Double Ugh | Just Orb

I do not have time to explain right now, as I really, really need to leave the house to get some things done, but…

If you have recieved a spam email from me this morning, I want to apologize. It wasn’t me! I swear! I’m not shilling for spammers!

From what I can figure out, my Gmail account was accessed using Gmail Mobile from somewhere in France, and then sent spam to everyone in my contacts list. EVERYONE. Friends, family, business contacts. Oh … my … god. My face is red. Really, it is. I am totally mortified!

Also from what I can gather, this has been happening to a bunch of people for about a year (though sometimes it’s from Israel or China instead of France), and Google insists it isn’t a problem in their end. They say either people have insecure passwords or malware on their computers. Well … I have insane passwords, and I guarantee there’s no malware on my iMac. I have reported the issue to Google, and I am certain they will ignore it.

But do know, I am totally and completely horrified. Seriously … I’d like to crawl into a hole and die quietly as soon as possible. Even though I am certain this happened through no fault of my own, it’s very, VERY embarrassing. I am so, so, so sorry my gmail account sent everyone spam. Seriously, so sorry! :(

And now I really do need to get on with my work day. Ugh.

4 thoughts on “Double Ugh”

Say it ain’t so Orb. And here all the time I thought it was a email informing your loyal following of some earth shattering Orb type announcement. Rats-a-frast-a. ;)) No need to be embarrassed.

It was obviously an evil plot to get everyone I have ever emailed to come out of the woodwork. LOL!

And I know this stuff happens all the time, even when people don’t screw up, but it’s never happened to me before. I still don’t know how it happened, and after chatting with others it also happened to today, no one knows. I’ve tighten down the security even more now. Unless someone has my phone right beside them, and knows the password to unlock it, they will not be able to get the code that allows me to log in … a new code for every log-in. Quite a hassle for me, but I do not want to go through this again. :P

It’s worse than just spam. I got a java downloader for an open connection and the thing grabbed my machine and even Security Essentials (MicroSoft) couldn’t find its hidey-hole until I ran a full scan; even then it was fighting back, deleting my Favorites and probably other files I’ll find out about later. The giveaway that it was a hijacked email was that the message had no subject and was a mass mailing from your address book; something which I know you would not do.

Anyway, even after the AV program finds and deletes it from your drive, you have to alt+ctr-del to bring up the running apps and kill it there because it’s also hiding in RAM and stays active even on reboot. It’s the first two in the list. The hyperlink in the email is something about ‘dvdduplicator.’ The interface of the bullshit program that tries to self-install looks just like those phony Windows Defender alerts that try to scare you into paying $25 for some obsolete software; same style, fonts and colors. The accompanying text has non-native English errors.

Wish I’d read this post first. All these years I’ve had unquestioning faith in my service provider’s ability to catch dangerous email. Talked to my brother tonight and he wondered how much time and money is lost to these cyberasses and we agreed they need to be shot.

Now I really want to curl up and die. I know this didn’t happen due to a failing on my part, ’cause I know what a pain my passwords are even for me to remember, let alone anyone trying to use software to work them out or (ha ha) guess them (could never happen). I forget my passwords all the time and have to make new ones. Like at least once a month everywhere I log in. So they also change all the time. But still … I am totally horrified this happened.

I am extremely suspicious of Google right now, and I suspect I will be using something else for my email eventually. But oi, changing emails is hard and time consuming.

The good thing is that most of the people in my address list are either friends who know me well enough to know my email habits (like that even getting an email from me is somewhat suspicious since I don’t use it much at all) or they are tech savvy enough to not click links in weird emails. It’s the business contacts though that is chapping my hide. I have no idea if they would know not to click the link, and now my name is attached to having sent crap in an email (if they don’t know me very well, how would they know I personally wouldn’t do that). It’s made quite a mess for me to deal with. A huge embarrassing mess.

Talked to my brother tonight and he wondered how much time and money is lost to these cyberasses and we agreed they need to be shot.

Yes, this! This wasn’t even about selling more Viagra or anything. It was just being an asshole and infecting computers. Just imagine if these jerks, who obviously have some kind of intelligence, would use that energy for something GOOD. Shooting is too good for them. So on top of being embarrassed about it all, I am freaking ANGRY. Grrrr.

Jocko on March 16, 2011 at 12:32 pm said:

Say it ain’t so Orb. And here all the time I thought it was a email informing your loyal following of some earth shattering Orb type announcement. Rats-a-frast-a. ;)) No need to be embarrassed.
Orb on March 16, 2011 at 2:52 pm said:

It was obviously an evil plot to get everyone I have ever emailed to come out of the woodwork. LOL!

And I know this stuff happens all the time, even when people don’t screw up, but it’s never happened to me before. I still don’t know how it happened, and after chatting with others it also happened to today, no one knows. I’ve tighten down the security even more now. Unless someone has my phone right beside them, and knows the password to unlock it, they will not be able to get the code that allows me to log in … a new code for every log-in. Quite a hassle for me, but I do not want to go through this again. :P
John on March 17, 2011 at 3:52 am said:

It’s worse than just spam. I got a java downloader for an open connection and the thing grabbed my machine and even Security Essentials (MicroSoft) couldn’t find its hidey-hole until I ran a full scan; even then it was fighting back, deleting my Favorites and probably other files I’ll find out about later. The giveaway that it was a hijacked email was that the message had no subject and was a mass mailing from your address book; something which I know you would not do.

Anyway, even after the AV program finds and deletes it from your drive, you have to alt+ctr-del to bring up the running apps and kill it there because it’s also hiding in RAM and stays active even on reboot. It’s the first two in the list. The hyperlink in the email is something about ‘dvdduplicator.’ The interface of the bullshit program that tries to self-install looks just like those phony Windows Defender alerts that try to scare you into paying $25 for some obsolete software; same style, fonts and colors. The accompanying text has non-native English errors.

Wish I’d read this post first. All these years I’ve had unquestioning faith in my service provider’s ability to catch dangerous email. Talked to my brother tonight and he wondered how much time and money is lost to these cyberasses and we agreed they need to be shot.
Orb on March 17, 2011 at 2:15 pm said:

Now I really want to curl up and die. I know this didn’t happen due to a failing on my part, ’cause I know what a pain my passwords are even for me to remember, let alone anyone trying to use software to work them out or (ha ha) guess them (could never happen). I forget my passwords all the time and have to make new ones. Like at least once a month everywhere I log in. So they also change all the time. But still … I am totally horrified this happened.

I am extremely suspicious of Google right now, and I suspect I will be using something else for my email eventually. But oi, changing emails is hard and time consuming.

The good thing is that most of the people in my address list are either friends who know me well enough to know my email habits (like that even getting an email from me is somewhat suspicious since I don’t use it much at all) or they are tech savvy enough to not click links in weird emails. It’s the business contacts though that is chapping my hide. I have no idea if they would know not to click the link, and now my name is attached to having sent crap in an email (if they don’t know me very well, how would they know I personally wouldn’t do that). It’s made quite a mess for me to deal with. A huge embarrassing mess.

Talked to my brother tonight and he wondered how much time and money is lost to these cyberasses and we agreed they need to be shot.

Yes, this! This wasn’t even about selling more Viagra or anything. It was just being an asshole and infecting computers. Just imagine if these jerks, who obviously have some kind of intelligence, would use that energy for something GOOD. Shooting is too good for them. So on top of being embarrassed about it all, I am freaking ANGRY. Grrrr.