Discussion:
[gui-dev] Re: [trans] warning! spammy email collectors on this list (was: (no subject))
Philippe Verdy
2005-01-20 16:41:06 UTC
Permalink
This email might be some type of smart scam for collecting email
addresses
because they have mailed various LimeWire mailing addresses. It
doesn't
make sense.
Thanks
-greg
I have seen that, and had the same conclusion. I chose to not answer to
the supplied email addresses, which looked very unfriendly.
However some people (professional translators) are looking for jobs,
and use some email collections to look for anything that has a
"translate" or "translator" in them, thinking that they will find job
opportunity by spamming them all, without knowing what's behind those
addresses.

Unfortunately, some subscribers on this list are infected by spywares
or virus that collect all the email addresses they work with and that
transmit these to spam collectors.

It would be good if everybody on this list checked his PC for known
spywares, spamwares, and worms...


Some addresses for free tools:


(1) Windows Update:

The first thing to do! Don't miss the critical updates. Updates are
most often published by Microsoft on Tuesday. So update Windows weekly
on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Note that some hacked games loaded from P2P networks (including
Gnutella) are often bundled with dangerous worms. Some of them exploit
DirectX security failures to send critical personnal data when you're
playing online, notably those games that have internal IRC chat
systems, or based on IPX for playing on the web.

So update DirectX too to close those backdoors (even if Microsoft only
proposes it in optional updates).


(2) Free antivirus:

www.freeav.com
(the free version has no automated updates, open the icon on the system
tray to perform updates: they are published daily, and I strongly
recommend updating every day before opening your mailbox software)

It's not the best antivirus, but its database is still fresh (missing
only rare and old virus that would no longer be working if you already
have the necessary system patches from Windows Update).


(3) Free antispywares:
Look for these two at least in Google:

* "SpyBot S&D" (install it, and update it immediately before scanning)
update it at least twice a week manually.

* "Adware SE": the free version has no automatic update. update it
about twice a week manually

* "SpywareBlaster"; an additional tool you'll get by clicking on its
link also displayed in the "SpyBot S&D" interface.
update it immediately once installed, then about twice a week. It is a
tool that install "kill-bits" against malicious ActiveX, to forbid them
to install silently. It does not run on the background, and does not
clean installed spywares. Instead you launch it, update it, and click
on a link to immuniaze your system from newer spywares.
(Use "Spybot S&D" or "Adware SE" to perform the actual cleanup).


(4) Mozilla Thunderbird/FireFox (the excellent and fast free browsers
and mail readers)

Those using Mozilla Tunderbird should enable the automatic check for
update in the options panel: now that Thunderbird is starting to
spread, some new virus, worms or keyloggers are written to target it
(no software is exempt from bugs), or to steal personnal data (used by
spammers).

For now, I have not seen any critical security update in Thunderbird.
But I check them manually every one or two weeks.


(5) recheck and enable your firewall. Limewire should work with the
builtin firewall of Windows XP SP2, and with NAT routers.

Thanks for all of us (I need to handle about 180 spams each day in my
main mailbox, it has doubled since last spring...)







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