Are Facebook users being locked out of their accounts?  Sure they are.  The reasons very from one to the next, but in the end, the account owners are finding it difficult, if not, impossible to regain access.  A friend came to me asking to help her regain access to her account after being locked out.  She reported that she was notified that after inputting her login information that her she did not provide the correct login credentials.  This was using her browsers stored login and save password she had on file.  She knew that it was working just a few hours earlier when she had logged in.  However, when going back to her Facebook page to check on a message she had received via email from a comment she had posted and wanted to read the rest of the comments that other users had left, she then discovered the problems that so many other users were also plagued with.

Recently we have noticed the increase of third party auto-form websites popping up all over the internet.  Since then, the increase of phishing attacks have also gone up.  From the old "Check Here To Re-Validate Your Mailbox." to "We have noticed an abnormal pattern to the usage of your email account, and have temporarily suspended it, Click Here, to reactivate it."

These are just a few types of messages that we have received recently to our users that were automatically blocked by our spam filtering software.  We have discovered that a majority of these messages have been originating from BigPond, a subsidiary of Telstra Internet Services.  When we tried to look up a contact email for BigPond, all we got was an endless circle of help links.  So this is why we've decided to make this post public in hopes that they will contact us to get this resolved.

Below are some of the raw messages that we have received and are posting them here.  The links have been terminated by the third party sites involved but the emails still flow into our system directed at our users.

Is it that AntiSpam conversations are not that interesting to anyone or is it that there is so much junk out there that everyone is just immune to it now a days?  We need some input here.  So if your interested in speaking your mind, please do so.  Please provide your ideas in the following forum topic, Special needs that Spacequad should have, and if it sounds like a great idea, we may include it.  All ideas will be considered.

Well it looks like Scott Richter is up to his latest scam.  As of this date, we have received quite a few emails similar to the one below.

rob
If you need a loan ASAP, get $1000 in an hour here:
http://upraise.maximumdecision.com/index.aspx?36993889-165986854-55970715




To No Longer Receive Our Ads:
http://upraise.maximumdecision.com/index.aspx?36993890-165986854-55970715
100DayLoans
17470 N. Pacesetter Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85255

Read on for more

Facebook

the Social Media that over five hundred million users are now hooked into, seems like a gold mine for advertisers.  Well guess what?  It sure is!  Ever since facebook opened its api's to allow new apps to be created, like games, has now exploded into a multi-billion dollar avenue for not only advertisers, but also spammers.  Its finally started.  The onslaught of emails directly to your inbox, bypassing most, if not all anti-spam filters you may have in place.  In the last several weeks, we here at Spacequad Internet Services have received more than fifty thousand facebook spam messages directed at our users and bypassing most of our filters.  Each one of these messages comes in the form of a beneficiary/next of kin solicitation type of message.  Of these spam mails, everyone of them is personalized with the facebook user's profile name.  It then gets sent directly from facebook's servers to your email inbox that you have attached to your facebook account.  See example below.  

Spammers are getting desprate again in wanting legit emails.  This time they are targeting Yahoo email account holders.  below in the full article you will see the actual email letter that was sent out to the masses.  Keep in mind, no provider will EVER send out anything remoptely like the below.  If you see anything that begs the question, "VERIFY AND CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT" or any other account, avoid any type of return remittance to these criminals.  In fact, it is strongly advised to just delete these types of messages.  READ MORE

Just so that everyone reading this is clear.  The following E-Mail is being delivered by criminals that are trying to convince you that your PayPal account has been compromised.  Well not yet at least, unless you fall for this E-Mail listed below and fill out the attached html form, and click on submit.  What ever you do...don't bother opening this attachment and fill it out, you could be sorry.  Read on to see the E-Mail.

We thought we would bring this to everyone's attention.  Scammers are at it again and this time they are trying to get your money diverted to their bank account with your help.  They are using a fake US governments (EFTPS) Electronic Funds Tax Payment Services web page to convince you that you owe money.  It is in your best interests to ignore such emails claiming these statements.  See below a copy for your referral.  Whenever it comes to these types of emails or scams in general, do not fall into their trap by posting any type of transaction to them.  Whether it be in a check, credit card, EFT, or any other online credit source, including paypal, could be used by the con-artists to swindle you out of your hard earned money.

A recent article on Slashdot.com

And to think...there's actual justice being done in the wake of sending these spammers a message back to them.  About time.

The Federal Trade Commission has permanently halted the operations of Canadian con artists who allegedly posed as domain name registrars and convinced thousands of U.S. consumers, small businesses and non-profit organizations to pay bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid. Settlement and default judgment orders signed by the court will bar the deceptive practices in the future.

In June 2008, the FTC charged Toronto-based Internet Listing Service with sending fake invoices to small businesses and others, listing the existing domain name of the consumer’s Web site or a slight variation on the domain name, such as substituting “.org” for “.com.” The invoices appeared to come from the businesses’ existing domain name registrar and instructed them to pay for an annual “WEBSITE ADDRESS LISTING.” The invoices also claimed to include a search engine optimization service. Most consumers who received the “invoices” were led to believe that they had to pay them to maintain their registrations of domain names. Other consumers were induced to pay based on Internet Listing Service’s claims that its “Search Optimization” service would “direct mass traffic” to their sites and that their “proven search engine listing service” would result in “a substantial increase in traffic.”

If you have a Facebook account, and most of you do now a days, its getting tougher to to know if an email from them is legit.  Below is an example of such email that is NOt legit.  If this or any other type of email make it past your spam filters, there are way to find out if its legit before you go clicking on any links.  The first thing you might notice is the blank picture and the user name of Facebook Support.  That alone should make you aware that something is not right.

When it comes to social networking, the spammers and hackers are usually only one step ahead of the good guys.  Why is that?  And when you take out trash the night before garbage day, you can always tell that the animals got to it, by the mess they leave on the ground next to the can.   Same thing happens when you take down a spammer, a new one take its place.  Are Twitter users under attack?  Again?  Read on...

They're at it again!  The spammers from China are floating their junk accross the internet in hopes of someone seeing their advertisements.  We do understand that everyone does have a right to advertise, but this is illegal in the way they go about it.  They have now sucessfully gained access to hotmail's mail server and are pumping out millions of junk mails everyday.  The names and email address's they use are in the headers of the emails that are sent out.  Example below demonstrates it fairly well.  If you follow the header and url, you will notice that it is definately spam without a question on your mind.

AOL User Accounts Under Attack!

It seems that as of lately we have been seeing more and more spam E-Mail from AOL users.  These spam messages have been very subtle in that they only have a single url in the message.  These links mostly resolve to spyware and malware sites that try to infect your computer while visiting their site(s).  Do yourself a favor and immediately delete these messages as soon as you see them in your inbox.  Do not bother trying to track them down as they are actually going thru AOL's servers.  The only thing you can do, is if you happen to know this person's email, is to ask them to check their machine for virus's, spyware and malware.    If you are constantly receiving these spam messages, then send a raw copy with the header to abuse@aol.com.  Hopefully they (AOL) will get the message to tighten their filters.

Facebook users under attack?  It would appear that the three million users that Facebook has under its skin, are serpentinely being duped into clicking on the link found in an email being sent to them.  In this mass mailing, users are asked to update their account information before they are allowed to login, by clicking on the link provided in the email.