Spyware Security » SPAM

When ‘Viagra’ Comments on Your Blog, and Other Spam Red Flags

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:02:24 +0000

Comment spam, also known as blogspam, has existed since the dawn of blogs. It's created for one purpose: to insert a link on your site back to the commenter’s website. Comment spammers are getting craftier at the game. Comment spam was a much larger problem for bloggers in the nascent days of blogging before [...]

Tax Season Opens, Tax Spam Follows

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:01:00 +0000

The IRS officially kicked off the beginning of tax season in the US, and just right in time for it are the cybercriminals who are already taking advantage and using tax-related messages as a social engineering lure. We’ve recently spotted samples of spammed messages posing as a notice from Fidelity Investments, a well-known American [...]

‘Remove Facebook Timeline’ themed scam circulating on Facebook

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:01:33 +0000

According to InsideFacebook, scammers are exploiting the negative sentiments surrounding Facebook’s Timeline, and are currently spamvertising bogus pages attempting to trick end users into removing their Timeline profile.More from InsideFaacebook.comWe have found 16 Timeline-related scam pages, which have collectively gained more than 71,000 likes. The largest, with nearly 19,000 likes, has been around [...]

McDonald’s Gift Card Spam on Twitter

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:01:20 +0000

We recently found Twitter spam touting “gift cards” at the tail-end of the gift-giving season. In this run, Twitter users are lured into clicking a shortened URL with the strings “#mcdonalds gift card.” McDonald’s is a globally well-known fast food chain that, like many other establishments, do offer certificates and vouchers for patrons who would [...]

Christmas Theme for Facebook Profile Leads to Malspam

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:12:03 +0000

Attacks that use the holidays as a social engineering lure are starting to pour in as the Christmas day draws near. We recently found a page on Facebook that offers a Christmas theme on one’s profile. The page leads to a malware that comes in the form of browser plugin. Once users click the Like [...]

Kim Jong Il Malicious Spam Found

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:12:16 +0000

The death of Korean leader Kim Jong Il resulted in an outpour of reactions from many people all over the world. Some people were saddened by the loss, while some were quite jubilant, saying that Kim Jong Il was “a repressive leader”. Cybercriminals, on the other hand, only had one reaction to the incident, and [...]

Video of Gadhafi’s Death Being Used for Spam

admin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:10:41 +0000

We’ve seen the a particular kind of social engineering lure in spam runs in the past, where spammers leverage the death of a known celebrity or political figure. Recent examples of this include the death of Steve Jobs, and Amy Winehouse. In this spam run using Gadhafi’s death, however, a more compelling lure is being [...]

Spammers Promote Steve Jobs Bogus Charity Fund

admin — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:10:08 +0000

Even after a few weeks following Steve Jobs’ death, spammers are still taking advantage of his demise. We have previously reported about this in the following blog entries: Cybercriminals Remember Steve Jobs Through Facebook Scam Steve Jobs Proclaimed Alive by Spam This time, we received sample spammed messages promoting a supposed charity fund for young [...]

A Refresher on Spam and Exploits

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:10:32 +0000

Lately, we have been seeing a renewed increase in volume of spam attacks that utilizes an exploit kit – specifically, the BlackHole exploit kit – to trigger a malicious payload. Specifically, we have seen this in the latest slew of Automated Clearing House (ACH) spam, and the more recent spam run related to Steve Jobs’ [...]

Steve Jobs Proclaimed Alive by Spam

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:10:12 +0000

After tricking users into viewing advertisements through a Facebook scam, cybercriminals are again capitalizing on the death of Steve Jobs through malicious spam. We were able to find spam messages that contain the text “Steve Jobs Alive” or “Steve Jobs Not Dead”. Another Steve Jobs-related spam we saw is in Portuguese, and includes a short [...]