Email Anti-SPAM News, Help & Advice.

Almost a third of all emails are phishing scams

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:53:00 +0000

It is now estimated that almost a third of all emails are fake / scam / phishing emails - see: How to avoid phishing scams.

These scammers often use exploited machines to send these emails so please be sure to keep your computer software up-to-date and protected with current firewall and anti-virus software!

Make sure you are up to date

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:35:00 +0000

A huge amount of spam is actually sent from standard PC's connected to the Internet that have been exploited / compromised.

Make sure you:

1. Keep your computer software up-to-date and periodically check for updates manually as well as waiting for your computer to tell you.

2. Are protected by a firewall - ideally on your router and your computer - but at least on your computer.

3. Keep your anti-virus and spyware software up-to-date - plus schedule frequent scans.

4. Periodically scan your computer with another spyware scanner.

5. Do not run / install software from untrusted sources - this includes browser plug-ins etc.

6. Consider using a different web browser - Internet Exporer is the most popular browser and most people try and exploit this one. Other browsers like Opera or Firefox could be an option to consider.

USA largest source of spam

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 10:04:00 +0000

Almost one in four (over 23%) of spam detected in July originated in the US.

China came second with 20% and South Korea third 7.5%. After those were (in order of worst to best): France, Spain, Poland, Brazil, Italy, Germand, United Kingdom, Taiwan and Japan.

Of course with any figures it is also important to consider the number of machines and total volume of email sent!

Phone phishers targetting PayPal

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 08:53:00 +0000

Phishers have been targetting online payments provider Paypal by sending emails to say Paypal accounts have either been suspended or they have noticed unauthorised activity.

When the number is called the user is prompted to enter their account / credit card details - for more details see this posting from Sophos.

Spam control servers located in Taiwan

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 10:28:00 +0000

A survey by CipherTrust has estimated that almost two thirds (64 per cent) of servers controlling spam traffic are located in Taiwan (in second place was the US with 23% and then China were third with around 3%).

These servers are typically used by spammers to control and relay spam and phishing emails through zombie or compromised computers.

Kodak photo sharing fined for spamming

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Mon, 15 May 2006 16:22:00 +0000

Kodak's Imaging Network (formerly Ofoto) has been fined for sending 2 million messages in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act - typically by failing to include a valid opt-out process or a valid physical postal address.

The fine and settlement between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Kodak Imaging Network also prohibits future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act.

Turn off auto return receipt acknowledgement

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 14:51:00 +0000

Some spammers put a 'delivery' or 'read' receipt request in their emails. If your email program (or mail server) automatically confirms these receipt requests you will just be confirming your address is valid = MORE SPAM.

We would recommend you either turn this feature off or if your email program supports it make sure it is set to 'prompt' first before sending.

Phisher jailed for 4 years

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 13:32:00 +0000

A British man who ran a six-man phishing gang that stole nearly £200,000 has been sentenced to four years in jail. David Levi (aged 29) from Lytham near Blackpool stole bank account information from more than 160 users of the eBay auction website.

Other members of the gang received jail sentences of between six months and two years.

The gang set up a false website posing as the real eBay website then sent phishing emails to internet users leading them to the website where they then stole their identities and bank / payment details.

Spammers send bird flu malware

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:12:00 +0000

Spammers are now distributing a trojan (Naiva-A) pretending to be a Word document with information about the bird flu epidemic to try and trick users into viewing it.

However, once run the trojan executes two Word macros to run and install another program (Ranky-FY) onto the now infected machine which gives hackers the ability to control that computer.

So as always be careful what attachments you run and ensure your anti-virus / anti-spyware software is up-to-date.

Spam email selling Tamiflu

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 12:25:00 +0000

We have seen a large increase in spam mail offering to sell Tamiflu (an anti-bird flu drug). The emails try and direct you to online pharmacy sites but many of these are purely scams to try and get credit card details and other personal information.

So as always our advice is - NEVER BUY FROM SPAMMERS!

Unfortunately US still worst spammer

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 17:24:00 +0000

According to Sophos more than one in four (26.4%) of spam detected between April - September originated in the US. South Korea was second with 19.8% and China third with 15.7%.

After these the remainer of the top 10 (in order) were: France, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan, Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom.

We have heard from several non-US ISP's that some US based ISP's are still blocking huge chunks of the Internet in a bid to reduce the amount of spam they receive. Although we would consider blocking entire netblocks is usually very heavy-handed (and often causes more problems than it fixes) it may also be worth focussing on their domestic customers and networks to help reduce the spam problem.

