Thursday, August 14, 2008

Can You Pick the Real MSNBC.Com Breaking News?

The top spam on the planet was again today the "msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS", falling from its peak of nearly 14%, but still remaining in a healthy first place with 6% of all spam received today at the UAB Spam Data Mine.

In order to determine how similar the spam was to the actual emails that would be received by MSNBC Breaking News subscribers, I subscribed to the service. Can you pick the two headlines from the list of spam today that really came from MSNBC?

msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: "I Ate All The Pies" - Man Confesses
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: [video] If Barack Obama Is an Oreo, What Is John McLaughlin?
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: [video] New Yorker Cover of John McCain
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: [video] Take it from us: People Hate Satire
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: 6 Ways Airlines Could Make Some Serious Money of You
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Abortion outlawed in California
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Advertisement feature; Guess Who game now available on Blue-tooth
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Airlines Roll Out New Punch-In-The-Face Fee
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Americans love law suits for breakfast
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Barbra Streisand: "I Don't Want to Talk to the Maid"
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bins to be collected just once a year
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Black Activists Line Up To Take Swipe At Obama
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Blue Peter to raise standards: competition entries to be criticised on show
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bomb scare grounds thousands of flights at UK Heathrow airport
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Brett Favre Undergoes ESPN Surgery
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: British competitor fails to 'crash out' of Olympics
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bush Finally Reads Job Description
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Bush, Cheney To Co-Star In "Flip This White House"
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Catapult Program Flings Commuters to Work
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Consumer prices jump 0.8 percent in July; inflation rises at fastest rate in 17 years
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Copycat murderer beheads woman on Greyhound bus
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Councils Powerless to Prevent Surge in Table Morris Dancing
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Couple Plans Breakup in January 2009
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Cranberries CD Cures Woman's Urinary Tract Infection
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Daily Stir: London Mayor Gets Nipple Caught In Ringer
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Damien Hirst pickles business manager
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Dark Knight establishes dominance with 400 million mark
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Deer Decoy Badly Damaged in Crash That Caused Death of Elderly Couple
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Don Majkowski Demands to be Reinstated as Packers Quarterback
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Early Morning Coffee Conversation Entices Normally Flavorless Office Staff
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Elizabeth Taylor found murdered at home
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Europe's Most Wanted Man Discovered Living With Smurfs
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Even The New Yorker 'Cartoon Dogs' Are Pissed at the 'Obama Cover'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Exclusive: Barack Obama Can Fly Through The Air Like That Guy On Heroes
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Extreme Home Makeover: Host Ty Pennington's House Inadvertantly Bulldozed
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Fan Rushed to Hospital After Bleeding Team Colors
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Favre gets unconditional reverse deactivation restriction preclusion
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Favre Signs Deal With Gerber
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Find out the disorders in your personality with this test
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Forecasters Predict Hello Dolly Headlines as Storm Hits
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Four Horseman of the Apocalypse Split; Pestilence to go Solo
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Fox News Admits Grievous Error
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Fredie Mac losses mount, loses billions every month
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: GOld prices reach 25-year high, buy gold for a safe and reliable investment
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Government admits losing Prime Minister's bucket and spade
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Grinch Turns Attention to Gas Tax Holiday
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: History Channel Begins Incorporating Product Placements into History
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Is Gay Bishop Gay Enough?
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Jason Kidd Feels Guilty After Stealing Ball from Chinese Point Guard
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Jihadist Children's Television Workshop Debuts New Characters
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: John Edwards Admits Fathering Clay Aiken's Baby
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Laughter of Bullpen Coach Leads to Paranoia Among Texas Ranger Relievers
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Led Zepp's Stairway to Heaven Not Up To Code
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: M1 Roadworks Revealed as 'Conceptual Art'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Man Believes Life Only Validated When Captured on Camera
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Mary-Kate Olsen supplied drugs
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Maybe al-Maliki's Comments Really Were Lost in Translation
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain A 'GPS Black Hole' Say Scientists
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain Advisor: We're A Nation Of Winos
