Lycos junk e-mail

[swimusa]

So I was checking my e-mail this morning (more like the afternoon for you folks) when I read in the subject line "SwimUSA - Lycos Quiz Show challenges YOU!". It spoke all about European football, etc. Now while I do get junk e-mails, the thing that got to me was that they used my screen name from swimclub.co.uk (which obviously is SwimUSA). This is the ONLY place I ever use the screen name SwimUSA to denote me being an American swimmer on this British-based bulletin board. Nowhere else. I want to know if (a) any of you got this, (b) does Lycos help sponsor this site, and (c) how can I stop from getting another such e-mail (because I know the source has to do with this website)?

[swimmer]

i haven't got one, not yet neway

[Pete]

The source of your mail may appear to come from this site but I think someone has hi-jacked information in some way or infomation has been passed on. If you treat it as junk and delete it what is the problem? I get 20+ E-mails a day I just delete. At least it is not porn. I used an internet cafe on holiday; because I used MSN messenger and AOL messenger, I get so much junk at home now I have to change my address.Cookies are dangerous! :idea:

[landlubber]

Strange that, I use lycos.co.uk for my email because I'm sick of all the junk mail I get via my AOL address. I've yet to get a junk email via my lycos address, but you've been around this site longer than I have so maybe I will have junk in the future.

[BigFish]

Yeah, the amount of junk mail I've been getting recently has gone from a couple each day, to nearly 10! The Lycos ones amounting for an awful lot of them.

Don't blame Chris or this site though. If your email address is visible on a webpage it is a very simple task to write a robot that will simply surf the web of its own free will and farm email addresses. There's very little any webmaster can do to prevent this.

Obviously, if someone wanted to quickly get hold of a bunch of email addresses, the best place to go would be a popular forum such as this one!

Ahh, the price of popularity.

[swimusa]

Yeah, that is all fine and well, but every other time I receive junk e-mail, in the title it has my e-mail's screen name in the subject bar. This one did not, it had my swimclub.co.uk screen name in the subject bar, and this is the only place I use this screen name.

[Bazza]

There's often a thing at the bottom of mails like that which says something like "If you do not wish to receive similar emails in the future click here" or something. If you take the time to do that once you get removed from mailing lists, which is easier than deleting dozens of emails.

I do not know why you have been targeted in this way, but maybe you did something at Lycos and got on their mailing list? If you really are sure you didn't, and that you didn't use this name, then I don't know why this happened. Is your email address vsible to members of this forum? If so maybe one of them sent you this without intending to cause any problems? Hopefully if this is the case they will own up to it...:confused:

[BigFish]

Originally posted by bazzaroodoo
There's often a thing at the bottom of mails like that which says something like "If you do not wish to receive similar emails in the future click here" or something. If you take the time to do that once you get removed from mailing lists, which is easier than deleting dozens of emails.

Nice in theory, but as most spammers don't really care if you want their rubbish anyway, it's more likely to confirm that yours is a valid email address! A much better way is to fake a bounced email, that way they're likely to remove you from their lists as it's wasting their resources to send mail to unused addresses.

[swimmer]

yeh and sometimes the link to remove yourself lead you to a non-existant webpage!

[swimusa]

I understand everything you're all saying, but on my private account which does not use the same name as I use to post on here, I received this e-mail. Say my e-mail was JohnDoe@aol.com. Normally in the subject line it would say "JohnDoe - Lycos Quiz Show challenges you". But it didn't, it said "SwimUSA - Lycos Quiz Show challenges you" which is not my e-mail address. And I have never been to Lycos, especially the UK version. It isn't the fact of removing myself from some list or me getting this junk mail that bothers me. It is that they used a name in the subject line only found here on this BBS.

[Chris]

I'm sorry to hear this swimusa but unfortunately I can do absolutely nothing about it. Bigfish is right. People write scripts to trawl websites for e-mail addresses. There is nothing secure about the details that are posted on this forum (and there's nothing written here to suggest that your details are secure.)

It is an unfortunate feature of the internet that is outside of my control. I know that many web surfers use one single e-mail account whenever they post on forum sites - that way you can filter out the spam.

In case you're interested, I've received 37 separate instances of the W32.Klez.H@mm virus by e-mail in the past two weeks :eek:

[lane4]

I have had just about the exact same number of the exact same e-mail attack me in the past two weeks two! And I know lots of other people who are in the same boat. Hopefully though my anti-virus software and firewall will continue to pick them up or prevent them before they do any damage.

