Maria’s Guides

Confirmation e-mails from sites you never joined.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail message that went something like this:

From: [omitted]
Subject: Member Confirm
Date: August 20, 2007 9:05:49 PM MST
To: [omitted]

Welcome,

Thank You for Joining Web Cooking.

Confirmation Number: 769799922
Temorary Login: user4129
Password ID: qb371

Your temporary Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please login and change it.

This link will allow you to securely change your login info: http://[IP address omitted]/

Thank You,
Membership Support Department
Web Cooking

Trouble is, I haven’t signed up for any Web site with that name using the e-mail address the message was sent to. And although the clickable URL was very tempting to check out — after all, I could have forgotten that I’d signed up for something — I was hot and tired and ready to call it quits for the day.

This morning, I got a very similar message sent to the same e-mail address from another site. That’s when I became sure that something was up.

You see, just the other day, I was listening to the Future Tense podcast while washing my helicopter. One of the stories was about the “Storm Virus,” which is being spread by e-mail. One of the ways they spread this virus is by sending you an e-mail with a link to a Web site. Idiots click this link and go to a Web page, which then takes advantage of security holes in the visitor’s brower to infect the computer. You’ve probably gotten one of these messages — they often lure you by telling you that someone has sent you an electronic greeting card.

Apparently, they’ve come up with a new way to lure you to a site.

So my word of warning here — do not click any link in an e-mail message you receive unexpectedly from someone you don’t know.

And if anyone else has more information about this virus or new series of e-mail spam cons, please do use the Comments link or form below to let us know. Thanks.