Fanbox is SPAM
March 19th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
Have you been receiving emails from “people I know” that “have questions”, “want to share a picture”, etc? The links lead to a very elaborate phishing website: fanbox.com, which uses AJAX to make things look like a Windows desktop. It looks like a high-end web 2.0 application.
Make no mistake about it, Fanbox is SPAM. They will phish your password and SPAM your friends. There are a few bloggers out there helping to spread the word. Please do the same.
Spread the word to your friends on Myspace, Facebook, Hi5, where ever you network. Let’s get Fanbox to have to change their name again. They used to be sms.ac, until they got ferreted out.
I'll just start out by copying and pasting the
Comment by Joe on 9 August 2008:
Here is how to stop phishing/spamming ...
It's called "planned obsolescence", and it's a very old concept. The auto industry has been doing it since Henry Ford. 
We have a company in India doing link building for our SEO company. I talk to them via Yahoo IM ...
I am so glad I read this, I just started getting emails from them yesterday, good thing I am very ...
i dont want this web sites and i dont wont to be charged for them 
How do I get this thing off my PC???? 
How can we STOP them!!!!! 
I received a email linking me to fanbox, the Spookiest thing of all was the name used in the email ...
i dont use a cell phone, i find it irritating that it constantly asks me for my no. and half ...
fan box phone number is 619 788 1398,
have fun with them, im about to 
Pingback by Having problems with Pinging my Other Wordpress blogs « Opportunity’s Knocking Jared’s Head on 20 March 2008:
[...] blogs that I host no getting pinged. I’ve linked to them here and I’ve linked to them internally and the pings are not showing up. I’ve also searched on the web for other people with a [...]
Pingback by Having Problems with Pinging : The Gadget Panel on 20 March 2008:
[...] WordPress blogs that I host no getting pinged. I’ve linked to them here and I’ve linked to them internally and the pings are not showing up. I’ve also searched on the web for other people with a similar [...]
Comment by Jim Jones on 16 April 2008:
How is it a phishing site if you enter your user name and password to give them access to import your contacts. They are upfront that they will be contacing your friends and if you don’t want them to, don’t give them the info.
Maybe you should do some research before you write about something you know nothing about.
Admin Reply: Jim, you are likely an employee of Fanbox. However, for the edification of our readers who have legitimate concerns about the protection of their personal information and who we try to provide as much information to so that they can make education decisions while using the Internet, I will address your obnoxious reply.
First, I have considerable experience with Internet technology and Internet law. I’ve spent nearly 15 years working on Internet technology, from developing Instant message servers to complex ecommerce platforms. I’ve also consulted various law enforcement agencies on their information systems, from developing criminal record management systems to developing grant management software for DA offices. So, my research into the subject of fraudulent Internet marketing techniques goes far beyond reading a Fanbox privacy policy.
Phishing is a method used by companies, like Fanbox, to capture information from Internet users so that said companies may use it for their own purposes. Fanbox leveraged the names and email addresses captured from their SMS.ac service to seed their initial SPAM campaign. They continue to send unsolicited emails to the email addresses they captured from people providing their lists to them. This is, by definition, phishing. Perhaps you and your colleagues at Fanbox should read up on what phishing really is. They also create “accounts” for people who click on an email but don’t actually create an account. They use an opt-out policy as opposed to an opt-in policy. They are a SPAM business.
To address your statement: “They are upfront that they will be contacing your friends and if you don’t want them to, don’t give them the info.” Enron said the energy shortage in California was not something it fabricated. Fanbox is no different. A company is measured by what it does, especially when what it does is different from what it says.
Comment by Marty on 24 April 2008:
I feel sick to my stomach now…I ignorantly clicked on the innocently posed “question” Fanbox sent me,lo and behold I get a “welcome” e-letter seconds later and some other ignorant garbage which I instantly deleted.
I’m not well versed in this internet hustling,but I know that lies and deceit are probably the only thing “free” out there,and they seem to be disguised as “services”…I need none of them!
Is it too late to purge this Fanbox-crap from my hard drive before it provides its “services” elsewhere?
