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Author Topic: Spam in myspace  (Read 2257 times)

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linnea

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Spam in myspace
« on: February 09, 2007, 03:04:50 am »
Okay...

Guys, I have some advice for the myspacers.

First, update to a browser like Firefox2 (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) that checks for web forgery and will protect you from getting 'sploited by phishers.

Second, change your goddamn passwords, and check the bulletins you've posted so you can delete the fake ones.

As many of you know, there was a notorious Spam King who just got busted for conducting phishing schemes to get myspace passwords ...and then using unaware accounts to sending millions of spam messages and post crap spam bulletins.

Quote from: CNET News
MySpace.com has filed a lawsuit against Scott Richter, the so-called "Spam King" who allegedly sent out millions of unsolicited "bulletins" to MySpace members, the site announced Monday.

The News Corp.-owned social-networking site cited violations of multiple state and U.S. antispam laws, including California statutes and the federal Can-Spam Act, in its case against Richter, who was the proprietor of a site called OptInRealBig.com. According to MySpace, Richter gained access to MySpace user accounts via phishing schemes, or took control of accounts that had already been phished, and then used the service's bulletin feature, which sends messages to all of a user's "friends," to churn out unsolicited messages that advertised products ranging from Polo shirts to cell phone ringtones.

The suit is aiming for monetary damages and an injunction that would permanently ban Richter and his affiliates from MySpace. The amount of money sought by MySpace has not been disclosed.

Richter was already ordered to pay $7 million in a 2003 lawsuit filed by Microsoft after initially refusing to settle the dispute for $100,000. Microsoft announced in 2005 that it would be using the money from the settlement to fuel further antispam operations.

Phishing is just one security problem facing MySpace these days. In December, the site had to deal with a QuickTime worm that posted links to fraudulent Web sites by exploiting a vulnerability in MySpace's architecture. It addition, it continues to battle safety problems, now that several high-profile incidents have made MySpace a seemingly perpetual bogeyman among parents' organizations and the U.S. government.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement Monday that the service is "committed to protecting our community from phishing and spam." He added that "if it takes filing a federal suit to stop someone who violates the law and damages our members' experience, then that's what we'll do."

So, in summary:

1.  Get an updated browser like Firefox2 (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) that will warn you when you're on a phishing site. That will prevent your password from being heisted.

2.  Change your password.

3.  Delete the fake bulletins.

Okay, thanks. It's happened about a bazillion times and I'm getting pretty irritated.
 
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theinevitable

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2007, 03:23:47 am »
edit: good lord! I am unhappy about this. what pisses me off is, I know exactly how they got my password. Goddamn. I would have thought I'd have made the connection when I noticed the weird URL-- but I didn't.

people, it's time to Come Clean. I took over the myspace of the man you knew as TheInevitable a few months ago-- since late September, I have been posting in his stead, having gained his password (he uses the same password for everything, stupid asshole). You may have noticed a steady decline in intelligence, a proliferation of meaningless posts, and loss of humor; this was due to my need to "spam" a variety of websites in a short amount of time.

I have lied to you all, and for this I apologize.

-Andrew "Fake InEvitable" Pendergast.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2007, 03:30:37 am by theinevitable »
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Choop

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2007, 05:20:18 am »
Can'd for edit.
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linnea

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2007, 04:08:51 am »
It's not your fault. He did it to tens of thousands of people. That's why it's awesome to keep your browser updated...those nice folks over at Mozilla spend time coming up with ways to check for those things so that you get a message when you're on a suspect site BEFORE you enter your password.

And really...Myspace's cheesy layouts and blinking graphics and all that stupid shit TOTALLY set them up for this. If their site wasn't so poorly designed then maybe they could have avoided this. Then again...their site demographics might have done that, too.

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Lister

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2007, 08:11:54 am »
I don't spend time (or money, when it comes to that) on sites that look like they were slapped together by some people who didn't know what they were doing.  This policy has helped me a lot.
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Lister.  Not that one, the other one.

iron_felix

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2007, 04:03:41 pm »
People's Myspace profiles are basically the same as people's Geocities homepages from ten years ago.  All red text on a bright green background, all 20-odd animated gifs all going off at once... and for Please sake Pat, do not design music into web page.  Is so newbie.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to find somebody's Myspace with an embedded YouTube video of the dancing baby on it.  Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the dancing baby had its own Myspace.

What really worries me now are the ads going round for applets that let you track who views your Myspace profile.  I say this A) because I use Myspace to stalk people and don't want my cover blown, and B) because Tom put out some kind of memorandum about how the applets are actually spyware (surprise surprise).  By adding it to your profile you expose not only yourself but anyone who views it.  So unless I'm mistaken... that puts everyone looking at any given Myspace at risk, even if they don't even have an account themselves?  I'm a Mac user, so it probably wouldn't run even if it somehow did manage to get onto my system, but it's a scary thought nonetheless.

Ig'nant-ass teenagers have been conditioned by all that "Pimp My Myspace" foolishness to just cut-and-paste random chunks of code onto their profiles, and now these are the consequences.  It surely won't be the last time something like this happens, either, given the nature of both the site and its clientele.
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theinevitable

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2007, 09:12:57 pm »
man, people don't even -know- this shit 'til they been to Facebook. That is the essence of Addiction right there.

Let me say, though, that I am pretty glad that it doesn't really let you customize what shit looks like. That is annoying.
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Social pressures exist
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V-Adore

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2007, 09:52:33 pm »
Yeah, the one thing I will give Facebook is that it all looks the same. Speaking as someone who is afraid of Myspace for fear that the anigifs will give my computer autism, and who has intentionally maintained the ugliest LiveJournal color scheme I could manage for over four years now (it ensures I don't accidentally become an LJ celebrity!), Facebook is downright soothing.
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theinevitable

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2007, 12:43:31 am »
V-- how many people have you given a "box with a hole in it?" I am in love with this concept.
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Social pressures exist
And if you think about them all of the time
You're gonna find that your head's been kicked in
You're gonna do it all for the grind

theinevitable

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2007, 05:18:04 pm »
what really bothers me: I wouldn't have fallen for that shitty trick if it weren't for one thing: Myspace constantly logs you out anyways. It seems like it asks you for your password every time you click a link. Fuck that shit.
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Social pressures exist
And if you think about them all of the time
You're gonna find that your head's been kicked in
You're gonna do it all for the grind

linnea

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Re: Spam in myspace
« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2007, 09:34:12 pm »
Quote from: theinevitable on February 12, 2007, 05:18:04 pm
what really bothers me: I wouldn't have fallen for that shitty trick if it weren't for one thing: Myspace constantly logs you out anyways. It seems like it asks you for your password every time you click a link. Fuck that shit.

Quoted for truth! I totally would have fallen for it except that Firefox alerted me.

Like I said, this never would have been an epidemic if their site wasn't so shittily designed.
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