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Dr.Oz Diet Spam

Everyone I know with an iCloud mail account keeps getting this annoying Dr. Oz Diet spam at the same time. This miscreant has obviously figured out how to spam the whole system. Why can't Apple get this under control? Is there a spam reporting tool in iCloud?

Posted on Dec 21, 2012 6:21 AM

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46 replies

Dec 21, 2012 4:56 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill wrote:


Not at all, it's more likely someones address book was compromised through something like facebook and everyone in their address book is being spammed.

It's extremely unlikely that everyone who is receiving this Dr. Oz Diet spam has their iCloud address listed in someone's compromised Facebook account address book. An examination of the mail headers suggests that someone has found a way to exploit a vulnerability in the iCloud system to spam the entire me.com domain from botnets.

Dec 21, 2012 11:43 PM in response to Julian Wright

Julian Wright wrote:


I'm of the opinion that spammers have somehow managed to gain a list of valid iCloud email addresses from Apple's servers.


This spam came to my wife's iCloud account that she has NEVER used in any way. So the address exists nowhere in anybody's address book. It only exists as an account record in Apple's systems.

That's a disturbing possiblity, but it could be that an Apple server was cracked and that's how they obtained the addresses for their spam list. I hope Apple is on top of this problem.

Dec 22, 2012 9:58 AM in response to D M K

Found this online;


Associated Email: vsyvwmmyke@zbaote.com
Associated User Account: Dr oz diet
IP: 193.34.144.193

The ip address 193.34.144.193 has been recorded as a spammers ip. If you have had a member sign up with this address you may want to consider contacting them, and possibly banning them from your site.



http://spam-ip.com/lookup-309806-193.34.144.193.html

Dec 22, 2012 4:49 PM in response to D M K

Read the mail headers each time you get one of these. The originating IP is always different. They're using botnets to target iCloud accounts and they're spamming addresses that weren't picked by the usual methods. They've clearly gotten access to an area they shouldn't have access to. It makes me worry about the overall security of the iCloud mail system. This is more than a spammer merely using a list harvested from web sites or domain registration records.

Dec 26, 2012 1:17 PM in response to capaho

Actually, this is quite interesting. For almost 3 years I've had this account, I have never receieved any spam. And the only one which went through spam filters was this Dr. Oz Diet.

Spammers are either getting pay a_freaking_lot, or somebody has ripped the iCloud e-mail database with ease.

Also, could that be a botnet consisting of Macs?

Dec 26, 2012 3:33 PM in response to capaho

I'm pretty sure that the iCloud mail system is exposed in some way, hopefully indirectly rather than directly and our email addresses are now "out there". There's no way I'm getting spams to email addresses that I've never used… ever.


The interesting thing is that all my account are @me.com accounts and I'm getting ALL spam messages to the newly added @icloud.com address. I'm never getting anything to the @me.com address. So my guess is someone has managed to tap themselves into the the same system that Apple used to send us all those "All new iCloud Mail accounts now come with an @icloud.com email address." messages and other such iCloud notifications.

Dr.Oz Diet Spam

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