We've all seen the headlines in major newspapers, news web sites and on TV about the Swine Flue outbreaks. The Swine Flue is on the top 10 list twice over trending topics from Twitter (see the picture) and at Google you already get over 75,000 hits!

Spammers have of course noticed this and their already taking advantage of the fear for Swine Flue. McAfee is reporting about spam emails trying to use Swine Flue to sell pills. If you follow the links in any of the emails mentioned you end up at web sites trying to infect your computer with maleware, so you really shouldn't trust any such emails.

The spam emails Trend Micro is reporting about only contains information about the Swine Flue in the subject line, in the rest of the spam email the reader gets information about penis enlagrement pills. I'm not exactly sure about the connection between flue and the size of your penis, but I'm pretty sure they have nothing to do with each other

Even Google is taking advantage of the interest for Swine Flue, but unlike spammers Google actually provides something usefull about the Swine Flue. Google is using the Google Trends to create a service called Google Flue Trends. By combining data from searches and outbreaks they try to analyze the trends of flue. They also got a special web site just for the Swine Flue outbreaks where you can see how intense the flue trend is right now.

I just got a scam email from someone trying to hijack your personal information using PayPal as decoy.

The scammers will try to give you the impression that your PayPal account has been limited and you need to provide them with some additional information to prove you are actually you. This email wasn't sent to my real PayPal email address and that was the thing that got me digging deeper into this. The scary thing is that they had already my full name and my address.

Dear [my full name] ,

PayPal Resolution Center: Your account is limited.

Why is my account access limited?

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue
regarding your account:

Our system detected unusual number of invalid logging attempts on your account from these blacklist ip address.

(Your case ID for this reason is PP-XXXXXXX)

How can I restore my account access?

For your protection, we have temporary suspended access to your account until additional security measures can be completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. In order to assist us with this security measure, we ask that you send us a photocopy or scan of one document from each of the three categories listed below and return them via email to security@paypalcompany.com :

- A clear copy of your Passport, Photographic Drivers License or I.D. Card (both sides).

- A clear copy of both sides of the credit/debit card on your paypal profile.

- A clear copy of a recent bank statement or utility bill on which your name and address ( [my correct address]
) are clearly visible and less than 3 months old.

Completing all of the checklist items we will manually restore your account access.

Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Security Department

——————————

——-

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID PP-XXXXXXX.

Here's a little warning to you all.

A few days ago I got a message from one of the users at Entrecard asking me to do an ad-click-trade. He clicks on my Google Adsense ads and I click on his so that we both earn money.

dear sir/madam, i just visited ur blog/site.i m nitant r z,28,male frm india.i got one web promotion project frm ******.com.so,here i want ur help.pls help me if u can.since ,with entrecard credits we get only traffic,and we wont get any clicks.so,i will request u to click on 2 of google ads or bidvertiser ads or adbrite ads once a month.in return i will click any 2 of ur ads and drop entrecardwidget on ur site. website url is:www.*******.com.and my yahoo id:******@yahoo.com.pls take note of it. if u r ready,pls let me know. we can do this once a month frm same ip address.ok?i will inform u when i got click to ur ads.pls let me know if it is ok? regards, nitant.

This is not allowed by the Google terms and most (I think all) ad companies got something in their terms forbidding this kind of activity. It's also imoral. If you advertise at a site you want real visitors actually interested in your products/services, not jerks trying to earn a few bucks. Advertising is expensive enough without these cheaters

When you see stuff like this report the cheaters directly to all ad networks they use, because if they can't earn any money cheating they will hopefully learn a lesson not to try again.

Don't join these bad guys, fight them!

Have you recevied any messages like this?