Warning! Read this

[MP Guy]

Do not Open any emails from this website that have attachements. We do not send out emails with attachements. Such email is from a fradulant account with potential virus.

Thanks,

 

[bmattock]

Likewise, don't reply to e-mail that says your eBay/PayPal/whatever account has been compromised, just click here to restore your account privs. It's a fake website made to look like the 'real' one, and it will collect your credit card info and then it is bye-bye to your credit rating, your money, and whatever else they can steal. They'll open credit card accounts in your name and spend the max - and you'll be left trying to prove it wasn't you.

I can't believe the audacity of these crooks, but even more, I can't believe the people who innocently click on the links in these e-mails and blithely enter their credit card and ID information.

I don't open e-mail attachments unless I know the person sending it and was expecting it. I have and use virus scanning software - it catches at least 3 or 4 e-mails that have viruses attached to them EVERY SINGLE DAY! And I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, click on a hyperlink in an e-mail that says my eBay/PayPal/whatever account has been 'compromised'.

I'm sorry you're having the trouble - many people do not realize that anyone can send an e-mail that makes it appear to come from anyone else. People are too trusting.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[back alley]

this sure seems to be an increasing problem. i'm averaging about 8 of these type of e-mails a day lately.

at work we are constantly being warned about opening unknown e-mails. we have had several virus/worms because people just don't think and open them.

i'd love to get my hands on some of these hacker types.

joe

 

[Doug]

One benefit of the Mac's small market share seems to be that there's little interest in creating viruses to attack it. I'm told there are no known viruses targeting unix-based Mac OS-X.

There are a few viruses that attack OS 9 and earlier, and OS-X includes an installation of OS-9 for backward compatibility, so regular updates of McAfee Virex are still useful.

Of course Mac useres are equally vulnerable to hoaxes and identity theft!

 

[bmattock]

this sure seems to be an increasing problem. i'm averaging about 8 of these type of e-mails a day lately.

at work we are constantly being warned about opening unknown e-mails. we have had several virus/worms because people just don't think and open them.

i'd love to get my hands on some of these hacker types.

joe

Joe,

I'm with you - a long time ago, I was active in the anti-spam wars (even got interviewed on TV and radio, etc). Check my name on Google - I'm all over it like a rash. Not bragging - it's just part of my checkered past.

But nowadays, it's more than just spam. So much fraud! So many crooks! And all of them are trying to take advantage of one of two things - people's innocence of how the internet really works (OK, call it naivete), or people's innate greed.

I can't believe that people fall for those Nigerian bank fraud scams, but apparently, they do. I can't believe that people fall for those PayPal/eBay/Visa credit card scams, but they do.

Sometimes I think you oughta have a license before being allowed to roam out alone on the Internet!

And by the same token - those e-mail attachments with viruses attached - many of them claim to include nekkid pictures of this or that celebrity - and idiots click on them and whammo, they're infected.

What kind of moron clicks on those attachments? Isn't it COMMON KNOWLEDGE by now that you NEVER open an e-mail attachment from someone you don't know?

And why don't people buy and use virus scanners? They're cheap and they work! Duh!!!

But I certainly agree - if I ever catch a virus guy, he's toast. I'd start with his toenails and move up. With a claw hammer.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[oftheherd]

The people who write and who send virus email should be given long jail sentances or even longer public service requirements. The time and money spent clearing those can be enormous. I recently got one at work, that was targeted specifically at .gov web sites, as was obvious by the subject and body. It was cleverly made to look like several people had hit the reply all. Fortunately, by the time I got the first one, I was getting it on the blackberry, and it isn't smart enough to be eaten by a virus (yet). Who knows what will be next.

As to identity theft crooks, they should be put so far back in a jail they have to have sunlight pumped to them. I also got one of the ebay scams. What was most interesting was that I got it on my work email. That is not my email address with ebay, so I guess they were just broadcasting for suckers. Probably found some too. I don't know what if anything ebay did about it other than deny all involvement and say they weren't responsible. Big help that was.

 

[bmattock]

I suspect that eBay/PayPal (and others I've gotten similar e-mail scams about, like Chase Visa) are indeed doing a lot behind the scenes, they just won't talk to us consumers/victims about it. Especially eBay - their entire business model is based on trust, goodwill, and good faith. If eBay became known as a scam-machine (even though someone else was doing the scamming in their name), they'd be finished. Therefore, my suspicion is that they have specialists trying to track down these pigs and dig them out, root and branch. But they don't want to make a lot of noise about it when they catch them - they don't want that part of the public that has NOT heard about this scam to become aware that it even exists.

Just some thoughts, I could be wrong...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[oftheherd]

You may well be correct. It is difficult to believe they would not use all their resources to track down those miscreants.

 

[LionFlyer]

FYI, I looked at our Email gateway today. I asked it to tell me the number of emails Santa Barbara City College received which scanned positive for virus, worm or some other evil. Since June 1, we have detected over 12,800 infected emails. This is June 17th. And Email is just part of the risk. I just don't know how anyone without years of internet savy survives at all in this place. Our firewall logs record continuous scans and attempted exploits against our networks. Heaven help the soul who buys a computer and just plugs it into the internet. I give them about 10 minutes before they have some worm, zombie, or some other creepiness on their system. Have you checked out what you are running on your computers lately?

 

[RML]

LionFlyer is right. My firewall detects about 300-400 unwarranted scans against my ports each day. On a particularly bad day this could run upto 1500 scans. I'm flabbergasted that the ISP's don't go after these IP-addresses and alert the member to check their pc for virii, worms, etc.

The amount of email that I receive with attachements, and that I never asked for or come from people I didn't even know existed, is staggering. Depending on which email account I'm talking about it runs from a handful to 40-50. Most of these emails get filtered and end up in my garbage box but still some get through. The emails that supposedly come from eBay or Paypal are all directly forwarded to spoof@eBay.com or spoof@Paypal.com, just to have them verified. I have yet to receive a legitimate eBay or Paypal email. My advice would be to discard any email that seems to originate from eBay or Paypal (unless of course you're bidding on an item or have correspondence with these companies).