Digital BW, The Print

With two more spam posts, spammers have found a way to invade this group by what seems to be highjacking of some of this newsgroup member accounts.

May I make a suggestion?

The use of a good antivirus that scans both hard disk and emails is a good start. I'm using Avira and found it to be one of the best. And it's free for personal use! 

http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol

Another step is to change passwords on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year.

BTW, does this group still have a moderator?

Cheers,
Andre

On 28/06/2010 andre1moreau wrote:
> With two more spam posts, spammers have found a way to invade this 
> group by what seems to be highjacking of some of this newsgroup 
> member accounts.

No hijack required. It's just a matter of spammers using a disposable 
email address and joining lots of Yahoo! groups then spamming them quick 
before they get booted off.

Tedious but a weakness of open membership subscription. Mods can't tell 
who is going to spam, just from their email address.

AV software won't help with this particular annoyance. An airstrike on 
spammers homes would.

I don't know if there's a mod, but forwarding any spam to abuse@... 
will get the spammer's account trashed quite quickly.
-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Tony Sleep <TonySleep@...> wrote:
>
> 
> No hijack required. It's just a matter of spammers using a 
> disposable email address and joining lots of Yahoo! groups then 
> spamming them quick before they get booted off.
> 
It would help if a moderator would approve/disapprove the first few posts from any new member, especially now that spammers have been using this group lately.
> 
> AV software won't help with this particular annoyance. An airstrike 
> on spammers homes would.
> 
I think it's been reported in earlier posts that some accounts may have been used by spammer, if I'm  not mistaken.
 
Cheers,
Andre

On 28/06/2010 andre1moreau wrote:
> I think it's been reported in earlier posts that some accounts may 
> have been used by spammer, if I'm not mistaken.

My apologies. Both the recent spams were indeed from compromised list 
member accounts, not specially set-up new accounts. Weak passwords?

-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk

Tony,
 
Perhaps (if not too much trouble) you could privately alert those of us
who's accounts were breached?
 
Thanks,
 
Tom Mallonee
 
  
On 28/06/2010 andre1moreau wrote:
> I think it's been reported in earlier posts that some accounts may 
> have been used by spammer, if I'm not mistaken.

My apologies. Both the recent spams were indeed from compromised list 
member accounts, not specially set-up new accounts. Weak passwords?

-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

With the lack of regulatory effort in the pursuit of the spammers, which are for the most part scammers, using the banking system (eg: credit card which indeed have paper trails that could be traced).

Please note that the banking system protect these spammers, hence 'our' gov't, as it helps their bottom line.

The best thing to do is to IGNORE the spam, and just hit the delete key.

-= CB =-

----- "Tony Sleep" <TonySleep@...> wrote:

> On 28/06/2010 andre1moreau wrote:
> > I think it's been reported in earlier posts that some accounts may 
> > have been used by spammer, if I'm not mistaken.

On 28/06/2010 Tom Mallonee wrote:
> Perhaps (if not too much trouble) you could privately alert those of 
> us
> who's accounts were breached?

It's public knowledge. The list spams originated from
dsmall9917@... & mel_levine@...

 From the headers, they originated from aol webmail and yahoo webmail 
mailservers respectively, indicating authentic accounts rather than merely 
spoofed sender addresses.

Both accounts have been used to post non-spam, on-topic issues to this 
list in the past, so are not specially created disposable spammer 
accounts. Therefore they have likely been compromised by someone cracking 
the passwords.

I've mailed Dave Small and Mel Levine to let them know.
-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk

Tony,

Both spammed post (#100750 & 100751) and possibly all previous spam posts redirect to Canadian Pharmacy or a version of it.

According to Spamhaus, they are located in the Ukraine and are at the top of their "10 Worst Spammers" list. They are not going to go away easely.

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/spammers.lasso

http://spamtrackers.eu/wiki/index.php/Canadian_Pharmacy

These spamming organizations usually use keyloggers viruses to snag passwords. Hence my post about using  proven antivirus software to scans incoming emails. 

