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The “Your Facebook account has been disabled by an administrator” Scam

If you get an email telling you that “your Facebook account has been disabled by an administrator”, don’t fall for it! It’s a scam, and the link in the email goes not to Facebook, but to yet another Canadian pharmacy site selling male enhancement drugs.

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Spam from Jerry Miller of First Working Capital Group

Did you get spam from Jerry Miller of First Working Capital Group? The spam may have come from “JM.FWC@ymail.com” or “JMillerFWC@email.com”, or maybe even another email address, and with a subject of “Please Review” or “Proposal Attached”, but the rest of the content is the same. It starts out “If your company finds itself short of cash and unable to secure working capital from traditional lenders, we can help,” and goes on from there. Interestingly, Mr. Miller (if he indeed exists) is not the only one responsible for this spam – under CAN-SPAM, First Working Capital Group is as responsible for spam sent out on their behalf. So register your displeasure by contacting them at their whois contact address (it’s only fair, after all), at jeff@internetsalesresults.com.

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The Uniform Traffic Ticket Spam Scam

Countless people have opened their email this week to be told that “The person described above is charged as follows” in what claims to be a traffic ticket with the “violation” of “Speed Over 55 Zone” Examples we’ve seen have supposedly come from the New York State Polic (such as from automailer.-093@nyc.gov), but it doesn’t matter where it comes from, it’s not real, and the included file is not your ticket – it’s a virus. Don’t open it!

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Twitter Spam Flood Hawks Work from Home Scam

Twitter has been the vector for a flood of work-from-home scam spams this week, as followers of hacked accounts found dozens of copies of the “I snagged $217 in just a few hours online. learned how to do it from {link to scam}” type of spam coming at them via direct message. The link goes to a faked NBC article that touts “How did this stay at home mom make $13900+/Month.. We Investigate..” and that cleverly makes note of the geographic location (geolocation) of your IP address and customizes the article to make it seem as if the single mom is from your own town.

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New Facebook Virus Spam Offers “Click 2 See Your Stalkers”

“OMG! Its unbeliveable now you can get to know who views your facebook.”. Did someone post that on your Facebook wall? If so, whatever you do, don’t click the link that says “CLICK 2 SEE YOUR STALKERS”!! Yes, it’s just another in a round of Facebook virus spams.

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The “Vote for Nicole Santos” Spam on Facebook – DON’T Click That Link!

Nicole Santos is getting quite a name for herself, and deservedly so. Her name has been spammed all across Facebook, in wall posts that are full of profanities, and also almost always exhort the spammed to “Vote for Nicole Santos”. The trick, of course, is that at the bottom of the post, next to the “Comment” and “See Friendship” links, is a link to “Remove this app”. Because the language in the wall posts is so foul, one’s first instinct is to hit that link as quickly as possible – but don’t click that link because that is how the virus infects your machine. (There is also a similar virus spam going around Facebook right now that exhorts you to “Please do your part in PREVENTING SPAM by VERIFYING YOUR ACCOUNT. Click VERIFY MY ACCOUNT right next to comment below to begin the verification process”.)

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Are You Guilty of these Facebook Faux Pas?

Here are two things that you should never do to your Facebook friends: create a Facebook group and add them to it without asking, or tag them in one of your photos unless you have a really good reason to. Why should you never do these two things? Because it can cause your Facebook friends to have their inboxes overridden with completely irrelevant Facebook notifications that they don’t want. What sort of friend would do that to their friends?

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Sudden Influx of Japanese Spam Following Japan Earthquake

There are reports of a huge increase in the amount of Japanese spam following the massive 9.0 earthquake, the aftershocks, and the tsunamis that battered Japan over the past weekend. There are several theories as to why the marked increase in spam from Japanese addresses and servers, ranging from “all hell breaking out” to “spammers, like cockroaches, can survive anything.”

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Google Groups Abused for New Rash of Spam

If you have suddenly found yourself receiving oodles of spam as a “member” of a Google group for which you never signed up, well, you’re not alone. This tactic, while not new, seems to be experiencing a resurgence, as newly minted spammers discover that you can force-subscribe someone to a Google group, and all posts to any Google groups to which they have been subscribed will end up in their email inbox. A perfect example of this Google Groups abuse is the Google group “All About Ads”, which appears to have been created by spammer Jyotish Khanna, and which can be found at
http://groups.google.com/group/all-about-ads and, of course, in the inbox of unsuspecting targets.

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Two Massive Spam Runs Hit Internet Today

Two massive spam runs were unleashed on the Internet today, and odds are very good that you will receive at least one of the two. Either you will be offered the opportunity to “Buy Cheap Watches (Rado,Rolex) and other products!”, or you will be told that you have received an “Electronic Federal Tax Payment System Notification number” (with some number appended at the end). Or, perhaps you’ll be extra-popular and receive both spams.

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Did You Get an SMS Text Message from TM-GodsGift? It’s a Scam

There is a series of SMS text message spams going around right now, from TM-GODSGIFT, that has people wondering. The messages from TM GodsGift say that you have won money – usually in the Coca Cola lottery or the Exxon Mobile draw. It’s all spam – it’s all a scam. You can ignore it – or you can report it. But whatever you do, don’t respond to a message from TM GodsGift.

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Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to Start Charging Users for Processing Spam Addressed to Users

A group of U.S.-based Internet service providers (ISPs) have announced that they are going to start charging their email users for processing the spam that is addressed to them. As the deluge of spam continues unabated, ISPs are seeking new ways to help offset the cost of processing the trillions of pieces of junk email that they are keeping out of their customers’ inboxes (or, in some cases, still delivering to their customers’ inbox or junk folder).

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The Western Union Money Transfer Scam Spam

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!

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Fake Amazon Cancellation Email Hides Canadian Pharmacy Spam Links

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 https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/, which redirects to https://web.archive.org/web/20211230152715/http://weightbreezy.com/, which is a Canadian pharmacy spam site.

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On Canter and Siegel and the Green Card Spam

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.