A series of spam emails seek to sell prescription drugs such as Viagra, Levitra, Cialis, antidepressants by tricking users into thinking they missed important notes from eBay, Skype, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Amazon and need to click a link to catch up.
If clicked, the link leads users to three different online shops that distribute antibiotics, antidepressants, weight loss pills, anti-smoking items, vitamins, antivirals and products for pain relief, women’s health, mental health, blood pressure, heart ailments, weight loss, skin care, eye care, stomach problems, cancer and pets. It’s a wide assortment of prescription drugs and natural remedies.
All subject taglines are similar in wording and all the links included in the e-mails push dumping prices for medicine. Pharma and diet spam are the most common type of unsolicited e-mails sent worldwide – accounting for almost 50 percent of the entire spam flow.
Examples of such misleading spam subjects:
You have deferred mail from eBay
You have deferred notification on Skype
You have missed notification on Facebook
You have delayed notification on Google
You have delayed email from Instagram / You Tube / Amazon
You have missed email on Twitter
The scam e-mails are made to appear as if signed by support centers of the popular online services. The message body is simple. It has Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram or eBay written in bold and includes a link on the view e-mails/notifications words.
But there is no missed message or notification from Google, or Facebook or eBay. It’s just a trick to get people on product pages that sell prescription drugs.
This article is based on the spam samples provided courtesy of Bitdefender Anti-Spam Team.
All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
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