AOL system engineer sells email to spammers

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 09:54:00 +0000

A 'former' AOL system engineer was jailed for 15 months after he confessed to stealing 92m screen names / email addresses belonging to an estimated 30m AOL members and selling them to spammers.

Jason Smathers pleased guilty in February to conspiracy and theft charges and to violation of federal anti-spam laws. He was ordered to pay $83,000 in compensation (three times the $28,000 he made selling the information).

AOL raffle spammers assets

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:33:00 +0000

AOL is planning a US sweepstake to sell off a 2003 Hummer H2, $75,000 in cash and $20,000 in gold siezed from an unnamed New Hampshire penis pill purveyor. The lawsuit came after AOL received hundreds of thousands of complaints from members (as many as 100,000 in one day alone in January 2004).

This is the second time AOL has given away assets confiscated from a spammer - last year they raffled a $45,000 Porsche Boxster siezed from another junk mailer.

Spam king pays Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 23:28:00 +0000

Former 'Spam King' Scott Richter (was ranked one of the world's top three spammers) - has agreed to pay Microsoft $7m to settle an anti-spam lawsuit.

The lawsuit dates back to December 2003 and this comes a month after Richter was removed from the Register of Known Spam Operators maintained by the Spamhaus Project. Richter was dropped from the ROKSO list after his outfit OptInRealBig.com cleaned up its act and stopped sending out junk mail that violated US anti-spam rules.

Microsoft has said it will use $5m to expand its net security partnerships worldwide and $1m will be given to New York community centres to spend on computers.

Russian spammer murdered

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:07:00 +0000

Notorious Russian spammer - Vardan Kushnir - was found dead in his apartment in Moscow. He was bludgeoned to death by repeated blows to the head - see Interfax report.

Kushnir headed the Center for American English and his aggressive spamming practices have angered many net users. In the past the Center’s telephone was advertised as a contact number for "sex services".

In the past disgruntled net users have bombarded the American English Center with telephone calls and returned email messages but all along Kushnir remained defiant about his "right to spam".

Worst spamming countries

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 14:26:00 +0000

According to Spamhaus the Top-10 worst countries for spamming (along with the relative number of complaints) are:

United States (2491)
China (701)
South Korea (411)
Brazil (167)
Russia (166)
Canada (158)
Taiwan (145)
Japan (131)
Argentina (101)
Hong Kong (96)

As you can see the United States is by far the worst offender with more complaints than all the other Top-10 countries combined!

Dating spam scam

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:40:00 +0000

ICSTIS (the premium rate telephone regulator in the UK) fined five companies based in the UK, Spain and India up to £15,000 each (and shut down their services) for running bogus telephone dating services.

Many people were sent spam emails telling them they had an admirer. They were told to call a premium rate number to find out who it was.

Callers were asked to input the mobile number of someone they 'thought' might fancy them and would 'apparently' be told if that was correct.

Also see Most popular items offered via spam for more items offered via spam!

EU countries against spam

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 13:19:00 +0000

Anti-spam enforcement bodies in 13 EU countries have agreed to work together when investigating cross-border spam compaints. The countries currently signed up are:

Austria
Belgium
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Greece
Ireland
Italy
Lithuania
Malta
Netherlands
Spain

Let's hope it helps bring prosecutions to off-shore spammers!

Verizon spam filtering statement

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 15:25:00 +0000

Here is a statement from Verizon about their spam filtering that is causing chaos for Verizon users receiving email from much of the rest of the world! Also see previous post: Verizon Email Blocking.

"
Spam is out of control. Leading providers of spam protection tools such as MX Logic, Inc. and MessageLabs report that some 80 to 90 percent of all e-mail today is spam.

This is a major problem for Internet users in multiple ways. Spam clogs our mailboxes daily to the point where it threatens viability of e-mail as a communications tool. It also routinely carries viruses, identity-theft scams, spyware, zombie bots and other serious security threats.

As an ISP, Verizon Online is working hard to address these serious security threats on the Internet by closely monitoring our network for incoming and outgoing spam and by working cooperatively with others across the ISP industry on anti-spam initiatives.

These round-the-clock efforts include blocking spam and propagation of viruses from sources we identify using methods that are consistent with industry practices. This is a long-standing policy at Verizon Online.

When we identify sources of spam or viruses, we block them as narrowly as we can and, where possible, we work directly with whoever manages that source to notify them of the issue. We then continuously monitor the source and will lift the block as soon as we are satisfied the threat has been resolved. In many cases, this is resolved within two days; however, we will not remove a block as long as a serious threat remains.

