Why I do not click "Here" in emails and why you should to!!

 

tools4technow.com

That isn’t going to happen!!

It isn’t like I do not know what might happen, but before I even did anything I check out the link by looking up the domain which if you want to check out what I see you will see the there isn’t really a main site link at the top of the Google search.   Odd isn’t it, well I then looked at the urls that was after the domain name and I found:>

/-wqs-/generallaborer.com/Free/GetStarted.asp?aff=F7288B41-CC5D-4D08-B06C-FB03EF98DEFB

As you can see it looks to be a redirect to “generallaborer.com” with an Affiliate link that means someone gets paid for links that use that link.   You can tell that someone gets paid by the “AFF=”.   I also have my own affiliate links but you will know when I put a link on my site that pays me money when you use my link to buy stuff with.

Spam

It appears to be a scam or a way someone makes money when you sign up with a link to that site.   I do know know what actually happens because I did not click on those links.   I can only assume that it was a link spam and not a scam but I will never truly know and I am not really worried about that type of help from people who try to make money off you without telling you.   

You rarely know what the links really go to from emails.   They can be masked or hidden and you could even get a virus on your computer as easily as you can get one just surfing the net.   It could also make you think your are logging into a site you visit often but in truth you are giving your password away to someone who will use it for all sorts of purposes.   These are the main I will never click on links without some looking up of the domain in question.   You should never click links that your are not expecting or from people who you do not know!   Each one of these should be a first step to prevent something terrible from happening to you or your computer.

Ask the Readers: How do you fight text spam?

Text spam is a constant problem!

Lately I've been getting a lot of text spam for the Walmart spam in my text message box!  I've really gotten mad at AT&T because it seems that I've had nothing but spam from AT&T numbers.  I even tried to explain that to a local AT&T store but they kept trying to tell me what the customer does is their own problem.  In other words, we aren't the problem type of deal.  I even suggested that they might have a Security Issue where as people have found my Number through their database and I got shot down at that one too.  I'm sure they think they are like Apple and nothing could ever happen to their network.  I'm sure that is far from the truth in their network but I will let the engineers figure that one out!

Nothing but the Truth!

I've been getting only AT&T numbers sending spam to me and I'm quite confused, if they don't have issues then why are spammers using their network.  So far every number, that I've looked up in my little app has said that it was Cingular Network, LLC and thus I've not seen any spam from any other network since I've started using my HTC Android Phone on the AT&T network!  The local customer support said, that I wasn't on their network but Straight Talk, but yet the APN's that I used are ATT and not Straight Talk.  Boy, the people should keep up with other cellular networks.  

Don't Text Stop!

When I went into the local AT&T store, the guy suggested that I reply with the word "STOP" but I'm telling you that is the worst idea possible.  I didn't sign up to get this spam so I don't know what the spammer will do when he realizes that I've read his message and also received it.   Will he tell other spammers my number and enroll me in even more spam without my permission.  I always encourage people not let the spammer know you read and received their spam message.  Your best bet is to report it and hopefully that will slow or stop the spam all together.  I can however forward the message to SPAM (7726) since I'm on the AT&T network and report the number  that way.  I found that out talking to the guy, so at least I found an easier way to report a number on the AT&T network!

So it's your turn!

I'm wondering if there is an easier way to fight spam or is this going to be a constant problem.  I will be doing a followup blog post with people's comments or if they have more questions than answers that they would like me to discuss in detail about.  If you've got a question that you can't seem to figure out.  I encourage you to ask it here and I'll be sure to discuss it in one of my following blog posts.  This post is all about you and what you want to discuss to me or others and maybe we can come up with some unique ways to fight spam or solve a problem that you have!  If you don't ask, I can't help.  So start typing and contact me directly or indirectly by leaving a comment. 

Paul Sylvester

How Fake Antivirus writers try to fool you

Three ways on how to NOT waste your Money!

Companies Just don’t Get it about Spam!

Referrer Spam is a Big Problem!

