elite toolbar and license.shorturl.com
so, yay! the FTC --FINALLY-- is doing something about a larger commercial vendor of spyware, going after the guys behind elitetoolbar, elitebar, elitesidebar etc.
http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0523135/0523135.htm
A question: lots of people are receiving and spreading a viral "joke" e-mail about a website called license.shorturl.com. I know of a dozen or so people who've gotten this e-mail from friends and relatives and, of course, "clicked the link" in the e-mail to see what their good friend sent them. The site to which the user is taken is a site that claims to have compiled a database of drivers licenses from every state in the US. When the visitor types in a name and state, a goofy license card is displayed; it displays the name that was typed in and a "photo id" of a monkey. ha ha. Seems harmless enough, but some of the ads linked to the website tie out to ip addresses associated with porn, spam, etc.
I've been hesitant to visit the linked sites because I don't trust my PC to be safe from malware. I know a dozen or more people who've received this viral e-mail from their good friends in the last 3 weeks or so. (Its similar to the viral e-mail that was spread a few months ago by the guys from zabasearch, in that the e-mail has an alarmist tone.) Anyone know if this site is malicious?
http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/0523135/0523135.htm
A question: lots of people are receiving and spreading a viral "joke" e-mail about a website called license.shorturl.com. I know of a dozen or so people who've gotten this e-mail from friends and relatives and, of course, "clicked the link" in the e-mail to see what their good friend sent them. The site to which the user is taken is a site that claims to have compiled a database of drivers licenses from every state in the US. When the visitor types in a name and state, a goofy license card is displayed; it displays the name that was typed in and a "photo id" of a monkey. ha ha. Seems harmless enough, but some of the ads linked to the website tie out to ip addresses associated with porn, spam, etc.
I've been hesitant to visit the linked sites because I don't trust my PC to be safe from malware. I know a dozen or more people who've received this viral e-mail from their good friends in the last 3 weeks or so. (Its similar to the viral e-mail that was spread a few months ago by the guys from zabasearch, in that the e-mail has an alarmist tone.) Anyone know if this site is malicious?
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Comments
My rule of thumb for opening attachments or clicking on links in received e-mail messages:
If the sender isn't technically oriented and security aware, I won't touch the goodies they send me. If it's an attachment, I am even more restrictive. I will scan it first with my anti-virus program. Also, all my incoming email is scanned automatically.