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The Spam Omelette #56 – On Discounted Windows 7

Welcome to a new issue of our Spam Omelette, BitDefender’s weekly review focused on the latest trends in the spam industry. Before moving forward with the material, please take a look at our testing and map generation methodology, as explained in our first issue.

Week in Review: January 6 - 13

1. Your E-MAIL address belongs to us!

This week's number one spam word is E-MAIL, and it has been mostly detected in messages promoting counterfeit Viagra and Cialis pills from world's top spammer, Canadian Pharmacy. The online store continues to use small-size image-based messages impersonating newsletters. More than that, every single link included in the message body leads the user to a clone of the website. These websites are now hosted on randomly-generated, 9-character domains (qu******h.cn) purchased via a Chinese registrar.

 

 

2. Privacy, Policy, Copyright and Unsubscribe, all-in-one

On the second place, we don't have a single word, as usually, but rather a group of four words that are closely interconnected and like to "travel" in the same messages. The above-mentioned terms have been identified by BitDefender's spam researchers in a large wave of unsolicited mail also coming from Canadian Pharmacy. They are part of the footer disclaimer in newsletter-like messages. Rather than performing the mentioned task, these hyperlinks take the user to various copies of Canadian Pharmacy online stores.

 

3. Having any DIFFCULTY? Please CLICK here!

Ranking second in this issue of the Spam Omelette, the word DIFFICULTY has been spotted by BitDefender's spam researchers in image-based messages sent by Canadian Pharmacy. The full text advises users that, should they be unable to see the embedded image, they may click on a link in order to view the "newsletter" as HTML contents.

 

4. CONTACT us if you need more spam!

The word CONTACT takes the fourth place and has been detected in two medium-sized spam campaigns. While the former spam wave tries to sell sexual enhancements (knockoff Viagra and Cialis), the latter presents the services offered by the"China-based" webdesign company we talked about in our previous issues of the Spam Omelette.

5. Counterfeit software PRODUCTS on discount!

Ranking last in this week's issue of the Spam Omelette, the word products has been mostly associated with messages promoting counterfeit software from miscellaneous websites.

This medium-sized spam wave uses multiple subject tag lines to lure unwary users into opening the email, such as "Want to Speak another Language?" or "Download Windows-7 at incredible discount".

Although these offerings are presented as genuine software at a dramatically discounted price (since you don't get the "expensive user manual" and DVD cover), they are in fact pirated  copies downloaded using file-sharing applications.