I was checking my email's Spam folder today and one message that really caught my attention is the spam email with the subject "Angelina Jolie's Free Video". No, I was not intrigued by the subject but I saw my very own email address as the sender of the message. I opened the message and it says I receive the email because I am subscribed to MSN featured offers.
Content of the MSN Featured Offers Spam
Here is the edited content of the email:
Click Here! (I removed the link but it leads to http://195.190.13.98/video-nude-anjelina.avi.exe. please do not open the link in your browser, it might contain viruses or spywares!)
About this mailing:
You are receiving this e-mail because you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers. Microsoft respects your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this MSN Featured Offers e-mail, please click the "Unsubscribe" link below. This will not unsubscribe you from e-mail communications from third-party advertisers that may appear in MSN Feature Offers. This shall not constitute an offer by MSN. MSN shall not be responsible or liable for the advertisers' content nor any of the goods or service advertised. Prices and item availability subject to change without notice.
©2008 Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy
Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Now, I do not remember subscribing to MSN featured offers so I decided to google for some information. It appeared that the MSN Featured Offers is really a spam message and it is becoming a culprit to many email users.
Is the email really from MSN?
A respectable company such as Microsoft would not be sending nude videos of the "Wanted" star even to their subscribers. I honestly believe the message comes from spammers, not from MSN. It appears that the MSN featured spam actually uses the recipient's address as the sender.
How I got the MSN featured Offers Spam
Honestly, I do not know how I started receiving this type of spam but I remembered doing something before spam messages started flooding in my spam folder. Last month, I signed up to a site that allows people to use their free vectors but only upon sign up. I signed up using my major email and was advised I can only start using their vectors upon confirmation of my email address. The confirmation never arrived but I have been receiving more spam messages ever since. I still consider some carelessness on my part though as potential reason why I receive this spam.
How to stop receiving the MSN featured Offers spam
This is the hard part. It is difficult to stop receiving or remove this MSN featured offers spam messages once they get into your mailbox. I still have to figure out how I can really get rid of receiving this message. Nevertheless, here are some things that you might find helpful:
1. Mark the MSN featured offers message as Spam. If you receive the mail in your inbox and not in your spam folder, mark it as spam, this will help your email service provider identify these messages as spam and will likely filter them out in the future.
2. Do not click the unsubscribe link. Clicking unsubscribe links and buttons coming from spam messages, will just confirm your email is working and ready to receive more spam messages.
3. Do not open or click on any link that comes along with the email. You may be likely getting Trojan or TR/Crypt.XPACK.Gen file.
If you have any advice how to stop this MSN featured offers spam, please leave a comment, your advice is greatly appreciated (and needed).
Spam solution
One of the ways to eliminate spam is to use spam blocking software in your computer. There are several anti spam solution available that you can take advantage of. The Barracuda anti spam filtering solutions company, for example, which specializes in anti spam service, offers a number of spam filtering solutions including barracuda spam products that block spyware, viruses and spam from getting through a computer system.
32 comments:
I would like to see the advise too!
I updated the post Teun, I made some research today and it seems there is nothing we can do about this message once it starts arriving in the mailbox.
My suggestions above would seem to be the best things to do when you start receiving this MSN featured offers message
I have a program in my outlook express called spamfighter, and if i block the user then I will not get my mail since they emailed it to me and from me. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this please let me know..ASAP
[...] MSN featured spam is hitting email accounts again. Several times these week, messages entitled with the subjects [...]
I just got an email today that was titled "bush kills obama" and even though I know that is not true I opened the email just because it said that I was the sender and I thought that was weird. So when I opened it all of these popups just started coming up. I couldn't stop them I had to turn my computer off. When I turned it back on the pop ups stopeed popping up but i think there may have been a virus in there. And as luck would have it my Norton anti-virus protection trial just ended earlier this month so I guess I will have to look into buying an antivirus software. Did anyone else encounter the weird pop-ups as well or find any other problems from opening that e-mail?
When I first received SPAM appearing to come from my own address I hesitated before sending it to my SPAMfighter 'sin-bin' fearing that I would consequently be labelled a spammer and my legitimate emails would be blocked by the Spam filter of the intended recipients.
I contacted SPAMfighter and was impressed to receive from them a prompt, targeted, personal reply reassuring me that it was safe so to do. It seems that it is technically very simple for spammers to fix it so that your address appears as the sender, but SPAMfighter tell me that if you block this type of Spam there will not be any unfortunate repercussions.
[...] email spam messages are hitting email accounts. This time, it does not come from a hoax CNN or MSN offer but from “ClickCulture special offers”. One of these emails has the subject [...]
I've been getting this too. The first time I saw it, I suspected that they were pushing an exploit (malware, fake ActiveX control, etc.). I think that there are two reasons they're using forged email headers that appear as though you sent the email, one, it intrigues people because they know that they didn't send the email, two, I suspect that some popular email filter doesn't block mail sent by you, so they're exploiting it.
so how do we get rid of it?
My suggestion to stop getting these in your regular email would be to set up a rule in your email program. In Outlook Rules can be found under tools. Say for example the "MSN Featured Offers" have the rule set to look for the text in the body of the email. If the email contains the text have it automatically handle it by sending it to a spam folder or deleting it. Here is a link to help with setting up an outlook rule:
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/it/support/office2007/rules.htm
I get these messages on my phone for some reason. I have no idea what to do about it.
I just saw Keith's message and had to post my own comment. My cell phone has been receiving these spam text messages for a while now and my cell phone company doesn't know how to stop them. They are very annoying. Getting charged for them doesn't help the situation either. I'm almost ready to change my cell phone number.
