Neowin News Feed for: Spam

Facebook announces Feature eXtraction Language

John Callaham — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:06:05 +0000

Facebook has just announced its own programming language called Feature eXtraction Language (FXL) which the company has created in part to go after users who generate spam on the service. Read more...

Outlook 2013 gets a leaner, faster replying experience

Paul Ferson — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:49:44 +0100

Microsoft has added additional functionality to the Office 2013 preview, with a quick reply button in Outlook 2013 to streamline plenty of business professionals' workflows and reduce open windows. Read more...

Google takes action against SEO spamming politician

Paul Ferson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:47:35 +0100

Grant Shapps, a Conservative housing minister in the UK, was found to have abused Google's Adsense. Now, the search engine has responded in turn, blacklisting 19 sites operated by the family. Read more...

Russia's SVR reportedly investing in spam-bots

Paul Ferson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:31:47 +0100

Information from Russian newspaper Kommersant indicates that Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, has invested considerable sums of money into developing propaganda spambots for the state. Read more...

Spam levels high as ever after the Grum botnet takedown

Alfonso Maruccia — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 19:26:30 +0100

One month after the takedown of one of the largest botnets, levels of spam messages have returned back to “normal”. The spam industry is adapting to new ways of doing business, experts warn. Read more...

Dropbox rolls out new security features, denies server breach

Steven Parker — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:30:51 +0100

When Dropbox customers starting receiving Spam on email addresses used only for that service, it seemed likely that they too had fallen victim to a server breach, as it turns out, nope! Read more...

Dropbox suffers outage amid reports of email address leaks

Steven Parker — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:35:21 +0100

Dropbox is the latest target for hackers. As well as an (unrelated) outage in some countries of Europe, users also suffered a large scale spam attack, just to add insult to injury Read more...

Spammers using social media instead of email

Nathan Tsui — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:58:14 +0100

Security experts have noticed that email, once the favored method for spammers to get their links to unsuspecting users, is being usurped by social networks, which can be more effective for spammers. Read more...

India: world's biggest source of spam

Andy Weir — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:18:48 +0100

The new 'Dirty Dozen' of the world's top spam-producing nations is announced - and while India has knocked the US off the top spot, a 47% reduction in its spam output sees the UK drop off the list. Read more...

Microsoft fights spam, saves lives

Tyler Holman — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:29:14 +0000

Microsoft's war on spam is saving more than our time - in Africa, it could save lives as well. Microsoft Research is taking what they've learned from building spam filters and using it to fight HIV. Read more...

Facebook "spam king" turns himself in to authorities

Mike Brown — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 11:54:50 +0100

A man who compromised half a million Facebook accounts has given himself up to FBI agents in California. Read more...

Google changes search algorithm, tackles content farms

Michael Collado — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:34:57 +0000

Google has made changes to its search algorithm in the last day or so that they claim are so subtle many wouldn't notice, but will still help reduce the ranking of low-quality websites. They define... Read more...

CR-48 program members get spammed

Matthew Jones — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 09:24:09 +0000

Those who signed up for one of Google's CR-48 netbooks found their inboxes under siege this morning, with users reporting an avalanche of emails from a Google Group. According to TechCrunch, the problem began around 12.23AM... Read more...

Spam kills; SMS blows up would-be suicide bomber too early

Andrew Lyle — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:56:18 +0000

A would-be suicide bomber accidentally blew herself up in Moscow, Russia on New Years Eve. The suspected reasoning for the accidental detonation, a spam SMS message on her phone wishing her a happy new years. The... Read more...

Google working on better quality search to cut down on webspam

Alan Cone — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:20:31 +0000

Google has come under fire this month for becoming victim to webspam which spoofs search results. The search giant wishes to assure their users that they are on it and working to eradicate the "webspam"... Read more...

Google Docs used by alleged spammers obtained by FBI

Matt Blowes — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:52:01 +0100

The FBI last August issued Google a search warrant to obtain documents from the Google Docs accounts of alleged spammers. In a first for cloud computing, the FBI issued a search warrant due to a... Read more...

Spammer ordered to pay Facebook $711m

Matthew Hopson — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:10:11 +0000

Facebook has been awarded damages of $711 million against Sanford Wallace, who spammed the social network with fake messages. Wallace was sued in February, alongside Adam Arzoomanian, for obtaining login details for accounts and using... Read more...

Facebook users targeted by botnet spam

Matthew Hopson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:30:56 +0000

Facebook users have been targeted by a large-scale spam attack that informs them that their password has been reset, and that the attached zip archive contains their new password. Instead of a new password, users... Read more...

Facebook awarded $873 million in damages after spam lawsuit

Damien Reynolds — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:34:23 +0000

There is spam in the world everywhere you look, whether it be in newspapers in the form of adverts or in your inbox as emails offering enhancements to your body or cheap priced software. But... Read more...

Virginia, US: Citizens have a constitutional right to SPAM

Fred Derf — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:52:35 +0100

Authorities claim that Jeremy Jaynes sent up to 10 million unsolicited bulk e-mail messages a day from his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 2004, he was charged in Virginia due to the location of... Read more...