It all starts out innocently enough. You log on to your MySpace account, and notice that you have some new bulletins. The subject line will be similar to this -

q6r9986  This Is Great! Take A Look!

Curious, you open the bulletin and begin to read. Hmm. It’s asking you to click on a link, and says that when you do, you will get a nice free gift. Knowing better, but unable to resist the lure of something for nothing, you click on the link, and then stare at the screen, puzzled. “Why, that must have been the wrong link in that bulletin,” you think to yourself. “It has taken me back to the MySpace log-in page! Something must have logged me out of MySpace!” You hasten to log in again with your user name and your password. That’s where you innocently went wrong.

Had you looked up at the top of your screen in the space where you normally type a URL, you would have been able to see that you were not on the MySpace website at all. Instead, you have navigated to another site where a craftily clever person has duplicated the MySpace log in page.

When you type in your user name and your password on this fake MySpace, you have played right into that person’s hands, for the website copies your information. What do they do with it? They use it to log in to your account, and then they can send these fake bulletins, bulletin spam, or whatever you care to call them, to other people, who will of course think that you sent them out!

In order to control these phishing bulletins, you need to do several things. First of all, change your MySpace password so that your account can no longer be used for sending out the bulletins. You should be changing your password on a regular basis, anyway, and now you know why! Then, delete the fake bulletins that you supposedly posted, but didn’t. Do this by clicking on “View All Bulletin Entries”. Then, click on “Show Bulletins I’ve Posted.” This will show all of the bulletins, and you can then delete the ones that you  know are spam.

The reason you want to be sure to delete these fake bulletins is because anyone who opens them may well do the same thing that you did, and click on the link that is supposed to lead to the freebie! If this happens, then the spam is just going to continue to spread, as whoever clicks on that link is going to receive the fake bulletins just as you did.

Get into the habit of making sure that you are on the REAL MySpace login page whenever you enter your user name and password. This is really the only way you can be sure that these spammers do not get access to your MySpace account again.