I also have been receiving these messages on my phone and unfortunately its harder to deal with on a cell phone. They come as picture messages and well on my phone i cant block a number. I have unlimited messaging so it doesnt bother me other than its frikin annoying!!
I use Mailwasher which shows me a list of what it would like to delete. I am quite happy to put "from me" in its black list because I don't write to myself. In any case I can look down the list of headers quite quickly and rescue those messages that I think it has got wrong. It deletes the messages from the mail server without downloading them.
I can also send sham "not known" messages but they don't seem to do any good.
I think Mailwasher is still free to download if you only use one address.
I saw some news that two spammers had been caught in the US and fined more money than I can imagine. The problem is that that is not where or how most of the spam originates and some countries don't care.
I received email form MSN ( ext, ext), spam and also I received it email form my own website and own email, somebody can help me with this stuff, I'm really dont know what to do?
MCM
What about when is been sent to the cell phone? how do I delete it and stop if from textmessaging me?
I get these "MSN featured offers" text messages on my cell phone. I am now getting about ten a day!! It shows my phone number as the sender. I'm sick of this!!!
I agree with Gretchie that getting the spam text messages from "MSN featured offers" is very annoying especially when the cell phone company can't stop it. I'm assuming the only thing we can do is change our phone number but we shouldn't have to do that. I don't want a new #. I am soooooooo thankful I have a texting plan with my cell phone service but I feel sorry for people who don't especially when they receive unwanted spam text messages.
I am getting the "MSN featured offers" and not only is it annoying, I pay for each one of them. I have a pay as you go phone from Tmobile and use it for emergencies and when I am traveling. Between this one and various others, I am receiving 8 to 10 a day and am sick of paying for this garbage. The cell phone industry needs to figure out a way to stop this spam. They need a feature whether or not you will accept calls and/or texts from anyone not in your cell phone directory (sim).
I have been receiving these MSN featured offers for over a year. I just automatically put them in spam. I don't know why my email service provider has not picked up on that yet. I get 3 or 4 in my inbox every day. I hate spammers, scammers and any type activity that robs and steals a person's identity, money, and privacy.
I guess the MSN spam has started to focus on sending spam messages to cellphones but some people still receive this spam message in their emails.
want to see how fast these companies will find the way to stop those spam text messaging from coming into our cell phones? ...if will just tell them we want to cancel our services with them. One person alone won't work but if lots of Tmobile people raise up and say I cancell my account they will try something. is worth giving it a try....if you have a better idea please let me know..cause I need to stop them from text messaging me.
I would be willing to join in a class action suit against MSN Microsoft. Their name is being used illegally and they have the legal power to stop it.
I have been receiving this spam for years. I can remember signing up for this trash because, even though I do not like Microsoft, I didn't expect it to be some spammer masquerading as MSN. I thought I would be aable to be removed from the list if I didn't like what I received. I suppose it serves me right.
I believe many people have tried to shut this scam down. The messages I get are always the same pharmacy which purports to be in Canada but the links now are usually to Russia. Most of the links on today's offering do not work. (contact us etc). Maybe because I sent a load of polite messages saying "why don't you go away".
I am sure Microsoft will claim, rightly or wrongly, that they have made every reasonable effort to shut this operation down without success.
Me again
The admin details for the latest epistle are
Administrative Contact:
Name : ZHOUMEIWEI
Organization : ZHOUMEIWEI
Address : NANMENXILU23
City : xingtaishi
Province/State : hebeisheng
Country : china
Postal Code : 037000
Phone Number : 86-022-25632014
Fax : 86-022-25632014
Email : ZHOUMEIWEI@126.COM
Which seems to me to show the problem. The previous one I looked at was in Russia
You could setup a rule that auto-deletes any messages with "you subscribed to MSN Featured Offers." Obviously this doesn't stop the spam from coming to your email, but at least it prevents you from seeing it.
Foward all spam messages and e-mail to spam@uce.gov. They will investigate and prosicute any they find as spam. (As long as they are not sponsered by some Government agency, or getting paid (campaign contributions)by that company.)
The same thing is happening to me. There are spam emails coming in name of "Pfizer Inc.". They come from Russia, covered under my own email address. The thing I don't realize is -how the heck- did they get that email address, since I don't use it in Internet, I never signed in any place with that email.
I sent to Pfizer Spain an email "suggesting" them to remove my email and my personal data if they have.
The majority of the emails I receive from the Canadian Pharmacy now come from other sources (apparently) than MSN special offers. One of today's which I did look at apparently came from Ahamonejvev Inc.
Hi, there!
I'm from Brazil and I also get these spams at my job's e-mail. I really don't know how did they start, and I can't understand where "they" caught my e-mail, since I rarely use it. I have a personal e-mail I'm receiving these spam too, and for a gmail account I could create a filter for these messages sent from "me", to go for the trash if they don't come with a special word I made.
Anyway, at first I saw the e-mail, I went to the "unsubscribe" link and, of course, on site there's no any place we can go to do that. The FAQ doesn't work, there's no telephone or e-mail for contact and it seems there's no even how the buy the products, because links there don't work! What makes me angry is that I don't want to have to create a filter, I just don't want to get these spams. I'm a young woman, I don't need and don't know anyone who need Viagra pills, fortunatelly!
Hi!
if you are using Outlook do what Jim Says (January 7th, 2009 at 1:25 am) make one or more rules, as simple as that, there is no other way.
Example:
1) Make one rule with the word "Viagra"
2) Another rule with the phrase "MSN Featured Offers"
.
.
.
1958) and finaly make a rule with "For fantastic coitus!".
Remember to check frecuently for real email in your spam folder.
That?s a great article,it reinforces thing?s I?ve known but I don?t think is common knowledge.
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