September signals the onset of holidays and as early as this month, spammers are already gearing up for the said season as they “spamvertise” their products.
Just recently, Trend Micro discovered several spammed messages that used “Christmas” as its subject. The said spam email entices users to avail the “best gift” for their loved ones by clicking the URL.
 Figure 1. Sample spam |
 Figure 2. Sample spam |
After the users clicked on the link, it points them to a website that sells replica watches for a discounted price. Although the redirected site does not infect users with malware, it could possibly lead to information theft.
Cybercriminals often use the holidays as part of the social engineering ploy. Trend Micro recently blogged about these tactics in the following blog posts:
Trend Micro protects users from this spam attack via the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network. Users are also advised to stay vigilant especially in the upcoming holidays as spam (that may even contain malware) is very rampant.
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September 11th, 2009 at 7:04 am
This is yet another “Exquisite Replicas” site, selling watches which – at best – are worth $30 to consumers for well over $200.
This is thought to be operated by what used to be known as the AffKing or SanCash spammer affiliate program. It’s unknown what their current name is, because SanCash / AffKing were shut down and handed a restraining order back in October of last year.
I and my colleagues have been shutting down their domains en-masse for months now.
SiL / IKS / concerned citizen