Today's Security Fix

Spammers attempt to lure victims with fireworks

Spammers are so topical.

Security vendor Symantec, which uses its probe network to catch and analyze spam, says the typical uptick in holiday-related spam has not yet happened in the weeks leading up to the Fourth of July. Usually spammers jump on holidays and other recurring events to lure unsuspecting e-mail users into visiting a bogus Web site and entering their personal information.

This year, spammers are focusing more on the death of pop singer Michael Jackson than the holiday, according to Symantec. However, the security company has found some holiday-themed spam, and expects to see more of it today and tomorrow.

One e-mail blast invites recipients to watch Fourth of July fireworks from a Miami hotel. The event is in fact happening, but these e-mail invitations attempt to steal personal information by telling recipients to follow a link to a Web form that collects names, e-mail addresses, and number of guests.

Symantec poked around and figured out that the e-mail comes from a recently-registered domain – often a red flag since spammers will slap up new domains for a few days to send spam from, and then stop using it – that has no affiliation with the Miami hotel where the event is being held.  In addition, the IP address sending the e-mails is a known spam-generator found on numerous black lists.

While the assumed fraudulent Web site that recipients are sent to only collects a few pieces of information, one of them is an e-mail address, which the spammer already has. But when unsuspecting users respond to spam in this manner, that’s a confirmation to spammers that these folks are opening and reacting to unsolicited e-mail.  And so the flood of spam begins.

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