© chrisdlugosz


Where is your most annoying spam coming from? How do you contact them about it (or turn them into someone)?

With the influence of the Web growing, transparency has become a major concern on the Internet. The ability to find out just exactly who is behind a particular website has become important. And being able to find important facts about a web domain (like revenue, traffic patterns, and speed, and contact info) can be important to you, either for business reason or just to assess the credibility of the website. Where do you go to get information like that?

I recently came across the philoneist, a wiki that investigates and tells you what and who is behind a domain name. And with out much effort I found valuable information on a couple of websites I use pretty much every day.

An entry at the philoneist will often give you a screen capture image of the site being examined. That way you know that the entry is really about the site you're interested in.

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the sudden silence this blog has fallen into. Creative Weblogging did a little reorganizing and IGotSpam was put on hiatus for s short time. We're back now and dedicated to resuming our coverage of everything spam, virus, malware and security related. Please stay with us! Thanks and happy holidays!

Hey everyone, no matter how busy your business may be, take the time to get out and vote tomorrow. This is perhaps the most important presidential election in history and the outcome will affect us all one way or the other. Don't sit back thinking your vote doesn't matter-remember what happened to Al Gore? No matter which candidate you support, Obama, McCain, or a third party, get out and make your vote count. This issues affecting us as business owners and as a country are too serious not to. Let your voice be heard!

The site, called DarkMarket, was kept secret and access was granted by invitation only. Its forum allowed cyberthieves to buy and sell stolen banking details and credit card numbers obtained via phishing scams and website hacks. It also served as a learning tool, providing information on how to commit various online crimes.

The bust is the result of an undercover operation by the FBI. 60 arrests have been made (11 of them in the UK) as a result. Authorities said the site had over 2,000 members. Cybercriminals made huge profits from the stolen credit and banking info. One man spent 250,000 pounds (roughly $434,000 US) in just six weeks. Check out more info here.

Here is a good video with some basics on how to avoid falling for a phishing scam!

The growing financial crisis may lead to an even sharper rise in malicious spam as scammers exploit the grim headlines and prey on worried consumers. Troubled bank Wachovia has already been used as the subject of a phishing spam. In fact, as the country's financial woes began to deepen last month, the number of zombie computers sending spam rose a startling 101%! This could be signaling the beginning of a massive new spam campaign designed to exploit those woes as spam messages with subject lines such as "Save Your Home!" and "Avoid Foreclosure!" began circulating last month as well.

Hi everyone! I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I've been under the weather. Posting will resume today so stay tuned!

Here's another video about the recent hacker attack on BusinessWeek's website.

The financial crisis is a prime target for phishers who are using it in their latest scams. Here's an interesting video that explains the new scam and how to protect yourself.

Here's a great video showing how you can protect your email address from email harvesting bots and spammers.