As you can see this referrer spam is really malevolent, because of how many times it tries to hit my webpage.   It is on different IPS but they wanted to make sure I know about http://dentistinbrooklyn.org and the Address:

Thanks to one of the referrers, if you look closely you will see one for Google Maps and that Brings here:

Best Dentist In Brooklyn
718-544-4545 (866) 690-2935‎
9644 brooklyn st
Brooklyn, NY 11234

As you can see this company paid some other company to ADVERTISE For them without thinking of the consequences of the questionable company can bring your business to it’s Knees. I don’t say this lightly just by talking about this company and how it is doing business by doing a Refferrer Spam makes the company look bad in my eyes and probably gives you a bad taste in your mouth. When people spam, it makes me wonder just how trustworthy they are. I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone and you shouldn’t either!! If your looking for a Good trustworthy Dentist, I would recommend checking the Christian Blue Pages and looking their!!


I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you'll like them!

Five ways to reduce spam in your Comments — From my perspective

With there being so many different ways to rid you self from comment spam. I figured I would suggest some ways to help reduce your spam. On Growmaps Post about Akismet, We were discussing some ways to help reduce spam in her comment moderation and I wanted to post about what I use to help reduce the bots from posting. Anyone can do this because of all the problems we are having with Akismet, I have disabled that on my blog and I haven’t looked back yet.

Having been working to minimize my spam intake.   I have talked about about some email spam problems in the past.  Although there are many reasons why you get spam, the main reason is for someone trying to make money from something they want you to buy or even install!!

As you can see that image I have up shows you the type of spam I get and you probably like me asking yourself why are they trying to leave those comments.   I think I know but this is to help those who might want to get rid of some of the most common comment spam.

• Bad Behavior Plugin — I am using this plugin with conjunction with my Project Honey Pot to help harvest those bad guys.   This little plugin works in conjunction with Project Honey Pot to determine if it is posting same comments from the same IP.  You will need http:BL API Key to get Bad Behavior to talk to each other.


• Project Honey Pot — You should understand, there are more than the API KEY.   I installed a few Honeypots on my server to help other content management systems administrators help collect data of possible comment spammers.  This helps others who are trying to fight spam see if there are other sites that this IP is commenting on!!  The more who sign up and install their own honeypots the better off the community is in the long run.


• WP-Recaptcha — Now this works with logins and Comments to help reduce the amount of possible bots.   Although it is somewhat harder for comments to be written by a true person.   This helps reduce bots but won’t reduce them to much.   You should also protect your Wp-admin subdirectory by using this to help detour scripts from dictionary attacking your password.


• WP-BAN –  This is proactive solution from just sitting back and doing nothing.   Here you can watch spam and figure out which IP’s are making the most comment spams and prevent them from even accessing your website.   This is great because this will alert the user who has an infected system that can’t access your site and to email the admin.   I haven’t had one of the banned IPS to send me email yet.   So either they don’t want to get on my blog or they are just bots.


• Comment Spamtrap — This is almost like Project Honey Pot but instead these are hidden to all real users and bots who fill in these forms are reading from HTML and not from the screen. If you fill in all the forms then you will be consider a spammer. So it automatically deletes them or marks them as spam. These are the one that I use to help detour spam bots.

You have to understand in order to fight spam you have to find more than one way to block spam.   I will not be going back to Akismet because I feel I fight back with spam and figure block the ones that I know are spam commenter.     You got to give your comments almost a firewall for bots to get past to get to post comments but there are no guarantees that this will work on all blogs but I do think it is working well with me because of the spam I haven’t gotten in the past few months.   I hope this blog post has helped you and if you know a blogger who is having problems with spam send them to this page.

Have a Good Monday, See you Wednesday!!

I get my glasses from GlassesUSA. They have a Satisfaction Guarantee and evenPrescription Sunglasess for when your out doors. Give them a try, and I know you'll like them!

