Lufthansa Scam cirulating

[Oneworldplus2]

Just a heads-up people.

There is a Lufthansa FF letter scam circulating and l'm wondering when QF or DJ will be targeted. Just to be on the safe side and l guess it's only a matter of time before we get targeted with this rubbish.


Got this of FT in the LH Forum;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...-partners/1190305-miles-more-scam-e-mail.html

Posted by lnixon

Interesting, I think this is the first time I've seen an FF program targetted by these kinds of scams. I received this yesterday:

Quote:
From: "Miles & More"<[email protected]>
Subject: Your booking confirmation
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
X-Spam-Flag: YES
X-Sent: 22 hours, 8 minutes, 26 seconds ago
X-Bogosity: Spam, tests=bogofilter, spamicity=1.000000, version=1.2.2

Thanks for the purchase!

Booking number: LVSN50
Your credit card has been charged for $493.67.

Please print PASSENGER ITINERARY RECEIPT by logging into your Miles account
by clicking the link below:

Miles & More - Miles & More | Europe's leading frequent flyer programme

On board you will be offered:
– Beverages;
– Food;
– Daily press.

You are guaranteed top-quality services and attention on the part of our benevolent personnel.
We recommend you to print PASSENGER ITINERARY RECEIPT and take it alone to the airport.
It will help you to pass control and registration procedures faster.

See you on board!

Best regards,
Miles & More
Of course, the link in the HTML e-mail does not actually point to miles-and-more.com, but to a hijacked server in Argentina.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Just once I would love to get my hands on one of the brain dead moronic criminals that produce this sort of cough,although I don't believe in violence against the person I would certainly take great joy in smashing every piece of computer hardware they possessed into tiny little pieces and take away the tools of their crimes.
I'm extremely frustrated also that isp's around the world seem to have absolutely no interest in combatting this scourge of the internet.
Cheers
N'oz

 

[JohnK]

Just once I would love to get my hands on one of the brain dead moronic criminals that produce this sort of cough,although I don't believe in violence against the person I would certainly take great joy in smashing every piece of computer hardware they possessed into tiny little pieces and take away the tools of their crimes.

Society rewards criminals and punishes people who do the right thing.

I'm extremely frustrated also that isp's around the world seem to have absolutely no interest in combatting this scourge of the internet.

No different to anti-virus companies. They are the ones introducing the viruses and then raking in the money by selling subscriptions to their anti-virus programs. I refuse to pay for anti-virus programs and continue to use free versions and have not had any issues so far.

 

[Mal]

Just once I would love to get my hands on one of the brain dead moronic criminals that produce this sort of cough,although I don't believe in violence against the person I would certainly take great joy in smashing every piece of computer hardware they possessed into tiny little pieces and take away the tools of their crimes.

Many IT Security folk agree with you

AA and I believe UA have also been targeted in similar types of scams before.

 

[Mal]

No different to anti-virus companies. They are the ones introducing the viruses and then raking in the money by selling subscriptions to their anti-virus programs. I refuse to pay for anti-virus programs and continue to use free versions and have not had any issues so far.

So do the companies that produce the free versions also do this (in your opinion?). BTW, this is a fallacy. AV companies do not create viruses themselves and any AV company found out doing something similar would be thrown out of the industry.

Actually, AV companies are the ones feeling the pain from the increased number of viruses and other malware floating around out there. There are problems with size of their definition sets, slowdowns in scan times, customer support issues, increase in number of analysis staff required and the back-end systems that handle things. If anything, the AV companies would be happy if nothing new was released for a little while so that they have time to regroup and solve some long term issues.

 

[JohnK]

So do the companies that produce the free versions also do this (in your opinion?). BTW, this is a fallacy. AV companies do not create viruses themselves and any AV company found out doing something similar would be thrown out of the industry.

This is one of my conspiracy theories. Do we know for a fact they are not involved in creating viruses? There are many ways this could be done without being found out, e.g via a third party or a fixer. Monitor how quickly they have released the updates after the virus has been identified.

Most companies that release free virus software also have full versions for sale. I use AVG 2011....

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I currently use Kaspersky but it's becoming too bulky. I might switch to Norton or Nod32 when this one expires. AVG is ok as a freebie, but l wouldn't skimp on a freebie, it's missing so many features, not worth it IMO.

Also, has been revealed in the media that a Apple Macbook Pro back-door virus was release last week by a German programmer. As more people start using Mac's and Apple products become more popular, there will inevitably be Mac Virus', fact of life. Those who think not are fooling themselves.

 

[anat0l]

I currently use Kaspersky but it's becoming too bulky. I might switch to Norton or Nod32 when this one expires. AVG is ok as a freebie, but l wouldn't skimp on a freebie, it's missing so many features, not worth it IMO.

