On another News Group, I was told about a form of SPAM that I have
suddenly started receiving.
It is called "Pump & Dump" penny stock SPAM.
I was told it comes from Computers that have been subverted into Zombies
and that send this garbage to addresses in their address books.
Is there a way to find out if my machine is doing this?
I am using Win 98SE (Please! No comments - I know it's old, but I like
it) and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 (A Mozilla Product)
as my Browser.
DoctorBill
Easy: Send an email to everyone in your address book asking if they
recieved any spam from you, and send all of thoses emails that you get
in .eml format to qualified spam researchers at knujon@coldrain.net
DoctorBill wrote:
> On another News Group, I was told about a form of SPAM that I have
> suddenly started receiving.
>
> It is called "Pump & Dump" penny stock SPAM.
>
> I was told it comes from Computers that have been subverted into Zombies
> and that send this garbage to addresses in their address books.
>
> Is there a way to find out if my machine is doing this?
>
> I am using Win 98SE (Please! No comments - I know it's old, but I like
> it) and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 (A Mozilla Product)
> as my Browser.
>
> DoctorBill
Ze Muffinman wrote:
> DoctorBill wrote:
>> On another News Group, I was told about a form of SPAM that I have
>> suddenly started receiving.
>>
>> It is called "Pump & Dump" penny stock SPAM.
All kinds of spam comes from all kinds of places.
>> I was told it comes from Computers that have been subverted into
>> Zombies and that send this garbage to addresses in their address
>> books.
>>
>> Is there a way to find out if my machine is doing this?
What are the results of anti-virus/anti-trojan scans? Is your computer
running a lot slower than it used to? Do you see outbound traffic
through your firewall when none is expected?
The spam does not have to use addresses in your address book. The
spammers' bot nets feed the zombies with the content of the spam and a
few thousand addresses, then the zombie sits there and sends. It would
be more likely that a virus would bomb your address book people.
>> I am using Win 98SE (Please! No comments - I know it's old, but I
>> like it) and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 (A Mozilla Product) as my Browser.
>
> Easy: Send an email to everyone in your address book asking if they
> recieved any spam from you, and send all of thoses emails that you
> get in .eml format to qualified spam researchers at
> knujon@coldrain.net
DoctorBill, he's funnin' ya. Don't do that.
Yes, there are zombied computers. Millions of them. A high percentage of
them are clueless broadband users who have no routers, firewalls, or ..
well .. clues.
--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck
On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:55:18 -0700, DoctorBill wrote:
> On another News Group, I was told about a form of SPAM that I have
> suddenly started receiving.
>
> It is called "Pump & Dump" penny stock SPAM.
>
> I was told it comes from Computers that have been subverted into Zombies
> and that send this garbage to addresses in their address books.
>
> Is there a way to find out if my machine is doing this?
>
> I am using Win 98SE (Please! No comments - I know it's old, but I like
> it) and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 (A Mozilla Product)
> as my Browser.
(As stated in another group but with additions here)
You're unlikely to have a "zombie" computer. Far more likely is that
you've used your address in a public place (newsgroup, mailing list,
etc) and it's been harvested. It happens all the time. It's also
possible that your address is on someone's PC and it's that PC that's
been compromised.
At the moment there is a big problem with "hijacked" email addresses
according to my ISP. I've had to "blackhole" two of my addresses for
just that reason and a third one is likely to go the same way.
If you look at the source (don't open the mail as it often has a read
receipt attached that will confirm a "live" address) you'll find that
the bit after the @ is correct but the bit before is a name you don't
know or a few random letters.
If you have a router with firewall as well as a software firewall,
Ad-Aware, Spybot S+D, SpywareBlaster, A-squared and a good AV program
and you keep all of them up-to-date plus scan regularly with them (not
SpywareBlaster as it doesn't need to run just be kept updated) you are
unlikely to have a serious problem. All the programs I've mentioned
are free and you can get them from www.majorgeeks.com (Disclaimer: no
connections with site, it just happens to be one I remember and know
is trustworthy!)
What firewall do you have? Not all now support any Windows OS older
than XP.
I use WinME on this PC and I have Win98SE on my other one. I'm also
using Mozilla 1.7.12 not SeaMonkey.
"Charani" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote in message
news:4528afee$0$97273$892e7fe2@authen.yellow.readf reenews.net...
>
> If you look at the source (don't open the mail as it often has a read
> receipt attached that will confirm a "live" address)
Does this still happen if you are using the latest version of OE with SP2.
I thought there was a fix to stop anything going back to the sender unless
you clicked the option to reveal the html contents. (I have been opening
mail that I suspect as spam but don't know)
Broooz wrote:
> "Charani" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> If you look at the source (don't open the mail as it often has a read
>> receipt attached that will confirm a "live" address)
>
> Does this still happen if you are using the latest version of OE with
> SP2. I thought there was a fix to stop anything going back to the
> sender unless you clicked the option to reveal the html contents. (I
> have been opening mail that I suspect as spam but don't know)
All email clients that I am familiar with have an option to either
refuse, or prompt, for Read Receipts. I usually keep it set to Prompt so
I can see who is asking. Then I always say No.
Change to read in Plain Text, and most of your worries are gone. Not
All, just Most.
--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck
"Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote in message
news:ix5Wg.221835$QM6.217980@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
> Change to read in Plain Text, and most of your worries are gone. Not
> All, just Most.
OK will do thanks
On Sun, 08 Oct 2006 12:50:10 GMT, Broooz wrote:
> "Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote in message
> news:ix5Wg.221835$QM6.217980@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>>
>> Change to read in Plain Text, and most of your worries are gone. Not
>> All, just Most.
>
> OK will do thanks
Also don't have the preview pane open.
Broooz wrote:
> "Beauregard T. Shagnasty" <a.nony.mous@example.invalid> wrote in
> message
> news:ix5Wg.221835$QM6.217980@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>>
>> Change to read in Plain Text, and most of your worries are gone. Not
>> All, just Most.
>
> OK will do thanks
>
>
A safe way to deal with email is to use the handy little program
DropMyRights from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...re11152004.asp
Nothing can be installed if you strip the administrator rights.
DoctorBill wrote:
> On another News Group, I was told about a form of SPAM that I have
> suddenly started receiving.
>
> It is called "Pump & Dump" penny stock SPAM.
>
> I was told it comes from Computers that have been subverted into Zombies
> and that send this garbage to addresses in their address books.
>
> Is there a way to find out if my machine is doing this?
>
> I am using Win 98SE (Please! No comments - I know it's old, but I like
> it) and SeaMonkey 1.0.5 (A Mozilla Product)
> as my Browser.
Bill,
Here are two methods that I use for dealing with zombifiers.
1) SUPERAntiSpyware - free for personal use, read the EULA. I liked it
so much that I bought the pro version.
(http://www.superantispyware.com/)
2) Just to be safe ...
(http://zapatopi.net/afdb/)
(http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinfoil_hat)
Just because you are paranoid, does not mean that you are wrong. LOL.
If the US Government wants to spy on you, they will get into bed with
your OS vendor (MS) and/or your ISP. Either way, you are screwed.
Note: multi-posted to alt.privacy.spyware and mozilla.support.seamonkey
Here is a case (two different servers) where cross-posting w/ a F/U is
somewhat rude. My apologies to those who follow both groups.
Ron
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