Cheers,
Andre

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, Tony Sleep <TonySleep@...> wrote:

>
> On 28/06/2010 Tom Mallonee wrote:
> > Perhaps (if not too much trouble) you could privately alert those of 
> > us
> > who's accounts were breached?
> 
> It's public knowledge. The list spams originated from
> dsmall9917@... & mel_levine@...
> 
>  From the headers, they originated from aol webmail and yahoo webmail 
> mailservers respectively, indicating authentic accounts rather than merely 
> spoofed sender addresses.
> 
> Both accounts have been used to post non-spam, on-topic issues to this 
> list in the past, so are not specially created disposable spammer 
> accounts. Therefore they have likely been compromised by someone cracking 
> the passwords.
> 
> I've mailed Dave Small and Mel Levine to let them know.
> -- 
> Regards
> 
> Tony Sleep
> http://tonysleep.co.uk
>

On Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:54:25 +0100, Tony Sleep
<TonySleep@...> had a flock of green cheek conures squawk
out:

>On 28/06/2010 Tom Mallonee wrote:
>> Perhaps (if not too much trouble) you could privately alert those of 
>> us
>> who's accounts were breached?
>
>It's public knowledge. The list spams originated from
>dsmall9917@... & mel_levine@...
>
> From the headers, they originated from aol webmail and yahoo webmail 
>mailservers respectively, indicating authentic accounts rather than merely 
>spoofed sender addresses.
>
>Both accounts have been used to post non-spam, on-topic issues to this 
>list in the past, so are not specially created disposable spammer 
>accounts. Therefore they have likely been compromised by someone cracking 
>the passwords.
>
>I've mailed Dave Small and Mel Levine to let them know.

Sending messages to a yahoogroup via email only requires a subscribed
email address.  They don't need the actual email account.

-- 

Stephen

Everybody should believe in something: I believe I'll have another drink.

I used to work in Information Technology and have a lot of experience repairing PCs as a side business.  I recently created a file on cleaning Windows PCs for another group and posted it in their files section.  It is recent, so the products that I recommended for cleaning infected PCs are still very good, IMO.  Sometimes In the AV and security world, recommendations do tend to change from year to year as products change.  I will be happy to post it here, or send copies to members who email me, if the group wishes.

Iric

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:

>
> With two more spam posts, spammers have found a way to invade this group by what seems to be highjacking of some of this newsgroup member accounts.
> 
> May I make a suggestion?
> 
> The use of a good antivirus that scans both hard disk and emails is a good start. I'm using Avira and found it to be one of the best. And it's free for personal use! 
> 
> http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol
> 
> Another step is to change passwords on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year.
> 
> BTW, does this group still have a moderator?
> 
> Cheers,
> Andre
>

On 29/06/2010 Stephen Castello wrote:
> Sending messages to a yahoogroup via email only requires a subscribed
> email address. They don't need the actual email account.

Yes, I know - but the headers show that these were actually sent from the 
owners' webmail accounts at AOL & Yahoo. Not just spoofed addresses.

-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk

We are all getting hit with these SPAMERS and them "borrowing" our e- 
mail addresses. From what I can tell there is absolutely nothing we  
can do about it, as soon as somebody figures  a way to stop it they  
just find another way around it. If you look at the IPs they come  
from, they will be different each time, even though it says from the  
same e-mail address so you can not even firewall the IP. People have  
said, don't make your e-mail public but I get SPAM on one I have never  
given out or used, it was just created as a test e-mail box for me to  
use if needed.

