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 Hallmark e-card

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Brian L Porter
George Maciver
Shelagh
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Shelagh
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Shelagh


Number of posts : 12662
Registration date : 2008-01-11
Location : UK

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 1:12 am

I received a Hallmark e-card this morning, supposedly from Hallmark but when I clicked on the return link to find the email address, this appeared in the address box: z@z.z I did a Google search on this email address and it pulled up so many pages, it would be impossible to find -- Google didn't recognise the character string and pulled up anything containing "z". Whoever sent the card went to a great deal of trouble to conceal his/her identity.

So, why did I go to all that trouble to find out who sent the card? When I opened the card I saw a very clear photograph of a naked, young, blonde women in a room that had been cleared to make a setting for the photograph. Why would anyone assume that this would be remotely interesting to me?

My next port of call is to find a site on the web where I can report the spam email. People do waste my time.
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George Maciver
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Number of posts : 376
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Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 1:43 am

Be very wary of ecards, especially when you don't know where they come from. It's relatively easy for criminals and porn sites to couch their wares within bogus ecards.

Best thing you could do is report it to Hallmark as they might actually do something about it to protect their reputation.
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Shelagh
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Shelagh


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Location : UK

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 2:14 am

I've reported the card to Hallmark. I did another search on the web and found that this is a Trojan spam email to gain access to AOL accounts. I reported the email to an internet spam abuse web site. So, if any of the members here are on AOL look out for this email and don't open the card. It's a download -- yet another way to fool people into opening attachments.
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Brian L Porter
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Number of posts : 56
Registration date : 2008-02-20
Age : 71
Location : Earth, but only just

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 3:30 am

I received a warning about these things a while ago. Basically the rule is:

Never open an e-card unless you know who it is from. All genuine e-cards will carry a message that says "Fred Bloggs" has sent you an e-card. If you don't know the name, don't opejn it, simply delete it as many of them carry viruses, worms and all sorts of nasty little things we don't want in our PCs.

Brian Hallmark e-card 545232
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madhatter
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Number of posts : 502
Registration date : 2008-02-13
Location : Tallahassee, FL

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 2:06 pm

My question is...when do these morons find time to do all of this?
Don't they have real jobs? Evil or Very Mad
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http://www.rhettdevane.com
Shelagh
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Shelagh


Number of posts : 12662
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Location : UK

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyThu Feb 28, 2008 2:15 pm

Well Rhett, they are morons! They don't like work so they spend hours on the 'net trying to find ways of getting gullible people to part with their money. We are surrounded by evil no matter how much we try to protect ourselves from it. Evil or Very Mad
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zadaconnaway
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Number of posts : 4017
Registration date : 2008-01-16
Age : 76
Location : Washington, USA

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 12:43 am

Sometimes there have been programs that would gather names and addresses from your address book, and send out bogus spam using your friend's names. They contained viruses. It has been quite some time back that I heard of this going on, but I am still careful of what I open. I have friends who regularly send me attachments, and I know they have good virus protection programs. I also run virus and firewall, but I know this is not foolproof. So far so good. Rule of thumb: If I am not expecting something, and don't know the sender, I don't open it.
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Pam
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Pam


Number of posts : 1790
Registration date : 2008-02-01
Age : 58
Location : Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 6:55 am

As a way to reduce the spamming issue, I have noticed recently that people are changing how they put their email address on their websites. Instead of the usual formatting, it would look like this "pam (at) pamrobertson (dot) org"
Have any of you tried this? I am wondering if there would be less opportunity for the hackers to automatically pick up our email addresses? At the same time I also wonder if it would stop legitimate inquiries through my website or not.
What do you think?
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http://www.mvpi.org
Jenny
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Number of posts : 531
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Location : Sheffield, England

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 7:02 am

Pam, goggle "spambots" - I'm told that's how these idiots pick up email address from websites and then proceed to fill your inbox with junk.
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Jenny
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Number of posts : 531
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Location : Sheffield, England

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 7:02 am

Of course I should have said "Google"!
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Shelagh
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Shelagh


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Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 7:38 am

I quite like goggle. It seems so apposite! Spammers who goggle on the 'net! lol!
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Pam
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Pam


Number of posts : 1790
Registration date : 2008-02-01
Age : 58
Location : Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Hallmark e-card Empty
PostSubject: Re: Hallmark e-card   Hallmark e-card EmptyFri Feb 29, 2008 7:46 am

You know when I looked at that, I read it as google, not goggle. No wonder I am so hard on my proofreader (my daughter!). Hallmark e-card 343621
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