Digital BW, The Print

So far, posts ABOUT the spammers are running 10 to one over ACTUAL posts from the spammers....seems like they are having US do their work for them...pretty slick...

John




From: andre1moreau 
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 3:55 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: More about the Ukranian Spammer


  
Hello Paul,
Welcome back. Hope you had a nice time up there in the mountains.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Paul" <roark.paul@...> wrote:
>
> Could these notices be related Yahoo's attempts to save its business and our groups here? 
> 
I do not have this information and can not tell at this time. All I've seen so far is that Yahoo seems to let the responsibility of fighting spam up to the group/list owner/moderator. However, it seems that they are now looking at letting list members become owner/moderator of orphaned groups, but no decision have been announced yet. Orphaned groups are the ones hit the hardest by spam messages.

> Or have they made changes that opened the door too much, probably as a side effect to some change in their systems?
> 
Can't tell. But Yahoo groups are the target of organized gangs, mostly under the guise of "Canadian Pharmacy" where a link in a post point to it. We haven't seen any porn spam yet on this group but it may come. I've listed a few links about these gangs in this tread.

These gangs operate "Zombie Networks" where personals computers infected by viruses are linked together in a network, operating unknown to their owner for the benefice of spams gangs. Some Zombie Networks may have several thousand of personal computers linked together. One botnet operation controlled 1.5 million personal computers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer
> 
> What is causing the people to leave the groups? 
> 
Having too many annoying spam messages polluting the group messages. On this group some may object, and rightly so about OT subject. What is more OT than spam? And having a steady stream of it becomes too much.

> Does the spam directly damage systems, or is an un-suspecting reaction of the recipient, such as giving out personal information to a stranger, the threat? 
> 
There is no danger, afaik, opening a spam message in a Yahoo group. Beyond that, clicking a spam link inside the message may lead phishing operations that are waiting for people to provide personal info including credit card numbers. Maybe even viruses if one is not carefull.
> I'm wondering if, aside from Yahoo's interests and actions, our members with expertise could identify simply actions group members can do to avoid damage from spam and feel secure using these forums.
> 
I don't think there's any danger using any Yahoo list/group and I feel secure reading posts on this group. The danger lies beyond the spam messsages, where gang members are waiting in ambush to perpetrate identy theft.

The only real effective means of fighting spam on any Yahoo group is to monitor each and every messages before they are posted. Do so at this time mey be more cumbersome that the spam itself. But, that will depends on how many spam message this group will be seeing in the future.

Personally, I've installed a proven antivirus and firewall (Avira & Comodo) and both are free for personal use. And I have the habit of changing my passwords one or twice per year. Also, I delete without reading any email messages that resemble spam. Beyond that, I don't think there's much I can do.
> 
Cheers,
Andre





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