Internet Defense Technology

Not to be out-done here is a small collection of the Paris Hilton email spam subject lines:

• Paris Hilton Wins Pulitzer Prize
• Paris Hilton Sells Her Soul to the Devil, Admits it on Larry King
• Paris Hiltons vagina begins prison sentence
• Paris Hilton gives birth to twins… aliens
• Paris Hilton To Invade Rwanda
• Sponge Bob named in Paris Hilton paternity lawsuit
• Aliens Deny Impregnating Paris Hilton
• Stephen Hawking Defends Paris Hilton Against Sex Allegations
• George Bush Caught Naked with Paris Hilton.

This celebrity thing is definitely a new thing, just a few months ago there was not this much spam centering around the celebrities. Someone realized that most people are fascinated by them and thought could catch a few more people if targeted them.

I have seen several complaints of an email with the subject line: “Hey we have hijacked your baby but you must pay once to us $50000. The details we will send later.”

This is spam and totally fake (people who don’t have babies have gotten this email).

I am in shock that spammers would send an email with this headline. All to get an email opened.

I am so sorry if you got this email and it caused you even one second of worry or pain.

When I tell people that I work for an email spam company, one of the first and most surprising questions I get asked (after how do I stop the spam) is why do spammers spam.

Well, results from a new survey by Marshal show that 29% of respondents to a recent survey admitted they made purchases from spam messages. This is up from 2004 where only 20% admitted to doing so.

That pretty much says it all, unfortunately, spammers do it for the money and enough people buy stuff or get caught by the scams to make it worth their while to keep going.

My objective, educate everyone I met on email spam, how not to get caught, not to respond and definitely not to buy. Really in the end, if we hit the spammers where it counts (in the back pocket) they will eventually give up.

Seems to be a lot of spam email going around with Britney Spears doing all sorts of strange things. Seems ashame because she seems to finally be calming down and getting her life in order a little and now this.

Anyway, here are some fun, ridiculous samples for your enjoyment:

• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopt Britney Spears
• Britney sues vagina for divorce
• Britney Spears to Join British Army
• Britneys vagina to attend AA on its own!
• Dalai Lama denies receiving fellatio from Britney Spears
• Britney to Celebrate “Rehab Lice Ate My Extensions”
• Britney Spears Confession: ‘I’m the Father of Anna Nicole Smith’s Baby!’
• North Dakota Man couldn’t care less about Britney Spears, Jamie Lynn Spears or Ron Paul
• Britney Spears’ New Hair Extensions Are Lindsay Lohan’s Pubes
• Britney Spears is shaken but unhurt after a suicide bomb attempt
• Britney Spears vagina attacks warder and escapes rehab?
• Bald Britney Spears says shaved head goes well with shaved vagina

A few more fun ones:

• If Barack Obama Is An Oreo, What Is John Mclaughlin?
• Steve Jobs Names God As Successor.
• Would you like to be my husband?
• John Edwards Admits Fathering Clay Aiken’s Baby!
• John McCain Takes the Gold in Olympics
• Batman & Robin: We’re Gay. Watch the video
• Angelina Jolie Set To Destroy Own Vagina
• msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McDonald’s Happy Meals In San Francisco To Include Gay Marriage License
• BREAKING NEWS: Polar Bear Finds Yoga Great For Flexibility, But Murder On The Balls

I am getting back to my email spammer series with Michael Dolan as he was recently (a few days ago) sentenced in Connecticut federal court to seven years in jail plus three years of supervised release. He’s pled guilty to fraud and aggravated identity theft.

His crime (along with others who all pleaded guilty, as did Michael Dolan in 2007) was to hunt through AOL chat rooms for user ids. Those user’s would get a “greeting card” spam seeming to come from places like Hallmark.com or BlueMountain.com.

