Introducing the ClearMyMail Spam Email Archive:

http://www.clearmymail.com/SpamArchive

Michael Arrington posted an interesting blog earlier today on TechCrunch, showing a fairly easy way for spammers to build lists of valid email addresses from Apples MobileMe service.

The basic problem is that Apple create a public URL for every MobileMe email account, which can be used by spammers to build highly qualified lists of valid email addresses.  Live email addresses are like gold to spammers, and can be worth serious money on the black market if the numbers are high enough.  Once they have a list of live email addresses they can easily send out spam and virus email without any risk of hitting invalid addresses.

What’s particularly important here is that the spammers already have some information about the people using the addresses, they know for instance that they are users of the MobileMe service and could easily target Phishing and fraud emails at them.

When the MobileMe service first launched it had some major issues and the spammers were quick to take advantage of this by sending out fake Apple emails asking users to confirm their details.  It is possible that the spammers were able to highly target these Phishing emails by making use of this vulnerability in the Apple MobileMe service.

The public pages are still visible and are rapidly being indexed by search engines making the search for valid email addresses even easier.

We will keep monitoring the situation to see if the spammers are taking advantage of the flaw in the MobileMe service.

ClearMyMail is able to block all spam emails, before they reach your computer.  Start your free 30-day trial today.

Reference: An Easy Way To Retrieve The Entire MobileMe User Email List

Spammers try to use popular content within their spam emails, hoping that you will be more likely to open and click-through any links contained within the spam emails if you recognize the subject.

One of the most popular spam titles at the moment is Britney Spears.

Millions of Britney Spears spam emails are sent out every day, some link through to pornographic websites whilst others link through to viruses.

What the Britney Spears Spam Emails Look like:

The most recent Britney Spears spam emails have all linked through to a virus file that is aimed at infecting your computer with a virus. They come with various different message subject lines such as:

Subject: Britney Spears Leaves Earth, Humanity Breathes Sigh of Relief

Subject: Britney Spears Net Worth Estimated at $125 Million

Subject: Britney nuthouse motorcade escort cost LA taxpayers $3 million

Subject: World's Muslims Reject Britney's Conversion to Islam

Note how the subject lines try to use topical subjects to entice you to open the message. Once opened the message usually contains a pornographic image that would be displayed instantly when you open the email. The image then links through to a virus file that will attempt to infect your computer.

Are the emails dangerous?

Yes, the emails first of all display a pornographic image on your computer… something you may not want to view or allow others who use your computer to view and then the links contained within the emails will attempt to infect your computer with a virus.

If infected your computer can then be controlled by the spammers to send out more spam, or to allow the spammer to hack into your accounts and capture any credit card details you enter onto websites.

More Information

To find out more on the Britney Spears Spam including where they are being sent from please visit:

http://www.ClearMyMail.com/press/Britney_Spears_Spam_Email.aspx

 

Using the recent troubles between Georgia and Russia, virus writers are sending out infected spam emails with the subject of “Journalists shot in Georgia”.

The virus emails contain a password protected zip file, which is an effort to try and avoid anti-virus and spam filters (They cannot detect a virus in a password protected file).

More details:

Journalists shot in Georgia Spam

 

Viagra is probably the best-known product to be advertised by spam emails. Everyone has received a Viagra spam email at some point… but why are the spammers still sending out millions of viagra spam emails every day?

Buying Viagra pills is something that most people wouldn't want to shout about, so it is an ideal product to buy online. The legitimate pill is named Viagra and produced by the big pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Viagra is a prescription drug in most countries, so to get Viagra pills will usually involve a visit to your doctor.

Pfizer control the production and distribution of Viagra, and it is a legitimate business. Pfizer are not the people who are sending out the Viagra spam emails advertising the product, but they do keep the price of legitimate Viagra high which then opens up a market for fake pills and other copies of Viagra.

Because of the potential of large profits the competition between the online drug retailers is high, and most will offer affiliate schemes. The affiliate schemes allow anyone to sign-up and promote the online drug retailer in return for a commission on all orders.

The spammers use these affiliate schemes to earn their money. They sign-up as an affiliate of a fake Viagra pills retailer and send out links to the website in millions of spam emails.

They only need a small percentage of people to receive the emails, and then a further small percentage of people to actually buy a product for them to make a good return.

Find out more: Viagra Spam Email

     

In a constant game of cat and mouse, the spammers are evolving their latest CNN News Alert based attack and are sending out spam emails which appear to be MSNBC Breaking News alerts.

