Are anti-virus companies spamming?
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I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote: Antivirus companies using true viral marketing It is late enough in the morning that I will forgive you for that. :) Ed Atwell
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I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
I haven't seen any of these 'helpful' emails, but what you describe is certainly obnoxious. I'd class it as spam, especially if the emails aren't clever enough to sort out who really sent the infected email in the first place. So many of the buggers spoof the return address that this is a completely useless practice, and an annoying one as well. The AV software I use doesn't do this, thankfully. It does, however, send me two emails every time there's a new signature file available, or rather, the company that sells it does. Since I have the program set to update every 24 hours automatically, this seems redundant. And when they produce 5 or more signature updates a day the volume of email gets to be really irritating. Still, it's a lot better than Norton or McAffee; the emails don't have ads embedded in them. A pox on spammers, in whatever guise they wear!:mad:
"Nobody is Ugly at 2AM"
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I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
Antivirus companies also write the virii that they protect aganst. I mean, it's obvious - they have a patch/scan for it BEFORE anyone else hears about it! It's true, they do, and I have proo#*(#$%@#4234NO CARRIER
Todd C. Wilson (meme@nopcode.com) NOPcode.com "Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the Way." - Chuang-Tzu "Zen in the Martial Arts"
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Antivirus companies also write the virii that they protect aganst. I mean, it's obvious - they have a patch/scan for it BEFORE anyone else hears about it! It's true, they do, and I have proo#*(#$%@#4234NO CARRIER
Todd C. Wilson (meme@nopcode.com) NOPcode.com "Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the Way." - Chuang-Tzu "Zen in the Martial Arts"
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Antivirus companies also write the virii that they protect aganst. I mean, it's obvious - they have a patch/scan for it BEFORE anyone else hears about it! It's true, they do, and I have proo#*(#$%@#4234NO CARRIER
Todd C. Wilson (meme@nopcode.com) NOPcode.com "Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the Way." - Chuang-Tzu "Zen in the Martial Arts"
I'm not sure I agree with that 100%, but.... I have seen A/V interfaces do things that bordered on viral, or at least just plain scary. Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Battleship, was the first game that taught you to lie" - Zachery -
I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
No offense to the programmers who actually write the stuff, but AV software always strikes me as a bit dirty, especially in how it's marketed. I'd sooner trust the chain smoker selling arson insurance... :suss:
Shog9
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong...
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I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
That's part of the reason I run my own mail server - I can easily block anything and everything. (And I do... for example, *ebay.com is blocked. *.tw is also blocked.) OTOH, it's also fun to send emails to UCE@FTC.GOV, and also to abuse@companyname.com saying "take me off your fscking list"... Then, if the abuse@companyname.com bounces, you can add them to http://rfc-ignorant.com/[^], thusly getting them blocked from sending other people mail.. (Of course, make sure you submit them to, say, spamcop, too....) Most "personal" mail servers (including sendmail, if you're using nix) can also blacklist entire ranges of IPs... i swear i'm not a mail nazi evilpen dot net :: embrace the lie
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I'm not sure I agree with that 100%, but.... I have seen A/V interfaces do things that bordered on viral, or at least just plain scary. Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Battleship, was the first game that taught you to lie" - Zachery*cough* I think he was being sarcastic Matt *cough* :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaCrikey! ain't life grand?
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I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
Collect all these "You have a virus!" emails. Get your AVG/Norton/Mcafee purchase invoice. Now send AVG/Norton/Mcafee an email demanding a refund, and damages, because according to their proof their poxy software is not doing it's job. :) And on a related note; I recieve more spam trying to sell me anti-virus packages than any other kind of spam. Norton seems to be especially "well" marketed. I will be naive and think that it is a pity that spammers are giving Norton and the likes a bad name by spamming a product that people will probably respond to the most. My mom thinks it is Norton themselves who send her all these "Buy Norton cheap!" emails...
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaCrikey! ain't life grand?
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*cough* I think he was being sarcastic Matt *cough* :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaCrikey! ain't life grand?
I know, but still that doesn't take them off my suspicion list. Matt Newman
Sonork: 100:11179 "Battleship, was the first game that taught you to lie" - Zachery -
I was just looking at the hundreds of "NAV has blocked your message" and "Scanmail is looking after YOU" return emails that the Blaster (and every other sender-spoofing virus) has caused. I'm pretty sure everyone would prefer that the email scanners not send an email to you warning you have a virus - especially since you don't - but I'm guessing that anti-virus makers are, if anything, going to increase the emails sent out in response and will increase the branding of these warning emails. Essentially it becomes a distributed spam machine powered by the very things they purport to stop. Systems get infected, they send out the virus, every virus scanner then sends out alert/advertisements (alertisments?) and the virus keeps spreading. Antivirus companies using true viral marketing. Thoughts? cheers, Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote: Thoughts? I agree. However obviously the AV Spam will go away if the virus infected boxes were fixed. I don't understand why they respond to the "FROM" address instead of doing some parsing in the header. It would make more sense if AV companies were serious about viruses that they messaged back to a central database, that collated the results to find the really infected box. - However now that you mention this I realise, that this AV Spam actually gets through two spam filters I'm using. The reason is that I leave holes for bad email, as it's something I want to know about. It wouldn't take much for spammers to copy this bad email concept to bust through spam filters. Regardz Colin J Davies
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