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 only tried SS and it works seamlessly with Mail. Its a plugin and the only way you know it's there is by viewing your Message menu and an additional folder in On My Mac called Spam. It was highly recommended by one of the Mac Tech sites.

mac.com chats use the aol communication technology

iChat lets you easily chat via text, audio, or video with other iChat, MobileMe, Google Talk, and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users over the Internet, or on your local network via Bonjour. You can also send and receive files with iChat.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2008#

mac.com uses aol

Anic264b wrote:

Alley_Cat wrote:

Safari has a Preference to Open "safe" files after downloading - I'd advise you to disable that in the General pane of Safari whether you use it or not, as last year malware tried to run an installer via this mechanism BUT required user intervention to install it.

Does Safari really considers an application a "safe file"? If yes, that's a mistake!

If no, then I really prefer these safe files to open automatically, as I dislike to go to the Finder to search the file in my "huge" download folder just to open it myself. Now, of course, if Safari considers an application a "safe file", it matters to think more…

I can't remember the exact mechanism but going to some websites resulted in automatic downloading of a zipped application - the archive was regarded as safe and hence unzipped the 'legitimate sounding' application then ran automatically and bombarded the user with unsavoury sites/popups - the application would then 'detect' malware and direct the user to a scam site to pay to get rid of all this rubbish.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650

(refresh page if it doesn't work first time).

AC

Hiya Jc.P,

I read your article (Re: icloud on snow leopard) in relation to Apple and the issues about being bullied by Lion. I have just spent a consideral amount of investment in inventing a low cost, retro type Apple entertainment system based on the late eMacs, the Classic Dome Airport routers, and the early Airport Express Routers.

I have hundreds, and am ready to intergrate into the greater architecture I have designed (In Kuala Lumpar)

I suppose, my question is I'm interested to get you an early prototype system.

Let me know if your interested, and I'll endeaour to get one off to you later down the track.

If you want to get in touch, my email is kentF at mailbox1970 dot com

Its hard to find any one who would be interested in re-inventing a complete system, as it was in 2002-2005, and beating apple at their own game. This would involve finding the sweet spot in firmware and operating systems, then locking it down indefinately in a limited music distribution system.

kent.

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.

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'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'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.)