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.
The main sources of origin of spam messages were the USA (12%), Vietnam (9,3%) and the Russia (5,8%), while the most viruses were detected in Germany (9,11%), followed by the UK (8,45%) and the USA (8,26%).
"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 posing as employees of the World Health Organization and were trying an unusual tactic to get attention. Specifically, they invited readers to a congress, in which discussions would take place on the Ebola virus and other medical issues issues. Πρόσφεραν, επίσης, μια θέση εργασίας στον παραλήπτη, με ετήσιες αποδοχές που άγγιζαν τις €350.000. Στις παροχές περιλαμβανόταν κι ένα εταιρικό αυτοκίνητο για να αναλάβει τη θέση του εκperson of P.O.Y. in the UK.
Among the most unusual spam emails of the month, Kaspersky Lab encountered messages aimed at collectors. These messages offered English-speaking users a free book on British decorations from the First World War. The emails with the generous offer purported to come from SSAFA, a charity set up 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.
