E-Card Spam

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:10 am

My sainted mother is receiving a blizzard of Happy Birthday E-Cards from all over the place - over 20 today alone and it's not even her birthday! Laughing

. Obviously she's deleting them immediately but what's the deal here? Malware? Phishing?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:15 am

Gnasher wrote:

... a blizzard of Happy Birthday E-Cards ...

So am I.

I shoot it down on sight, so I have absolutely no idea what't behind it.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:23 am

Ask them what present did they buy for your birthday?

i'm getting inundated with e-cards from school friends, colleges, worshipers, anything they can think of.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:24 am

LOL I've trained mum up well - she doesn't even open emails she's not sure about, let alone attachments. Sounds like there's an E-Card blitz going on.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:52 am

There's an E-card virus that's gotten wildly popular in the last week or so.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:55 am

I've seen those, and the warnings about them. One or two of them contain viruses, but not nearly as bad as the "forward this to everyone you know" e-mails will state. The rest contain adware, popup generators, etc. and are mostly harmless.

Nice to know that not every scumbag on the web is a 419-er, ain't it?

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:23 am

I heard it was a script exploit.
I get a ton of them too.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 45

I've been getting a ton of these this past week also. I saw an segment on the news about this virus. I just keep deleting them. Fortunately, bellsouth deletes the virus before it gets to me. Sorry I don't have a copy of what I get to post, but it's nothing special.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:37 am

I featured this scam on my show yesterday... Hear it at www.blogtalkradio.com/ibc.

However, the gist of it is that many scammers are using different company names and sending over from different websites! The subject line usually reads: You've received a postcard from a colleague/neighbor/friend etc...

The body of the email will give you a URL to retrieve your Ecard but once clicked, it will do one of 4 things:

1) Install viruses on your hard drive that will wreak
havoc with your computer.

2) Install spyware or Trojans on your computer that will
scan your machine for personal and financial information.

3) Install adware that will bombard your desktop with
pop-up ads, launch adult websites or send phony ecards to
everyone in your address book -- cards that appear to have
come from YOU!

4) Turn your computer into a 'zombie' to help spam or attack
other computers.

Another tell-tale sign is that the email will usually end with "we hope you enjoy your awesome card!"

Some scammers are also getting their victims to accept and agree to EULA terms before agreeing (I mean, who reads that!) but the fine print makes it truly legal to do what they are doing!

Hope this helps, but it might be worth just letting everyone in your address book knowing about the scam - due to the affect this could have (even on you as a member of their address book!)

NTBS!!!!

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:19 am

Yup:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 5:53 am

All I can say is that I hope that the lads are getting as big an avalanche of these ecard emails as we are.

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:17 am

i actually just asked the same damn thing on my thread before finding this... i get them too... past couple weeks... what are they??? i dont have nearly as many friends as post cards i get per day

Not quite a Newb Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 45

mrbigtime wrote:

what are they???

I wonder too. Some kind of e-card maybe?

Chuck Norris Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 1369

mrbigtime: The answers you are looking for are right here in this thread. nottobescammed's post actually summarised it quite nicely.

There is also an explanation on the Snopes link in kleindoofy's post.

andrewski: That would be my guess, too. Wink

Not quite a Newb Joined: 23 Jun 2007 Posts: 45

@Akai Ryu I don't know. They seem kinda fishy to me. Maybe somone should do some investigating?

Wink

Okay, that's enough. I'll stop it now.

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:26 am

Try prodding one and see if it wriggles.