Comment by postmannen on 7 May 2008:
Thanx for this warning. I recieved an email from “someone I know” that had a question. In the email there was a link to this site. I didn’t click it, but decided to research this fanbox first…
Thanx alot!
Pingback by Another face of Spam « on 22 May 2008:
[...] bugged me and kept me sending mails. And now, even if I never signed up, I got the “Welcome to Fanbox” email after logging in again on another browser. I followed the cancel link (I never [...]
Comment by Zoltan Benedek on 27 May 2008:
Thanx a lot for the warning, explanation. I followed the link in the e-mail and created a temporary account on fanbox. Haven’t gave any password. I read a bit from their Terms of service, it was strange, that I am liable to pay $100 per spam. (”The sender of any message deemed to be “spam”, “marketing” or “mail bombing” to any other user or users will be liable for $100 for each account/user that receives each unauthorized message, commercial (promoting services of a commercial entity) or not.”), but they can send me unsolicited e-mail.
Now I canceled my temporary account from the same e-mail.
Pingback by Can Talk Tech on 30 May 2008:
[...] rebranded sms.ac but I would like to adopt gadgetpanel.com’s description of fanbox, “Fanbox is SPAM. They will phish your password and SPAM your friends.” Take note of the word [...]
Comment by Ken on 11 June 2008:
Yesterday I received a call from a Fanbox recruiter who found my resume on Monster.com. Over the phone they made the company sound progressive and fun. The only things I heard that made me suspicious at the time were a few cheesy, common business lines (The one that really set me off is when she said “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right,” and I immediately thought to myself “…Is your name Stewie Griffin?!”)
Soon, I found an e-mail requesting I study their website, sign up for an account to take a 30 minute questionnaire, and prepare 3 questions about their company. Not an unreasonable request, or so I thought. It didn’t dawn on me that this company was shady until I registered for the account on their web desktop application, and within 60 seconds I had a cute woman named “Elizabeth” IMing me. Odd, that was extremely fast AND she said “Hello! How are you?” in perfectly correct syntax, punctuation, and capitalization. I tried to IM her back, and I got a message saying I can’t IM until I provide Fanbox with my “account information.” And that’s when the ball dropped.
By “Account information,” they wanted my full name, birth date, city/state/country, and gender. I wasn’t given an option to make any of this information private or abstain from providing it at all. So after I plugged in fake information, I reached the last step - account confirmation. Read this very carefully: They expected me to give them MY CELL PHONE NUMBER AND PROVIDER so that they could text-message me a confirmation link.
That’s when I backed up, searched Google for third-party information about their site, and found all of these horror stories about them. I’ve already changed my e-mail password, changed my registered e-mail and password in FanBox.com, and deactivated my account. It’s a good thing I bothered to change my e-mail address first, because when deactivating my account I got a message saying that FanBox will continue to send me e-mails and messages for 24 hours, despite having turned down their services.
Moral of the story: If you have your resume posted on Monster.com or other job sites, be careful! These phishing sites are not above calling you and posing as an employer.
Comment by Manju on 26 June 2008:
I receieved this Question IT email from my dad. I clicked on the link, and as soon as the page opened I knew it wasn’t a safe website. I closed the window immediately. But it still registered me(!?) I keep getting Fanbox mails from unknown people. And that too on my company email. I have tried blocking it, but it keeps coming. Darn irritating!
Comment by Eric on 7 July 2008:
From Patrick on Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080301221850AAQAYCB):
Do not respond to any mail comming from Fanbox. This is a spam. Delete it right away.
Delete if you see in Subject:
Name-so-and_so wants to be your loyal fan
Name-so_and_so has asked you a question on FanBox
Your Fanbox Account Information
Use address blocking feature in your email to block the following email addresses. In Yahoo mail, go to –>Option –> Block Addresses–> Add Block
fans@fanboxmail.com
member@fanbox.com
question_it@smsacfriends.com
Even if you see link to unsubcribe, don’t click on it — by clicking the unsubcribe link would trigger Fanbox that your email is active. The next thing you know, you’ll get more spam.
