spam

Fighting spam is a constant cat-and-mouse game and one every e-mail provider faces. I receive my fair share of spam e-mail on my iCloud e-mail account, and for the longest time have just deleted them without opening, figuring it would eventually stop.

Then last week while on Twitter, I saw the following Tweet:

Pro tip:1. Select spam message2. Message => Forward As Attachment3. Send to spam@me.com4. Do a dance

I had no idea this method even existed. Unfortunately, forwarding an e-mail as an attachment isn't possible on an iOS device. … Read more

Internet users are seeing less spam but more targeted attacks, according to security software company Symantec.

Looking at last year's security landscape, Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report 2013 found that traditional spam accounted for 69 percent of all e-mail in 2012, down from 75 percent in 2011. Yet, 30 billion spam messages are still sent on a daily basis.

Junk e-mails that hawk sex or dating products and services now account for 55 percent of all spam, taking the top spot away from pharmaceutical spam.

Malware is also part of one out of every 291 e-mail messages, with … Read more

The U.S Federal Trade Commission said today that it is cracking down on marketers that are allegedly bombarding consumers with hundreds of millions of unwanted spam messages on their cell phones in the hopes they will give away personal information on bogus Web sites.

The 29 defendants listed in the complaint sent 180 million unwanted text messages to consumers promising them free gift cards worth as much as $1,000 to retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, the FTC said in a press release.

Consumers who clicked on the links in the messages found themselves caught in a … Read more

It looks like Dropbox may be grappling with some leftover issues from hackers' access into the system last July.

Over the past 24 hours, users have been posting on the file-sharing site's forum, saying that they're being hit with spam e-mails sent to e-mail accounts used only for Dropbox.

"My Dropbox specific email has been receiving spam since the 20th of February," Daniel B. wrote today. Richard F. wrote, "I have an internal to my company email address that I used for Dropbox only and I am getting the same fake paypal scam emails. This … Read more

A United Nations agency has used a summit in Dubai to renew its efforts to gain more control over how the Internet is managed.

The International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency, has circulated draft language, which was leaked today, that would let the organization take what it describes as a more "active" Internet role in the future.

It shows that the ITU would become involved in "Internet-related technical, development and public policy issues" -- a broad phrase that sweeps in hot-button areas including cybersecurity, spam, surveillance, and censorship.

The draft document (PDF) was disclosed the … Read more

What looked like an easy shortcut to earn some extra cash could now ending up costing Papa John's millions. The pizza chain is being targeted in a $250 million class-action lawsuit in which customers allege that Papa John's sent out hundreds of thousands of illegal text messages.

"After I ordered from Papa John's, my telephone started beeping with text messages advertising pizza specials," one of the plaintiffs in the case Erin Chutich said in a statement. "Papa John's never asked permission to send me text message advertisements."

Apparently, in 2010, Papa John'… Read more

Be sure to double check that Groupon you received in your e-mail -- spammers are using the popularity of e-mailed advertisements for group discount deals to send more malware.

The rise of malware through fake e-mail advertisements and notifications are on the rise, according to a study released today by security firm Kaspersky Lab.

"They are primarily doing so by sending out malicious e-mails designed to look like official notifications. Kaspersky Lab is seeing more and more malicious spam designed to look like coupon service notifications," the report said.

The firm said it also noted these coupon spam … Read more

If you get a direct message on Twitter telling you to click a link to watch a video of President Barack Obama punching a guy, don't do it.

Spammers are using the idea of the president retaliating against someone for calling him the n-word to steal Twitter passwords and deliver malware to computers, security company PandaLabs noted today.

It's a scheme that uses the names of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for nefarious purposes, with spammers creating fake pages to dupe unsuspecting Twitter users.

The scam involves sending a Twitter direct message that reads "Check out Obama punch … Read more

First there was e-mail spam clogging up your in-box. Now there's social malware making its way into your Facebook newsfeed.

If you've ever seen a spammy message from a friend promising a "Free iPad" or "Free" airline tickets, chances are it's socware (pronounced "sock ware") -- a phrase coined by engineering professors and graduate students at the University of California, Riverside, in a new study.

Their study analyzed 12,000 users of MyPageKeeper, a free app they developed to identify suspicious posts and help protect Facebook users from them. Of that … Read more