The Spam Omelette #2

    1.   LIVE from the spam scene

The analyzed spam stock revealed
that the most frequently used word in the last week’s campaigns is the word
“live”. It occurs in messages belonging to two distinct spam campaigns,
advertising different products.

The first spam campaign tries to
sell prescription drugs and sexual enhancement pills via blogs set up on
Microsoft’s LIVE Spaces platform. This word is closely related to this week’s
second favorite: “Spaces”. The latter spam campaign directs users to an
infected webpage which purportedly hosts a video player but actually infects
the user’s computer by triggering the download of a malicious application
posing as a codec. The BitDefender analysts identified this file as infected
with Trojan.HTML.ZLOB and Trojan.Agent.AGGZ, two pieces of
malware that are able to drop other malicious files on the host system.

Moreover, users are
also presented a fake unsubscription link. However, clicking on it would only
alert the spammer that the respective address is being used by a human.

2. NEW
   opportunities lurking in the spam box

Psychology teaches
that human subjects respond better to new things, and spammers are known as
masters of deceit. No wonder that spammers frequently abuse the word in order
to sell regular products and services. This week, BitDefender spotted two types
of messages centered on the word