Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: spam

spam stories: 46 news summaries

1 - 20 of 46 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>

Switch to grid view »

 Spam King Ordered to 
 Pay Facebook $711M 

Sanford Wallace may face jail time

Oct 30, 09 4:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - "Spam king" Sanford Wallace has been slapped with a $711 million judgment for spamming Facebook users. A California judge found that Wallace, who used phishing techniques to access Facebook accounts, violated a law against sending "false and misleading" marketing emails. The judge permanently banned Wallace from accessing Facebook... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spam • Facebook • phishing • cybercrime • Sanford Wallace

(Newser) - Mac users, beware: the Russians are after you. A notorious network of spammers in the country pays hackers 43 cents for every Mac they infect with fake software, an investigator says. At a security conference in Switzerland, the researcher laid out a specific scheme to get Mac users to install... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spam • Apple • hackers • Mac • computers

OPINION

Hookers Are
Turning Off
Twitterers

Rising tide of porn
spam threatens
family market

Sep 2, 09 6:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - Porn spam is becoming more prevalent on Twitter and the site needs to step up enforcement or risk losing plenty of users, writes Sarah Lacy in BusinessWeek. Prostitutes seem to have flocked to Twitter of late, Lacy writes, noting that her husband received 43 scantily clad "followers" in just... More »

MORE ABOUT:
social networking • MySpace • spam • pornography • prostitute • Twitter

(Newser) - So why did Tweets fall silent for much of today? One leading theory traces the problem to the unlikeliest of places—the conflict between Russia and Georgia, CNET reports. It goes like this: A pro-Georgia blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and the other sites affected by today's slowdown attracted... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Russia • Internet • YouTube • spam • Facebook • Georgia • LiveJournal • Twitter

(Newser) - The surge in Internet traffic yesterday as Michael Jackson fans searched for information about his death had a deep impact on the Web, Ars Technica reports. Sites as diverse as Twitter and the iTunes Store slowed to a crawl, but perhaps the most profound effect was on Google. The search... More »

MORE ABOUT:
entertainment • music • social networking • Google • Internet • traffic • spam • death • iTunes Store • Michael Jackson • Twitter

OPINION

 Don't Get 'Tagged' By This Site 

Social network spams contacts without permission

Jun 11, 09 2:58 PM CDT
(Newser) - The US’ third-largest social network is also the world’s most annoying website, Sean Gregory writes in Time. An e-mail about photos from an ex-boss lured him to Tagged, only to lead him through a confusing registration that spammed all his contacts with an informal note. “I don’t... More »

MORE ABOUT:
social networking • Internet • email • spam • opinion • Tagged

 12 Museums of Odd Things 


May 18, 09 5:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - Trying to awake from the nightmare of history? Mental Floss' list of 12 "oddly specific" American museums may only give you bad dreams:
  • The SPAM Museum: Complete with a wall of 5,000 SPAM tins and a scale plant where visitors can suit up in white coats
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art • spam • garbage • museums • conspiracy • medical devices • pests • genetic abnormalities • ventriloquism • barbed wire • PEZ • hobo

 Hackers Dupe Facebook Users 

Phishing scheme scores password information

May 15, 09 8:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - Hackers went Facebook-phishing yesterday, nabbing the passwords of an undisclosed number of users, Reuters reports. Facebook is working to restore the site and has blocked accounts hit in what it believes was a ploy to spread future spam. Hackers broke into accounts, sending users’ friends emails that contained links to... More »

MORE ABOUT:
social networking • Internet • spam • hacker • Facebook • phishing • passwords • Jay-ZTV

(Newser) - Weeks after causing an April Fool's scare, the Conficker bug has come to life and used some personal computers to send out spam, Reuters reports. The computer virus, which has infected millions of PCs, downloaded the spam software onto a small percentage of them in recent weeks. One expert warns... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spam • computer virus • Symantec • Conficker

ANALYSIS

 Spam Doesn't Waste 
 Energy, Humans Do 

Study miscalculates how people use computers: Kaplan

Apr 16, 09 12:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - A recent study that equates spam’s carbon footprint to that of a whopping 2.4 million homes is fascinating, but completely wrong, Jeremy Kaplan writes in PC Magazine. The researchers traced most of the energy usage to the end user’s computer, but that energy-waster would probably be left... More »

MORE ABOUT:
energy • carbon footprint • spam • computer • Internet filtering • energy consumption

