Turkish Spammers Target 12,000 Users in One Day

eCards.co.uk, a UK based on-line greeting card company has been targeted by Turkish spammers. The spammers are sending out fake ecard notification emails to randomly generated hotmail and yahoo email addresses under the guise of the eCards.co.uk brand.

(PRWEB) October 9, 2007 -- eCards.co.uk, a UK based on-line greeting card company has been targeted by Turkish spammers. The spammers are sending out fake ecard notification emails to randomly generated hotmail and yahoo email addresses under the guise of the eCards.co.uk brand.

When users click on the fake ecards notifications they are unwittingly validating their email address to the spammers, these addresses are retained and used for future spam by the Turkish scammers. eCards.co.uk identified 12,000 people on the 3rd October 2007 who have been caught out by this scam!

Sam Heaton, Managing Director of eCards.co.uk offers the following advice, "If over the next few days you receive an e-card from someone you do not recognise, we strongly recommend you do NOT open the card and simply delete the email."

Data protection is crucial to the success of our business and we do not want the general public to get caught out by this scam. In order to stop this illegal activity we have contacted the Internet Service Providers being used by the spammers in Istanbul, Serious Fraud Office, Messagelabs and the Direct Marketing Association in order to get the site shut down as soon as possible."

eCards.co.uk have created a landing page at http://www.ecards.co.uk/Bad_referer.html informing users they have been targeted by the spammers and explaining that eCards.co.uk is not involved in anyway. We will be updating this page and the Help section of the ecards.co.uk site on a weekly basis.

For further press information contact: Sam Heaton, ECards.co.uk,. Tel : 01237 426555 Fax : 01237 426415 E-mail : sam(at)ecards.co.uk

Notes for Editors:

•    Copy of the Scam Email

----- Original Message -----

From: IVA CLEMENTS

To: ckebbell@blueyonder.co.uk

Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 10:31 AM

Subject: I have sent you an e-card

You have been sent an e-card , to view the card please click the

following link:

http://www.ecards.co.uk/display_ecard.php?ecard=2_ertBf2gXkwDP

eCards.co.uk is a completely FREE animated e-Card site, you can send as

many as you like and there are hundreds to choose from!

All the best.

eCards.co.uk Team

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.Ecards.co.uk is the UK's largest ecard site which has over 700,000 registered users sending over 50,000 cards per month. Ecards are completely free to use and the company makes money by advertising sponsorship on the site.

What is an ecard? An ecard in an animated cartoon which users can send to their friends for free. The cartoons are online and cover a wide range of hallmark days including Birthday, Valentines, Christmas as well as Anniversary, Good Luck & Thank You amongst others.

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