I hope this helps.
Comment by Laurie on 13 July 2008:
Am I the only one out here that has not had any of these problems??? I saw tht they wanted my email addy and password and I never gave it. I have not been getting emails from people that I don’t know. My friends have not said anything either, but I have not sent anyone a message that is not already a member. Am I just a lucky one or what???
Comment by when on 30 July 2008:
hey ken,
they got my resume from monster.com, too. anyway, at the time i was just finishing school and needed a job so i went a step further.
so they took a series of phone interviews and e-tests that i found rather easy and they called me for an on-site 2-day thing.
my experience at the onsite was horrible and is kind of captured in Jared Tracy’s reply. most companies that have called me for on-site interviews have made the arrangements themselves - hotel, plane tickets and in some cases even rental car. fanbox did none of that. they had a two day event where i was also not the only person called for an onsite - there were almost 35-40 of us. they did tell me that they’d reimburse me for the hotel(only) and when i submitted the receipt they told me the checks will be disbursed tne next month - now it’s been almost 3 months and i haven’t heard from them.
what happened at the onsite was also strange - since i don’t have experience in web programming - i had repeatedly told them that i would only come if there was a position suiting my skills. all the while they kept reassuring me they needed programmers who they’d train, and finally at the fanbox challenge event, it turned out the larger part of the assesment was based on one’s web programming skills.
just a heads up to whoever fanbox calls for a job.
Comment by Cebelice on 2 August 2008:
I agree strongly! I was sms.ac, than got fanbox account. Was bombarded by “friend questions”, but worst of all, i got accounts at all my e-mail accounts i had, and have never signed up! I was deleteng those accounts, and writting to host about that, but got them back again and again!! So I deleted it completelly!
Comment by Joe on 9 August 2008:
Here is how to stop phishing/spamming sites like Fanbox.
Do what I did,
start a new Email, (google, yahoo, etc),
add FanBox own contact email address’s (see below) to your address book in the new email account
then join Fanbox and let them spam themselves
Below are 7 of their own contact emails……
sysadmins@corp.fanbox.com
partnerships@corp.fanbox.co
support@corp.fanbox.com
fanboxhc@corp.fanbox.com
partnerships@corp.fanbox.com
investors@corp.fanbox.com
media@corp.fanbox.com
Comment by Sun on 13 August 2008:
I was spammed by sms.ac because my cell phone number was recycled. Within a month, I had a $200 bill in text messages.
When I tried to get my money back from sms.ac they were very helpful initially. More recently, they have become FanBox and all of their phone numbers are disconnected and when I e-mail them I get an automated response back. The 10 week waiting period for the reimbursement is over, but my money is still nowhere to be found.
Comment by Frederica on 28 August 2008:
Well I have been on Fan box for over 2 years and I have had no problem! If I dont want to be yur loyal friend I am not to this day I am only loyal friends with 10 people all who I have been friends with in the Real world! I dont know what the problem is .
Comment by Hungry Guy on 29 August 2008:
Veddy intedestink!
Like many of you, I got an email from someone asking me a question with the Question It application. I knew the person, so I clicked the link to answer the question. Of course, it took me to FanBox. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable social networking site, so I signed up. Fortunately, I’m reasonably savvy, so I didn’t give them my email password or my cell phone number.
Then, yes, I started getting tons of “blahblah wants to be your loyal fan” and “blahblah has asked you a question.” Right away, I got suspicious when every question had perfect spelling and grammar (i.e., these can’t possibly live human beings asking these questions)!
When I tried sending emails to all these newfound “friends” through Fanbox’s email, nobody replied. And when I tried sending a broadcast message to all my “fans,” my message kept getting rejected as “hate speech” when all I said was basically: “Are any of you real live people? Or are you all sock puppets created by Fanbox admins?”
So okay, I googled Fanbox and found THIS site. Aha! My suspicion is confirmed-–FanBox is an elaborate phishing site.
Too bad, really, because it’s a beautiful design for a social networking site–and that Question It application is a great idea to “break the ice” and make new friends. So anyway, I red-listed them and firewalled them and washed my hands of them.