They WIN! So lets just stock up on those pills and keep going ;)

Mark
http://www.stillrivereditions.com

On Jun 29, 2010, at 8:24 AM, Tony Sleep wrote:

> On 29/06/2010 Stephen Castello wrote:
>> Sending messages to a yahoogroup via email only requires a subscribed
>> email address. They don't need the actual email account.
>
> Yes, I know - but the headers show that these were actually sent  
> from the
> owners' webmail accounts at AOL & Yahoo. Not just spoofed addresses.
>
> -- 
> Regards
>
> Tony Sleep
> http://tonysleep.co.uk
>

On Jun 29, 2010, at 5:38 AM, Mark Savoia wrote:

> We are all getting hit with these SPAMERS and them "borrowing" our e-
> mail addresses. From what I can tell there is absolutely nothing we
> can do about it, as soon as somebody figures  a way to stop it they
> just find another way around it. If you look at the IPs they come
> from, they will be different each time, even though it says from the
> same e-mail address so you can not even firewall the IP. People have
> said, don't make your e-mail public but I get SPAM on one I have never
> given out or used, it was just created as a test e-mail box for me to
> use if needed.
> [snip]


This week's issue of TidBITS has an article which might help:

"Change your Passwords: Email Account Hacking on the Rise"

is at <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11376>.


TidBITS is Apple-centric, but I don't think that makes this article  
any less relevant.
--
Sam

Only a few spams posts from the #1 spammer in the world have been posted on this group. But this could change and we could see dozens even hundreds of spam post per week hitting this group. 

The world's #1 spammer has a well organised gang of hackers looking for your personal info including credit cards numbers.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2110463_off-canadian-pharmacy-mailing-list.html

As someone has mentionned, there's nothing we can do about it. Or is there? At the present the number of spam post is tolerable, but if it were to increase to an unbearable number, there is one effective way to deal with that organised gang and that is to monitor every post before they are published.

That may be excessive for the time being, but we'll see how spam this group is willing to accept. So far only one gang has spammed this group, and yet there are many other gangs willing to do the same.

Cheers,
Andre

It can be more of a problem than just hitting the delete key. the Epson 3800 group was killed by spam - more spam than posts, therefore people left and no more posts, finally a dead group. And because of spam the Lightroom group had to be killed and a replacement started with tight moderation.

  - susan

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, -= Chris =- <baudec@...> wrote:
>
> With the lack of regulatory effort in the pursuit of the spammers, which are for the most part scammers, using the banking system (eg: credit card which indeed have paper trails that could be traced).
> 
> Please note that the banking system protect these spammers, hence 'our' gov't, as it helps their bottom line.
> 
> The best thing to do is to IGNORE the spam, and just hit the delete key.
> 
> -= CB =-
> 
......
>

On 29/06/2010 andre1moreau wrote:
> 
> That may be excessive for the time being, but we'll see how spam this 
> group is willing to accept. 

Yahoo! appear to have changed their policy toward group spam. They used to 
stamp on it, now they say:

"We appreciate your report of possible abuse in Yahoo! Groups. The owner
and/or moderator is responsible for maintaining the content of the group
and can remove any material (or a member) that is in violation of the
Yahoo! Terms of Service (TOS) and/or Community Guidelines. We recommend
contacting the owner/moderator regarding your concerns. You can do so by
sending an email to:

    (groupname)-owner@yahoogroups.com"


-- 
Regards

Tony Sleep
http://tonysleep.co.uk

Things like this group is why I am so careful about what I put out through the Internet.  I am not backing up online, for example.  There is no security that cannot be broken into eventually.  Also, I make sure that I have very good Anti Malware software on and firewalls on my computer.  This can be frustrating because some of them don't play well together.  In other words, My particular firewall may not work with my anti virus program.  The best site that I know of to evaluate each PC's security needs is on Gizmo's Freeware site.  Here is the link:  http://dev.urltrim.com/secwiz

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:

>
> Only a few spams posts from the #1 spammer in the world have been posted on this group. But this could change and we could see dozens even hundreds of spam post per week hitting this group. 
> 
> The world's #1 spammer has a well organised gang of hackers looking for your personal info including credit cards numbers.
> 
> http://www.ehow.com/how_2110463_off-canadian-pharmacy-mailing-list.html
> 
> As someone has mentionned, there's nothing we can do about it. Or is there? At the present the number of spam post is tolerable, but if it were to increase to an unbearable number, there is one effective way to deal with that organised gang and that is to monitor every post before they are published.
> 
> That may be excessive for the time being, but we'll see how spam this group is willing to accept. So far only one gang has spammed this group, and yet there are many other gangs willing to do the same.
> 
> Cheers,
> Andre
>

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:
>
> Only a few spams posts from the #1 spammer in the world have been posted on this group. But this could change and we could see dozens even hundreds of spam post per week hitting this group. 
> 


Will someone please tell me how these spams are manifested?  I am not aware of any changes in my interactions with this group.

