Today we have noticed an increase in the amount of dating spam mails containing phrases such as:

I’m emailing you because I like you

wanted to let you know about my profile

you have been invited to join

The link in the spam points to an adult-dating web page that contains pictures of a woman, as well as a profile on the right corner of the screen with a huge clickable ad that says, CLICK HERE TO CHAT FOR FREE.

Following the link opens a page where the visitor is asked to register by providing an email address and password. Afterward the visitor’s browser opens a new site where he/she is prompted to create a preferred chat handle (username).

The requests for user information do not end there. The next page asks the user to enter his/her personal details:

Lastly, credit card information is requested, despite a prior statement saying that chatting is free. The site tries to justify this, saying that such is needed to prevent minors from trying to log in:

Users tempted to correctly fill up the forms from the shown web pages provide a free service to the cybercriminals as they reveal their valid email addresses, passwords, and credit card information.

The simplicity of this technique in extracting user information could indicate two things: spammers are running out of new, more intricate ideas, or that the technique remains to be quite effective despite its simplicity. We’re pretty sure it’s the latter.

Users of the Smart Protection Network need not worry about getting these spam emails, other users however are advised that the simplest, most effective way of not falling for these kind of sham advertisements is to not open emails that look suspicious, especially when the recipient is an unknown sender.

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