The Spam Omelette #52 -On Chinese Job Offers and Canadian Lottery

Week in Review: November 19 – 26

1. How
not to UNSUBSCRIBE from spam

Ranking first in this week’s spam top, the word UNSUBSCRIBE
has been detected especially in unsolicited messages coming from Canadian
Pharmacy. The spammers stick to the same old trick of modifying legit
newsletter templates to display their offerings in a central picture. They also
leave the footer disclaimer with unsubscribe and contact links, but modify
their destination to the advertised webpage.

As a rule of thumb, never click on links in spam messages
because they may take you to malicious webpages or even confirm that the target
inbox is being operated by a human user.

2. Chinese
spammers are BACK

Rankinbg second in this week’s spam top, the word BACK has
been spotted mostly in messages promoting the services of a China-based
webdesign and graphics company. Once again, spammers rely on the benefits of
“e-mail marketing” strategies to boost their revenue even in a time of economic
downturn.

3. Visit
the Canadian Lottery draw SITE

The word SITE ranks third in this
week’s issue of the Spam Omelette and has been detected by BitDefender’s spam
researchers in a medium-size spam wave announcing the victims that they have
won one million US dollars from the Canadian Lottery. In order to be eligible
for the money, the user has, however, to send their private information to an
untraceable e-mail address and, of course, to deposit a processing fee to a
specified bank account. This is one of the many versions of advance-fee fraud
schemes circulating on the web. Please remember: if something sounds too good
to be true, chances are that it is.

4. Need
PILLS? Visit us!

Medicine spam witnessed a slight decrease as compared to the
first half of the year. However, it is still one of the most active breeds of
spam with Canadian Pharmacy as featured player. The word PILLS has been
identified in messages advertising sexual enhancement drugs, but presented as
anti-acne creams.

5. Click-And-Download
Cracked Software

The word CLICK ranks last in this week’s spam top and has
been spotted especially in messages promoting click-and-download OEM software. However,
as the users pay for the software (which is extremely illegal, given the fact
that OEM software can not be sold without an additional hardware component),
they realize that they have purchased pirated, torrent-downloaded applications.