Just in time to make Memorial Day weekend really memorable, both AOL and Yahoo Instant Messengers are being targeted, the former by an Internet worm, the latter by a phishing scam.
“hehe i found this funny movie”, says your AOL AIM Instant Messenger buddy. Only it’s not really your buddy, and it’s not really a funny movie. In fact it’s not funny at all. Nor is it a movie. It’s an Internet worm which burrows into your system, then connects to an IRC server, where it continues to replicate itself. (Anybody remember “Tremors”?)
Over at Yahoo, the phishers who are targeting their instant messenger program also send a link which appears to be coming from a buddy through your Instant Messenger. This link says “Star Games”, and were you to click on the link (of course you won’t, will you?) you would be taken to a site which looks very much like a Yahoo-sponsored site, and asked to log in. Of course, if you log in you will have given the phishers the keys to your Yahoo account.
With all this holiday cheer being spread, what more excuse do you need to go out and enjoy the sunshine this Memorial Day?
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My yahoo messenger is in trouble!!! Someone sent me a link that sys my pc is infected with a virus and then it has a link which i clicked on (STUPID!!) then it brought me to site which looked like an advertisement site. Then when I started using my YM, several messages started to be sent to my contacts which appears to be sent by me.. although I know that I didn’t send anyone any messages yet. The messages that were being sent to my contacts were also becoming my “status” on my YM. Please help me how to get rid of this thingie!!! I can’t use my YM normally as I have before because of this pest. Let this be lesson for me. So plese help me!! Thanks so much!!