Spammers Spread their Net through E-Greeting Cards

This month witnessed widespread spamming attacks on users' e-mail inboxes. spammers have been sending computer viruses in their spam mails through a link to an electronic greeting card. E-mail security firm, Postini, said that there have been approximately 275 Million greeting card messages in July 2007.

Postini also said that it has found on average 700,000 e-mails with viruses in a single day. In the third week of July 2007, a spike in greeting card spam increased malicious e-mails to a massive number of 35 Million per day, said Adam Swidler, senior VP of Postini. Star-telegram.com published this as news on July 22, 2007.

Meanwhile, FBI, together with Symantec, has raised an alert about this kind of online spam. American Greetings that provides services of online greeting cards also issued a warning about online cards scam.

Senior principal researcher for Symantec, Zulfikar Ramzan, said that attackers were using this latest trick to lure users into planting malware onto their systems. It seems attackers have realized that simple techniques are more effective. Techshout.com published this as news on July 23, 2007.

In most e-card spam cases, the e-mail subject line says, there is a postcard or greeting card for the recipient from a supposed family member, friend, neighbor, schoolmate or a secret admirer. On opening the e-mail, an embedded link leads the user to a website that downloads and installs viruses onto the victim's PC. In one instance of fraudulent online greetings in early July 2007, spammers used the July 4 U.S. Independence Day celebration to trap victims.

Cyber criminals very conveniently exploit people's sentiments associated with such celebrations like July 4 to infect unsuspecting computer users, and then steal their identification details. The kind of problem that hit Americans is not exclusive. Such attacks strike everywhere in the world, said Brett Myroff, CEO of NetXactics, a distributor for Sophos. ConsumerAffairs.com published this in news in the second week of July 2007.

Commenting on the greeting card technique, David Marcus of McAfee said that the lure is rather well engineered as it bears good chances to make someone click. Techshout.com published this on July 23, 2007.

Related article: Spammers Continue their Campaigns Successfully

» SPAMfighter News - 8/1/2007