Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have reminded
computer users to be wary of unsolicited share-dealing advice they
receive via the internet, following the latest campaign from
spammers.
In the latest example of a pump-and-dump spam campaign, where
criminals attempt to manipulate stock prices in order to make
themselves quick and easy profits, spammers have targeted shares in
a company called Digital Learning Management Corp.
The spam emails show a cartoon of a man pushing a large sum of
money around in a wheelbarrow with the exultation, "You can't
handle the loot!!!". Another cartoon shows a man leaping into the
air in excitement behind a large bag full of coins.
Hidden amongst the text is random gray writing on a white
background, which is hard for the human eye to read but is designed
to try and fool simple anti-spam filters into not blocking the
email message.
The spam email encourages people to buy stock
in Digital Learning Management Corp.
"The cutesy cartoons shouldn't fool anyone into thinking this is
impartial advice from an anonymous internet angel," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "The spammers are only interested
in getting as many people as possible to purchase shares, pumping
up the price so that they can then sell theirs at a substantial
profit. People should think twice about why someone they've never
heard from before might be telling them which shares to buy."
Pump-and-dump stock campaigns work by spammers purchasing stock
at a cheap price and then artificially inflating its price by
encouraging others to purchase more (often by spamming "good news"
about the company to others). The spammers then sell off their
stock at a profit. Last week, Sophos reported
how shares in a cosmetics company rose sharply following a similar
spam campaign.
Sophos experts report that pump-and-dump stock campaigns account
for approximately 15% of all spam, a large increase from January
2005 when it accounted for less than 1 in 100 of all spam
emails.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend against the
threats of both spam and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.