On Fri, 2007-08-24 at 11:19 -0400, Jacques B. wrote:
WELL YOU LIKE TO LIVE DANGEROUSLY. NEVER CLICK ON A VIRUS WEB PAGE. WEB BROWSERS CAN COLLECT THE ADDRESSES OF PEOPLE WHO GO TO THE WEB SITE, SO YOU ARE ALREADY COMPROMISED.
(snip)
Please turn off your capslock key. It makes you look foolish.
Web browsers do not collect anything. Web _servers_ might.
(snip)
You are right it is web servers that collect addresses. However I kept the caps lock key on purpose since opening a phish web site is a silly thing to do and I wanted to emphasize that. To subtle I guess.
Aaron Konstam
It depends on why you are opening it, and what precautionary measures you are taking when doing so (i.e. using Linux instead of Windows, via a virtual machine, using a Live CD, from a public access point, etc). The OP's posting doesn't say he opened it in Linux, but that appears to be the case reading between the lines. So he is not at risk of any IE/Windows exploits. That being the case, why would he be compromised for having visited the site? In this scenario at most the web server will have the IP of the person who visited, and the browser they used (and some other non-compromising information).
I agree that caps lock is not necessary other than perhaps to emphasize a word, but not an entire posting.
We are straying off topic seeing none of this relates to Linux. But seeing the issue is out there now, as was pointed out this is a phishing scam not a virus. These scams are a dime a dozen (I've seen many of them). Prudent advice is to delete without opening the message or visiting the site. Or participate in fighting the problem through phishtank.org and such sites, and reporting it to the organisation being represented so that they can take action. Visiting one of these sites does not necessarily automatically compromise you (especially when running Linux and a non-IE browser).
Jacques B.
We just disagree. Opening up the web site gives the sender the information that it has found a live user who can be conned in some way. This conning has nothing to do with using Windows.
-- ======================================================================= It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it. -- Henry Allen ======================================================================= Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@sbcglobal.net