Who’s going to turn down an email savings coupon from that great American institution – McDonalds? The cyber-criminals behind this spam/scam email are counting on the fact that not many of us will turn it down.
Let’s face it – we’re all pretty used to McDonalds wishing us a “Merry Christmas” so getting an email with that heading is likely to entice many of us to “Simply print the coupon from this Email and head to your local McDonald’s for FREE giveaways and AWESOME savings” as the email instructs.
(Pic courtesy of Panda)
According to PandaLabs, Panda Security’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware however, you won’t get a coupon, you won’t get “FREE giveaways and AWESOME savings”, but you will get infected by the P2PShared.U worm.
“Once on the computer”, according to Panda, “the worm sends out emails with the same subject and appearance to other users. Finally, it copies itself to folders of various P2P file-sharing programs (eMule, LimeWire, Morpheus, etc.) with names relating to security software, image editing programs, program cracks, etc. This way, any user that tries to download any of these applications will be actually letting a copy of the worm into their computer”.
At this time of the year, we can expect to be bombarded by socially engineered email spam/scam with a Christmas or Holiday Season theme, so be more vigilant than you normally would be.
Don’t open unknown email attachments
Don’t run programs of unknown origin
Disable scripting features in email programs
Ensure your anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments
If you are interested in staying on top of the latest in Internet security news, consider adding Panda Security news to your feed reader by adding the following URL – http://feeds.feedburner.com/PandaSecurity.
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All I can say is.. when are we going to say “enough is enough!”
I wasn’t aware of this particular attack. Thank you.
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This should be on national TV… With America these days, no one would turn that down… Thanks for the warning!
this is un american.
the horror….
Hey Glenn.
Unamerican, Uncanadian ………..
Why can’t they do this with Arby’s? lol
Was this not posted elsewhere. Im sure I read this on another site. I got it up on mine also but cant remember where I pulled it from lol
Hey Jerk,
If you saw this article elsewhere on the Internet, then you can be sure a scraper has stolen my content. Articles on my site are copyright protected.
I took a look at your Blog, and noticed you have a number of articles posted – all of them stolen copyrighted content, and not one of them written by you. I also noticed you have had a total of 163 hits.
In my view, you, are the worst kind of scraper – the kind that steals other peoples work for your own profit. For example, the wording in your post “All About Spyware” is duplicated in 667 other articles on the Internet.
I see that you have stolen my article that you refer to in your comments, and posted it in its entirety on your site. Cute how you lie by stating:
“I have just recieved this email and had a good delve through it and it is actually malware. If you have not recieved it yet DO NOT open it. If you have opened it then run your checker through it. If you have not got a checker then have a look to the right and check out one of the products there that will find it”. Just reading this tells me – YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
More to the point, not only are you a repugnant stain on the world, but you are a 4th-rate thief. Any further comments from you will be regarded as spam and I can assure you, I will watch your Blog for futher copyright violations, and in every case, I will notify each publication that you have stolen from, that you have done so.
As well, I have enlisted the aid of of 100’s of other Bloggers (people like you are despised by ethical Bloggers), in watching your site closely, for continued copyright violations.
Blogspot.com is in agreement that people like you are not entitled to hold Blogs in their community, and I have emailed them with a formal complaint.
Bill Mullins
As a writer, I find these types about as low as you can get.
I simply am flabberghasted that he would have the temerity to write and rub it in your face. Did he think you stole it too???
I encourage whoever hosts this guy to pull him down, and blacklist his IP.
Hey TechPaul,
Thanks for the support.
You’re right, this guy’s host needs to take him down. Since he’s hosted by Blogger.com, this will be fairly easy to do. Blogger.com has a policy of not hosting scrapers.
With my site being in the Top 100 WordPress Blogs 5 times this week alone, currently number 7, over time I’ve become use to scrapers stealing my copyrighted content. What I’m not use to however, is a punk like this, attempting as you put it, to “rub it in your face”
Bill
Thanks for the info. I saw you lambast that guy for copyright infringment. I do not have a websit or blog. I found your site by researching power line communications and saw the mickey d info. So not to improperly forward your info is it ok to cut and past into an email and send to friends or would you prefer just send link for your site or just tell them about it. I am a pure computer novice and have enjoyed your site so I do not want to otherwise upset you. Thanks for the time.
Hi Jimmy,
It’s definitely OK to cut and paste any content, that you find on the
Internet, for personal use. That’s one of the great things about the
Internet.
I’m glad you found the info on mickey d helpful, and it’s great you want to
share it with your friends. You’re a good friend to have!
Just to make it clear, a Scraper is someone who sets up a website, steals
content from all over the web, pretends it’s his own, and then runs a ton of
ads on his site looking to make money from the ads. The problem is of
course, he’s stealing other people’s hard work to do it. So both
technically, and legally, that guy is a thief. Just like the guy who breaks
into someones home.
Bill
the guy is a turd.
think i’ll blog about turds for my next blog.
rob miller will be the star.
Hey Glenn,
Thanks for the support. That would be very cool – folks don’t really realize
what a substantial problem scrapers are on the Internet.
Bill