The Danger

Similar to the CNN News Alert Spam, but not quite as detailed.  The spam email is fairly scruffy and doesn't contain the MSNBC logo.  It uses the similar techniques to the CNN News Alert Spam and also links through to a hacked website which will try and infect your computer with a virus.

The emails are using the same Active X/Video infection techniques from hacked websites.  The website that these spam emails link to is dangerous and can infect your computer with a virus.

If you do receive one of these emails, delete it and do not click any of the links:

ClearMyMail - The Guaranteed Spam Blocker

ClearMyMail is the only solution that offers a 100% success guarantee.  ClearMyMail is compatible wtih any type of computer, and you don't need to change your email address.

ClearMyMail has blocked all of these new types of spam emails, before they were widely know.  ClearMyMail provides instant protection from all types of spam and virus emails, clearing out all of the unwanted email before you download them.

Try ClearMyMail for free for 30-days.

Further Reading

Details review of the CNN News Alert Spam

     

We are still blocking thousands of the CNN News Alert Spam Emails and have performed a full investigation into where they are coming from and why they are being sent out.

This is a massive distributed attack, with the aim of infecting your computer with a virus... which will then be used to send out more spam emails or gather sensitive data from your computer (Such as passwords and credit card details).

For full details please visit:

CNN News Alert Spam - A Technical Review

 

     

UPDATE: Please read our full investigation into the CNN Email Alert problem:

http://www.clearmymail.com/press/CNN_News_Alert_Spam_Emails.aspx

The spammers have been a bit clever with this one... they have constructed an exact replica for a legitimate CNN alert emails.

 

Most of the links in the above email go to the CNN website, the privacy policy and terms for example all go through to the correct website.  The email looks exactly like a legitimate news alert from CNN.  Very clever spam emails!

The problem

The danger lies with the other links on this spam email, the links for the news stories will take you to a website which is then used to infect your computer with a virus or Trojan.  These spam emails have a specific purpose, and that is to infect your computer with a virus.

Once your computer is infected, it will be then used to send out more spam or even to capture your passwords and other sensitive data (Credit card details etc).

The Solution

- If you don't normally receive CNN news alerts don't click on the links in this spam email, not even the unsubscribe link!

- Make sure your anti-virus protection is fully up-to-date

- Enable ClearMyMail on your email account.  We have been blocking all of these fake CNN alert spam emails since they were first sent out.  Our unique technoogy is able to block these new types of spam emails before they are well known to other security vendors.

Sign-up for a free 30-day trial of ClearMyMail today.

More Details

http://www.clearmymail.com/press/CNN_News_Alert_Spam_Emails.aspx

Spammers using now using fake MSNBC emails

     

Surprisingly it was the Macbook Air!

The aim of the CanSecWest hacking contest was to read the contents of a specific file stored on each of the 3 laptops (1 running Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, 1 running Ubuntu 7.10, 1 running Mac OS X 10.5.2).

At first, the hackers were not permitted any direct access to the laptops and had to try and get in through the network... no one succeed at this stage so the contest was opened up a little...

The second day allowed the hackers to direct an operator on each laptop to websites or to open up emails.

The hack

Within 2 minutes, Charlie Miller had successfully compromised the Macbook Air and had read the contents of the required file! Winning $10,000 and all 3 laptops.

The method used was not disclosed but he had to use pre-installed software so the compromise was achieved either by the Mail app or Safari web browser.

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Symantec have recently reported a rise in PDF attacks sent through emails, but this time the contents of the PDF file is a Trojan rather than a Pump and Dump scam.

Our engineers did pick up on these new emails last week, but all had already been blocked by the ClearMyMail spam fitler so no customers were at risk. 

This is slightly different to the earlier outbreak of PDF spam, which were fairly short lived (Thanks in part to the fast response from ClearMyMail in blocking them).   These emails are being sent with the aim of infecting computers with a Trojan.  Once the computers have been infected they are likely to be used within a Bot-net for the purpose of sending out more spam.

It is fairly easy to protect against this attack though... Because the PDF does contain a know Trojan it is easily picked up by the ClearMyMail virus scanning engine (Part of our multi-stage email protection system) - so doesn't pose any risk to ClearMyMail customers.

What is interesting is how the spammers and virus writers are starting to use different file types to deliver their spam message or virus.  We have seen attempted spam sent through PDF files, and then it moved onto office documents (E.g. Excel files) and just last week we had MP3 spam...

MP3 spam was an interesting one.  The spammers had someone record their message as a voice MP3 file (In this case the message was for a traditional "Pump and Dump" scam).  They then added some random noise (To avoid some basic filters) and sent it out.... the main problem was that to by-pass enough spam filters they had to alter the message fairly regularly which cost them time and time is money to a spammer!