OT: Spam attacks (was Re: Advertisement ?)

[Guest guest]

> her favorite retailer.com, I open it. If the link is to www dot

> someOtherNonsense dot dot dot, I delete without peeking.

(I hope I am not misinterpreting your email ... but this warning is valid either

way

A warning to all, if you click on a link IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE! No matter if

you close the site immediately.

If you follow a valid link on a valid webiste, like this:

Cheap [a href= " www.ebay.com/jewelry/diamonds " ]Jewelry Auction[/a] here.

What you see is " Jewelry Auction " , you click it and it goes to ebay ...

perfectly valid.

Now the spammers way....

Cheap Jewelry at [a

href= " spam-you-senseless.com/?user=123abc#Zdsaf " ]ebay.com[/a]

What you see is " ebay.com " , oh cool a cheap auction of something of interest ...

right? No, you click it and goto " spam-you-senseless.com " ; the " 123abc#Zdsaf "

part of this ACTUAL address is a link to a database that tells the spammer

" 's email address in the database is a good address " !

The damage is DONE. You will now be forever spammed by this person and your

email address will be sold across the globe. This is reality folks.

What TO do ... either hover over all links and make sure " what you see "

(ebay.com) matches the address shown in your status bar/hover tip (ebay.com).

It is fake if you SEE " ebay.com " but the status/hover tip shows

" spam-you-senseless.com " (or anything else).

Or BETTER, copy and paste the " what you see " text address into your location

field. That way if a spammer is faking you out then you will follow the benign

address and not the spammer's phishing link.

In fact ALWAYS be wary if the " what you see part " includes a web address.

Usually the text is descriptive (like " Site Map " or " Home Page " ) and if it is

something like " ebay.com " then somebody is trying to lure you into a false sense

of security. I never follow links of just a plain web address ... at least not

w/o double checking them first.

Browser be ware ...

--

Rodman