The Spam Omelette #47

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Week
in Review: October 14 – 21

 

 

 

1. More
PILLS for those who don’t need them

For the third week in a row, the word PILLS has been spotted
as top word in spam messages. Coming from Canadian Pharmacy, the messages
advertise treatments for acne, but in fact they lead the recipient to the
classic Viagra and Cialis “special promotion” page.

 

 

2. Special
offers from MaxGentleman

Ranking second in this week’s issue of the Spam Omelette,
the word MaxGentleman has been identified in image-only messages coming from a
rapidly-growing spam source: MaxGentleman. The online medicine shop uses
celebrity names such as Oprah Winfrey to trick users into purchasing allegedly
natural sexual enhancement pills. Please note that this kind of drugs have not
been tested and approved by FDA. Needless to say that leaving your credit card
details to people who promote their products via spam is not recommended at
all.

 

 

 

3. ENLARGEMENT
 – another way of saying “I want your
money”

The word ENLARGEMENT ranks third in our weekly spam top and
has been identified by the BitDefender spam researchers in a text-based spam
wave also coming from MaxGentleman. It seems that the medicine spammer is
running two simultaneous spam campaigns with different approaches: while the
former is based on a suggestive banner linking to a China-based domain, the
latter relies on loads of text to present the user the benefits of using this
product.

 

 

4. Spam not showing up? View it ONLINE!

Although newsletter-like spam started to go down during the
past week, it has not disappeared completely. This week’s representative is a
spam wave advertising Canadian Pharmacy products. Given the fact that both
web-based and local email clients restrict images in emails coming from
untrusted persons, spammers advise their victims to click on a link in order to
view them online. This specific newsletter is a rip-off from a legitimate announcement
from ESRI, a company that specializes in GIS applications similar to Google
Maps.

 

 

5. Please VISIT us!

Ranking last in this week’s issue of the Spam Omelette, the
word VISIT has been identified in a spam wave also advertising sexual
enhancements and prescription-based drugs. The message is presented as a
subscription confirmation to the “HealthCare Newsletter”, but a central picture
of the Canadian Pharmacy current promotion reveals its true nature: spam. In
order to unsubscribe from the mailing list, the user is advised to visit a
hyperlink, but this would only validate the email address as being in use by a
human operator, which would eventually bring more spam.