Latest spam email techniques
SurfControl said the Google scam, discovered this week, appears in in-boxes with the subject line "Google, #1 Search Engine." The e-mail asks users to download the latest Google tool bar to stop pop-up ads and spyware and then directs them to a link to download the tool bar executable. However, this download is most likely a virus-infected file, according to SurfControl.At least two aspects of the e-mail indicated it was a hoax, SurfControl said. First, the sender address was from an individual, rather than Google. Second, the IP address for the tool bar download matches that of a suspicious Web site that sells "The Essential Underground Handbook," a guide to get-rich-quick schemes and other forms of fraud, according to SurfControl.
SurfControl's research team also said spammers are increasingly embedding images into their messages rather than using HTML, which allows them to work around spam protections that can block HTML-based graphics offered in Microsoft Outlook. And since the text is all part of the embedded image, this techniques also bypasses the text-scanning abilities of traditional antispam filters, the company said.
posted by Jen @ 5:16 AM
<< Home