This is a copy of an EMail I got off of the internet ..... this has happened to me .... I did nothing but open the EMail from my daughter, inviting me .... it somehow got all my EMail addresses and started sending out EMails on ALL my addresses .... I DID NOTHING BUT OPEN, SO BE CAREFUL...........................
In the past few weeks, I have received a few messages from people thatI know, asking me to join their "network of friends" on such sites asRingo, Hi5 and Bebo. From what I understand, these sites offer you to hold your address book for you.
The idea is that each member keeps his own contact info up to date, effectively keeping your own address bookup to date.I also saw one such invitation (for Ringo) sent to a mailing list (andthe sender getting flamed for it shortly afterwards)In one case, out of curiosity, I clicked on the link provided (it wasfrom hi5).
The several-step form asked me for personal informationthat I did not want to provide, including the *password* for theHotmail address I had provided !The reason why hi5 wanted my Hotmail password was to "automaticallyimport my entire Hotmail address book to my hi5 account.
"That's where my curiosity reached its limit: I did not go any further.The person who initially sent me that invitation later told me that he had received the same invitation himself, had joined the hi5 network, and that hi5 then sent invitations to his entire address book without him even realizing it.
I then thought that the guy who sent the Ringo invitation to themailing list perhaps sent it unvoluntarily as well. What I'm getting at is, if these invitations "to join the network"really are sent without the members' consent (or knowledge), they share a lot of similarities with email-bornes viruses.
They would be viruses without a malicious payload (except for the flames you getfrom spamming your entire address book, and the fact that you hand out your Hotmail/Yahoo email password to a third party website).
This would then be like a virus that doesn't even require you to write a line of code: all you need is to invite a few people to "join thenetwork", and let the website do the rest.
THIS THING IS VICIOUS .... IT HAPPENED TO ME .... BEWARE ... hi5