[Chris]

Originally posted by lane4
I have had just about the exact same number of the exact same e-mail attack me in the past two weeks two! And I know lots of other people who are in the same boat. I hopefully though my anti-virus software and firewall will continue to pick them up or prevent them before they do any damage.

Norton AntiVirus 2002 is one of my best friends at the moment!!!!

[dasc]

yes good old norton!:angel:

[swimmer]

I've received 37 separate instances of the W32.Klez.H@mm virus by e-mail in the past two weeks


OMGOMGOMGOMG UR POST HAS JUST LIT A LIGHT INSIDE MY HEAD! I hav recievrd loads of e-mails with W32.Klez.H@mm in the subect line, curious and naive i opened one of them and there was nothing there, no atachments or writing and yet the e-mail was something like 200k, i hav also recieved an e-mail every day from a person i do not know with a wierd subject line as if i knew the person, i opened the 1st one i got and again the e-mail was about 168k but had no writing or attchments, have a got the virus now??? i have norton but it has not run for ages and i hav not updated for yonks, PLEASE HELP! ps: my computer has startad crashing very often!

[Chris]

Originally posted by swimmer



OMGOMGOMGOMG UR POST HAS JUST LIT A LIGHT INSIDE MY HEAD! I hav recievrd loads of e-mails with W32.Klez.H@mm in the subect line, curious and naive i opened one of them and there was nothing there, no atachments or writing and yet the e-mail was something like 200k, i hav also recieved an e-mail every day from a person i do not know with a wierd subject line as if i knew the person, i opened the 1st one i got and again the e-mail was about 168k but had no writing or attchments, have a got the virus now??? i have norton but it has not run for ages and i hav not updated for yonks, PLEASE HELP! ps: my computer has startad crashing very often!

I think there's every chance you have got the virus Swimmer.

Check out this site (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html).

There's even a tool to get rid of the virus there. Then I suggest you get yourself some virus software. There's loads to choose from and they're not too expensive (in fact there might even be a free one - have a look here (http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm).

[dasc]

i too keep getting empty emails, but worse from my own address, with rude subject lines. I use to have a program called Kazaa, which many of you may of heard of. It is a similar program to Napster where by it allows you to download music. When i one particular day i was downloading a track i went to open it and it destroyed all my .jpeg files on my computer as well as trying to access MS Outlook. However Outlook gave a pop up message that said that something was trying to access my contact details. So i deceided it would be best to re-format my hard drive and start a fresh. This problem has since gone away and i have stopped using kazaa. But i did not get any empty emails like this before!

The worst part the emails say they are from me to me with rude subject lines.
:mad:

[swimmer]

hi thanks chris, i ahve checked and im afreaid to say that i think i did have it, so i followed your instructions and got rid of it, this is a warning to everyone as this is one of the MANY ways it is deiverd, but is the way i got it:

Quote from :

The message may be disguised as an immunity tool. One version of this false message is as follows

:Klez.E is the most common world-wide spreading worm. It's very dangerous by corrupting your files. Because of its very smart stealth and anti-anti-virus technic,most common AV software can't detect or clean it.We developed this free immunity tool to defeat the malicious virus. You only need to run this tool once,and then Klez will never come into your PC.

NOTE: Because this tool acts as a fake Klez to fool the real worm,some AV monitor maybe cry when you run it. If so,Ignore the warning,and select 'continue'. If you have any question,please mail to me.

If the message is opened in an unpatched version of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, the attachment may be automatically executed. Information about this vulnerability and a patch are available at
[url]http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html)

also i think this may answer dasc's worry:

There have been several reports that, in some cases, if you receive a message that the virus has sent using its own SMTP engine, the message appears to be a "postmaster bounce message" from your own domain. For example, if your email address is jsmith@anyplace.com, you could receive a message that appears to be from postmaster@anyplace.com, indicating that you attempted to send email and the attempt failed. If this is the false message that is sent by the virus, the attachment includes the virus itself. Of course, such attachments should not be opened.
as chris said more info can be found at:

Click here (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.klez.h@mm.html)

Many thanks chris :)

[BigFish]

I have just one word for the lot of you:


LINUX :D