How to know if the scareware warning is real or not:

I got an email from someone who wants not to be named asking how do I know if these sites that I have talked about like [intlink id="4348" type="post"]Defenderpageblock.com[/intlink], [intlink id="4346" type="post"]Spywaredomainlist.com[/intlink], [intlink id="4328" type="post"]adwaredomainlists.com[/intlink], [intlink id="4344" type="post"]badwaredomainlists.com[/intlink], [intlink id="4342" type="post"]browserdefenderlist.com[/intlink], [intlink id="4339" type="post"]malicioussitesblock.com[/intlink], and [intlink id="4337" type="post"]browserliveprotection.com[/intlink] are fake warning sites because of how the site handles the URL presented.   Let me give you a few example urls to see what I mean:

http://defenderpageblock.com/block.php?id=2006-54&url=http://paulstechtalk.com/scareware-adviser-from-defenderpageblock-com/

http://browserliveprotection.com/block.php?id=2024-4&url=http://paulstechtalk.com/2008/12/microsoft-readys-to-layoff-around-15000-workers.html/

http://malicioussitesblock.com/block.php?id=2006-54&url=http://paulstechtalk.com/2009/08/list-of-malware-sites-for-aug-24-2009.html/

http://spywaredomainlists.com/block.php?id=2018-2&url=http://paulstechtalk.com/2009/08/scareware-adviser-from-spywaredomainlists-com.html/

http://adwaredomainlists.com/block.php?id=2031&url=http://paulstechtalk.com/2009/04/pc-speedscan-pro-a-bad-idea.html/

[ad]Now as you can see al these have an identification number probably like an affiliate link and then the url of the site that is supposed to be bad or have malicious in some way.  So what do you do when you see these types of warning pop up and you would like to know if this real.   Here are some things to try to see if it is real or not:

• change the url it is going to, try Google or some other site that you know isn't malicious and see what happens.   You will notice it will say the same exact same thing.


• Check out Stopbadware.org --  Google uses this service for there search results so this would be more reliable and check out the warning domain to see what it says then also check out the domain and website in question.


• Check out Phishtank.com --  Firefox likes to use this resource for reporting fraud, fake, or Phishing sites and also for sites that are dangerous to  the people who use Firefox.

Most of the time, you will see this happen when you are search for the site like [intlink id="4348" type="post"]Defenderpageblock.com[/intlink] it will use a key word and pop up because they don't want you to remove this scareware or sometimes called badware.   So if you do a search for the site that keeps popping up and you click on a link the site in question will sometimes try to prevent you from figuring out how to remove it.    All these sites mentioned are associated one way or another to [intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink] and should be removed.

So if your getting these types of warnings, I would recommend downloading:

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

Please Link to my site emails

From time to time I get emails asking me to link to there sites because of one thing or another. I have no problem linking to sites that I think have valuable information, but when I get email to link to sites that are really new I have a problem.

[ad]In the email he talks about how his business got scammed out of 6,000$ dollars and how he just created the site four weeks earlier due to how out raged he is that his business got scammed for so much money.

As you may have noticed this site that still remains unnamed because I am uncomfortable with adding the link to my site. Now I won't say anything bad about [intlink id="4110" type="post"]creating a site[/intlink], and I am sure it was something like the [intlink id="1417" type="post"]Check cashing scam[/intlink] I came across a few months ago and talked about.

So I wanted to talk about how to get people to come to you site:

• Submit your Site to search engines --  This is the first step to getting people to find your site.   Some sites to submit to for free are Pingomatic, Ask.com, and Yahoo.   These are the three that I suggest starting off to have Search engines finding your site.  All other search engines will come to your site over time.


• Create informative posts --  This is also very important creating posts that people will link to your site is the most important step to building your website.   If you create posts people have heard about on other sites your site will not be put on the front of Google searches.   If you don't have links coming from other sites, you will not get any search engine visitors to your site.


• Don't ask to be linked in the early stages of a new site --  That is just asking for web owners to ignore you and not link to your site.   if they see it is a new they will not want to support it because of the possible spam retribution that will happen with Google if they are a spam site building links.  This is why it is more important to build your links naturally and not beg for links.


• Link to other sites --  This is sometimes called the "Buddy system".   Linking to sites will most likely cause the site to link back and sometimes throwing out links to sites also help you build links to your site.

Although these are just a few ways to increase readership and visibility towards your website population.   You can find more ideas and information ways to build your website at Seobook.com, which has some great ideas to generate links to your site.