Harry

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "hflockwood" <hflockwood@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Only a few spams posts from the #1 spammer in the world have been posted on this group. But this could change and we could see dozens even hundreds of spam post per week hitting this group. 
> > 
> 
> 
> Will someone please tell me how these spams are manifested?  I am not aware of any changes in my interactions with this group.
> 
> Harry

Ditto!  

Another Harry <g>

Harry,

Please take a look at message #100751, 100750, 100699, 100700, 100768.

So far, there has been only a few spam post all having a clikable link to a phishing site taht wants your credit card number and personal info.

But the thing is, they have broken through. Expect more to come. 

As someone already mentioned, some Yahoo discussion list ( Epson 3800, Lightroom) have been infested with these spam to the point where people are getting off these list.

These spam post come from organized gangs running all sorts of internet scams.

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/networks.lasso

Cheer,
Andre


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "hflockwood" <hflockwood@...> wrote:

>

> Will someone please tell me how these spams are manifested?  I am not aware of any changes in my interactions with this group.
> 
> Harry
>

"andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:
>
> ... some Yahoo discussion list ( Epson 3800, Lightroom) have been infested with these spam to the point where people are getting off these list.
> ...

I've been in the mountains (Golden Trout Photo Workshop).  So I'm not up to speed here. Sorry if this is all redundant.

I had noticed that I'd been getting a number of notices from Yahoo about changes to the forums (yahoo groups).  I've basically ignored these.

Questions I have include:  

Could these notices be related Yahoo's attempts to save its business and our groups here?  

Or have they made changes that opened the door too much, probably as a side effect to some change in their systems?

(I assume it's Yahoo's responsibility and monetary incentive to fight this spam.)

What is causing the people to leave the groups?  

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?  

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.


Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

Paul,
I would suggest that you simply review the posts on the topic.. Their was , depending upon ones situation , a fair amount of info.. Overall it's more about individual accounts have been compromised and are being used.. Yahoo has deferred it to back the groups not the mother ship it appears.. 

In a way that makes sense as once your email is compromised theirs not much they can do. Accounts may get compromised not on Yahoo...say on Face book which getting pretty common I understand. In the end it'll be the group moderators and or the individual that solve it .. 

jimbo

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 12:23 PM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Re: More about the Ukranian Spammer


    
  "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:
  >
  > ... some Yahoo discussion list ( Epson 3800, Lightroom) have been infested with these spam to the point where people are getting off these list.
  > ...

  I've been in the mountains (Golden Trout Photo Workshop). So I'm not up to speed here. Sorry if this is all redundant.

  I had noticed that I'd been getting a number of notices from Yahoo about changes to the forums (yahoo groups). I've basically ignored these.

  Questions I have include: 

  Could these notices be related Yahoo's attempts to save its business and our groups here? 

  Or have they made changes that opened the door too much, probably as a side effect to some change in their systems?

  (I assume it's Yahoo's responsibility and monetary incentive to fight this spam.)

  What is causing the people to leave the groups? 

  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? 

  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.

  Paul
  www.PaulRoark.com 



  

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

On Jun 30, 2010, at 11:23 AM, Paul Roark wrote:

> [snip]
>
> 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.
>
> [snip]


I don't have any expertise, Paul, but I think this week's issue of  
_TidBITS_ has an article which might help:

"Change your Passwords: Email Account Hacking on the Rise"

which is at <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11376>.


