>----- Original Message -----
>From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 12:52 PM
>Subject: News story from MSNBC
Here's a link to the full story:
http://msnbc.com/news/826033.asp?0sl=-41
Here's the beginning of it:
Oct. 25 - It's part spam, part pop-up porn ad software, part computer
virus, part e-greeting card - but a complete nuisance. Internet users are
starting to complain to their anti-virus providers about a suspicious
e-mail making the rounds that purports to be a harmless electronic greeting
card.But trying to pick up the card has severe consequences: a copy of the
e-card e-mail is sent to everyone in the recipient's Outlook e-mail address
book,similar to the worm-like behavior of the Melissa virus or the LoveBug.
The incident highlights a disturbing trend: spam advertisers taking up
tactics used by virus writers.
INTERNET USERS WHO receive an e-card in the next few weeks might want to
think twice before opening it. A new kind of e-card, which requires
installation of spam-generating software called Cytron, is making its way
around the Internet. If you try to view a Cytron enabled e-card, you are
likely to pester friends, family, and co-workers with e-mail and
inadvertently send them toward porn Web sites.
The Cytron e-card arrives with a harmless-sounding, personalized subject
line: "(Recipient) you have an e-card from (sender)."
The message includes another personalized greeting, "(Recipient) I sent you
a greeting card. Please pick it up."
Then there is a simple link to Friendgreetings.com, which might sound like
a normal electronic greeting card Web site.
But users who click on the link and agree to install Cytron find their
computer is hijacked and used to send out similar greeting card e-mails to
everyone in the recipient's Outlook address book. Later, they are treated
to a small deluge of pop-up ads for porn sites. . . .
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