List of Fake AV sites for Aug 22, 2009

If you know anything about the Malware writers they are always registering new domains and here is the newest ones they are using:

[intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink]:

• antispywarebestscanner.com
[ad]

• professionalvirusscanv3.com


• professionalcomputerscanv2.com


• scan-your-pc-now.com


• professionalspywarescanv8.com

[intlink id="4217" type="post"]Internet Antivirus Pro Scareware[/intlink]:

• hopest.info


• suffic.info


• cressy.info


• unowed.info


• inclin.info

[intlink id="3977" type="post"]Rogue Antivirus scareware sites[/intlink]:

• securitytoolsite.com (Fake Scanner)


• webscansecurepc.com (Fake Scanner)

[ad#Scarewaresitesrecommend]

[rating:4/5]

[ad#Scarewaresitesrecommend1]

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

List of Malware sites for Aug 21, 2009

It has been kinda busy today for the Antivirus scareware sites but here they are.

[intlink id="3607" type="post"]Personal Antivirus Scareware Site[/intlink]:

• check-for-malwarev3.com


• safeonlinescannerv4.com

[intlink id="4217" type="post"]Internet Antivirus Pro Scareware[/intlink]:

• fatuus.info

[intlink id="3977" type="post"]Rogue Antivirus scareware sites[/intlink]:

• antivirusplus2010.com


• mybestantivirusplus.com


• internetantivirusplus.com


• antivirusplus09.com


• antivirus-plus-now.com


• yesantivirusplus.com


• goodantivirusplus.com


• i-antivirusplus.com


• nextantivirusplus.com


• antivirusplus-ok.com


• getavplusnow.com


• antivirusplusnow.com


• getantivirusplusnow.com


• realantivirusplus09.com


• freeantivirusplus09.com


• addedantivirusstore.com


• addedantivirusonline.com


• myplusantiviruspro.com


• yourcountedantivirus.com


• easyaddedantivirus.com


• addedantiviruslive.com


• addedantiviruspro.com

[ad#Scarewaresitesrecommend]

[rating:4/5]

[ad#Scarewaresitesrecommend1]

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

Twitter Spam for Cari-weightloss

I was doing my usual checking out what people are talking about and I see Cari-Wieghtloss.net, Cari-Weightloss.com, and Cari-Weightloss.org.

Going to the Pages I see:

I already once talked about the [intlink id="3638" type="post"]Acai Berry Twitter spam[/intlink], but this talks about another product that is part of the Plan call "ColonCure" which if you look into they have had some complaints about them.   I even found more from the Rip-off Report's, talking about taking the money out of your account.  There are two links in this page that point go to these products.  They both come from the domain meet-google.com, which I must warn you is not associated with Google.com.  I did more research on Acai Berry but I will let you read what people have to say about that.

[ad]Each of those sites have a clause where they have not be evaluated by the FDA(Food and Drug Administration).   Also they either say out right that you will have to pay for shipping or don't say at all.   If anything says anything about these companies until they have been tested by the FDA, I would recommend people not try these products because of the possible side effects or complications that may result in the combination of the two drugs.  I'm not a doctor but I can tell there is something fishy with at least on product and if I find one there will usually be more.

*UPDATE*

I have done more research and I am seeing most of these accounts only have 1 or two tweets, which means they are just bots.   I also see others who don't do there research because they want to think this will be a quick fix for weight loss.   There are some that makes me think they might of been hacked or got their password stolen.   I would message the person asking if they really put that comment up?  If they didn't I would recommend them changing there password!!  If I find out more I'll let you know!!

*UPDATE #2*

Looks like this is hacked accounts.   If you see someone sending this out send them to my site so they know all about this.  If it is your account you should change your password as soon as possible and go back and delete those links from your twitter account.

Why you can't run Antivirus or Taskmanager!

Photo by : Kristi Evans

As you know there has been more and more virus writers and scammers who don't want you to interfere with the ultimate plan.   You see the two major plans these people have are:

1. [intlink id="2811" type="post"]To use your computer as a Botnet[/intlink] --  This is most common because the Command and Control server is where they tell these other computers what to do weather send spam or do a denial of Service attack on a website.  Although this is the most common it isn't however the easiest to get rid of rid.   Far be it from being easy these virus writers want to keep a foot hold on your system.   This is like the SG-1 the "Foothold" Situation, they try to look like there is nothing wrong.