Comment by Fred on 3 September 2008:
Frederica, Interesting seeing as how Fanbox hasn’t been around for 2 years.
Comment by Gina on 6 September 2008:
I have never heard of fanbox until I recently started receiving emails in my junk folder. Rather than open them and follow the links, I decided to google it, and wound up here. As I suspected, its a phishing scam. Thanks for the heads up!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by joe on 7 September 2008:
Irecieved an invitation to join fanbox from a friend that i have chatted with for or 7 years. I accepted . Come to find out .. she doesnt have .. never had a fanbox account..I closed my account today..
Comment by freddy on 7 September 2008:
haha frederica busted, another fanbox employee?
Comment by Max on 8 September 2008:
FANBOX is getting really annoying…
They keep sending me spams and I can not seem to stop them from sending.
I try unsubscribe and they send me even more after U unsubscribe.
They are based in San Diego. Next time when I visit San Diego, I will make a visit to their office and express my displeasure with them.
So, Fanbox, watch out…
And I suggest everyone do the same when you are visiting San Diego.
Comment by Luz Stella King on 9 September 2008:
Hi there i just want to finish my acount in fanbox …too much stuff goin on in there in weird peolpe looking for free sex … just want to get the heck out of fanbox!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Luz Stella King on 9 September 2008:
ok i just want to finish my acount in fanbox… to much stuff going on in there… crazy people looking for u n asking u for a “freeshow” n i dont like it grrrr so please finish my acount grrr
Comment by Tim SDSurferDude on 20 September 2008:
@Max: They’re a hated company… so they’ve had problems with vandalism in the past. No matter who you are, if you’re not expected, security will have the police there and you’ll end up dealing with them… If anyone was thinking of that, it’s a pretty stupid suggestion. Your time in SD would be better spent at the beach.
@Sun: Just like gyms and online games make a high percentage of their profit off ’sleepers’ who forget they’re still being billed… sms.ac/fanbox survives on people who don’t complain. They might have to pay out a settlement every year or so ( google for their UK lawsuit) but they rely on the statistical certainty that they can bill you to the end of the earth and never be worse off for it.
@Ken: I doubt the monster.com response was a scam to get you to join the site. In June, they hire kids right out of college in batches of 10-20 a week. I know several people that ended up there for about a month and were fired or quit for some ethics concern.
So long story short… They will keep spamming, via email and SMS billing because most people will never complain.
Any positive comment you see out there is written by an employee, changed slightly, and copied to every SMS complaint site you will see…. my favourite one is the guy who starts his rants in triples (’awesome, awesome awesome!!!… this thing is so blah blah…’)
The only way to stop the email is to mark it as spam. I’ve been lucky with gmail, they’ve never delivered any to my inbox, but my spam box is chock full of mail from accounts of people I know who used to work there… and are *definitely* not subscribed to the applications that the mail is from. We joke about it when I see them. ‘So what did I send you today?’
And for the love of God… if you ever get something from them on your phone, it is a bill. Litigate hard and do not let them get away with that.
Comment by Ana on 20 September 2008:
Hey,
I did the wrong thing and entered in my password on the site. I thought there was something up when it did not bring me to a new page like gmail or hotmail would. So I did like everyone else here and goggle’ed it. I am really red faced now. I have closed my account and I have changed my passwords. Do you think that is enough?
Comment by DarkRabbit on 24 September 2008:
Fanbox is clearly a bad apple in Web2.0
I had invitation for a engineer position interview back to July 2008 too, just like the other poster said, I haven’t got any reimbursement for hotel or airfare as promised but the “promissory note” for 1 year term. I believe you should have this letter sooner or later.
This is my lesson of interviewing in new companies, guys, be smart, if you feel something negative at the beginning, remember to search the Internet before heading for the interview. Hope it could save you a few hundred dollars. FanBox is SPAM, period.
Comment by Razor on 25 September 2008:
Thanks for the warning, I am currently forwarding said warning to ALL my friends.
