A fake Microsoft email urges users to install the latest Windows update, and even links and takes them to a site which sure seems to be a real Microsoft website. But it isn’t. And the email actually leads to the installation of a trojan horse file. The payload file is…

A particularly effective phishing scam has targeted Yahoo Messenger this week. The reason it is so successful is because the phishing scam involves the Yahoo Messenger user being sent an IM message which appears to come from someone on the user’s Yahoo Messenger buddy list. Ouch. The message suggests that…

Have you heard about Adsense “click fraud”? It’s one of the latest Internet scams. Click fraud has been in the news a lot lately, and with good reason. Click fraud accounts for 10-20% of all clicks on Internet ads such as Adsense, and by some estimate click fraud accounts for…

A group calling themselves “Artists Against 419” are asking Windows users to take part in their Mugu Marauder “art” project and take down the scam sites hosted by so-called “419 scammers”. The “Mugu” in “Mugu Marauder” apparently is the term which the 419 scammers themselves use for an intended victim…

From Across the Pond, courtesy of Chris Hunter over at Spamfo: Christopher Pierson, the sick man who sent a hoax mail to tsunami victim’s friends and relatives, has been sentenced today to 6 months in prison. Spamfo published the article previously entitled ‘Man pleads guilty to sick Tsunami hoax emails’,…

Some of you may recall that Aunty told you about Christopher Pierson, the British man who skulked about the tsunami disaster support boards, and wrote to those who were looking for loved ones feared lost in the disaster that, indeed, their loved ones had perished (sick b*st*ard. Oops…did Aunty say…

The newest spam scam to hit eBay users is a spam which is infected with what is known as a “keylogger”. When a user opens the infected email, which then has them log into their eBay account, it can record the keystrokes typed by the user, capturing the user’s account…

Some people are sick. Really sick. But Christopher Pierson, of London, England really takes the cake. Pierson, a 40-year-old father of two (oh my, his poor children), was arrested and arraigned yesterday for sending spam to those known to be looking for lost loved ones, in the wake of last…

Lx_CATS is a Lexmark printer file, installed by Lexmark, which spies on your printer usage and reports back to the Lexmark mother ship.

We all know about spam, spyware, viruses and phishing. But these pale by comparison with (and indeed are the supporting cast for) the mother of all Internet incursions: extortion of online businesses.

Sick of spam? Phed up with phishing? Nagged out by the Nigerians? Have we got a treat for you! If you haven’t been over to the Ze Frank site before, or even if you have, and if you’re ready for a little light-hearted spam relief – ready to laugh at…

Is there anyone here who hasn’t been at least a little curious at one time or another – what would happen if someone actually responded to one of the Nigerian 419 scam emails – you know, the ones where the spammer contacts you claiming to represent the fortunes of a…