I use AVG free myself, but I also equip myself with Spybot and Malwarebytes.

AVG continues to rank fairly high in the detection tests, although of course I completely understand that it won't catch everything. But nor can most other AV programs. Some programs rely on heuristics to detect virus like behaviour, but that's still a "best guess" and some viruses still slip through (in fact, the first thing most viruses do is "shut out" AV processes so that they can't intervene whilst the virus does its work).

Most of the dangers out there is actually from malware rather than viruses, which are a degree more difficult to detect and even more difficult to remove (most require many steps to removal, especially to check for copies).

I'm not fond of Norton since I still think it clogs up memory too much; even worse in Safe Mode. Also, it handles virus detection rather clumsily; in my experience, it keeps "redetecting" things which are already known to be viruses (I don't know whether the program unwittingly scans its "quarantine" or is simply rescanning known objects), in addition to reporting false positives more often than desirable.

Also, has been revealed in the media that a Apple Macbook Pro back-door virus was release last week by a German programmer. As more people start using Mac's and Apple products become more popular, there will inevitably be Mac Virus', fact of life. Those who think not are fooling themselves.

Which is exactly the key to it all. Windows systems are still very popular out there, so the viruses are written very much for Windows machines.

What is true, though, is that more Windows machines are at risk than Mac OS ones. Main reason for this is Windows systems are usually set up so the user logs in with Administrator privileges. This contrasts with Mac OS and Linux (particularly the latter). Oddly enough, Windows UAC and the resultant prompting has been earmarked as a most annoying feature of Windows, yet people in Linux and to a degree Mac OS have had such a system for years! (Although UAC - especially in its first release - was noticeably clunkier than the similar system in Linux).

All operating systems are vulnerable to user exploits however, especially those based on third party applications, as is shown year in and year out by hacking competitions.

At the end of the day, your final sentence is right. Which is why I can't help but get annoyed when Apple market Mac OS X as being immune to viruses, when it isn't. Saying that is just as good as saying a leap year occurs every four years. Both are summarily incorrect statements, even if it appears on most surfaces to be correct.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Drifting OT here;
I used to run AVG, Spybot and other various free programs but my system slowed down that much and started to play up l just went out and purchased a AV suite.
Happy with Kaspersky as it picks up a lot of stuff that the freebies miss but it's becoming the new 'Norton', ie, bloated. I was getting port scanned/network attacked and a few Trojans yesterday, which Kaspersky blocked.

My father used to run Norton back in the early 90's and l witnessed all sorts of stuff-ups Norton used to perform. I'm pretty sure that these issues have been address and l'm willing to give them a go again. Norton now consistently rank very high in the AV tests.

I was also running the Microsoft freebie which was fantastic, but it clashed with Kaspersky. I highly recommend it for people who want to run a free AV (JohnK?)

Microsoft Security Essentials

My dilemma.
To purchase a Macbook Pro or not? My current laptop is just too bulky to carry around. I really need something more travel friendly.

Pro's
Stable platform
Light for travel and good battery life
Good product quality
Run Windows on Mac's

Con's
Virus and other malicious software is now starting to appear on Macs
Happy with Windows 7
Apple = $$$$ A Macbook Pro with MS Office and Apple Protection comes close to $2k

If anyone else wants to add, please do. l'm on the fence on this one.
​

​

 

[anat0l]

Drifting OT here

Ditto.


As for the MBP, if the reasons you listed as cons are the only ones holding you back, then...

Virus and other malicious software is now starting to appear on Macs

Sure, but Windows machines still have heaps of them. In any case, you would take the same precautions in conducting yourself carefully on the web and with applications as you would with any given machine. So I wouldn't let that point be an issue.

Happy with Windows 7

Mac OS isn't a horrid UI to get used to, and if you like you can still use Boot Camp or Parallels. In the extreme case, you can run Windows on a Mac machine, so you get the "best of both worlds" (in a contrived sense).

Apple = $$$$ A Macbook Pro with MS Office and Apple Protection comes close to $2k

Can't help you with that one - 'tis always been the case and ever will be. The Apple range prides itself on quality (construction, hardware and general running of the system), which is why I believe it's more expensive. The other argument, of course, is that in most cases Macs work right out of the box - no additional software required - unlike Windows where you have to tip in a few apps which sets back a bit of cash (this is an assumption - is iLife included with Mac OS X?). And Apple Protection is about the same price as standard extended warranty packages with other machines.


It's actually genuinely difficult to find a good PC based netbook/laptop that is small yet powerful. The best compromise are some of the 12" or 13" models out there (I think Lenovo has some notables), but they would be all hard pressed to beat the newest MBA on weight (although they probably would beat it on some other aspects apart from price).