Check out this email....[Fwd: The next big thing for websites]
Mark Kelly
ubuntu at wastedtimes.net
Sun Aug 19 23:43:37 UTC 2007
Hi.
On Sunday 19 August 2007 23:50, musicman wrote:
> Yeah, I got the same result
>
> ouch
>
>
> What is it doing?
A redirect to http://localhost/ basically.
For example if you are using php:
<?php
header('Location: http://localhost/');
?>
in a file will do what you see from that site. It should be a trivial trick
in any web language. It will work even behind a perfectly secure firewall,
as packets for localhost will not leave your machine. The remote site is
not accessing your machine.
They are probably doing it (a) because they think it's funny, and more
importantly (b) to see how successful their spam is and collect IP
addresses. You might also want to clear your cookies out.
Every time you click on something like this you are encouraging the
spammers, as they can see that not only are they getting through, but
someone is still willing to click links in spam emails. My advice is that
if you are genuinely interested in a link in an email, google the domain
or product name to see what's there, rather than click on it directly; if
the product is for real it should be obvious enough.
Don't use the unsubscribe either, you'll just end up confirming your
address is live and making it worth sending even more spam to.
HTH
Mark
More information about the ubuntu-users
mailing list