According to her experts Kaspersky Lab, in September, spammers developed new versions of "Nigerian Letter" fraud, using the Ebola virus as a subject in many mass messages. Much of the massive thematic missions promoted various services using popular social networking sites as spammers promised direct influx of new clients and revenue growth.
"Spammers usually try to take advantage of extraordinary news and events that are in the news. Fraudsters rarely miss the opportunity to use important events to attract users' attention and convince them that their fraudulent messages are really. So after the first news about the virus Ebola in July, it was surprising that as early as September, launched relevant bulk mail email spam, which exploited this news to deceive the recipients and to squeeze the money " comments Tatyana Shcherbakova, Senior Spam Analyst of Kaspersky Lab.
The landscape spam in numbers
According to the analysis of Kaspersky Lab, spam messages accounted on average 66,5% of all email in September, down 0,7 percentage points compared with August. The economic phishing accounted 36,97% of spam messages detected by the anti-phishing feature of Kaspersky Lab's solutions, increased 1,7 percentage points compared to the previous month.
Main sources of spam messages were the US (12%), Vietnam (9,3%) and Russia (5,8%), while most viruses were detected in Germany (9,11%), the UK (8,45%) and US (8,26%) to follow.
"Infected" spam
An example of fraud "Nigerian Letter" by the Ebola virus identified by the experts of Kaspersky Lab, related to an email that supposedly came from a wealthy lady from Liberia, which died due to the virus. It contained a long story about her children who died from the virus and about a local medical center who refused to help her. The alleged lady was willing to donate more than $ 1,5 million to a recipient who would channel this amount to charity.
The authors of another fraudulent mass spam email were recommended as World Health Organization workers and tested an unusual tactic to attract attention. In particular, they invited readers to a conference in which discussions on the Ebola virus and other medical issues would take place. They also offered a job to the addressee, with annual wages reaching € 350.000. The benefits included a corporate car to take up the position of a WHO representative. in the UK.
Among the most unusual spam email of the month, Kaspersky Lab encountered messages addressed to collectors. These messages provided English-speaking users with a free book on British Legacy from the First World War. Emails with the generous offer are supposed to come from SSAFA, a charity established to help British war veterans and their families.
The full version of Kaspersky Lab's Spam Scene Report in September is available on the site Securelist.com.
