Print | Send on Yahoo! | PDF version | RSS | Filed Under: SPAM REVIEW

The Spam Omelette #38

Welcome to this week’s issue of the Spam Omelette, BitDefender’s report on spam trends and techniques. If you happen to have joined later our newsletter, please do have a look on our testing methodology and spam map generation procedures before proceeding with today’s article.

1. MESSAGE in a bottle

Coming right as number one spam word in the Spam Omelette top, the word MESSAGE has been identified in messages coming from notorious spammer Canadian Pharmacy. At a glance, the message looks as a legitimate newsletter from a health e-zine, but it has been tampered with in order to include a Canadian Pharmacy picture with the current offering. The fact that the word MESSAGE appears in the spam map is a clue that the Canadian Pharmacy spammers have replaced their old templates ripped off from MSN News newsletters.

 

 

2. Nigerian scammers say PLEASE

Ranking second in this week's issue of the Spam Omelette, the word PLEASE has been identified especially in Nigerian scam letters.  This specific wave presented below is made of extremely short messages (unlike "regular" Nigerian letters) and asks for a couple of personal details needed for an alleged payment.

3. When there's a will, there's a WAY

 The word WAY has been detected by the BitDefender antispam researchers in messages advertising sexual enhancements such as Viagra and Levitra. What's particularly interesting in this wave is the fact that spammers rely on image advertising along with a couple of lines taken from books. The extra text has nothing to do with the advertised product; instead, it makes sure that the message gets past the Bayesian spam filters. The text below is an excerpt from Armadale by Wilkie Collins.

4. Need an ACCOUNT number? Here it is!

Ranking fourth in this week's issue of the Spam Omelette, the word ACCOUNT has been identified in yet another Nigerian scam. This time, it comes as a long and extremely lacrimogenous letter announcing the victim that a dormant account with $12 million is ready to become theirs. All they have to do is pay a small processing fee. As soon as the payment has cleared out, you will never hear from the scammer again.

5. CLICK here for extra medicine spam

The word CLICK concludes this week's issue of the Spam Omelette and has been mostly identified in messages coming from Canadian Pharmacy. The new template allegedly offers users a way of unsubscribing, but clicking the links would only validate the address as being in use by a human operator. Spammers are using this template with multiple email subjects, including an alleged tutorial on how to use the new Yahoo profiles.