Is anyone else receiving LinkedIn spam messages?

Hi, Yes I've received a similar e-mail today and previously 2 others last week. These are spam e-mails designed to get you to follow a link to a fraudulent site that can load malware onto your machine in order to steal bank IDs and passwords. Don't click on any link in the e-mail just delete it straight away.

I have received 5 emails in the past 2 days. Each of my aliases and main .mac email accounts received at least one. I've had enough (and it's only day 2!). Like the original poster, I'm not even a LinkedIn member. I believe members can upload their address books in order to find connections and people to add to their network, so if you have friends who are members and they have uploaded their address book, this is one way linked in spammers have gathered your email address.

Hopefully the rate at which these emails are sent and received will not continue, and at least I haven't clicked on any of them!

I am glad to see this thread! My wife and I both have email addresses ending in mac.com and we are both getting these spam messages. They arrive on both of our accounts simultanously but are different in that the reply-to addresses are changed. The emails started a few days ago and are at the rate of one a day. The source of the spam had us worried because we have very different interests so there are few web sites or businesses that have both of our addresses.

I, too, have been having this problem, and I'm not a member of LinkedIn, either. I contacted LinkedIn on Twitter, and they answered back in about 15 minutes saying that they're aware of the problem and are trying to fix it. They also asked that spam emails be forwarded to them at privacy@linkedin.com.

This just started for me as well on a mac.com email that no one in the universe has...

I, too, have no LinkedIn account and suddenly got 3 of them. I smelled a rat, so, engaged HotSpot Shield and clicked on the link and HotSpot had it flagged. A big red splash across the top, telling me it's a malware site, offering to let me go ahead and enter, or leave. I left.

Thing about malware. I'm under the impression there is next to no malware for Mac, but that it is the scourge of the Windows World.

Even if you went there, and were on a Mac, it wouldn't be able to deliver a payload?

Since they're getting through to my inbox, I logged into iCloud and flagged them as Junk (little gear top right). Then I went back to regular Mail. SpamSieve was letting them through, so told SpamSieve to flag them as spam. Doubled down on my counter offensive.

I've received 3 now in the past two days. I've forwrded them to privacy@linkedin.com, but because non-linkedin mac.com emails are receiving these messages, it might have nothing to do with a breach at linkedin (except, of course, that the spam is designed to look like a linkedin e-mail). Perhaps the problem is a breach of mac.com e-mail addresses? Idle speculation.

I clicked on a link in the first e-mail (stupid, I know) from my iPhone. It linked to a pharma scam site. Hopefully that's the worst of it and there's no malware capable of doing anything to my iPhone.

I am a member of Linked In and have not received those emails, so I am not sure how they are generated. I did receive a normal update yesterday, but no spam.

I've had about 10 fake Linkedin emails in mac.com the last 2 days. They look real too. The Mobile Me team needs to get on this right away.

You can also try to forward the long headers in Mail to homeland security and maybe Apple.

powerbook1701 wrote:

This just started for me as well on a mac.com email that no one in the universe has...

So these spam emails target addresses they got directly from Apple?! How else would they got your address?

Even if the problem gets solved, who can guarantee our email addresse haven't been transmitted to a "master" server or other spam "companies", thus solving the problem won't ever happen?

I have two .mac addresses and as I said above, am a member of LnkedIn, but have not received any spam, so I doubt it's Apple's fault.

I've gotten a few of these in the past few days. I used the feature of Apple Mail to preview the link but did not open it in Safari, so I should be OK. They link to a site that sells drugs. For those of you using apple mail, mark the mail as junk. Then right click on it and select forward as attachment. Send the message to spam@me.com. For everyone else, just forward the message as an attachment to spam@me.com.

MGW wrote:

I have two .mac addresses and as I said above, am a member of LnkedIn, but have not received any spam, so I doubt it's Apple's fault.

I didn't mean to say all addresses were affected, but the other way around: since even people who have never shown their address to the "outside" world are receiving these spams, ordinary spammers wouldn't know about these emails addresses other than by Apple, it seems.

Anic264b wrote:

MGW wrote:

since even people who have never shown their address to the "outside" world are receiving these spams, ordinary spammers wouldn't know about these emails addresses other than by Apple, it seems.

Or they are just randomly generated and have found a genuine e-mail address - how complex was the e-mail address?

For most though I suspect they are probably harvested from security breaches of online vendors databases, or just interception of unencrypted mail.

I had security breaches flagged up to me from crucial.com and play.com (both UK) last year.

It wasn't play.com, could have been crucial.com or any other vendor I've used this rather generic e-mail address for I suppose...

(I've had three. Sent screenshots to LinkedIn who said they know they're fraudulent e-mails not from them.)