If you get an e-mail saying that Facebook Company reset your password and urging you to open an attachment, it’s a scam. Beware!
McAfee warned people to beware of an e-mail that appears to come from Facebook influencing recipients to open an attachment to obtain their new password.
The attachment targets the Windows computer to steal the password and which can potentially access any username and password combination used on the computer, not alone the login details for Facebook.
McAfee says, “This threat is potentially very dangerous considering that there are over 350 million Facebook users who could fall for this scam, this is also the sixth most prevalent piece of malware targeting consumers in the last 24 hours, as tracked by McAfee Labs.”
For one, Facebook doesn’t mail like this. It may send an e-mail with a link where the user can reset the password, but not an e-mail with an attachment.
So, it’s clear that this is a phishing scam.
McAfee’s (www.mcafee.com) security techniques research division, Avert Labs, has released its second monthly spam report, which “E-ticket” airline scam, misuse of free hosting services, and the increase of Chinese spam have topped the security provider’s list of online threats.
According to McAfee’s Spam Report – February 2009 (Link to the Report), the last month has been the area under discussion to a highly effectual airline email malware campaign that scam activities users into giving away their personal information. The subject line begins with “E-ticket” followed by a number, and the mail body appears to confirm the acquisition of a paperless airline ticket. The McAfee document said this is a “intellectual bit of social engineering that relies on the fear of having one’s personal details (identity) stolen,” leading sufferers to click on the attached file without thinking, leading them to download the file that infects the system with the ZBot Trojan.
Another major style that has increased in the last month is scammers hijacking spaces on Microsoft’s live.com. “We took a sample of libido-enhancing spam more than a period of 48 hours and found all of it contained URLs pointing to Windows live.com sites,” the report said, and at the same time they note down that Microsoft had already disabled 13 percent of the related links, even given their attention, 87 percent of these sites remained active. In addition, the Microsoft name offers the appearance of legitimacy.
At last, McAfee made note of a fashion that has been long in the creation due to the rising Internet use in Asia. With its rise in number of users, China is overtaking the US spam racket in supplying the world’s spam. According to the state-controlled China Internet Network Information Center, China is on the way to quickly overtake the US in the number of Internet users. These computers are necessary to be infected by malware, which are used to spread spam messages.
Most interesting thing is that China’s overall amount of zombie computers is down, and McAfee said it’s not clear what’s happening in China, but the huge amount of infected systems are no longer being used for that purpose.
“Although Chinese computers are not being used for spam they way they were last year, we’re seeing a resurgence which is now putting them in the lead, ahead of the US,” McAfee Avert Labs senior vice president Jeff Green said in a statement. “Also, although these zombie computers aren’t being used for spam, you have to wonder if they’re being used for another purpose.”
In January, McAfee launched its first spam report (Report for January) in a monthly series that promises to chronicle spam trends and specific campaigns.
These days spam has become the most annoying word in our day to day lives; however this article will provide you an insight about the types of the spam blockers which are available and their features. Basically the spam blockers are of three different types:
1. Integrated: This is one of the most popular spams filtering software. As this software is installed it will have a close watch on your email and you would have some additional buttons in the software of your email. After the installation of this you will have an option whether to mark your mail as spam or not a spam, or even bounce the mail back to the sender. However there are wide range of options available in this software with different buttons in different positions but the functions remain the same. Another benefit of this blocker is that these blockers suspectively will place the email into a separate folder so that you can review them at a later stage at your discretion. The new versions are so effective these days that they just track down the difference between the spam mails and put them in the junk mails. Some of the popular spam blocker software’s are Qurb eTrust Anti Spam, iHate Spam and Spam Bully. This is the most apt choice for the users who just want a one click solution to segregate the email and the junk mail. This software is one of the best and the simplest solution to the routine spam mails. The only disadvantage with this software is that they are mail specific like some work only with outlook express. So before purchasing ensure that this feature is not present.
2. Standalone: A standalone spam blocker is a separate piece of software that is been installed in your system for checking the email spam. The first thing which you will have to ensure is the launch of the spam blocker software first and then process your emails on your server after this launch the regular email software so that you can download them. The biggest benefit which is facilitated by this software is that you can view the mail on your mail server first before it comes on to your PC. This feature helps you in downloading the mails which you need and deleting the ones which you are not intending to read. The stand alone spam blocker requires some extra effort as you need to configure the spam blocker every time before you open your mail. This spam caters to the need of some specific class of people. Further this spam blocker is not software specific. The most popular stand alone spam blocker is Mail washer Pro.
3. Online Spam blocker: The online spam blocker has been developed for two purposes i.e.; for the business and personal use. The typical example of the business mail is the iHate wherein the software automatically deletes the junk mails even without the review of the person. This is particularly used in the large scale companies. An example of the online software is Spam arrest.
