This article has been updated on 13th March 2012.
Hey everyone. Today I just checked my other email account and was surprised to see a YouTube email lying in my inbox. The email message was titled as "You have 1 notification from YouTube". I was surprised because I have not registered on YouTube using that email ID. Then I thought I may have used it in past to sign in to YouTube, but I couldn't remember. I opened the email speculating it was 99 percent spam mail. And when I read the message, it looked like the following.
Click picture to enlarge.
On mouse over, the link, that looked like a "legit" YouTube link, spoke the truth. As you can see in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, the link was actually linking to another web page and that is enough to tell it is a spam email. Still curious to see where actually it takes me, I copied the link lying under the youtube link, and opened in another browser. The link was actually a redirect link, which takes you to another website. This website is some sort of Viagra website.
And, I LOLed. I don't understand why these Viagra sites always show their ass off. This kind of Viagra websites are being spammed everywhere. I've seen them in emails, on many popular websites, in forums, in chat rooms almost everywhere I can say. They usually use link redirection to take you to a web page you are not supposed to visit, well unless you actually want to buy some Viagra!
Digging up why these spammers send everyone these "Viagra" emails, I found that the company that actually makes the "original" Viagra, Pfizer, sells Viagra Pills at very high rates (obviously!). And in most countries, to buy a Viagra Pill, you need a doctor's written prescription. Now buying a Viagra is not something you would like everyone to know. So many people likes to buy them online. And this is where the spammers come in the picture. The companies who replicates original Viagra pills, and sells them at low prices, usually have some affiliate options available. Becoming an affiliate and bringing customers to their website is something they pay their affiliate for. So these spammer ass creates link redirects and sends them in emails. Clicking on which makes them earn profit, as those false Viagra sites will pay them for bringing a "customer" to their sites.
I was not surprised by seeing this Viagra Spam email in my email, but I was surprised to see it in my "inbox" and not in "spam". I mean Yahoo really thought it was a legit YouTube email? Damn!And you all, don't open these kind of emails okay? They may be harmful in a way you never thought of.
Update : Here are some more legit looking spam e-mail that titles - You Tube Service sent you a message : Your video has been approved. Now you will wonder what video you uploaded and since when YouTube got the approval system? If you click any of the link in the e-mail, that looks like very much of an e-mail from YouTube itself, you will end up on any spam, unwanted website, on a page that hosts a script that might steal your data or downloads a malware onto your computer etc. My e-mail is being bombarded with this YouTube spam e-mail everyday. And thousands of other people are receiving these kind of spam e-mails everyday. This emails goes in your "inbox" too.
The different titles for these YouTube spam emails includes:
- YouTube Service sent you a message: Your video on the TOP of YouTube
- You Tube Service sent you a message : Your video has been approved
- Congratulations, Your video on TOP10
- YouTube - Thank you for your video
- YouTube Service sent you a message: Your video has been approved
Upon digging up where these e-mails are being sent from, they suggest different locations (obviously) like Taipei, Romania, Bangkok etc. Spammers usually use different e-mail service providers and different locations. It is never easy to track them down completely.
Why am I receiving this kind of YouTube Spam e-mails?
This is an obvious question. If you receive tons of this youtube spam mail shit, you are probably one of those people whose e-mail has been sold to third-parties for money. You provide your e-mail address everywhere when you sign up for an account anywhere on the internet. These websites, forums etc. have "policy" that assures you that your personal details will never be shared with third parties. But where easy money is involved, there's no "policy" to take care of. Not all websites do this. But the number of websites who sell your personal details like e-mail is not small. Spammers get your e-mail accounts and bomb you with this kind of shit-mails. I don't know what fun is it to send this kind of useless e-mails but it sounds like pure fun for those spammers. You should never use your personal email address to sign up to to these websites. You can create a secondary email using which you can sign up to different websites.
It is also possible your e-mail is publicly available on the internet. There are several social networking sites on which you provide your e-mail address and even make it publicly viewable. In this case, those spammer-asses does not have to spend any penny to get your e-mail address.
There can be another reasons too for your e-mail being "leaked out". For example, a website you have signed up on has been hacked and its database is dumped and made publicly available. This is a jackpot for those spammers. They get a large number of e-mail address to bomb with spam.
What to do when I receive this kind of spam e-mails?
When you receive spam emails, they are supposed to go into your spam or junk folder, but as I said earlier, some spam emails even land in your inbox. (This makes me doubt if the spam filter even actually works!) It is up to you to identify any suspicious looking e-mail. You need to be smart enough not to get fooled by these kind of "legit looking" emails. As I said, I received youtube spam emails on an email address I never used with youtube. If this is the case with you too, then you should be able to know that this is obviously spam mail.
If you identify a spam email, you should not open it and delete it right away. If you open the email, probaly because you didn't know it was spam (because it landed in your inbox!), always check the links before clicking. Mouse over the links and see if the links are actually what they look like. If the hyperlink beneath the URL is different, never click it. If you click the links in those spam emails, you are making a mistake. It may take you to a Viagra selling website, it may take you to a genuine looking website where they ask for your personal details. It could be anything, just never click the links or images inside these emails.
