Truth in Spam/Scam 1

[2ffat]

I've gotten this email a couple of times now. I don't know if I should laugh or be very afraid.

Attention,

We have encountered a scam company that we feel the general public should be informed about.

The site

http://www.##########.com

is ripping off companies for FREE advertising.
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH

http://www.###########.com

Pablo Padula of this company is directly associated with these scams.

Please blacklist

http://www.###########.com

to avoid having your company experience the same kind of fraud that they are promoting all over the internet.

Thanks,

Pablo Padula
Scam Artist

Yes, the email claims to be from Mr. Padula at the company mentioned above. The only company I've found with that name is an astrology site.


James P. Cottingham
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[SamBones]

Well, just by opening it you have probably let him know that your email address is a live address. If it's in HTML format, there's probably something like an image tag ([tt]<img>[/tt]) pointing back to his site that let him know you opened it.

Regardless, I think it's safe to assume that Pablo is telling the truth and he really is a scam artist. I would do nothing in response to this email, except possible flag his email address as a spammer so you don't get any more (assuming you have that capability).

 

[djj55]

I am sure 2ffat did not click the link. It is interesting that he names himself in the email then signs it.

Had two junk mails first Doctoral Training and just below Somebodies Who's Who. Thus I read it Dr. Who! (before deleting both)

djj
The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23) - I need someone to lead me!

 

[Annihilannic]

Reverse Psychology Spam (TM)

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[2ffat]

Nope, no link clicking and no HTML, either. I block it.


James P. Cottingham
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Noway2]

This thread is timely in regards to a SPAM issue I have been dealing with. One of my wife's email accounts, unfortunately the one for her business, has been getting hit hard by Chinese spam. The little <bleep>ers are crafty too as they deliberately obfuscate header information to make it harder to identify and reject the junk. I am currently looking into a method to identify the character set based upon the Base64 encoded UTF-8 string and if successful, I intend to reject the receipt of their spam with a seriously offensive (in Chinese) error code.

So far, I can identify the ideographs in the content filter and discard the stuff, but I want to slam the door in their face instead.

Talk about wanting to "make an impression".

 

[SamBones]

My point is, you don't have to click the link to let them know your email address is a live one. If the email is in HTML format, and you have opened it to read it (which he did since he has posted the contents), then there could be a tag in the email that lets them know he opened it.

It's just best to not open the email in the first place.

Regarding identifying the Chinese SPAM, you might try posting your issue in the "Security, hacker detection & forensics" forum. Or, there may be another appropriate forum.

 

[Annihilannic]

Any email client worth its salt should not access any external resources referenced by a HTML email until you have "authorised" the source address or clicked some kind of "not junk" or "display links/images" button.

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[SamBones]

I agree, "should". But I've seen a lot of browser based email access that just happily opens the HTML document and loads any images. Sometimes people even set it up to do that as an option, just because it's so annoying to keep clicking "load images", or whatever the option is.

I'm the free PC support person to both friends and a pretty large family, and I've seen this vector used successfully too many times to not point it out as a possibility.

 

[Annihilannic]

Any user worth their salt should... err... scratch that.

Error 0x00PEBKAC: Please insert new user and press "any" key to continue

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[SamBones]

LOL, if only it was that easy!