# www.freebonusd.com MSN messenger virus?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205 "2008-03-13T01:51:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205/1 "2008-03-13T01:51:10Z")

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I got a message today from someone from MSN messenger today that said

```auto

look here
 
www.freebonusd.com 

```

When I signed back online later, he was online, and denied sending the message because his computer had been being repaired all day. When I click on it, it sends me to a free ringtone site, and sends him to a porn site. I’m running Mercury Messenger on a Macbook Pro running Leopard, and he’s running Vista and Windows Live Messenger.

Google shows nothing, but I defer to your knowledge!

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205/2 "2008-03-13T02:20:58Z")

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A whois on the domain shows it was registered from turkey via [godaddy.com](http://godaddy.com)

The domain servers are “[casbonustoday.com](http://casbonustoday.com)” which directs me to a ringtone site (as does the url you provided, make sure your friend is entering it correctly).

I figure it’s another annoying little ad type thing. Probably with a minor virulent program that infects MSN messenger. Googling the domain name did bring up teh possibility of it corrupting your desktop though. Overall I’d say run a spyware scan and virus scan and if nothing turns up put it out of your mind these things pop up from time to time no real biggie.

Edit: a tracert brings me to this site:  
[http://akif.org/](http://akif.org/)

Which I cannot make heads or tails of, other than it appears to be in turkish.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205/3 "2008-03-13T16:25:09Z")

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I’ve seen viruses that infect MSN messenger before - a friend of mine was chatting with me once and said (or appeared to) “Hey, wanna see the photo I took today?” - I replied “sure…” - and it was only the fact that she very quickly replied “Sure what?” that I didn’t click on the link.

The link would have transferred the virus to my machine, where it would have infected my Messenger.

OP: You’re on a Mac, using a third party messenger - I’d say you’re pretty safe. Your friend ought to do a virus and malware scan.

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**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/www-freebonusd-com-msn-messenger-virus/441205/4 "2008-03-13T20:53:59Z")

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That’s what I already suggested. I copied **Jragon** ’s post to him, and he did believe me then that MSN messenger viruses existed. Which was all I really cared about to begin with, because I figured that I was OK.