The entire ISP industry is working to combat spam and other online security threats. Verizon Online is a member of various coalitions, including the Messaging anti-Abuse Working Group that includes both large and small ISPs covering more than 100 million online subscribers. We also have aggressively pursued spammers through legal action, and taken a leading role in drafting legislation at the state and national level and working with domestic and international law enforcement agencies to combat spam other threats. In short, Verizon is committed to protecting its customers and its network from the serious security matters that threaten our use of the Internet everyday.

Any spam blocking method will, inevitably, also result in the blocking or delay of otherwise legitimate email. This is yet another reason why spammers are harmful to the Internet community. If a Verizon Online customer believes they are not receiving legitimate e-mail, they
should call our technical support desk for assistance and we will work with them to resolve their situation as quickly as possible.

Our Verizon Online web site also features an Internet security page with practical tips and tools that can help customers protect themselves from Internet threats. It can be found at: http://broadbandbeat.verizon.net/safety_security.

We believe that fighting spam is the right thing to do for the safety and security of our more than 4 million broadband and dial-up customers.

Some of the loudest complaints you will see or hear about spam blocking come from the spammers themselves, who lose significant income when their efforts to flood the Internet with unsolicited e-mail are foiled. Our customers expect and demand that we provide them with as safe, secure and effective an Internet experience as possible and we are firm in our commitment to do that.
"

We are not quite sure how the statement of "...we block them as narrowly as we can" can really be justified considering the reports of entire network and country blocks!

Spam on the increase

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:12:00 +0000

We are sure it will come as no surprise but spam is still on the increase!

Figures vary between different anti-spam companies but most agree that in 2003 around 35-45% of email was spam - in 2004 this grew to 70-80% and many are reporting spam to now be 80-85% of all email on the Internet.

In addition a further 2-4% of emails are detected as containing viruses or trojans!

We hope the information on this web site (make sure you check out the older posts in the archives!) help you keep spam to a minimum.

Verizon email blocking

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:23:00 +0000

Verizon appear to have implemented a policy of blocking access to their email servers from huge blocks of the Internet outside of the US.

They state this is a anti-spam policy and blocks have been applied 'finely' to block individual spammers. Unfortunately this just does not seem to be the case with users and ISP's reporting that large networks and even entire countries have been blocked.

Hopefully Verizon will re-think this one as soon as possible as it is causing massive disruption and with a huge amount of spam actually originating in the US you have to wonder why they decided to do this.

See the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) for the most prevalent 'known' spammers - currently 8 of the top 10 are from the US.

Make Love Not Spam campaign

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:42:00 +0000

Lycos Europe launched a screen saver that will constantly request data from sites run or advertised by spammers.

The idea being that it will bump up the bandwidth (traffic) charges for the spammers or make their web sites slow and unresponsive.

Although at first glance this seem like fighting back at spammers and incurring 'them' additional cost it is not to be recommended because:

1. If the spammers are selling illegal products / services there is a good chance that they are using stolen credit card details - so it will not cost them at all!

2. Most ISP's host multiple sites on a single server - so hitting their site could severely impact other sites that were innocently hosted on the same server or network.

3. Using the screen saver may be illegal or against the Acceptable Usage Policy of many ISP's because it is similar to a DDos (distributed denial of service) attack.

So we would not recommend it - instead tell all your friends / colleagues to visit: http://www.spamhelp.co.uk for all the best anti-spam advice!

Don't use internet profiles

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 15:58:00 +0000

Some sites allow you to enter a personal 'profile' about yourself - including your email address which is then 'public'.

Our advice is not to bother and if you have to use a secondary email address.

Spammers get prison sentence

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 14:42:00 +0000

A brother and sister 'spamming duo' have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers.

The jury in Virginia recommended that the man (Jeremy Jaynes) serve 9 years in prison and that his sister (Jessica DeGroot) be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a State Law prohibiting the sending of bulk email using fake addresses.

Prosecutors had originally asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister!

How to avoid phishing scams

noreply@blogger.com (anti-spam) — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:11:00 +0000

Be wary if you receive an unexpected email saying your service / account is due to be suspended or shut down unless you confirm your account or billing information - do not reply or click any links in the e-mail body.

Before submitting any personal or financial information through a web site - look for the padlock on the browser status bar. If this is present it means your information is being sent over a SSL (secure socket layer) secure connection. You can usually get more information about the owner of the site by double-clicking on the padlock icon.

If you are at all unsure contact the company through an address or telephone number you know to be genuine!

If you have unknowingly supplied personal or financial information - contact your the company / bank or credit card company immediately using a telephone number you know is correct.

Also see: What is phishing?