The Spam Omelette #50

Week in Review:
November 4 – 11

1. E-mail
marketing SOFTWARE – shortly put, spam.

The word SOFTWARE has been detected in two spam waves
advertising distinct software products. According to BitDefender’s spam
researchers, the former spam wave is advertising counterfeit popular
applications such as Microsoft Windows and Adobe Photoshop, while the latter is
focused on selling services for “e-mail marketing software” (simply put, spam
tools), such as grey-area SMTP servers able to send thousands of messages per
minute.

2. Popular
ADOBE software Torrent Edition

The extremely popular software house ADOBE is also present
on this week’s spam map. The spam wave advertising these products is unusually
large and promises OEM software at bargain prices. As explained in the previous
issues of the Spam Omelette, the alleged OEM software products are in fact
pirated copies downloaded via peer-to-peer (BitTorrent) services.

3. The all-in-one
drug SITE

Ranking third in this issue of the Spam Omelette, the word
SITE has been detected in messages coming from world’s top spammer, the Canadian
Pharmacy online drug business. Camouflaged as a newsletter from the “Viagra
Official Site”, it contains a centered image with Viagra and Cialis knock-offs
and this week’s prices. Please note that Viagra is a registered trademark of
Pfizer Inc. and the Canadian Pharmacy products are abusively marketed as
genuine.

 

4.
SWISS
watches on discount

The word SWISS has been detected especially in messages
advertising replica watches – extremely expensive imitations of premium brands
such as Rolex, Cartier or Porsche Design. The potential buyer is lured into
purchasing an alleged replica for less than half the price of a genuine watch.
However, many replicas are incredibly cheap and lack essential features, not to
mention that they have an extremely limited lifespan.

5. The hangover PILLS

Ranking last in this week’s issue of the Spam Omelette, the
word PILLS has been identified in messages sent by Canadian Pharmacy.
Advertised as “hangover pills”, the products are in fact the same old Viagra
and Cialis knockoffs sold through a wide range of e-stores in China.

The message’s headers have been forged to hide the true
identity of the sender. In order to trick Bayesian filters, spammers have also
included an extra line of junk text taken from “Kate Greenaway’s birthday book”.