Possible Spam from FAOL member

[PanFisher]

I received three e-mails from a "Jackdadog" or "Jim Williams" concerning benefits to illegals. My Virus scanner immediately stopped a virus trying to get on my computer when this e-mail came in as well. I immediately deleted them.

I would not be sure if this is a scumbag who got hold of a list of our e-mails somehow or if one of our members had his e-mail list hacked. I could tell that the e-mails came from FAOL members though so beware.

Just thought I'd mention it - I figure admin might be interested.

[oldfrat]

I got three of those benefits for illegals messages today, each using a different sender name --no names I recognized. I deleted them while they were still on my ISP's server so don't know if they had a virus or not.

I use a great program called MailWasher to handle my spam. I use the pro version, but there's a free on that only handles one e-address. This program lets you see and preview e-mail in your in-box at your server and delete the stuff you don't want. It has other fetures as well. I highly recommend it to anybody who gets a lot of spam.

[Gigante]

To fix it, use the program I use. It's called OS X Leopard

[ELKHUNTER]

I recieved the same emails. I know one of the senders is no scumbag. After I recieved the first email from him I shortly after recieved a second email saying he had found out it was a bogus petition with an apology. I also recieved an email from Jackdadog concerning the same petition with a link on it at the bottom of his email to snopes dot com stating it was a fraud and had been going around for a few years. So far I have had no problems with any virus.

Rocky

[PanFisher]

I recieved the same emails. I know one of the senders is no scumbag. Rocky

I didn't think it was one of us but our computers can get hijacked to send e-mail we don't want sent. There are great Virus & Spam programs out there but things still get by sometimes.

[Eric-WD]

I didn't think it was one of us but our computers can get hijacked to send e-mail we don't want sent. There are great Virus & Spam programs out there but things still get by sometimes.

my favorite is when I get spam from myself, I know it isnt my computer sending it out. the spambot just takes a name off the list and makes it look like it came from that address. best bet is just use a spam filter and beware of junk.

Eric

[rtidd]

I might recommend everyone go to their control panel and turn off receive email from other users. If an FAOL member wants to email you, they can PM you and ask for your direct email, unless you want to be anonymous, then they can simply PM you. That's the only way another user can send an email to you from FAOL - if you allow it. (or God forbid if we get hacked, but that doesn't seem to be the case today)

Panfisher, check the raw headers of that message to see where it came from, in Windows you probably have to look at the email properties, as most windows email programs hide the raw headers that show you where the email really came from.

I would like to know if it came from the FAOL server so I can close that hole if it exists. Keep in mind this can happen 2 ways.

One: a bot gets in, and it searches methodically for all users that allow emails to be sent to them from other users. (this is slow and not worth the spammers time though).

Two: they managed to get your email from a post on the board or some other place out on the net. In this case ANYONE can forge a from address...

It's very easy for me for instance to replace my From: header with say Santa Claus<jollyolwhitedude@northpole.net> or some such nonsense. The raw headers however will still show what servers touched it etc...

[Joel D. Popham]

Gigante,

I agree with you 1000%. I've been using a MacBook Pro for over a year and not a single problem! It's worth the extra investment!

[PanFisher]

Panfisher, check the raw headers of that message to see where it came from, in Windows you probably have to look at the email properties, as most windows email programs hide the raw headers that show you where the email really came from.

One: a bot gets in, and it searches methodically for all users that allow emails to be sent to them from other users. (this is slow and not worth the spammers time though).

Ron,

I was too quick and didn't think. Already deleted before remembering I could learn from them.

I do believe it was a bot though. The way I could tell it came from FAOL was I noticed a number of names in the "Sent To" list I recognized from FAOL. As an example I do not know any "OhioTuber" from anywhere except FAOL. This guy was a true moron - didn't even use "blind copy"!

Hope that helps.

[WarrenP]

"I do not know any "OhioTuber" from anywhere except FAOL."

By the way, Mikey has not been posting lately because his PC has "crashed" from a virus and he is having it reworked at the present time.