Saturday, December 27, 2008

SPAM

I have just fallen victim to an email spam "virus" (I am not sure if it is a virus or not). Spam emails are sent from my email account to everyone on my list (University professors, former colleagues, friends, mailing list etc).

There are some discussions about this on the web:
So far I have taken the following measures:
  • Changed password
  • Turned off my vacation responder
  • Cleared my vacation message and signature
  • Turned on "Mail Goggle" feature in Google Labs
See if it helps. Let me know if you get any spam email from me please.

(BTW, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!)
---

Some technical information here:
  • My GMail account was accessed from another IP

  • My vacation responder message and signature were all changed to that SPAM message
  • I used Google Chrome to open GMail
  • I was running Avast! On-site virus scanner 4.8
  • Details about that IP (124.118.178.170):
inetnum:      124.118.0.0 - 124.119.255.255
netname: CHINANET-XJ
descr: CHINANET Xinjiang province network
descr: China Telecom
descr: No1,jin-rong Street
descr: Beijing 100032
country: CN
admin-c: CH93-AP
tech-c: NA15-AP
mnt-by: APNIC-HM
mnt-lower: MAINT-CN-CHINANET-XJ
mnt-routes: MAINT-CN-CHINANET-XJ
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
remarks: This object can only be updated by APNIC hostmasters.
remarks: To update this object, please contact APNIC
remarks: hostmasters and include your organisation's account
remarks: name in the subject line.
remarks: -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
status: ALLOCATED PORTABLE
changed: hm-changed@apnic.net 20060406
source: APNIC

route: 124.118.0.0/15
descr: From Xinjiang Network of ChinaTelecom
origin: AS4134
mnt-by: MAINT-CHINANET
changed: dingsy@cndata.com 20060707
source: APNIC

person: Chinanet Hostmaster
nic-hdl: CH93-AP
e-mail: anti-spam@ns.chinanet.cn.net
address: No.31 ,jingrong street,beijing
address: 100032
phone: +86-10-58501724
fax-no: +86-10-58501724
country: CN
changed: dingsy@cndata.com 20070416
mnt-by: MAINT-CHINANET
source: APNIC

person: NIBIJIANG ABDUKADIR
address: XINJIANG DATA COMMUNICATION BUREAU
address: HUANG HE ROAD 30# URUMQI CITY ,XINJIANG
country: CN
phone: +86 991 5820832
fax-no: +86 991 5820831
e-mail: nba@mail.wl.xj.cn
nic-hdl: NA15-AP
mnt-by: MAINT-CN-CHINANET-XJ
changed: nba@mail.wl.xj.cn 20000212
source: APNIC