German Spam! Arrrgh

[RegFee]

About 3 days ago, my yahoo junkmail box started getting full of spam. It's all in german, with the same titles, but different addresses. I'm glad yahoo's system is smart enough to let only a few things slip into my inbox. But sometimes it's too powerful, and filters stuff I want to keep. I used to only get a few things in my junkbox, so I would always check that too to make sure I didn't need any of it. Now, I'm getting about 75 german spams an hour, so I'm forced to just delete them all.

Oh well, I guess it could be worse, it could all be in my inbox. Anyone else getting this spam?

 

[muzie]

I am experiencing the same thing and am trying to retrace my steps from the last few days to see what triggered it. Very annoying.

 

[fryman04]

It is some new worm... some people are just stupid enough to use a computer without a decent antivirus, so we all get screwed.

 

[MediaHound]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8507023

It's Nazis


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Spam" e-mail, used for years to sell snake-oil medicine, penny stocks and suspiciously low mortgages, is now being used to sell neo-Nazi ideology as well.

A new computer worm sent right-wing German messages to millions of computers over the weekend in what anti-virus experts said was a sign that spam has become a tool for propagandists as well as scam artists.

"We have seen a trend in which worm authors are using spam not to hawk goods, but as a tool for political propaganda," said Scott Chasin, chief technical officer for the anti-virus firm MX Logic.

Chasin and other experts said the messages were sent by computers that had been infected with a new variant of the Sober worm, which turns computers into "zombies" that can be used as a base for attacks.

Experts described the amount of spam generated as "staggering."

"We've gotten inundated with reports of small networks getting hammered," said Scott Fendley, an incident handler for the Internet Storm Center, a warning service that tracks online threats.

Bearing German-language subject lines that translate to phrases like "Multicultural = multicriminal," the messages point to racist German Web sites and news articles that could be used to support anti-immigrant views.

The timing of the attack coincided with two events that might arouse right-wing feelings in Germany: an election in the state of Northrhine-Westfalia and the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

It came shortly after a similar spam plague that promised tickets to soccer's World Cup. That attack probably served as a blueprint for the current campaign, experts said.

The worm's author is likely a neo-Nazi sympathizer motivated by ideology, rather than a mercenary who would send out messages for any paying customer, experts said.

"It seems like this virus writer does not consider himself a spammer at this point," said Dmitri Alperovitch, a research engineer at the anti-virus firm CipherTrust, citing a message embedded in the worm's code.

The worm's author could tap the network of infected computers in the future to send more spam or knock targeted Web sites offline, Chasin said.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

 

[dodo1]

Yes, those are very annoying e-mails from national socialist people and
organisations. It has been in the news here in Germany for the past 3
days. They spread those spam mails throughout the whole world in order
to inspire bad temper against foreign nationals in the people. I hope they'll
stop it, and I hope they'll be found and arrested!

 

[Theo]

nazimail.com is available :-D

 

[Mark Bolyard]

Same thing here. I get an average of 4 -5 every 10 minutes. I don't even open mail that I don't know who the sender is. But it started this past week. I am running norton antivirus, completely up to date.

Hope someone developes a fix for this if it is a worm of some sort.

 

[RegFee]

Went to yahoomail today and my spambox was empty. what the heck? maybe yahoo found a cure. yahoo!