MSN Spam Messages

Ive been receiving quite a few spam messages from friends on my MSN (Windows Live Messenger) contact list lately which are totally out of context and certainly not sent by them. In fact, they generally have no idea that their MSN is suddenly sending out freak messages to everyone on their contact list, so how can this be?

Well, simply because they've given out their MSN login and password on some malicious website claiming to let you know who on your MSN list has blocked you, or similar. This is called 'Phishing' and is also common in emails that request your bank or Paypal details.

The solution is even more simple:

If you have been duped and suddenly find out your friends are receiving messages containing links to porn sites or dodgy slimming aids, please change your MSN password, this will instantly solve the problem. Furthermore, in future, NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR MSN PASSWORD TO ANYONE OR ANY WEBSITE!

Sources:

"You Are Blocked" MSN Virus / Scam.
Blockdelete.com : A fine example and widely recognised phishing scam.

IT Knowledge Base

I've decided to utilize this blog to create a knowledge base for certain IT and Internet related subjects, as it seems I spend endless hours answering questions and getting calls from people always seeking help.

This also moves on nicely from my previous post regarding email scams and hoaxes, if you haven''t already had a browse through, please do so as it's now been reported that 97% of all emails comprise of crappy advertising or scams and a lot of this 'junk' comes from stupid email forwards, so kindly take note!

Sources:

BBC: Spam overwhelms e-mail messages.