2. [intlink id="3805" type="post"]Fake Antivirus software[/intlink] -- This is the other common reason why you can't load up Taskmanager or SUPERantispyware/Malwarebytes.   It could even prevent AVG,  Norton Antivirus, and Other Antivirus software from being loaded at boot up.  Because most Antivirus software can detect this type of scareware.   The scammers want to make as much money as they can so they don't want the End user to be able to stop the program from scaring you into buying the fake product.  It could also have a [intlink id="3872" type="post"]Scareware Adviser[/intlink] trying to get you to buy the fake product!

As you can see these are what I call the Prime "2" reasons why you can't run your Antivirus software, although there is a way around this.   I have found loading up in Safe Mode to be the easiest way to run antivirus scans on an infected system.   Although this can be difficult to do it, however it helps prevent these programs from loading up in more ways then one.  If you can go download the Antivirus programs from another computer and have them to install once you load up in safe mode.   You should also think about installing other software like a [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Firewall even the Free firewalls[/intlink] are the better than Microsoft's Firewall.

[ad]The other options for those tech savy people who know what a hard drive is and how to remove it, is to mount it onto another system as a slave and then run your antivirus software on the hard drive in question.   This however shouldn't be done unless two conditions are met:

1. You Know what you doing --  Again if you don't know what your doing please don't try this.  It could hurt your system far more than you can know.   If you don't know how to do this you should take it to a professional and let them do the work for you.


2. Out of Warranty -- Yep that is right if this has a 2 year or longer warranty and you open up the hardware you automatically void the warranty on anything to do with your system.  So it is best to have someone who is qualified warranty specialist to open it up.  This way you still have your warranty on the system and if something does go wrong in the shop, they can fix it easier than a novice.

If you know what your doing this can be an easy process or it can be a hard process it only depends on how knowledgeable you are and how far you are willing to go.   Although there are [intlink id="2955" type="post"]some viruses that require you to just start over[/intlink].  This is because they have embedded so deeplyinto the system that removing them will ruin your Windows system and prevent it from booting in the first place.  This is the last option, if you have a system who has been overrun with virus and spyware it might be time to reinstall the Operating system.  This is what I call the end all way to get rid of the Virus, Trojan, Or spyware on your system.   If you do this you will need to make sure to install all the Microsoft updates before you do anything else.  Also you will need to [intlink id="2205" type="page"]re-install any Firewalls and Antivirus[/intlink] software to better protect your system from having the virus in the first place.

Canadian Pharmacy at it again : ownsouthme.com

I received an email that got past my email settings and here it is:

Hi there,

Because of the economic crisis, things are not going well for online business. So here is a pharmacy which sells % 60 cheaper than other stores on the net. If you have pharmaceutical needs, try them before they go out of stock. You may read the advertisement below if you are interested :

[ad]No doctor needed anymore! Get what you want easy and faster than ever before!
We have all the best medicines of the industry packed and waiting for your order!
Of course we got the best blue men's friends and we sell them with the hugest discount right now!
More about us:
- Man's Health, Anti-Depressants, Antibiotics, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Diuretic medicines
- Pain, Sexual Health, Erectile dysfunction, Sleep Aids and Weight Loss medicines
- Worldwide shipping
- % 60 cheaper than other pharmacies (limited with stocks)
- Always full anonymity
- Always making you a happy customer!

Choose us and you will feel well: Always!

hxxp://www.ownsouthme.com

As you can tell if you went to the site it would be a redirect domain and go to greatpharmtraditions.com.  I've talked about [intlink id="3680" type="post"]Canadian Pharmacies[/intlink] in the past but there are a few things to look at to prove that it is a fact.  I did a Search for the phone on the bottom of the screen to see what pops up and you will be amazed at what is on the first Google search page.   A Rip-off Report about how they sent Generics and not the real deal.   I also did a whois look up of  greatpharmtraditions.com and the site is located in Russia.   There are others who have blogged about the phone number in question at the bottom of the screen, so yo must be careful where you buy your medications.  As always it is simply far less risky to buy them from you local pharmacy.   If you have any doubts the best bet is not to do it in the first place.

Antivirus System Pro -- Just another Scareware

In One of my Previous rants I talked about [intlink id="3761" type="post"]Antivirus System Pro[/intlink].  I finally found a site that tried to scare me into downloading critical software updates.