Comment by Ruby on 26 September 2008:
I feel like a complete dumb ass, My friend is really into the internet chat groups like facebook and myspace etc… I’m new to them and not into them also. but I decided to join facebook because she wanted me to, I’ve been on facebook which seemed like harmless fun for her so why not I thought shes my friend.(& join three others I denied those offers that was too much for me, This Sept. I got a random question from her I thought it’s another dumb facebook thingy but whatever so I answered it then got one from a girl named Sarah which I thought was connected to my friend (My friend has lots of internet friends) so I answered it then the next day I got a few others and one girl who wanted to be my fan I accepted the fan offer because I thought it was a girl connected to my friend then I found out I had a profile then asked me for my yahoo PW- I was unsure of that because I really wasn’t into it so I got off then a week latter I check my ****** and I’m flooded with crap that I thought was my friends doing Geeze I thought she must reallly be into this fanbox crap shes got all these friends and jokes and a hot meter rating her pics so for fun clicked on the ****** that I knew was my friend to rate her hotness on it asked, for a one time cell phone number so they can give me a code so I can basically what I thought it was safe they send me a code so I can join the fun n games my friend was into it so blindly did it for her then after I put in the code it said I would be billed on my cell phone 4.99 come to find out she doesn’t have a hot meter rating system with Pics urgh…. I’m kicken myself but I sent the back to the text message to stop it. they had a STOP policy hope it works.
Comment by Ruby on 26 September 2008:
I forgot to add the charge is really deceptive marketing I wasn’t expecting it or knew I had to pay for anything before I would never pay for somthing that dumb such as a hot meter or funny pics etc….
but I was really dumb for giving them my cell # but the only thing I was thinking about was that my friend seemed really into it so I went along.
Sorry I’m a Rambler!
Comment by Grumpy on 3 October 2008:
I’ve never signed up for them, never heard of them. Yet a friend of mine received an email with my name and surname. I’m very cautious with using my real name online, and with online security in general so I’m pretty furious.
Comment by Ali on 17 October 2008:
Sir,
You are my hero, thank you for putting that annoying lying thief in his place. I started my civil work in politics right with the Enron energy crisis. It was obvious in the summer of 2000 that they were looting our state of California, but some of the people (both free trade liberals and neo-cons) were in complete denial about how these companies can abuse the system. Your mention of Enron really hit home.
Comment by Andrew on 11 November 2008:
I made the biggest mistake of my life on this site, I actually gave them my phone number thinking I could get my account approved. I thought it was weird at first but I didn’t follow my gut with this one and now they know my cell number, just awful. I canceled my subscription on both facebook and my phone, I hope it works. From these stories though I doubt it. It’s so wrong when a website makes you feel violated, just wrong.
Comment by Victim on 5 December 2008:
Thanks everyone for their warnings and advices. However, I guess I’m a victim also. I wonder what happens if your mobile was under prepaid and without any credit left, would FanBox still able to bill you??
Comment by dan on 16 December 2008:
fan box phone number is 619 788 1398,
have fun with them, im about to
Comment by scott on 18 December 2008:
i dont use a cell phone, i find it irritating that it constantly asks me for my no. and half the stuff here can only be accessed by it. and i get bombarded by emails that i cant reply because of it. secondly, i cant believe the amount of spam messages i get from women using this site to use for their business. if this site is primarily set up for those 2 specific usage. please remove me from your email list. thank you
Comment by Mysterysoul on 23 December 2008:
I received a email linking me to fanbox, the Spookiest thing of all was the name used in the email was my Ex-wife. needless to say, I knew it was spam at that point. just spooky that somehow they put my Ex-wifes name on the email.
Comment by tvjimmyb on 28 December 2008:
How can we STOP them!!!!!
Comment by anthony kemper on 15 January 2009:
How do I get this thing off my PC????
Comment by kimjordan on 19 January 2009:
i dont want this web sites and i dont wont to be charged for them
Comment by Nancy on 20 January 2009:
I am so glad I read this, I just started getting emails from them yesterday, good thing I am very weary about clicking on anything, How do we get rid of these? There has to be a way to close down that site!!
