Like most others here on JSH, I have (and use on occasion) Yahoo IM/mail. And all was good. That is, until...

... I started getting e-mails from various members of something called "Fanbox", which is (according to the their site) is a kind of online hard-drive and IM service. These e-mails keep asking if these senders can be "fans" of mine or something equally as inane.

Of course, in order to find out what these people are e-mailing me about, I gotta create an account with them, which would mean I'd have to give up my Yahoo information.

Uh... yeah. Right. Like I'm just gonna give them my Yahoo e-mail addy and password like that. I might have been born at night, but not LAST night...

So I perform a Google search and (sure enough...) "Fanbox" is a renamed version of an earlier e-mail/IM scam where spammers snag your e-mail info and use it to send those in your address book scams and spams using YOUR address. Totally bogus stuff, and it's almost impossible to correct once your information has been compromised.

So I marked any and all e-mails from Fanbox as "spam", which will stop any further attacks on their part. All is good...

... until...

I THEN start getting e-mails from something called "Question_It", which is (as it turns out) is another scam where you're asked to answer questions from other members. Like Fanbox, you have to create an "account" to be able to answer the questions. And -like Fanbox- this is a scam as well.

So be aware, people... the spammers and scammers are out there en mass...

Im freaked out now

I get those same emails in my yahoo email as well

it's EVIL!!!!

yes and once you open this up it takes everyone from your address book and starts sending them the questions. The only way I was able to stop this was to tell everyone DO NOT OPEN these emails just delete.

That reminds me...

Some of the spams from Fanbox/Question_It were stated to have come from someone in my address book. So it'd be easy to be fooled and think the messages were benign when they aren't. Not only that, but it also potentially means that the e-mail addys of said friends might have been compromised as well. And they need to be notified of such.

So change your passwords- they can't get access to your accounts if you change them, and that means they can't mess with you.

Dang!!! Thank you for the word up!!

There's a leak in the system

for shizzle

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/spammers.lasso

Thanks for the info.

btw... I only get them on one o my yahoo email accounts. Its also an account that i hardly use.

Be careful with your other online e-mail accounts (MSN, gmail, etc.), as the spammers can theoretically hit them as well. I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

I like yahoo IM. I only use the yahoo email account for junk mail. If it is something I have to use an email address for and I suspect it will result in junk, I use the yahoo address.

Oh, I forgot to add, I read today on Reuters that a man in Nevada that was a professional spammer was sentenced to several years in jail. He provided spamming services for companies. He also has to pay a massive amount in taxes for income he never reported.

i have a Fanbox acct and i haven't had any issues yet