As you can see this site is Spyware-scan-for-free.com but what is most important is that it actually tells you the truth before you install it.   "Some Security Vulnerabilities detected with High probability.  It May damage your files or steal you person and financial information."  This one site is trying to you make you think you are install critical updates but in reality it is probably do what it states  by clicking the OK.

Although I talked about how to remove this, I would like to talk about just how bad it is to download "Critical security updates" from unknown or untrusted sites. Although most people usually do Google for keywords like "Antivirus System pro" or "Spyware-scan-for-free.com. I will tell you that if you think you have a security problem to go to the Windows update and see if there is an update that need to be applied.

Threat to System : Moderate

[rating:4/5]

Advice : Do a Complete system scan and make sure you don't have any more hidden malware. Most of the time if you have one Trojan, you usually have more.

I recommend :

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]

Spoof Spam from Skype users

I got a strange email from Skype:

Click to Enlarge

As you can tell this is spam but it got through my spam filters because the spammers are actually spoofing the email address.  Upon further inspection of the headers of the message I have found this came from a Black Hole IANA.org name server.   Then when I did some even more investigation on this, I found that they are seeing more and more of Email Spoofing for Skype. Which if you went to that URL (Websweetness.com) you will not like what you see.   IT is an Adult site but that is besides the point.  I am betting the spammers are trying to fool the spam filters to make sure this get through.  I talked about the [intlink id="3566" type="post"]Skype Bots[/intlink] before and this seems to be another way they are using Skype for there spam campaigns.

Skype is getting to be used by almost everyone who has internet so this is a good bet that people will get even more spam from spammers who are trying to get around the spam filters.  Until Skype fixes this problem, you can go into Email settings and uncheck "Skype can contact me when someone adds me as a contact".   Although I would like to prevent this totally until they add a way for me to only receive messages from people on my contacts through email this will always be problem until they do that.

Remember if this got through there are a number of things that could also get through such as A Phishing attempt, Scam, or even an Exploit link to have software installed on your system.  So I will always caution people in clicking links they don't know where they go and not everything from friends are always going to safe.  I would recommend people download some good [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Anti-virus and Firewall[/intlink] software to better protect your system and make sure you surf the web a little more safer.

Those get rich quick schemes are doubtful

I was on Twitter and I saw this message from someone I am following.   Talking about how to make 171,161.08 a month.

[gallery link="file" orderby="title"]

Ok before we go any further you would have to see the name Oprah Winfrey (see Above for Photo of Account) just like the name of the [intlink id="3501" type="post"]one who just came on to twitter[/intlink].    Now is this a true name or just a fake account?  I'll let you decide that because it looks like it is just random tweets with the same URL.    This to me is looking more and more like spam.  Back to the site, it is call Maverick Money Makers.

[ad]As you can tell this is like every other get rich page I've seen trying to tell you will make insane amount of money in a few minutes a day.  So I decide to go to another page unrelated to this page and you will get.

So now this is what keeps making me wonder if it isn't just a scam because Like the virus alerts you get where they try to keep you on the page.   I've also did some research and find that there was a post about this being a scam on Yahoo Answers but strangely it was deleted.   I don't know how long that cache copy of the question will be there, so I took pictures of the questions and answers to better help you decide for your self about why it was deleted.  See The gallery pictures for more information.

I won't say if it is actually a scam or not but everything that I've seen tries to get you to buy this stuff and tries to make you think you will make money easily.   My thought of this is that you will never make money quick and you will have to work hard for it.   I expect this blog to make money later on down the road like other blogs that have been on the net for a long time.  I however know that making money from the internet is never quick.   Everything I've made takes time and effort on my part.

The behind the scenes of the bad guys

Photo by freezelight

Have you ever wondered how they find out your Email address or even find out your name or so called shipping address.   I've been wondering that for quite some time and have went researching online for the reason.  You see I've been getting spam email with my name and address  like this "Possible Check Pending [Last Name] [Mailing Address] Sender : Pam [Last Name]"

That email was a "Kevin Hoeffer" scam that advertise getting you money from Google, called the Cash Secret club.   Suffice it to say that the Rip of Reports all say this is a scam.  Seems they try to fool you into paying $1.99 and then charge an extra $98 after you give them your information.  The Domain that I looked up is protected by Whoisguard.com.  So I reported to them about this spam, this is a sure way to get off there list.  Reporting spam will black list you from getting spam because to there major providers.  That cost them money, if everyone did that the spammers would be stopped.  Although I think society as a whole isn't even trying to fight the spam this way they just try to keep it under control.  I believe that if 10% of the spam is reported then we are making the spammers and scammers  pay for their misdeeds.

