BS: Porn e-cards

Subject: BS: Porn e-cards
From: s&r
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:22 AM

I have just received a porn ecard supposedly from hallmark (to my correct email address).

Just in case your kids have access to your computer.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:35 AM

Ain't you the lucky one. I never got one yet. I wonder why?

- Shane

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:41 AM

There are still people who actually follow e-card links?

I have a great business opportunity in Nigeria for you...

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:02 AM

Why yes, Jack. I have a sister and a niece who like to compose and send e-cards. And of course I click on them when it's my birthday or anniversary.


S&R, did the e-mail seem to come from someone you know?

Did the URL for it look like it came from Hallmark?

Could it have come from an acquaintance who was blind drunk and thought he was being funny?
===========
Ignore the know-it-alls. Probably nobody ever sends them cards anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: s&r
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:05 AM

Don't usually respond - most occasions the email address is wrong and easy to pick up. Daughter used to work for Hallmark : this is the first I've had mentioning the firm by name with a logo and email address.

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 01:00 PM

The point about e-cards is that they're great way to manipulate people into clicking on a malware link. Thanks to the number of compromised Microsoft address databases out there, it's easy for a spammer to fake the sender, and it's easy to disguise where the link goes so that at least a large proportion of recipients will be fooled.

Fire off a million "Happy Birthday" cards and you'll get about 3,000 recipients on their birthday. If one in ten of them gets suckered into clicking on your malware link, that's 300 more machines for your botnet. And everybody has Christmas at the same time.

Though my original reason for never clicking on them was that they always came from people who I know were too mean to buy a stamp.

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 01:35 PM

Yeah, I almost always ignore e-cards and delete them. If I'm not sure, I email the person who supposedly sent it and ask them if they sent it before I open it.

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:34 PM

Good idea, Little Hawk. I'll remember that.

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:42 PM

For some reason the title of this thread brought up the baby song "Pony Boy"...except that my mind keeps singing "Porny Boy!" No! I did not sing that to my grandson!

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:50 PM

The missus and I just received an e-card for our big number anniversary (well not Really Big as in 50, but Quite Big)...alas it was not pornographic!

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 07:58 AM

[quote]
And everybody has Christmas at the same time.
[/quote]
Valentines day coming up and the messages are supposed to be anonymous ......

Like Jack I assume that all ecards are spam and delete them unread.

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 08:14 AM

Just in case your kids have access to your computer.

A little bit of porn does no-one any harm. I wouldn't be surprised if my daughter had been exposed to more of it by the time she was 12 than I have seen in a lifetime, and it hasn't done her the slightest bit of harm. I know kids who went to school among the strip-joints of Soho, who at the age of eight were playing peepshow in the playground. And guess what? They've turned into perfectly normal people!

Try to relax, s&r. Who wants to live in a world where an exposed nipple on tv causes a national scandal?

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 08:26 AM

Amen to that!

Subject: RE: BS: Porn e-cards
From: treewind
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 09:02 AM

"A little bit of porn does no-one any harm."
"a little bit of porn" is emphatically not the issue.
The danger with the fake Hallmark cards (they've been in widespread circulation for years) has nothing to do with porn, it's that they contain MALWARE. Never mind your kids, it's your bank account you should be watching, or any other online services you use, or the sudden increase in your broadband traffic because your computer has been hijacked to send out thousands of spam messages at the bidding of some botmaster in Ukraine...

I've had many real and fake e-cards, and the real ones invariably name the person they came from. The fake ones say they're from "your family member" or "your friend" or some such rubbish.
That may not be a hard and fast criterion forever, but it's the first thing to check. After that, the fact they they link to a site that isn't hallmark.com shouldn't be too hard to find out, and then it's time to hit the delete key and move on.

Anahata