SophosLabs: Have you been told to verify your Hotmail account? Did you receive a message saying that Hotmail’s email servers were congested, and so they were removing all unused accounts? If so, I hope you responded to the email with a roll of the eyes and a quick stab of the delete button. Because if you didn’t, you might have been at risk of having your login credentials stolen....
“In memory of Steve, a company is giving out 50 ipads tonight…” is another Facebook scam you want to avoid. More similar scam links is expected, so take care what you click on, These kind of free offers will end up in phishing or malware attacks. Don’t forget you should join the Omid’s Blog Facebook page, where I not only debunk hoaxes and chain letters or scams, but I also keep you up-to-date on the latest rogue applications, scams and malware attacks threatening Facebook users....
SophosLabs: Even if it hasn’t been officially announced yet, and certainly isn’t available to the general public (unless an Apple employee loses a test model in a bar), there are plenty of scammers out there trying to trick you into believing you can get a free iPhone 5. Here’s just a sample of the pages on Facebook claiming to be an iPhone 5 giveaway. Typically they are trying to trick you into clicking on links, driving traffic to online surveys which earns them revenue....
H-Online: The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is warning of online shops which infect users with malicious software by exploiting security vulnerabilities in the user’s browser, operating system or applications. The affected shops have themselves been hacked by attackers exploiting security vulnerabilities in outdated versions of open source online shop software osCommerce. As reported by The H two weeks ago, osCommerce shops are currently being hacked en masse....
Sophos Labs: Twitter users are being hit today by messages claiming to link to a new app from Twitter which will track your stalkers. However, the messages are really designed to steal your Twitter usernames and passwords. Here’s a typical message that users are seeing: Twitter finally released an app that tracks your “Stalkers” get it here [LINK] If you click on the link you are taken to what appears to be a legitimate Twitter page, asking you to confirm your username and password before the “Stalkers” app can access your account....
Symantec Connect: Not only Facebook is adding new and interesting features to its toolbox; spammers and scammers in Facebook are, too. Currently there is a scam making rounds using a classic “who is viewing your profile” themed bait. So far – nothing new. After the user grants the application the requested privileges, which of course will send out the above mentioned spam posts to all his or her friends, the user gets redirected to a download instruction site....
Earlier this year I received a Facebook invite in my Yahoo! Mail account from none other than Angelina Jolie herself. I kid you not. While it’s true that we live in the Digital Age where communicating with anyone is a mere tap of a finger away—whether it’s via email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, etc.—the chances that Ms. Jolie would randomly reach out to a regular Joe, such as myself, is still pretty darn improbable....
Sunbelt Blog: Above, you can see a vaguely optimistic VirusTotal user summary in relation to a file that’s been doing the rounds for about a month or two. Here is the file in question: A “receipt generator”, I hear you ask – what do people want with one of those? The answer, of course, is rather straightforward: This is a particularly interesting scam, as it doesn’t target regular PC users – it targets the people who sell you things, such as the merchants on the Amazon marketplace....
Here’s the latest twist in the “membership” site scam: spam emails that tell potential victims to update their Adobe Reader include links to a web site intended to look like something related to Adobe products, but is selling “memberships.” The REAL way to update your Adobe software is on the help menu: help | check for updates (see the end of this blog piece for details). The spam email: Notice that the graphic on the web page says “PDF Reader/Writer” and doesn’t mention Adobe, as the email (and the URL it contained) did:...
You’ve locked down your computer. Nothing is going to bypass your privacy shielding programs. AdBlock is fully loaded, NoScript is ready to roll and RefControl is sending “Party on, Wayne” as your custom referrer to all and sundry. However, you really want to hide your IP address too and decide to load up one of the many web-based proxy services available. Something humorous I’ve noticed across many web-based proxies recently is that they’re jumping on a marketing strategy that might be slightly at odds with their attempts at privacy for the end-user....