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain Endorses Bush For 3rd Term
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain Opposes Gay Adoption of Highways
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain Plans Vietnam Campaign Tour
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain Serenades Gramm: '50 Ways to Leave Your Hoover'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain to 'Match' Obama With Tour of Epcot's 'World Showcase'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain, Obama: Cosmo Cover Also Tasteless, Offensive
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: McCain's Op-Ed on Iraq Rejected by The 'Pennysaver
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Mexican arrested on billion-dollar graft case
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Millions of credit card numbers stolen from bank database, find out if you are affected
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: NAACP Protests Hurricane Names
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: NASA Claim to Have Achieved First Zero-Gravity Erection
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Nature Did Not Connect the Funny Bone to the Satire Bone
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: New Economic Stimulus Package Inlcudes Goat
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: No one killed in Bancroft, West Virginia Today
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Nuts! Jackson Backs Neutering Stray Politicians
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: NY Times Challenges Al Gore to Make 'Climate Change Campaign' More Dramatic
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obama 'Airs' His Criticism of John Edwards
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obama Orders The New Yorker to Go Back to Satirizing Bush
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obama Proposes Tax Cut Tax
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obama Satirized as a 'Jew' by Jordanian Magazine, 'The New Ammaner'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obama set to win presidency
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Obese, Malodorous Boy Missing
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Pale, Hairless and Would Never Fit In Anyway
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Polar Bears must be taught to Swim
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Police Raid Donut City
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Police to Tackle Bike Crime with New Indifferent Squad
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Poll: Congresss Opinion of Constituents at All-Time Low
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Preliminary US Presidential election polls results here
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Report: Fate of "Ross and Rachel" Used to Torture Iraqi Prisoners
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Royals Become First Sports Team To Sponsor Gay Guy
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Russian troops appear to be preparing to withdraw from Georgia, U.S. says
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Ryanair's O'Leary revealed to be Greenpeace activist
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Satirists Riot Over The New Yorker Obama Cartoon
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Scientist Prepare to Colonize Redneck Area
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Scientists Warn Of New Global Luke Warming Threat
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: SJC Loosens Handgun Control To Stimulate Economy
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Software Piracy Leads to Full-Fledged Piracy
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Sony announces replacement to successful PSP gaming system
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: South Carolina Sinking - Gov. Implores Obese Citizens to "Exercise For It
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Sports Fans Novelty Wig Marks Him Out as 'a Bit of a Character
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Steve Jobs Names God as Successor
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Stonehenge was Part of Crazy Golf Course for Race of Giant Humans
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Study reveals bass players 'every bit as dull as golfers'
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Stupid Asians lose lawsuits against Americans
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: The Evolution of Wal-Mart's Corporate Logo failed
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: The Founding Fathers Fought for My Right to be a Stupid Jerk
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: The New Yorker Continues its Irony Tour, wish on Rushmore
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: The World is on Pace to Run out of Internet by 2010
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Three Italian College Students Purchase Kansas City Royals for 500 Euros
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Thursday, Al Gore gave yet another speech about the planet or something
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Tiger Woods to take 2-year break from golf
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Too much freedom will destroy America
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Tour Manager Mostly In Charge of Getting Band Drugs
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: UK Government Put on 'Special Measures' - Private Managers to be Appointed
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: US Dollar hits 6-year high, further gains expected
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Video Game Designer Forces Children to Play Mini-Game for Lunch Money
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Video: Mr. White's List of Demands - Ep. 6
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: What Annoyed Us About The Olympic Opening Ceremony
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: What do Somalia, Long John Silver and the U.N. have in common?
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Which Olsen Twin is the Evil Twin?
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: White Elephant in the Room Actually Charlie Weis
msnbc.com - BREAKING NEWS: Whos going to stop the WNBA?


Here's the big give-away on the spam vs. real. When one subscribes to the MSNBC Breaking News service, the "To:" address for the email won't show up as your address. It will show up as "BREAKINGNEWS@LISTS.MSNBC.COM". If you have MSNBC mail that is showing this in the "To:" address, its probably real.

