Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[David Matusiak <dave AT matusiak.org>]

Unrelated, but another scam I'm seeing go around A LOT lately is an incoming call from "Unknown" and a helpful tech support rep (usually sounds like they're in a call center in India) wants to help you with all your computer problems.  

Essentially, they want you to visit a website to grab the latest copy of their Trojan/malware and/or disable your firewall and allow them remote access.  "So they can help you," of course.  

Please don't fall for this scam and warn others.  If you try to pin them down to get their name, a company name, their contact info, how they got your phone number, etc. they will weasel and lie and rapidly get off the phone.  I'm getting 2-3 calls per day on my work cell phone and it is really pissing me off. 

Stay vigilant. Stay safe! 
David M.

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com> wrote:

on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 09:41:34AM -0400, Jeanne Moyer wrote:
> Many of my friends and contacts have had their email addresses hijacked
> lately. Seems more hotmai than any otherl, only one gmail so far.  What
> should I be doing to protect my computer other than the obvious?
>
> I NEVER click on the links.  I am running AVG.  I have written back to my
> friends to let them know about the emails with a message containing
> information that only the two of us know so they know it is reallly me.

As John pointed out, some of these may be forgeries, but there's also a
popular scam being run lately where some criminal cracks your email
password and actually has access to your account (or twitter, or
facebook, etc.) and sends a message to everyone in your address book
saying you're caught without cash after being mugged or whatever in some
foreign land, asking for help (send/wire cash, etc.) that can easily be
prevented. If your password(s) are simple, CHANGE THEM TO SOMETHING HARD
TO GUESS. And by hard to guess, I mean hard for a computer to match
against huge databases of obvious passwords.

http://lifehacker.com/184773/geek-to-live--choose-and-remember-great-passwords

Oh, and don't ever send any of your friends money based on some frantic
email - try calling them at home first :-)

--
hesketh.com/inc. v: +1(919)834-2552 f: +1(919)834-2553 w: http://hesketh.com/
antispam news and intelligence to help you stop spam: http://enemieslist.com/