Issue 27 - Hoax-Slayer Newsletter
Issue 27: 11th June, 2004
This week in Hoax-Slayer:
Hoax-Slayer is a Free Monthly Web-Based Newsletter brought
to you by Brett Christensen The Hoax-Slayer Newsletter keeps you informed about the latest email hoaxes and current Internet scams. Hoax-Slayer also features
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Subway Terrorist Attack Hoax
This new hoax email has been rocketing around the inboxes of the
world over the last few days. The message claims that a terrorist
attack on the subway system of a US city may occur on Friday, 11th
June. The message does not specify a particular city, but the
assumption is that it refers to New York. Deputy Commissioner Paul
Browne of the New York police has dismissed the email as a baseless
rumour.
According to a
Reuters news article:
The police department has received no credible threat information
concerning a widely circulated e-mail message that discusses a
purported subway attack allegedly planned for Friday, June 11th
Since the World Trade Centre attack, a number of similar, and
equally bogus, email rumours have circulated. Many of these earlier
hoaxes also claim that extra body bags have been ordered and make
contrived connections between certain dates. If there had been
credible intelligence about a possible terrorist attack, the US
Government would have alerted its citizens in the proper manner.
The email claims that the government chose Friday as the day to
honour former President Reagan in a clandestine attempt to minimize
casualties, but this strikes me as ridiculous paranoia.
There are enough real terrorist threats in our modern world without
muddying the waters with pointless rumours like this one. This
"warning" should go directly to the "Deleted Items" folder without
being forwarded.
I don't know how true this is but I don't put anything pass our
government. This was forwarded to me and I don't know what to
think of it....so i figured i might as well pass it on. Ya never
know in today's world, its very scary.
This mass email to everyone is because of something that was
brought to my attention the other day that I feel I need to tell
as many people as possible incase it turns out to be true.. One
of my colleagues has a good family friend who works in city hall.
This friend called my coworker on Friday to tell him about some
intelligence the city has gotten regarding a possible terror
attack in the city (most likely the subways) planned for this
Friday and urged him to avoid the subways if possible. He also
told him something about the city placing an order for 2 to 3
thousand extra body bags. Now you have to take these things with
a grain of salt because I am sure they get tons of this
intelligence that turns out to be nothing. However there are some
things that coinside with this Friday that seem to give it a
higher probability than usual. The terrorists attacked the WTC on
9/11. They attacked Spain's subways on 3/11. This Friday just
happens to be 6/11. Whether that means anything or not who knows.
The thing that really has me concerned however is that all of a
sudden a lot of things are now closed on Friday due to Reagan's
death. The stock market, banks, Mail and all federal buildings
are closed. Obviously Reagan's death wasn't planned but the fact
they chose Friday as the day to do this big honoring of him
strikes me as a little to coincidental (less people going to work
= less people on the subway). The question that I get most when I
tell people about this is why wouldn't they go on TV and warn
people. Well I think the answer to that is simple....they can't.
They would cause mass hysteria and the city would be out of
control. Take this information and do withit what you want. I
just felt the need to tell as many people as I could. God forbid
something does happen this Friday and some people get hurt or die
that I know and could have warned about it and didn't, wellthat
would be a tough pill for me to swallow. I hope all this is bull
and nothing happens this Friday or any day for that matter.
Onething is for certain though if I have to work on Friday I am
taking a cab.
Discuss This Story
eBay Phisher Scam
Online auction site, eBay, has been the continual target of
phisher scammers. The latest scam email claims that "your eBay
account had been recently compromised" and asks recipients to
verify their account information. This email is the bait in a
typical phisher scam and does *not* originate from eBay. A link
in the email leads to a bogus website designed to look like a real
eBay page. A form on the fraudulent webpage requests the user's
eBay id and password. Information submitted on the form is sent
to the scammers who will then be able to access the victim's
account.
Read more information about eBay scams.
A copy of the fraudulent email is included below:
Urgent SafeHarbor Department Warning
You have received this warning because we have strong
reason to believe that your eBay account had been recently
compromised and it could be used by a third party without your
authorization. In order to prevent any fraudulent activity from
occurring we are required to open an investigation into this matter.
To speed up this process,you are required to verify your eBay
account by following the link below.
[LINK REMOVED]
(To complete the verification process you must fill in all the
required fields)
Remember : Your personal information is protected by eBay's
Privacy Policy and encrypted by the industry standard SSL
technology. While on a secure page, such as our form, the letters
https:// will appear in the address bar and the padlock will be
located at the bottom of your browser window.
Please Note : If your account informations are not updated within
thenext 72 hours, then we will assume this account is fraudulent
and will be suspended. We apologize for this inconvenience, but
the purpose of this verification is to ensure that your eBay
account has not been fraudulently used and to combat fraud.
We apreciate your support and understading, as we work together
to keep eBay a safe place to trade.
Thank you for your patience and attention in this important
matter.
Regards,
SafeHarbor Department
eBay Inc.
Do not respond to this e-mail, as your reply will not be
received.
Copyright 2004 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their
respective owners.
eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. is
located a Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125
Discuss This Story
Irish Friendship Wish Chain Letter
This email, along with many similar ones, has been a regular
visitor to my inbox. Although this one is fairly mild, some are
quite aggressive and threaten dire outcomes for those that don't
continue the chain. Of course, chain letters predate email,
but the Internet has proven to be very fertile ground for them.
