CRIME An Interesting Spyware Scam to watch out for

From: Alan (alan@private)
Date: Sun May 11 2003 - 19:11:39 PDT

  • Next message: Shaun Savage: "Re: CRIME An Interesting Spyware Scam to watch out for"

    I received an interesting spam in the mail.  It contained a scam that
    you might want to be aware of, especially if you have fairly gullible
    users on your network.
    
    Here is the text of the spam:
    
    
    > From - 
    > Return-Path: <windowsupdate@private>
    > Delivered-To: alan@ctrl-alt-del.com
    > Received: from windowsupdatenow.com
    > 	(adsl-68-120-92-123.dsl.irvnca.pacbell.net [68.120.92.123]) by
    > 	clueserver.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 457062B6C3 for
    > 	<alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>; Sun, 11 May 2003 03:53:24 -0700 (PDT)
    > Message-ID: <8d6d63abe320$003a31b0$c04fd773@private>
    > From: <windowsupdate@private>
    > To: <alan@ctrl-alt-del.com>
    > Subject: Windows Update Notification
    > Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 06:32:11 -1100
    > MIME-Version: 1.0
    > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
    > X-Priority: 1
    > X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
    > X-MSMail-Priority: High
    > X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
    > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
    > X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.4 required=5.0
    > 	tests=X_MSMAIL_PRIORITY_HIGH,X_PRIORITY_HIGH,NO_REAL_NAME,LINES_OF_YELLING
    > 	version=2.20
    > X-Spam-Level: *
    > Status:   
    > 
    > WINDOWS SECURITY WARNING!!
    > =20
    > A VIRUS HAS BEEN DETECTED ON YOUR COMPUTER. IN ORDER FOR YOUR COMPUTER NOT =
    > TO CRASH YOU WILL NEED TO GO TO:
    > =20
    > http://WWW.WINDOWSUPDATENOW.COM
    > =20
    > AND IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE YOUR COMPUTERS SECURITY PATCHES.
    > =20
    > SIMPLY TYPE IN http://WWW.WINDOWSUPDATENOW.COM INTO YOUR BROWSER. OTHERWISE=
    >  YOU WILL KEEP RECEIVING THIS SECURITY ALERT EMAIL EVERY DAY.
    
    Since I am running Linux, I was not too worried...
    
    I checked out the site and it redirects you to
    http://www.quicklaunch.com/perl/detection.pl.
    
    The Linux unaware script attempts to download
    http://download.quicklaunch.com/quicklaunch154.cab and install it. 
    
    The program it tries to install is called "Quick Launch Toolbar".  It is
    a nasty little bit of Spyware/Adware. There is a good description on
    removal at http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/BrowserAid.html .  
    
    The biggest concern is that it has an "update feature" that can install
    arbitrary code on your machine.
    
    Both domains are registered to:
    
            This Domain Is For Sale joshuathaninvest@private
            ( This Domain is For Sale ) Joshuathan Investments, Inc.
            62 Cleghorn Street
            Belize City, Belize none
            US
            Phone: 501-2-31244
            Fax: 501-2-34222
     
    
    www.windowsupdatenow.com is hosted on wfb.dnsvr.com (65.125.231.178) in
    Florida.
    
    www.quicklaunch.com  (66.117.19.206) hosted by nhicolo.com in LA,
    California.
    
    
    -- 
    Alan <alan@private>
    



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