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