of spam hitting everybody’s inboxes takes the form of a welcome to one or another website and service, complete with temporary login information and a request that you change your temporary password. The subjects all say some variant of “Login Information”, “Member Details”, “Registration Details” or, even, occasionally, “Internet Techincal Support” (sic).

What these spam all have in common is that they take the form of just a few lines in the body of the email, all purporting to provide you with a temporary login, and a URL to change your password, which they all urge you to do, and the URL is, so far at least, always an IP address, rather than a domain name.

What they also all have in common is that if you click on that link, your computer will have just become a botnet pimp’s newest bitch.

That’s because this wave of spam is courtesy of the Storm trojan, which, as PC World explains, “is designed to infect as many end-user systems as possible and add them to botnets that can be used to attack other sites, relay spam or for other purposes.”

You can thank the Storm trojan for last month’s rash of ecard spam, and before that the spam claiming to have detected a virus or worm and which came with a zip file attached. In each instance, Storm was counting on your taking the desired action - opening the file, clicking the link to see the ecard, or, with this newest one, clicking the link to “change your password.”

You, of course, won’t do that, because you are smarter than that, and you read The Internet Patrol.

Here are some samples of this latest Storm spam:

Subject: Login Information

Welcome,

Welcome To Net Gambler.

Membership Number: 498166731
Temorary Login: user8761
Temp Password ID: xe852

Your temporary Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please login and change it.

Follow this Link: http://69.235.193.153/

Welcome,
Confirmation Dept.
Net Gambler

—

Subject: Member Details

Welcome,

Thank You for Joining Web Joker.

Member Number: 9963629872
Temorary Login: user9394
Your Password ID: kb607

Please keep your account secure by logging in and changing your login info.

Follow this Link: http://70.227.198.236/

Welcome,
Internet Support
Web Joker

—

Subject: Internet Techincal Support

Welcome,

Thank You for Joining Internet Dating.

Confirmation Number: 25139531572
Temp Login ID: user9605
Temorary Password: zg965

This Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please Change it.

Follow this Link: http://71.139.165.150/

Welcome,
New Member Services
Internet Dating

—

Subject: Registration Details

Greetings,

Thank You for Joining Poker World.

Account Number: 39762457939785
Login ID: user3139
Your Temp. Password ID: qu444

Please Change your login and change your Login Information.

Click on the secure link or paste it to your browser: http://83.23.187.11/

Enjoy,
New Member Technical Support
Poker World