InfoTech: spammers get more creative

A spam is hitting our servers over and over again - and sometimes getting through. It uses a list that is passed amongst spammers - including obvious scams - and accounts for hundreds of spams to a single address every day. There is a factor in the e-mail address that proves that it originated from a single source although the spammers are widely spread, mostly across the UK. One that has foiled our multi-layer filters several times in the past few days gives all the impression of being a legitimate business offer:

" We are offering six places on the July workshop to selected contacts at the special price of £165, (the workshop is usually priced at £400).The Strategic Value of Social Media: Changing the Face of Customer and Partner Connections 5 July 2011, London

Register NowWhy attend this Social Media workshop?[cut]

This workshop on the Strategic Value of Social Media will help you achieve your goals using social media and Web 2.0 to find and engage with customers, identify your influencers and gain advocates for your brand.

THE PRESENTER: Eileen Brown is CEO of Amastra and specialises in offline and online social media consultancy. She is the author of 'Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business' which is published by the BCS.

Please register early as availability on this workshop is limited – the special price includes attendance, course materials, lunch and refreshments.

REGISTRATION AND FURTHER DETAILS:

• Complete online registration form to confirm your participation today at the special rate, quote USM01X.• Alternatively me on 01895 819 477 for further details or email info@unicom.co.uk to request a booking form or reserve delegate places.

I look forward to welcoming you at this event.Kind regards, Augustus Nmelu, UNICOM Seminars Ltd, OptiRisk R&D House , One Oxford Road, Middlesex, Uxbridge , UK - UB9 4DA

So, what's wrong with it?

First, if it's an indiscriminate e-mail as the use of the heavily spammed address would suggest - and the repeated sending to it would support - then it is, to be polite, "misleading" to suggest that the offer is to "selected contacts." Selected by reason of having an e-mail address, perhaps? Also, the address is so badly formatted as to suggest that the person writing the e-mail does not understand UK addressing conventions.

One wonder if Miss Brown knows that her name is being tossed about in this way.

More obiously a scam is the attack on customers of First National Bank, South Africa. Their mobile banking customers are being targeted by the following scam-spam

"Attention Client,

Internet Banking Fraud is rapidly going into circulation and due to this, we have developed a protection program for your Cellphone Banking to prevent any fraudulent activities.

We are currently running this security program on all FNB Cellphone banking customers but this program failed to activate on your account automatically, so you are required to activate it manually for your protection.

You are required to download the attached security page and provide us with the information requested for the program to be activated on your Cellphone banking profile.

NB: It is highly recommended you follow these instructions to protect your Cellphone banking profile to protect you against fraudulent activities.

Thanks for banking with us

Cellphone Banking DepartmentFirst National Bank"

Obviously, it's a fraud and we have not opened the document: who knows what nasties might be inside it.

Then there is the soon (one assumes) to be infamous mortgageadvisor@ingfixedhomeloan.com - we really don't care if this is a scam or not but we do care that the body of the message contained no text, just graphics which, in some cases, might have a deadly payload. We did not open them.

ING may want to get the help of regulators to get that domain shut down as soon as possible. We are as certain as we can be that this is not an authorised marketing campaign.

Interestingly, the domain has been around since 2010 and is shown as being registered to a company in Malaysia where ING has insurance but no banking or lending operations.

* not all of the above are scams.