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 14th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Lamar,
Somebody else is sending you those spam messages, NOT ME.
August 13th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I no longer wish to receive these email alerts. please unsubscribe me from your list.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:57 am
[...] spammers who have been sending the CNN daily top ten email have not been satisfied in proliferating trojan files through spam messages. They are now utilizing [...]
August 9th, 2008 at 6:07 am
[...] Beware of the CNN.com daily top ten email [...]
August 8th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] guess, the ecard that I have received belongs to the 123greetings.com spam family that Shannon has mentioned in my CNN daily top ten post. I strongly advice those who receive these types of [...]
August 7th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I suspect you’re right Rhodilee, the email probably didn’t originate from CNNs competitors or foes. Makes me wonder who is sending this stuff out though. I saw a doco on the 08 olympics a night or two ago that featured anti-cnn.com where they demonstrate some of the skewed reporting at CNN, FOX, and BBC when it comes to China, then got more bogus emails so it got me wondering.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
To remove the CNN daily top ten malware, you can also check out this post: http://cantalktech.com/2008/08/07/remove-get_flash_updateexe-downloaded-from-cnn-daily-top-10-spam/
August 7th, 2008 at 11:50 am
[...] Beware of the CNN.com daily top ten email [...]
August 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I unfortunately clicked on the link and downloaded the file. It was a mess. Downloaded some program that kept stating i was infected with things. Found this guide that was able to remove it all:
bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-cnn-daily-top-10
August 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
wife mom maniac,
Yes, spammers can hijack other people’s email addresses to send out spam. Sometimes, there are also emails such as the MSN featured spam mails that can actually make it appear that the spam comes from the receiver’s email.
Shannon,
thank you very much for the information. I will try to research and post something about the 123greetings.com spam emails
Soundbyte,
Honestly, I do not think these emails come from competitors or foes of CNN. The MSN featured email seems to have not come from enemies of MSN.Similarly, the Google adwords phishing email does not also seem to come from yahoo, MSN or other google competitors.
No thanks,
Spammers use different addresses making them difficult to filter and block. Good thing you have not clicked on those deceptive urls.