Windows Live Messenger Users in Taiwan Aggressively Targeted by Hackers

Microsoft Taiwan has received numerous reports in recent weeks from local users who had their Windows Live Messenger credentials stolen and abused by hackers.

It seems that most of the accounts are compromised through phishing. Attackers send spam messages to the entire friends list of the hacked accounts and direct people to rogue websites.

One user reported that they were asked by a friend to help them get more hits on a Web page. They were directed to a site mimicking the Windows Live one, where they were asked to sign in.

Once they did that, nothing happened, which immediately triggered their suspicion. However, it was too late, because the hackers had already changed the password.

As it turns out, a high percentage of users did not provide accurate information during registration and they tend to forget what fake details they used. In such cases, the only option is to contact Microsoft.

"Obviously, this makes it difficult and time-consuming for our company to check whether or not the complaints are from the original users.

"We are now asking users to update their software in order to enhance security," said Celine Cheng, Microsoft's regional assistant marketing manager, according to TechEye.

"We have formed a special task force to deal with similar cases that emerged in October," she added, while cautioning users to be more careful regarding the links clicked in Messenger.

In fact, because of a trojan aggressively spreading via Messenger spam, late last week Microsoft took the unprecedented measure of disabling active hyperlinks in some versions of the program.

It seems that many of the accounts compromised in Taiwan are used to launch 419-like scams. Users reported receiving messages from friends asking them to buy game storage cards for them. Some people complied with the requests and posted the card information back to the scammers.