Sep1 |
9:44 pm (UTC-7) | by
Christopher Talampas (Fraud Analyst) |
I recently came across a round of spammed instant messages that arrived via my Yahoo! Messenger account. These messages were supposedly sent from my cousin’s account, and used the following format and were sent to everyone on her friends list:
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The familiar message format told me that I was chatting with a bot that wanted me to click the link in the message. Checking where the link went to led me to the following page:
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The IQ test had 11 questions that eventually led to a “results” page that asked me to sign up and enter my mobile phone number to get the quiz results:
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One may ask why the site would need a mobile phone number just to send IQ test results. Will they use this information to spam me through my mobile phone? Nor is it clear if the answers to the questions actually matter to the IQ “score” given to the user, if they actually receive one.
That may well be the case but the cybercriminals have a more direct approach to earn money. The Summary of Terms at the bottom of the page says that by giving the quiz’s creators one’s mobile phone number means signing up for “mobile content subscription.” Of course, this is not free, as the subscription fee ranges from US$9.99–$19.99 a month. This is stated in the site’s terms and conditions, which are located at the bottom of the page:
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This gave me enough reason to close the browser tab and leave the website. The URL of the said “IQ test” is now blocked by the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network™.
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September 5th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
I ran across this same SPAM/SPIM from more than one of my friends. Ive already reported this more than once to yahoo abuse and I suspect the problem is widespread. I also bailed from the target site when it asked for a mobile number and I saw the "Summary of Terms".
This SPAM is rather insidious since it imitates innocuous chat quite well and will even deny it is spam. It also goes quiet if you do not respond and it will go off and on line simulating a yahoo friend.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I have been having this problem for months now, though a flurry of activity in the last few days.
The earlier posting at least suggested the motive (agreeing to mobile fees)but I still dont understand how my contact friends have had their ids hijacked (and wonder if mine has been too).
Most times when I try to engage in conversation, there is no response. Today, though, there was a response when I asked "Who are you?" He/she answered 'me obviously'. That suggests there was someone there who was able to give a (vaguely) intelligent answer to, (or at least understood) my question. It also seems to indicate they didnt know whose id they had appropriated.
This not only irritates me, it worries me a bit. What is behind this?
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I have been getting these things too and they are seriously annoying. I took the test like an idiot, but if they are going to try and charge my OBAMA phone a monthly charge – Good luck with that! Just make sure you leave information as to what account charges are going to so they can catch you A$$holAZ haah
HOW DO I GET THESE TO STOP anyone got a clue?
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
…and I too believe that someone is live @ the keyboard doing this scam.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
It's been happening to me too with two accounts, one that's on my contact list and another that I deleted a while back. Does a normal virus scan and wipe fix this?
October 4th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I get these a lot from my contacts in yahoo messenger. I emailed a friend about it and he said he never logged in to yahoo messenger for ages.. So how does this bot effect you?? How do I know if I am sending these also? Any ideas??
October 30th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
My husband's account has been hacked by this stupid IQ thing. The other day he was in the shower, I was laying in bed with my laptop when he started chatting with me! I was like, that's not possible because you are in the shower! The thing had an answer to all my questions. I'm currently looking for an answer on how to get rid of this thing.