Receiving spam related to websites I just visited. Is theresomething in this PC, or what happened?

[Robert A. Macy]

Running IE6 on this Win98. I keep my cookies to 12 related only to
websites I'm registered with. I keep 'temporary' stripped and empty
every session.

Yet, I just visited Microsoft website for IE problems and now am
receiving a flurry of 'official looking' notices from MS that say
click here to upgrade your Internet Explorer. Obviously these were
spam and the purpose was to inject malware into my system, because
they came from RIPE network. They violated MS copyright, so I
forwarded to abuse at RIPE and at MS.

Maybe a spambot crawled through the Usenet chatter regarding problems
with IE. But seems more likely that I was tracked going to the URL.
I did not think much about it until after going to an airline website
to look for flight times and started receiving a flurry of airline
ticket spams.

I did the ctrl-alt-del and found only the four programs that should be
running there.

Is it possible to put some kind of tracking software inside my system
without the software showing?

Robert

 

[Dan]

RE: Receiving spam related to websites I just visited. Is there somet

Robert, is your Windows XP fully updated on both machines? Are Windows 98
fully updated? Are we talking about original 98 or 98 Second Edition? In
XP, make sure you have the firewall enabled and no exceptions checked to
prevent nothing from getting through. Take a look at the exceptions and let
me know what is there especially if it is something unusual. In the
add/remove software take a look there and are there programs that you do not
recognize and if so Ask here or Google them for information. Please remove
the baddies as I like to call them from the add remove area. Go to cookie
handling area of Internet Explorer 6 or 7 and click on advanced settings and
block all 3rd party cookies as well as first party cookies and prompt for now
first party cookies. Delete everything from there including off-line files
-- this may take a while if you have not done it recently.




Tools that I like and use once initial cleaning is done are:

1. SpywareBlaster --- prevents baddies from getting into Internet Explorer
and Mozilla Firefox in the first place --- my favorite tool

2. Spybot Search and Destroy --- also a great tool and it removes baddies
from your system

3. Windows Live One Care --- you can run a free scan and there is a free 90
day trial that I am trying out on the XP Professional Service Pack 3 --- I
have 45 days left in my evaluation. It is good so far but of course not the
best anti-virus program out there but I have yet to run into false positives
with it and that is great

4. Adaware SE --- Stay Far Away --- too much risk potential of false
positives -- I no longer suggest using it since it trashed my sister Kate's
computer --- I was stupid for not asking her permission to work on the system
and I got judged according as it should be

5. Keep Us Informed --- you will also have to use customized settings for
Internet Explorer to have better safety and other stuff but I will now let
others chime their reason in so we can be as one united front in fixing your
computers.

98 Second Edition or First Edition I will let others write their feedback
first because I am very curious on their opinions about it.

Mozilla Firefox is awesome in 98 Second Edition and is supported until the
end of the year --- 2.0.0.x version -- currently on x=16 version. Mozilla
Firefox 3 is for XP but I am not using it yet because I am stubborn and old
school.





"Robert A. Macy" wrote:

> Running IE6 on this Win98. I keep my cookies to 12 related only to
> websites I'm registered with. I keep 'temporary' stripped and empty
> every session.
>
> Yet, I just visited Microsoft website for IE problems and now am
> receiving a flurry of 'official looking' notices from MS that say
> click here to upgrade your Internet Explorer. Obviously these were
> spam and the purpose was to inject malware into my system, because
> they came from RIPE network. They violated MS copyright, so I
> forwarded to abuse at RIPE and at MS.
>
> Maybe a spambot crawled through the Usenet chatter regarding problems
> with IE. But seems more likely that I was tracked going to the URL.
> I did not think much about it until after going to an airline website
> to look for flight times and started receiving a flurry of airline
> ticket spams.
>
> I did the ctrl-alt-del and found only the four programs that should be
> running there.
>
> Is it possible to put some kind of tracking software inside my system
> without the software showing?
>
> Robert
>

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Re: Receiving spam related to websites I just visited. Is there something in this PC, or what happened?

This SPAM has nothing to do with MS websites.

See: http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2008/08/07/1643666.aspx

More:
http://www.google.com/search?q="adm...d=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogse...osoft:en-US&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wb
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/


Robert A. Macy wrote:
> Running IE6 on this Win98. I keep my cookies to 12 related only to
> websites I'm registered with. I keep 'temporary' stripped and empty
> every session.
>
> Yet, I just visited Microsoft website for IE problems and now am
> receiving a flurry of 'official looking' notices from MS that say
> click here to upgrade your Internet Explorer. Obviously these were
> spam and the purpose was to inject malware into my system, because
> they came from RIPE network. They violated MS copyright, so I
> forwarded to abuse at RIPE and at MS.
>
> Maybe a spambot crawled through the Usenet chatter regarding problems
> with IE. But seems more likely that I was tracked going to the URL.
> I did not think much about it until after going to an airline website
> to look for flight times and started receiving a flurry of airline
> ticket spams.
>
> I did the ctrl-alt-del and found only the four programs that should be
> running there.
>
> Is it possible to put some kind of tracking software inside my system
> without the software showing?
>
> Robert

 

[philo]

Re: Receiving spam related to websites I just visited. Is there something in this PC, or what happened?

"Robert A. Macy" <macy@california.com> wrote in message
news:e9bef552-a04a-4238-9df4-843a94443b39@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> Running IE6 on this Win98. I keep my cookies to 12 related only to
> websites I'm registered with. I keep 'temporary' stripped and empty
> every session.
>
> Yet, I just visited Microsoft website for IE problems and now am
> receiving a flurry of 'official looking' notices from MS that say
> click here to upgrade your Internet Explorer. Obviously these were
> spam and the purpose was to inject malware into my system, because
> they came from RIPE network. They violated MS copyright, so I
> forwarded to abuse at RIPE and at MS.
>
> Maybe a spambot crawled through the Usenet chatter regarding problems
> with IE. But seems more likely that I was tracked going to the URL.
> I did not think much about it until after going to an airline website
> to look for flight times and started receiving a flurry of airline
> ticket spams.
>
> I did the ctrl-alt-del and found only the four programs that should be
> running there.
>
> Is it possible to put some kind of tracking software inside my system
> without the software showing?
>
> Robert


If you are posting with your real email address, that explains the spam

best to mung your address!