[ad]So I went searching for the reason behind how they got my information and I found Email Finder, which offers people email address or it offers to find out all that is out there to find about the particular email address.  Such as Name, last known address, social networks, and it goes on.  They do have an Opt-out policy where you can request not be listed, I advise everyone to go check and see if your listed.  You would have to pay to get the information but I if you see the screen where they said they have found information that is enough for me to opt out.   Actually it only cost the scammers and spammers $1.95 a month to use this service so they are making money in the long run.  You should also do an SEO Search on your email address  in Yahoo, Google, Bing and Other services to see if your email is out on the web.

There is a FAQ file on how Spammers Get your Email address, I strongly recommend people at least looking at it because it is still quite relevant to today's spam.  I've also seen ways to Detect spam by using Bayesian filter but most companies now a days are using that from the get go.   Remember only you can prevent spam and from getting scammed, So do your research.

Canadian Pharamacies not from Canada!!

I got an Email that happen to get past the spam filters and wanted to talk about it.   The Email goes like this:

Hi there
Hey where have you been recently ? I could not get any news from you for a long time. Anyway, I found a decent pharmacy store from google last week. I decided to give a shot because it was Canada Licensed Drugstore. Well the prices were % 65 cheaper than the local pharmacies in my region. So I took a chance. I took my medicines in my hand 3 days after i ordered and they were packed very well as they claimed that they provide full anonymity. Needless to say medicines are legit and they give me what i want :) If you need any medicine without any prescription, give it a try until the discount ends.
Take care of yourself. I included the url below. See you later.

http://www.guidefabledme.com

Several things makes me wonder where it stands out that this is just spam. Here are some examples:

• the word Google -- It isn't capitalised and that should be capilitized.


• Bad Grammar -- This shows me this isn't even close to Canada, I'll explain later in this article.


• Makes it sounds like I know the person --  Again this email tries to socialize and makes you think you know the person.

[ad]The first untrusted relay in  this email is the the Url Redirect, the instant you click on that you are transported to perfectpharmstart.com which isn't even located in Canada.   If you check the whois on this domain you will see it is [intlink id="3141" type="post"]located in Russia[/intlink].

So the "Canadian Licensed Drugstore" isn't real in the sentenced because It is nowhere close to the Canada.  I looked around the website and find there is this number "(210) 888-9089".   I read what people posted on the forums they were calling this a scam.   I do not know if it is or not but I do know you are far better getting your drugs from your local pharmacy and not even trying to order online.  You don't know what they will send your is the right stuff.  Also if you want to contact them just click on the Contact  us, but you won't find any information there it will be a web form.

So let's go over this again, I get an email from a Verizon User which shows a the guidefabledme.com is in the US, but the Redirect goes to a Russian server.  That one things is the most important key, they are trying to get you to think you are trusting a US or Canadian site but really are just be sent to a Russian server.  Although the URL will change the idea is the same they will probably change it around soon or later with a different URL but the email will be the same.  I would be willing to be it will be a different redirect all together but if you check it out it will be in Russia and not Canada.

Blog Success Spam -- What not to Do!!

Lately I've been getting spam emails with the titles:

• Earning thousands blogging? You could be.


• Bloggers Paid for Posts


• Bloggers Wanted


• Learn to blog for paychecks using this freebie video.

Each link sends me to blogsuccess.com, and looks like this:

"Blog Success founders Jack Humphrey and Peter Lenkefi created this to help bloggers make money."  This is what I read in searches.    I've got to wonder if this is so successful they why do an email spam?   [intlink id="2833" type="post"]Most emails lately have been about scams and virus exploits[/intlink].   I am going to stick to the only way you should advertise by getting people to click links to come to my site.

According to Symantec:

Symantec reported that nearly 58 percent of spam is now coming from so-called botnets --networks of hacked computers that can be misused by criminals to steal financial information, launch attacks or send spam.

