FriendGreetings.com -- Helping to send Spyware to loved ones

Did you mail all your Christmas cards out yet? I've got a small collection starting on top of the mantel, but I'm surprised that I haven't received any (tangible) Holiday cards yet from Infopackets Readers!

Sending an e-greeting is nice to receive, but it's hard to differentiate the spam mails from the legit. Sometimes when I write a newsletter, I get up to 200 emails in a day! That can get kind of nutty after a while. And, that brings me to my next point.

MBMaser emailed me the other day and told me about a web site called FriendGreetings.com which is allegedly responsible for incorporating some type of Spyware software into their greeting cards. Basically: if you use this web site to send a friend a greeting card, you're also sending your friend a nasty piece of software (Spyware) without them knowing about it, in all probability.

MBMaser writes:

" Thought you would like to be warned about this. The holidays are here again and as usual there are people out there on the Internet trying to take advantage of that fact. Don’t get caught up in this one. Have a great and safe holiday.

Those cute little electronic greeting cards you occasionally get from friends may be a real problem: one of those where there's a link that says, '[Some Name] has sent you a greeting card. Go here to get your greeting card'.

There's a new card company called 'FriendGreetings.com'. When you get a card notification from them and click on the link, it will take you to their site. You will be notified that you have to install an ActiveX control in order to view the card. When you begin to install, the first thing that pops up is what is known as a "EULA" (End User License Agreement).

It is very long and you will not read it. They're counting on that. When you scroll to the bottom of it and click "Accept," you have agreed to the terms of the EULA. Part of what you will have agreed to is to have [an alleged] monitoring/spyware software component installed on your computer which will periodically report a vast array of data back to the card company. The other part that you've agreed to is to have the software send mail to every single address in your address book.

Since there is no virus in the email, and since you've voluntarily agreed to install the ActiveX component, anti-virus programs will not catch this. DO NOT OPEN EMAIL ATTACHMENTS when you are not expecting them.

See: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2124528,00.html "

I searched Google for FriendGreetings.com

I did a search on Google which queried FriendGreetings.com and spyware on the same line. It appears that there's lots of other sites that are talking about it.

Anyway, just be careful.