So I received an email this morning in my gmail supposedly from "MSNBC". The itneresting this about this spam email is that there was only one link, which was not even coded as a link (this is a text-only email), and the URL goes to http://on.msnbc.com/zV9UfI?<my email>
So the question is: why would they want me to click on the link? Have they somehow put a redirect on msnbc.com ?
Email source below:
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Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 7:27:04 -0500
From: "newsletter@msnbc.com" <reguvenatewellness11285@sc.rr.com>
To: <my email>@gmail.com
Subject: MSNBC's "Solution to Easy Weight-Loss"
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Excerpt:
"Tired of being fat and feeling slow? Looking to feel better and remove those extra lbs? I know you are and I was too! This an all natural fatloss supplement that is guaranteed to work!."
Read more at: http://on.msnbc.com/zV9UfI?<my email>@gmail.com
This is a complimentary e-mail provided by MSNBC.
The on.msnbc.com domain seems to be setup to redirect all links to some other page. Not sure if this is part of an exploit on that service, or if you can somehow pay to advertise there or what.
It's interesting. A lot of people probably trust the msnbc.com domain name.