Energy-Wasting Spam
Also a Pain in the Earth

It hurts environment and productivity, authors say

Apr 15, 09 3:31 PM CDT
(Newser) - Spam e-mails consume 20% of companies' energy budgets, enough collectively to run 2.4 million houses, says a study commissioned by the security firm McAfee. Most of the waste results from end users sifting through the 62 trillion junk items sent annually, eWeek reports. Eliminating spam would be the equivalent... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • carbon footprint • email • spam • McAfee • energy consumption

After Respite, Spam Now 94% of All Email

Nov. crackdown cut
junk by 70%, but mailers have recovered

Mar 31, 09 12:16 PM CDT
(Newser) - Like it or not, spam has made a comeback. Unwanted junk email is back up to 94% of all traffic, according to Google’s anti-spam Postini division. Spammers suffered a setback in November, when web backbone providers banned McColo Corp., a server spammers used to coordinate attacks, the New York ... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Google • email • spam • e-mails

Congo Con Joins Madoff Victims' Chorus ... Sorta

Standard 'foreign investment' scam email made it past US Attorney's office

Mar 23, 09 3:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - The federal prosecutors collecting testimonials from victims of Bernard Madoff for the judge slated to sentence him don’t appear to have been too discerning, Josh Marshall reports for Talking Points Memo, after a standard-issue “African businessman” spam email made it into the pile. And though the promised $3.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fraud • email • spam • humor • sentencing • Ponzi scheme • Bernard Madoff

 Computer Virus Targets 
 Gullible Lovebirds 

Clicking on heart images in email could turn your machine into spambot

Jan 30, 09 4:55 PM CST
(Newser) - A Valentine-themed spam campaign is underway, with a side dish of coercion and extortion, Computer Weekly reports. Users receive an email, ostensibly from a secret admirer, with a link to a website that downloads a bot called Waledec. Not only does Waledec co-opt the user’s address list and start... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • email • spam • computer virus • coercion • Valentine's Day • Internet crime • Waledec

OPINION

Spam Filters Silently Censoring Your Email

Internet blacklists invisible but powerful

Nov 29, 08 10:54 AM CST
(Newser) - With spam running rampant across the net, in-boxes have become heavily armed fortresses against the unsolicited hordes. Unfortunately, we’ve overdone it, writes James McGrath Morris in the Washington Post. Morris recently discovered that spam filters would gobble up the latest issue of his newsletter, the Biographer’s Craft,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
email • spam • censorship • Internet censorship

 Spammers Bounce Back
 After Host Shutdown 

Zombie spam-sending computers reactivated from foreign ISPs

Nov 27, 08 8:57 AM CST
(Newser) - Spammers are surging back onto the Internet again, 2 weeks after being dealt a body blow by a server shutdown, CNET News reports. Spam volumes dived 80% after the California-based McColo hosting firm was pulled offline. They remained flat until a few days ago but have now risen to around... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • spam • ISP • computer security • malware • botnet

Court Pokes Facebook Spammer for $873M

Cybercriminal accused of hijacking user profiles to send out millions of messages

Nov 25, 08 7:09 AM CST
(Newser) - Facebook has won an $873 million judgment against a man accused of hijacking user profiles to spew spam, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The award—the biggest ever under federal spamming laws—was made against a Canadian citizen who Facebook accused of stealing login details to send more than 4... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spam • Facebook • lawsuit • cybercrime • Internet fraud

(Newser) - Notice less spam in your mailbox today? If so, it's because Internet service providers yanked a California outfit offline that had been responsible for sending about 75% of the world's electronic junk mail, reports the Security Fix blog in the Washington Post. The providers—acting on information provided by the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Internet • spam • computer security

 Malware Hijacks Obama Emails 

Spammers launch massive 'Obama Trojan' malware campaign to capitalize on victory

Nov 6, 08 7:40 AM CST
(Newser) - Malicious hijackers have hitched a ride on the Barack Obama bandwagon, ChannelWeb reports. "Obama Trojan" emails offer a link to an amazing Obama speech or election results, but when the link is opened, it infects computers with malware that sends the user's personal data to a command center and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • email • spam • hackers • Trojan viruses • cybercrime • malware • Election 2008

Feds Bust One of World's Largest Spammers

Feds say network sent 10B emails a day

Oct 14, 08 1:31 PM CDT
(Newser) - Thank the feds if you find fewer offers for Viagra in your inbox today. The FTC says it shut down one of the world's largest spam operations, which promoted the sale of prescription drugs and male enhancement pills by way of billions of illegal email messages, the Chicago Tribune reports.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
spam • New Zealand • prescription drugs • FTC

1 - 20 of 46 Stories | 1 2 3 Next >>


from our news partners