Comment by Cat on 26 January 2009:
We have a company in India doing link building for our SEO company. I talk to them via Yahoo IM sometimes. I first received a “prayer” from one of them. I didn’t click. I never click. Clicking on strange links is BAD. I keep marking the stuff that comes to my personal Yahoo email as spam. However, each comes from a unique fanbox email so if I mark as spam, it doesn’t matter. They just keep coming. I can’t figure out how to make the screaming stop.
Comment by evilCozPoetry on 31 January 2009:
I’ll just start out by copying and pasting the
Comment by Joe on 9 August 2008:
Here is how to stop phishing/spamming sites like Fanbox.
Do what I did,
start a new Email, (google, yahoo, etc),
add FanBox’s own contact email address’s (see below) to your address book in the new email account
then join Fanbox and let them spam themselves
Below are 7 of their own contact emails……
sysadmins@corp.fanbox.com
partnerships@corp.fanbox.com
support@corp.fanbox.com
fanboxhc@corp.fanbox.com
partnerships@corp.fanbox.com
investors@corp.fanbox.com
media@corp.fanbox.com
—–
Brilliant idea Joe!
And I have a few more addy’s to add to that list!
mpousti@corp.sms.ac (Their Prez, Michael Pousti… SMS.ac is the same as fanbox)
mikepousti.com@domainsbyproxy.com (Same as above)
sysadmins@sms.ac (SMS.ac is the same as fanbox.com)
sysadmins@corp.sms.ac
Further investigation would / could probably provide a more extensive list. i.e. most companies use the 1st initial and last name @ Co. name for all of their employees…
i.e. mpousti@corp.fanbox.com
So you just need to find some more of fanbox’s employee names. I was at a site that had 6 or 7 more supervisors names. It was a site that graded them as an employer. Like the grade from the BBB, they failed.
And as long as you are making a list for them to spam via permissions from your fake acct., why not add some governmental agencies for them to spam too? Spread the spamming fun!
dca@dca.ca.gov (Calif. dept. of consumer affairs)
iana@iana.org (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority)
aupabuse@arin.net (American Registry for Internet Numbers)
spam@uce.gov (U.S. F.T.C., where to forward your spam to)
might find and add the addy of the BBB in San Diego, where they already have earned the grade of F for Fail.
And lastly, might as well add their
ICANN Registrar:
nocsupervisor@networksolutions.com
I’m not sure exactly how it works, but nick names for them all may or may not make a difference?
They are still at it as of yesterday and the day before.
Subject: I am giving you a surprise?
From: MyFriendWhoIsDead via (NOREPLY@fanboxnotes.com)
Sent: Wed 1/28/09 2:34 PM
To: Me
Hi-
I am giving you a surprise on Surprise!!
“Check it out!” link =
http://optin.fanbox.com/DeveloperApp/Introduction.aspx?mlid=1428868134&encemail=Nghgfe7A+/2i5Vep+ZgFgY/sRvxAGFy4&vlmid=8yGIOIrQ2Ktn8U6TZ2bYKA==&vet=124&dt=012809&ptid=3 (don’t click it)
This email was sent by MyFriendWhoIsDead using the third party application Surprise!! running on the FanBox platform. You can “change” the frequency of this type of notification.
The link embedded in the word “change” = http://profile.fanbox.com/ApplicationManager/APIEmailSettings.aspx?cid=33106&em=Nghgfe7A+/2i5Vep+ZgFgY/sRvxAGFy4&vet=124&mlid=1428868134&dt=012809&ptid=3 (Don’t click it either)
FanBox - 255 G Street #723, San Diego, CA 92101, USA
Plus the one from the day before, that “MyFriendWhoIsDead” sent me from beyond the grave, about a really fun game at fanbox. Pacman. It had similar links to the one above, that, I did not click. I hated Pacman. Galaga was tops with me!
I like the idea, one above had, of going there for a visit, while in San Diego. Maybe they’ll put me on some kind of a list? And you have to get caught first, before the police can do anything. Better keep one eye looking over your shoulder Michael Pousti.