Special Urgent Internet Threat Alert - August 7, 2008

August 7, 2008

This just came in from one of my news listsI just received this from my very trusted computer newsletter editors. I have d to them for years and have never received a separate notification before, so this must be very serious!Please read and act accordingly to protect your computer.... Yvonne Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - URGENT THREAT ALERTReleased to InfoAve Premium rs on August 7, 2008 - 11:45AM Eastern Daylight Time - USAURGENT WARNING - PLEASE READ IF YOU SEE AN EMAIL IN YOUR INBOX WITH THE SUBJECT 'CNN.com Daily Top 10' DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN THAT EMAIL. DELETE THE EMAIL IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT TAKE ANY CHANCES THAT YOUR ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM WILL PROTECT YOU. DO NOT, FOR WHATEVER REASON CLICK ANY LINKS IN THE BODY OF THAT EMAIL.Over 125 million spam emails per day are being sent to internet users all over the world by spammers trying to install password stealing trojans and other malicious software on users computers by tricking them into thinking CNN is sending out emails highlighting the top ten news items for the day. This is a new and very high volume scam. The subject of the email is “CNN.com Daily Top 10.” Our Threat Operations Center has seen over 5 million of these just in the last hour alone and over 80 million in the last 24 hours. This new CNN tactic is likely to be more successful than the single-line spam tactic that we had been seeing over the past several weeks as this message looks like it could be an news update email sent by CNN. This new message also attempts to trick the user into believing that they signed up to receive it because of their email preference settings at the CNN web site. If you see this message come into your inbox, delete it immediately.OPENING THE EMAIL WILL NOT INFECT YOUR COMPUTER - BUT IF YOU CLICK ANY OF THE LINKS IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL AND YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED BY A GOOD, UPDATED ANTI-VIRUS - OR YOUR ANTI-VIRUS IS NOT YET RECOGNIZING THIS THREAT - YOU WILL BE INFECTED WITH AN EXTREMELY MALICIOUS TROJAN. YOUR COMPUTER, YOUR PRIVACY, AND/OR YOUR SECURITY MAY BE JEOPARDIZED.THE SAFEST COURSE OF ACTION TO TAKE IS TO DELETE ALL EMAILS WITH THE SUBJECT LINE 'CNN COM DAILY TOP 10' AS SOON AS THEY ENTER YOUR INBOX.HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT OF THE MESSAGE - PLEASE TAKE A LOOK SO YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THIS SERIOUS AND QUICKLY SPREADING THREAT. THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST AND MOST UBIQUITOUS THREATS TO BE RELEASED UPON THE INTERNET IN SEVERAL YEARS. Get more from your digital life. Find out how.

August 8, 2008

Frank, I had about ten of these in my junk mailbox at POVN. I never opened any of them.

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Thursday, August 07, 2008 2:13 PM

Special Urgent Internet Threat Alert - August 7, 2008

This just came in from one of my news lists

I just received this from my very trusted computer newsletter editors. I have d to them for years and have never received a separate notification before, so this must be very serious!

Please read and act accordingly to protect your computer....

Yvonne

Cloudeight InfoAve Premium - URGENT THREAT ALERTReleased to InfoAve Premium rs on August 7, 2008 - 11:45AM Eastern Daylight Time - USA

URGENT WARNING - PLEASE READ

IF YOU SEE AN EMAIL IN YOUR INBOX WITH THE SUBJECT 'CNN.com Daily Top 10' DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS IN THAT EMAIL. DELETE THE EMAIL IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT TAKE ANY CHANCES THAT YOUR ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAM WILL PROTECT YOU. DO NOT, FOR WHATEVER REASON CLICK ANY LINKS IN THE BODY OF THAT EMAIL.

Over 125 million spam emails per day are being sent to internet users all over the world by spammers trying to install password stealing trojans and other malicious software on users computers by tricking them into thinking CNN is sending out emails highlighting the top ten news items for the day. This is a new and very high volume scam.

The subject of the email is “CNN.com Daily Top 10.” Our Threat Operations Center has seen over 5 million of these just in the last hour alone and over 80 million in the last 24 hours. This new CNN tactic is likely to be more successful than the single-line spam tactic that we had been seeing over the past several weeks as this message looks like it could be an news update email sent by CNN. This new message also attempts to trick the user into believing that they signed up to receive it because of their email preference settings at the CNN web site. If you see this message come into your inbox, delete it immediately.

OPENING THE EMAIL WILL NOT INFECT YOUR COMPUTER - BUT IF YOU CLICK ANY OF THE LINKS IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL AND YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED BY A GOOD, UPDATED ANTI-VIRUS - OR YOUR ANTI-VIRUS IS NOT YET RECOGNIZING THIS THREAT - YOU WILL BE INFECTED WITH AN EXTREMELY MALICIOUS TROJAN. YOUR COMPUTER, YOUR PRIVACY, AND/OR YOUR SECURITY MAY BE JEOPARDIZED.

THE SAFEST COURSE OF ACTION TO TAKE IS TO DELETE ALL EMAILS WITH THE SUBJECT LINE 'CNN COM DAILY TOP 10' AS SOON AS THEY ENTER YOUR INBOX.

HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT OF THE MESSAGE - PLEASE TAKE A LOOK SO YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THIS SERIOUS AND QUICKLY SPREADING THREAT. THIS IS ONE OF THE WORST AND MOST UBIQUITOUS THREATS TO BE RELEASED UPON THE INTERNET IN SEVERAL YEARS.

Get more from your digital life. Find out how.