Privacy Digest

Fortune 500s Unwittingly Become Spammers - Security Fix:

The next time you receive a piece of junk e-mail touting penny stock, pimping Rolex watches, or lauding a work-at-home scam, consider investigating who really sent it. You may be surprised.

Security Fix reviewed spam samples captured in the last month and found many instances of spam sent via computers at well-known Fortune 500 companies. Among the findings were:

-- PayPal phishing scam e-mails coming from a machine at database software giant Oracle Corp.

-- Penny stock spam being relayed by a PC inside American Electric Power. A stock spam for a company called NutriOne Corp. was generated from networks owned by computer maker Hewlett-Packard. Another stock scam from ExxonMobil touted shares of China Fruits Corp.

-- Junk e-mail pushing knockoff prescription drugs, sent from a machine at IndyMac Bank. A message advertising similar goods was sent from a PC at Home Depot, and another from a computer at game company Electronic Arts. The EA machine is listed in Spamhaus.org's "Exploit Block List" (XBL), which flags Internet addresses showing signs of running spam relays, among other things.

-- Spam advertising penile enhancement pills relayed through a Dow Jones network.

-- Spam hawking costume jewelry and name-brand watches, relayed by a computer at Best Buy. This machine also is listed in the Spamhaus XBL list.