The Spam Omelette #17

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Week in review: March 4-11

1. EMAIL listed as number one for six weeks

The undisputed
leader in the spam world, the word EMAIL managed to score a six-week record as
the top term used in unsolicited messages. The BitDefender spam researchers
identified the term in two spam campaigns, namely a batch of messages sent by
Canadian Pharmacy, as well as a smaller campaign in the Nigerian scam family.

The first series of
messages started showing up on March 7 and spammers seem to have been extremely
active since then. More than that,
these unsolicited messages feature generic subjects meant to trick the user
into opening the message. On a side note, the message always displays the
sender’s address to be identical to the recipient’s one

The second spam
wave featuring the word EMAIL is a simple Nigerian scam with a taste of social
engineering. The message allegedly announces the recipient that they are
required to pick a bank draft, but they would have to provide the scammer with
some