These email spams would actually installed malware (programs which spied on all the activities you did on your computer and sent the information to someone) on the victim’s computers. So, the next time the victim attempted to log onto AOL, the malware would ask for credit card numbers, bank accounts, and other personal info. If the user refused to cough up, the malware prevented them from logging in.

Allegedly Michael Dolan engaged in various forms of witness tampering, including a death threat, during the trial.

Dolan’s scam brought in over $400,000 from 250 victims.

Previous criminal record (he is only 24 years old) include being sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of accessing a computer without authorization. His probation was revoked in 2006, after the ruling judge discovered that he had taken several trips out of state, including at least one trip overseas. Dolan was then sentenced to nine months of imprisonment, and was charged in the AOL scam on September 28, 2006.

I wrote an article on the CNN spam that was going around.

Now there is almost the exact same thing going around saying it is MSNBC News.

It appears to be the same people as the exact same thing will happen of going to something that looks like th MSNBC site which will require you to download a “updated” Flash Player to view stuff. When you do this you are actually installing software on your computer that can steal information from your computer or do other malicious things using your computer.

Do not click on any of this.

No doubt they are doing this as not everyone gets CNN alerts and some get MSNBC so all those people might click on this thinking it is real.

Please be careful and instead go directly to their site for your news for now.

Re: Reply
From: Mr. Charles Chin Chi (charlescchichin@yahoo.com)

Dear Friend

I am sincerely Sorry for bugging into your privacy, it’s due to a business deal in my bank value at Eightheen million five hundred thousand us dollars, as a foreigner l can present you as the beneficiary to the inheritance since there is no written will by the deceased, as the manager of the branch l have been following the records. However l am the only one aware of the funds.

l am Mr. Charles Chin Chi,Branch manager,Bangkok Bank PCL,this opportunity will be of mutual benefit to the two of us. I would provide you with all the necessary documents to lay claims and also I would avail you with the modalities we shall follow once I hear from you Because of my position in office, please endeavor to keep to yourself issue concerning this proposal. If you are interested, kindly get back to me with the following information via this email: charlescchin_chi@hotmail.com

FULL NAMES
PRESENT RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
AGE
SEX
OCCUPATION
PHONE/FAX

Upon your response l will give you more details about this transaction, if not interested you can delete this mail.

Regards,
Mr. Charles Chin Chi,
Leu, Branch Manager Bangkok Bank PCL Kaohsiung
BranchFloor 1-2, Asia Pacific Commercial Building No. 63 Wu Fu 3rd Road,
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Email: charlescchin_chi@hotmail.com

Yeah - I don’t think so

If you get an email from CNN Alerts with a subject line like: “CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert email spam” be careful.

This is being sent out to people who never signed up for CNN alerts as well as those who have.

In the email the “Full story” link is actually linking to an unrelated attack websites, commonly to Russian domains, though Chinese and Middle East domains have also been used.

Once you click on the link you get told you need to download an update to Flash Player, Adobe Systems Inc.’s popular Internet media player, to view a video clip from CNN.

If you agree to download the bogus Flash update, you will be trapped in an endless loop, where clicking “Cancel” in the initial dialog produces a second pop-up. Clicking “Cancel” there returns you to the first pop-up. The only options at that point is to shut down the browser or give in and install the malware.

You should just delete the email and don’t click on anything.

We went on a trip and one of the key items for us was to make sure that there was wireless access so we could check our email and do our work.

Happy to find out that we aren’t alone according to the fourth annual Email Addiction Survey from AOL Mail where 19% of respondents choose vacation spots with access to email.

Additionally, 62% of people check work email on the weekends and 59% check email from the bathroom (up from 53% last year). All of these making me feel more normal because I admit to doing all of the above as well.

With a good email spam blocker in place I fortunately don’t have a problem with having to go through a bounce of spam. I can’t imagine what these people do who have to wade through all that email spam (with email spam being 95% of emails sent out) each time they check.

To find out more about the survey, including some breakdowns by city, visit their website here.