Explore the latest news and trends  

Sign up for our weekly security newsletter


Be the first to receive important updates on security





Send

Spam Mails Masquerading as Classmates.com Invites Spotted

Researchers from AppRiver the security company lately exposed one fresh malware-ridden e-mail scam, which pushed spam mails pretending to be messages from Classmates.com.

It may be mentioned that Classmates.com is one website for social networking where visitors can hunt people known to them long back and thereafter establish a renewed communication.

The security company, which presented one bogus Classmates.com sample electronic mail, said that it nearly exactly resembled the original design. The text and logos of the website in general were put just where they should be in the e-mail with thanks added to those, who became part of the Classmates society, as also advice to them for following a given web-link so they could validate their e-mail ids.

Notably according to the security researchers, the rigged web-links connected to 202 separate URLs. Also, the experts observed that the new Classmates.com spam campaign delivered over 12m e-mails at approximately 98 messages every 60 seconds for each URL.

Talking further regarding the malevolent e-mail scam, Fred Touchette Senior Security Analyst at AppRiver stated that if one did the mathematical calculation, he'd get slightly below 19,000 messages in total for every 60 seconds. Esecurityplanet.com published Touchett's statement on June 14, 2012.

In addition Touchette elaborated that the hijacked URLs associated with the BlackHole Exploit toolkit, certain malware program which let cyber-criminals to erect botnets for their own.

Nevertheless, for keeping Internauts safe from the new bulk e-mail scam, AppRiver urged anyone getting an uncalled for invitation message requesting him for being part of Classmates.com, and which appeared doubtful because say, the recipient's name was given incorrect, then he should think again before hitting on it. In case the person wished for reuniting with a long lost pal, he must visit the Classmates.com site directly. Moreover, for stopping the malware toolkit towards causing any real destruction, Internauts must deploy the latest patches for their PC software and Web-browsers, while keeping their anti-viruses updated.

Meanwhile, some other companies' websites too recently became targets of the BlackHole scammers. These are Verizon, AT&T, Bank of America, Citibank, PayPal, LinkedIn and Ticketmaster, as Trend Micro another security company detected.

Related article: Spam Scam Bags a Scottish Connection

» SPAMfighter News - 6/22/2012

3 simple steps to update drivers on your Windows PCSlow PC? Optimize your Slow PC with SLOW-PCfighter!Email Cluttered with Spam? Free Spam Filter!

Dear Reader

We are happy to see you are reading our IT Security News.

We do believe, that the foundation for a good work environment starts with fast, secure and high performing computers. If you agree, then you should take a look at our Business Solutions to Spam Filter & Antivirus for even the latest version of Exchange Servers - your colleagues will appreciate it!

Go back to previous page
Next