30% Increase In Spam Overnight!
An article posted today by Sharon Gaudin over at InformationWeek says that stock scammers have been pushing a company called Prime Time Group Inc.. Here’s how pump and dump spam/scam campaigns work, according to Sharon’s article:
Pump-and-dump refers to potentially fraudulent spam that hypes small company stocks. The spammers invest in these generally low-cost stocks before the spam campaign begins. Once people are duped into buying the stocks, the share prices go up and the spammers sell off and cash in. The sell-offs, though, usually drive the stock prices down, and the other investors lose their shirts.
The article goes on to quote a consultant from Sophos, an anti-spam software company, as saying:
“The scale of this stock pump-and-dump spam campaign is like nothing we’ve seen before, and it looks like it is working for the cybercriminals behind it,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, in a written statement. “The share price in this company has rocketed as a result of bogus news being blasted to Internet users worldwide. In an attempt to get past anti-spam products, criminals are now regularly using PDF files to carry their slick enticements for potential investors.”
August 16th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
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