Katrina Gayle left her PC on overnight, connected to the Internet. When she awoke, she got a nasty surprise.
There, on her screen, a big grey dialog box informed her that her PC may be infected by a virus. The complete text sounded ominous. "Message from ANTI-VIRUS MASTERS 10:36 AM. ***WARNING*** YOUR COMPUTER may have a VIRUS. Get the latest 2003 Anti-Virus Software at.... YOUR DATA IS AT RISK!!!," it said.
There was, in fact, no virus on Gayle's PC. She used anti-virus software and kept it up-to-date. Instead, an equally obnoxious intruder had used a loophole in Windows 2000/XP/NT to send out a new type of spam that's been plaguing users around the world.
The message that Gayle received directed her to a Web site supposedly to download anti-virus software. The site had, in fact, nothing whatsoever to do with anti-virus software. Instead, it was set up to sell pornography.
"That was just the first weird message I received," said Gayle, a Washington-based law student. "I seem to have a new one on my screen every morning now. I thought my PC was infected with a virus, but I didn't know what to do."
The only thing the message allowed her to do was click the OK button and dismiss the dialog box.
This new type of spam, known to an increasing number of users with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, is being referred to in the industry as "messenger spam." Its name comes from the fact that the spam exists because Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT each include a feature designed to allow network administrators to monitor servers and send out service messages over corporate networks, if necessary.
This feature is called a messenger service. The feature is unrelated to the Microsoft Messenger instant messaging client.
Because the Internet is a network, spam senders can use the messenger service for an unintended purpose -- to harass anyone hooked up to the Internet with unwanted pop-up messages.
No fix
Currently, Microsoft has no fix for the loophole in its messenger service that spammers have utilized for their own purposes. The result is the epidemic of messenger service spam currently plaguing Internet users.
It's possible, however, to get rid of this spam by turning off the messenger service in Windows. In Windows 2000, open the "Control Panel," and then double-click on the "Administrative Tools" icon and then double-click the "Services" entry. Within the list of services listed in the resulting "Services" dialog box, locate the "messenger" entry, and double-click it. Click the "Stop" button in the "Service Status" section and then in the same dialogue box, change the start-up type to "Disable."
The only users who may wish to retain the use of the service are those connected to a corporate intranet. In such cases, it's unlikely that you would be bothered by messenger service spam anyway, since a firewall would likely close off the port used by these spammers. Home users, however, are usually not so lucky and the fix outlined here will likely be necessary.
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