Of the subjects above, the only headlines delivered by the "real" email were:

Consumer prices jump 0.8 percent in July; inflation rises at fastest rate in 17 years

and

Russian troops appear to be preparing to withdraw from Georgia, U.S. says

All the rest were fakes.

The sites advertised in the spam are still quite wide-spread. Here is the list of compromised sites used to spread the virus today:

(CAUTION!!! LIVE MALWARE!!! DO NOT FOLLOW THESE LINKS!!!)
http://02a068f.netsolhost.com/msnlive.html
http://3zebras.net/msn.html
http://62.129.131.197/msn.html
http://67.192.59.138/msn.html
http://83.98.189.245/msnlive.html
http://aadaviation.com/msnlive.html
http://aieadvisor.com/msnlive.html
http://ajinmo.com/msnlive.html
http://akropoli-bg.com/msnlive.html
http://alahed.com/msnlive.html
http://alamalhospital.com/msnlive.html
http://albenahills.ru/msnlive.html
http://allprojectorlamps.3dcartstores.com/msnlive.html
http://alnasarlab.com/msnlive.html
http://amafhha.com/msnlive.html
http://artbazar.ro/msnlive.html
http://ask4pkproperties.com/msnlive.html
http://aspektstudio.cz/msnlive.html
http://atlaspk.com/msnlive.html
http://azeemacademy.com/msnlive.html
http://baitululoom.com/msnlive.html
http://barbara.ines.ro/msnlive.html
http://beachcomber.de/msn.html
http://bellamyslb.com/msnlive.html
http://benotman.com/msnlive.html
http://bijoux24.com/msnlive.html
http://blazeteck.com/msn.html
http://bsynchro.com/msnlive.html
http://buybestvalue.com/msnlive.html
http://dealeronlane.com/msnlive.html
http://djero.be/msnlive.html
http://doorsalutionsinc.com/msnlive.html
http://dps-varna.com/msnlive.html
http://drbabar.com/msnlive.html
http://ebuzzdigital.com/msnlive.html
http://efmpentathlon.org/msnlive.html
http://efthealingcentre.com/msn.html
http://epcms.net/msnlive.html
http://fabrixuniform.com/msnlive.html
http://fadidaoud.com/msnlive.html
http://finger.czweb.org/msnlive.html
http://florapics.dk/msnlive.html
http://forumifq.webd.pl/msnlive.html
http://frmkaynak.com/msnlive.html
http://gibsoncreek.ca/msnlive.html
http://gogoautos.com/msnlive.html
http://gradat.com/msnlive.html
http://gscmis.com/msnlive.html
http://guardiansales.net/msnlive.html
http://knhospital.com/msn.html
http://mic.edu.lb/msn.html
http://micronmetals.com/msn.html
http://nyinjuryfirm.net/msn.html
http://pbkom.pl/msn.html
http://peladorasmarino.com.ar/msn.html
http://russianfolk.com/msn.html
http://sleightofhanddesigns.com/msn.html
http://solidyne.com.ar/msn.html
http://sprtx.com/msn.html
http://student.arcadia.edu/msnlive.html
http://www.4x4.co.rs/msnlive.html
http://www.alpskesyry.cz/msnlive.html
http://www.bdriverentacar.com/msnlive.html
http://www.blazeteck.com/msn.html
http://www.domusmolior.com/msnlive.html
http://www.enjm.com/msnlive.html
http://www.expertbriscoe.com/msnlive.html
http://www.germanosmedical.com/msnlive.html
http://www.matbroome.com/msn.html

I repeated our Linking All the News Spam together query with MSNBC instead of CNN. 1/7th of the computers from which we had received MSNBC spam had also sent us CNN spam. 1/9th of our MSNBC machines had sent "earlier families" or "unbranded" News Spam prior to the beginning of the CNN campaign.

None of the IP addresses currently sending us MSNBC spam are being seen sending any other type of spam.

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Trying a new setting. After turning on comments, I got about 20-30 comments per day that were all link spam. Sorry to require login, but the spam was too much.