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Scams

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Sep 22nd 2003 9:55am





Messenger Spammer Now Selling Anti-Spam Software... Via Messenger Spam

from the funny-how-that-works dept

Okay, see if you can follow how this little scam works. A company that made headlines a year or so ago by selling software to let people spam others via the Windows Messenger feature (not instant messaging, but the alert system that's part of Windows as a whole - often used by sys admins to alert Windows users of certain things) is now in the anti-Windows Messenger spam business. They've stopped selling their spamming product and now, instead, are selling a product that claims it will block Windows Messenger spam. Here's the kicker though: they're advertising the product via Windows Messenger spam. The company claims they stopped selling the spamming product for moral reasons (though, they have no problems using it themselves to sell the anti-spam version...). The company also admits that, while they have an opt-out option, it doesn't actually work (ah, details...). Meanwhile, there are pretty simple (free) ways to block these sorts of spam pop ups from getting on your computer.

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    fyi

    identicon
    kai, Sep 22nd, 2003 @ 10:45am

    from one of the linked articles, this is what you do to block those popups. I did it a while back and it works prefectly.

    Windows XP:
    Right-click: 'My Computer' icon and select 'Manager'
    Open: Services and Applications
    Open: Services
    Open: 'Messenger' Service
    Click: Stop button
    Change 'Startup Type' to DISABLE
    Click OK to close everything

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Free way to block this garbage

    identicon
    LongTimeLurker, Sep 22nd, 2003 @ 12:59pm

    Messenger spams are obnoxious and potentially noxious to a system. The first time I heard about it was not here, but at Gibson Research Corp. center. I don't work for Gibson. I have no affliation with them. What I do know is that Steve Gibson is very serious about security and especially the Windows variety. There is a free program writen in ASM called "Kill The Messenger" that will automate the process of blocking Messenger spam.

    This is not a spam or an advertisement from Gibson. I swear! It's just a really cool site with great information on it, some free stuff to help with systems security. I go there at least once a month to check out what's new.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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