Alerts
New spam trend: Spammers take advantage of high gas prices and credit crunch to advertise products and services
Date:06.25.2008
Threat Type: Malicious Web Sites / Malicious Code
Websense® Security Labs™ ThreatSeeker™ Network has detected an increase in spam targeting the current economic factors.
The tough economic times are hard on consumers, but spammers have not skipped a beat. They are now using economic factors like high gas prices, the credit crunch and housing costs to advertise their products and services. Today the Websense® Security Labs™ ThreatSeeker™ Network is reporting an increase in spam surrounding these themes. Additionally, with a growing number of people facing foreclosure and other financial distress, Websense researchers are also noticing an uptick in solicitations for credit cards, credit reporting services, and debt consolidation services.
Scammers have long used "pump and dump" spam stock investment schemes which attempt to boost the price of a company's stock through false and misleading promotions or highly exaggerated statements. As a sign of the times, with the stock market down, Websense researchers have also noticed fewer and fewer of these campaigns.
Here is an example of spam advertising a product which claims to lower your gas costs:
Here is an example of spam advertising a credit score lookup service:
Here is an example of spam advertising a service to obtain more credit:
Here is an example of spam from the folks behind the Nigerian 419 fraud:
