CNN com is one of the most respected websites when it comes to breaking international news. Unfortunately, some spammers seem to be taking advantage of the CNN name to victimize innocent victims. I opened my email today and found one email with subject “CNN.com Daily Top 10″. Here is what the email contains:
The sender of the email is Harjinder-lkpn@321facets.com and obviously, a company like CNN international would not be using unprofessional emails like this one. I googled for more information about the CNN.com daily top ten email and it is indeed a malware spam. According to one forum, the email actually offers a malware get_flash_update.exe. When downloaded, malwares like viruses can pose security threats to your computer.
As always, email users are advised not to click on any of the links from these suspicious mails, not even the unsubsribe links commonly included in these spam messages.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I just received that spam like 5 minutes ago and clicked on a headline. Luckily when it offered the .exe file download I hit cancel. *whew* I’m a mac user, btw, so I dunno if it would’ve worked anyway…?
August 7th, 2008 at 5:49 am
The sender I referred to above is job-erasulva@pub5.fz.fj.cn
August 7th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Just wanted to say my identical dangerous spam email, which I also received today, is from a different sender :
I am not a techie, but I suspected trouble & so I googled the subject line of the email and found your informative site page here.
Thank you for being here and keeping up with these things.
It’s a cagy, clever, tricky dangerous spam, as I guess the ones that get around the most are.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:38 am
This is the 20th time in the last two days I’ve got the email. Sites it links to have .cn, .es, .ar type extensions and all lead to the get_flash_update.exe which is a virus. The get_flash_update.exe seems to be the rage at the moment with other emails arriving with subjects like * Rupert Murdoch and wife robbed at gunpoint, or * Bush spent $500,000 for daughter’s party. I wonder if it’s originating from the Pro China/anti western website http://www.anti-cnn.com?
August 6th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
You may also find it useful to inform readers that this same email virus/worm propagation is also being received under the guise of 123greetings.com email. Same concept, using a trusted web site’s information and email headers.
I have received 8 of these malicious messages since yesterday, 6 of the “CNN” variety and 2 of the “123greetings.com” variety. Though web information is limited, I have read these are connected to the Storm worm. The malicious get_flash_update.exe installs a service, CbEvtSvc.exe, which can be seen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows machines and clicking the Processes tab. If you have made the mistake of opening and falling for this email hoax, kill the program CbEvtSvc.exe and remove it from the startup menu. Additionally, Have your firewall block this program from accessing the internet. These are all the instructions I have found available at this time.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
The sender address is most likely not responsible, somehow my main domain email address is being used to send out this thing, I’m trying to understand whether or not I can do anything about it.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
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August 6th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Hi Dan,
It seems popular email service providers like hotmail automatically mark the CNN scam mail as spam. It is helpful to still be cautious though. I had this foolish experience of clicking a link in one of the spam messages that I received.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for posting this. I got this in my inbox today. Luckily, Hotmail marked it as unsafe,??????????????????????????????????
August 6th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
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