Another Email Scam Question

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 19 Apr 2013 11:17 am

Howdy all, I've received too many emails that at first glance appear to be from people I know. By that I mean their name appears in the "from" window then when you open the email there's a short message and then a link someone wants you to click on that leads to an advertisement. By now I've learned these emails are what they are and don't even open them. My question is this, how are these hackers gettin a list of people that I know to use in their email scam?

Gary Cosden · Post by **Gary Cosden** » 19 Apr 2013 12:42 pm

This has happened to me a few times in the last year and I believe that both times it was personal info sold by Facebook apps.

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 19 Apr 2013 1:13 pm

Facebook makes sense and was my first suspect. I wonder if there's any way to stop it.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 19 Apr 2013 1:28 pm

Usually these things happen because a person you know's email account was highjacked. They then send to everyone in that person's address book.

They do not come from data being sold by Facebook which is illegal. Facebook's API does not allow for downloading and selling of email addresses of consumers. They could be sued if they did.

Gary Cosden · Post by **Gary Cosden** » 19 Apr 2013 1:48 pm

I can only tell you that in both cases the people involved changed their Facebook password and turned off all apps in their Facebook account settings and the problem seemed to be solved. Actually now that I think about it this also happened to me as well so make that 3 cases I know of. It didn't occur to me since I never got emails from myself - I just had a bunch of spam posts on Facebook alleging to be posts I had made. After I changed my password and disallowed apps there were no more.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 19 Apr 2013 2:01 pm

Don't misunderstand: your facebook account can definitely be compromised. Works the same way: you click on a link in someone's facebook note to you and what it does instead is send out the same email to everyone in YOUR address book. But Facebook themselves do not make email addresses available for marketing purposes. Your email account CAN be compromised however.

Gary Cosden · Post by **Gary Cosden** » 19 Apr 2013 3:03 pm

I am not saying that Facebook per se is responsible. I am saying I believe that when you agree to let Facebook apps access your personal info that some are less scrupulous than others and your friends lists and other info makes it's way into the hands of third parties through no direct action on the part of Facebook.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 19 Apr 2013 3:18 pm

Actually I know about this because I've developed a facebook app. Facebook apps have to access the Facebook api. The api doesn't allow for that functionality. There was one company, which I won't mention, that claimed to have an ability to scrap Facebook pages for personal information to better target ads to users, but they were shut out by facebook. The apps all have access to the same API, which doesn't allow for the distribution of PII (personally identifiable Information)

Gary Cosden · Post by **Gary Cosden** » 19 Apr 2013 5:05 pm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 46230.html

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 20 Apr 2013 4:25 pm

And the grand prize goes to...

Gary Cosden wrote:I can only tell you that in both cases the people involved changed their Facebook password and turned off all apps in their Facebook account settings and the problem seemed to be solved.

Since I did this I haven't received any scam emails like before. Keepin my fingers crossed though.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 20 Apr 2013 6:01 pm

Changing passwords is always a good idea