TidBITS is Apple-centric, but I think that in very large part this  
article is generally relevant.
--
Sam

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

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





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

True!  Let's change the subject line to "
NO More about the Ukranian Spammer
Richard S.
Albany, CA (San Francisco bay area)

My Photography Website
http://www.lightshadowandtone.com

My Flickr River
http://flickriver.com/photos/rich8155/popular-interesting/


On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 4:47 PM, John K Stacy <John_K_Stacy@...>wrote:

>
>
> 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<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.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<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.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
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>  
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> True!  Let's change the subject line to "
> NO More about the Ukranian Spammer

It's also a bit unfair to Ukraine, since most spam (according to the stats) 
comes from the USA.

Bob Frost
---------------
From: "Richard Sintchak" <rich815@...>

HI Bob,

Don't know where you got your starts from, but that Ukrainian spammer and his organization sends out tens of millions spams per day. He's at the top of the 10 worst spammers list. Some of his spam may originate from the US has they are known to use botnets or "Zombie networks".

This will be my last post on the subject. 

http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/listing.lasso?file=1099

Cheers,
Andre

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Frost" <bobfrost@...> wrote:

>
> > True!  Let's change the subject line to "
> > NO More about the Ukranian Spammer
> 
> It's also a bit unfair to Ukraine, since most spam (according to the stats) 
> comes from the USA.
> 
> Bob Frost
> ---------------
> From: "Richard Sintchak" <rich815@...>
>

> Don't know where you got your starts from, but that Ukrainian spammer and 
> his organization sends out tens of millions spams per day. He's at the top 
> of the 10 worst spammers list. Some of his spam may originate from the US 
> has they are known to use botnets or "Zombie networks".

Stats from same organisation -

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso


"As at 01 July 2010 the world's worst Spam Haven countries for production 
and export of spam are:

 1  United States Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 2324

2  China Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 699

3  Russian Federation Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 490

4  Argentina Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 286

5  United Kingdom Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 283

6  Germany Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 244

7  Brazil Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 219

8  Canada Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 212

9  Romania Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 210

10  Japan Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 200 "


Bob F.

-----------------------------------------
From: "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...>

Goodbye

From: Bob Frost 
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 8:38 AM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: More about the Ukranian Spammer


  
> Don't know where you got your starts from, but that Ukrainian spammer and 
> his organization sends out tens of millions spams per day. He's at the top 
> of the 10 worst spammers list. Some of his spam may originate from the US 
> has they are known to use botnets or "Zombie networks".

Stats from same organisation -

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries.lasso

"As at 01 July 2010 the world's worst Spam Haven countries for production 
and export of spam are:

1 United States Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 2324

2 China Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 699

3 Russian Federation Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 490

4 Argentina Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 286

5 United Kingdom Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 283

6 Germany Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 244

7 Brazil Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 219

8 Canada Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 212

9 Romania Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 210

10 Japan Number of Current Live Spam Issues: 200 "

Bob F.

-----------------------------------------
From: "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...>






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Andre,

Yes the group still has moderators. We just have not been very active in recent times.

The way the group is set up is that all new members automatically go into "Moderated" status meaning that none of their messages post without a moderator's approval. If the new member posts on topic then their status is changed to "Unmoderated" and their messages automatically go up like every other member. First posts that are borderline may go up but the person is left on 'Moderated" status awhile longer until we get a better idea of their likely content.

Using this we weed out a HUGE amount of spam that you never see.

That said, it is obviously not a perfect system and does not help if someone hacks their way in.

If someone is spamming the group, please let me know and I will do what I can to stop it.

Thanks,
Martin Wesley.

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "andre1moreau" <andre1moreau@...> wrote:

>
> With two more spam posts, spammers have found a way to invade this group by what seems to be highjacking of some of this newsgroup member accounts.
> 
> May I make a suggestion?
> 
> The use of a good antivirus that scans both hard disk and emails is a good start. I'm using Avira and found it to be one of the best. And it's free for personal use! 
> 
> http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?tag=mncol
> 
> Another step is to change passwords on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year.
> 
> BTW, does this group still have a moderator?
> 
> Cheers,
> Andre
>