These types of emails are essentially just a waste of bandwidth and
add needless clutter to our inboxes. And I can tell you that I've
received hundreds of these over the years and sent them all to
binary oblivion and, surprisingly (not) I haven't experienced any
sudden or drastic downturns in my luck. Furthermore, none of the
people who have sent them to me have reported any major windfalls or
extraordinary turns of good luck!
I must confess that I take a perverse pleasure in "breaking the
chain". As far as I'm concerned, if I delete one of these rather
than forward it onward, I've ultimately stopped hundreds or even
thousands of useless emails from circulating around the planet and
cluttering up the Internet.
An example of the hoax:
Subject: Fw: I want this back. It DOES work.
This may sound nuts, but my husband got this the other day and sent
it off. About 10 minutes later a really good financial windfall
happened for his son Sean who he had sent it too as well. one of the
people he sent it to was responsible for the windfall.
AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH
Good Luck!!
I hope it works...
May there always be work for your hands to do;
May your purse always hold a coin or two;
May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
May the hand of a friend always be near you;
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
OK, this is what you have to do....
Send this to all of your friends! But - you HAVE to send this within
1 hour from when you open it!
Now.................Make A wish!!!!!!
I hope you made your wish! Now then, if you send to:
1 person --- your wish will be granted in 1 year
3 people --- 6 months
5 people --- 3 months
6 people --- 1 month
7 people --- 2 weeks
8 people --- 1 week
9 people --- 5 days
10 people --- 3 days
12 people --- 2 days
15 people --- 1 day
20 people --- 3 hours
If you delete this after you read it... you will have 1 year of bad
luck! But... if you send it 2 of your friends . you will automatically
have 3 years of good luck!!! :-)
Discuss This Story
Virus Report: Weekly Virus Wrap-Up
The list below represents some of the most significant new virus
threats identified by
Symantec Security Response over the last
few days.
W32.Gaobot.AQS is one of a number of Gaobot variants that spread
through Windows vulnerabilities and open network shares. The worm
affects Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows XP. It is important
that Internet users apply the latest updates to protect against
this and other threats.
Variations of the
Korgo worm continue to spread.
These worms use the LSASS vulnerability present in unpatched
Windows 2000, and XP systems. Unpatched systems should be updated
as soon as possible.
W32.Tubty.A@mm is another mass-mailing worm that sends itself to email
addresses it finds in the Windows Address Book and uses its own SMTP
engine.
The subject of the email carrying the worm is: "MESSAGE_ID:". The
attachment is: "photos.exe."
Discuss This Story
Windows Security Update CD
It is very important that MS Windows users apply the security
updates that Microsoft releases. Failure to do so can leave your
computer vulnerable to malicious attacks from viruses such as
Sasser and cyber-criminals that know how to exploit security
holes. Security updates can be quite easily downloaded from the
Windows Update site. However, I've serviced several computers
that have not been updated for long periods of time and require
many megabytes of updates. Updating such systems can be a long
and difficult task if the only available Internet connection is
a dial-up service.
A partial solution for this problem is to order the free Windows
Security Update CD from Microsoft. The CD includes Microsoft
critical updates released through October 2003. Once the updates
on the CD are installed, it will still be necessary to visit the
Windows Update site to download any new patches, but bringing the
machine up-to-date should be a much less daunting task. The CD
also contains free trials of security software and information to
help you protect your computer.
The CD has updates for Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000,
Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE).
To order your free CD, visit the following site and fill in the
order form:
Order Windows Security Update CD
Discuss This Story
Tip of the Week: Single Click To Open Programs and Folders
In order to open a program or folder, the normal procedure is to
double-click the associated icon. Generally, one click will
highlight the icon while two will open it. However, if you would
prefer to open programs and folders with just one click, you can
easily configure your Windows system to allow this:
Windows XP Users:
- Press Widows Key + E to open Windows Explorer.
- Click on "Tools" then on "Folder Options".
- With the "General" tab selected, choose the item labelled
"Single click to open an item (point to select)".
- Exit out of the Folder Options dialog and out of Windows
Explorer.
Windows 9x Users:
- Press Widows Key + E to open Windows Explorer
- Click on "View" then on "Folder Options".
- With the "General" tab selected, choose "Custom, based on
setting you choose, and then click the "Settings" button.
- Choose the item labelled "Single click to open an item
(point to select)".
- Exit out of the open dialogs and out of Windows Explorer.
Now a single click on an icon will open your programs or folders.
Discuss This Story
Feedback from Readers and Site Visitors
If you receive a hoax or scam email, I would appreciate it if you
would
send me a copy.
I've had a number of submissions about the
Subway Terrorist Attack Hoaxthat I've discussed above.
Other submissions included new versions of the
X-Box Giveaway Hoax, the
Pepsi Can Hoax and the
Perfume Email Hoax
As usual, I've received many
Lottery Scam emails both as submitted examples and directly from the scammers.
Don't forget that you can discuss scams and hoaxes and other topics
on the new
Hoax-Slayer Forums.
Once again, thanks very much for you submissions!
Discuss This Story
The Hoax_Slayer Newsletter is published by:
Brett M.Christensen
Queensland, Australia
All Rights Reserved
©Brett M. Christensen, 2008
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