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PDF Spam Pumps Stock Scam
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-06-27
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A classic pump-and-dump stock scam has been hitting inboxes, with PDF messages containing image-based stock spam.
 | | PDF Spam Pumps Stock Scam |  |
The PDF angle is new, as image spam has been delivered in emails. Anti-spam efforts to detect image spam have been improving, and that may have cut down on their appeal to criminals.
McAfee said this latest spam outbreak arrives as an email with a randomly-generated subject line, a blank body, and the PDF attachments in question. Researcher Nick Kelly explained where this spam originates:
The stock spam is believed to be sent from Stration infected computers, as this spam campaign closely followed a new W32/Stration worm mass-mailing which contained a number of .PDF files, and Stration has been associated with pump and dump spam in the past.
Kelly also wrote that "PDF files can be more easily automated than other document formats."
A NewsFactor report said five billion PDF spam messages hit the Internet recently, all touting shares of German-based Talktech Telemedia. That spam, and subsequent trading, boosted shares of the stock by 20 percent.
Tags: Spam, PDF, Stock Scam
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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