90 Percent of E-mail Is Spam, Symantec Says

Now if we do the math at least half of these emails sent to me are from hacked computers and are coming from so-call botnets.   If they are so caviler about using hacked systems to spam people do you really think they are making enough money with this website of theirs?   The old tried and true method for any blogger is TIME, Research and building your community.   Other than that there is no really easy way to make money quickly.   I just hope they release this and start doing it the right way.    This just makes there company become a dark site, in which all you do is bring people in who want to earn money in the bad way.

Twitter and the Acai Berry Spammers

Well According to Sopho's There seems to have been some hacking going on for the Acai Berry spam. Some of the messages were:

It seems to be a random http://random.CN domain but we've talked about this in the past.  Sopho's isn't sure how this happen but I have a suspicion that it was a Phishing attack done on the facebook users recent weeks that have the hackers going to other social sites and trying those passwords.

[ad]Although I agree with Sopho's on making sure not to have a dictionary word, I also think users should take care of all your online accounts.   As most people will become aware of is most users use only one password for all their accounts online or only have 3 different passwords for 20 different sites.  This is something that needs to change and you can do that with [intlink id="2646" type="post"]Roboform[/intlink] to keep your passwords safe and also to make sure they can't guessed.

If you have been compromised on t witter and only use one password, you can bet all you other accounts have been compromised as well.  You should change your passwords as soon as possible.   You should also make sure in the future not to be tricked into giving out your password which is called Phishing, in which a site with a different url is made to look like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace log in page.

Upgrading to Twitter Pro -- ztrx.net Phishing attempt in the wild!!

I just got this alert from a friend of mine and I thought I would share it with you.  It looks like there is a new phishing attempt going on with websites try fool it's users into going http://ztrx.net and From the looks of it. It looks like this:

[ad]The message some users got were:

Upgrade to Twitter Pro - Visit http://bit.ly/[CENSORED] to upgrade your account

It seems that if you get this message on your account you should report it to @Spam and let them know. If you happen to get given out your password it is strongly recommended that you reset your password to prevent any further unauthorize access to your accounts. You should change your password as soon as possible. This is the first attempt they have tried this this weekend so be on the look out for more phishing attempts.

New Spam Campaign for Cooltweeting.com

I got an Email that shows that people are giving out there twitter accounts password for a Free Mac book air. I did a Search for cooltweeting.com and well you take a look.



The Site Cooltweeting.com looks to be a phishing for your information by wanting you to do this:



[ad]As you can see this looks pretty simple and some users would think this is true. I do wonder how I am going to receive email from them if they don't have my email in the first place? You have to read the fine print on this one here I will make it bigger:

You agree to receive emails from trusted 3rd parties containing special offers and promotional emails.

Powered by BrandGivewayCentre.com. BrandGivewayCentre.com is an independent rewards program and not associated with any of the above listed merchants or brands. The above listed merchants or brands in no way endorse or sponsor BrandGivewayCentre.com's offer and are not
liable for any alleged or actual claims related to this offer. The above listed trademarks and service marks are the marks of their respective owners. BrandGivewayCentre.com is solely responsible for all Gift fulfillment. In order to receive your gift you must: (1) Meet the eligibility requirements (2) complete the rewards bonus survey (3) complete the number of sponsor offers in the redemption instructions
(4) Follow redemption instructions.

As you can see you will have to complete a number of offers to get this macbook.   I also check out the  source page for this so called page and here is what I find:



Now we see  there is a a file on the server called "viraltweets.php" which we can't access because it is a protected file and even though they say they don't store this that doesn't mean they don't grab your email address and other personal information while they send this tweet out.   afterall if you read the fine print, you agree to recieve emails from third parties?  which begs the questions how do they get your email and other information?  They will get it through your twitter account.     As we know the from time to time it isn't always a good idea to give out your twitter password because it can be easily abused.   This is definately just spam.  If you do use this page you will probably start getting even more email spam.   They obviously have a way to unsubscribe but that usually is used to just confirm you have an email address.    I will let you decide if it is worth a macbook or not but you'll probably have to pay 2 times as much in offers just to get the macbook in the first place.